A4
East Oregonian
Thursday, May 30, 2019
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Editor
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Fewer farms in the middle a challenge for rural communities
C
hris Mertz, director of the
USDA National Agricultural
Statistics Service field office
in Olympia, Washington, says that
while the number of small farms con-
tinues to grow, larger farms continue
to get bigger.
Farms both small and large, it
seems, are feeding on the middle. That
could have big ramifications for rural
communities.
For purposes of the Census, the
USDA defines a farm as any property
that produces, or has the capability of
producing, $1,000 worth of agricul-
tural products a year.
Because the bar is so low, there are
a lot of farms — 98,405 in Oregon,
Washington and Idaho.
The USDA puts farms into one of
three categories — small, medium
and large — not by acreage but by
total sales. A small farm is any oper-
ation with sales of less than $250,000.
By that measure, 90% of the region’s
farms are small.
Sixty-five percent of all farms pro-
duce less than $10,000 in revenue a
year. Nearly a third did not actually
EO Media Group Photo/Dan Wheat, File
Farms both small and large, it seems, are feeding on the middle. That could have big ramifi-
cations for rural communities.
sell $1,000 in product, but had the
potential to do so.
A medium-sized farm has sales
of more than $250,000 and less than
$500,000. Just 3,477 farms qualify.
Large farms have sales of more
than $500,000, and there are 5,871 of
those in the Pacific Northwest.
The census measures what it calls
“farm concentration of market value,”
which reflects how many farms make
most of a state’s income.
Just 2,870 farms in Oregon, Wash-
ington and Idaho, or 2.9% of the total,
account for 75% of the region’s $21.8
billion in sales. Half the total is sold
by 645 farms.
As more production becomes con-
centrated in fewer farms, Mertz said it
speaks to fewer small farms growing
and succeeding as mid-size farms.
“Farming is a challenging occupa-
tion,” Mertz said. “You need to get
to the point of having the resources
available to pay all your bills, raise
your family and to have a balanced
life. Sometimes in the middle cate-
gory, there might just not be enough
revenue.”
More than 55,000 primary produc-
ers in the region have off-farm jobs,
and 36,000 work more than 200 days
a year off the farm.
There’s nothing wrong with being a
part-time farmer as long as there’s an
off-farm job available to sufficiently
supplement the farm income. If there’s
not, that farm will be absorbed by a
larger operation, or sold into hobby
farms, and a family will have to move
to find opportunities elsewhere.
The challenge for rural communi-
ties is to remain economically viable
and able to provide the opportunities
to support these farm families in the
middle.
OTHER VIEWS
It’s time to take a stand
T
YOUR VIEWS
Washington to
allow composting
of human bodies
It’s not even close to
Halloween! You’ve got to
be kidding!
Just when you think
the Democrats can’t get
any more stupid, Gov. Jay
Inslee (running for Pres-
ident of the U.S.A.) signs
into law a bill to allow
composting Grandma and
Grandpa and throwing
them into the vegetable
garden.
It’s hard enough to get
the kiddies to eat their veg-
gies now, without putting
Grandma into the pot!
Check your produce
label at the store and do
not buy Washington-grown
or you may be chewing
on Grandpa’s leg. Will be
tough to scrub Grandma
and Grandpa off the carrots
and radishes!
New label: Grown With
No Human Compost”?
Sick! Gross! The “new
Frankenstein”?
Donald G. Boesch
Pendleton
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT
Donald Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
whitehouse.gov/contact/
U.S. SENATORS
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office
Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office: 541-962-
7691
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office
Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office: 541-278-
1129
U.S.
REPRESENTATIVE
Greg Walden
185 Rayburn House Office
Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
La Grande office: 541-624-
2400
GOVERNOR
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
REPRESENTATIVES
Greg Barreto, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-38
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
SENATOR
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public
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Cutler, 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton, OR 97801
here is no crisis at the U.S.-Mex-
vaca, Arizona, a coalition of residents has
ico border. In fact, apprehensions of come together to resist, refuse and oth-
erwise retaliate against militia activity.
illegal crossings have plummeted
over the last two decades, from 1.6 million Writer Tay Wiles, who follows extremism
throughout the West, assembles
in 1999 to just 400,000 in 2018,
an intimate portrait of the town
according to the U.S. Border
and the impacts that militia and
Patrol. It is true that an increas-
ing number of families are flee-
violence have had there over the
ing civil strife in Central Amer-
years. There, militia members
ica and seeking safe harbor here,
are banned from some establish-
ments, and residents have put
as they have the legal right to do.
plans in place to protect each
For their efforts, they are being
other if these armed interlop-
separated, detained, pushed into
B rian
ers carry out any of the (mostly)
self-deportation and otherwise
C alvert
hollow threats they have made
harassed in what is becoming
COMMENT
against the town. As one resi-
one of the darker periods of U.S.
dent tells Wiles: “We need to
history.
take a stand.”
Most troubling on the border, though,
We should all learn from Arivaca,
is the presence of militias. Fueled by
where neighborliness and decency have
the xenophobic rhetoric of our presi-
dent, these groups of armed men and
risen above national politics and provo-
cation. In today’s political climate, it is
women believe they are doing the coun-
try a favor by “assisting” the Border
becoming all too tempting to bar the door,
turn down the lights, and tweet from the
Patrol. One group in New Mexico, the
safety of the couch. I would encourage
United Constitutional Patriots, recently
everybody who truly cares about the West
changed its name and moved to an
to take their own stand, wherever they
undisclosed camp, after its armed mem-
bers were accused of holding a group of
may be. The region is facing many chal-
lenges, but every hand helps. If a mili-
border-crossers against their will — an
tia has moved into town, ban it. If a racist
act otherwise known as kidnapping. This
makes a snide comment, confront him. If
kind of vigilantism plagued the lawless
a colleague claims that climate change is a
American West throughout the 19th cen-
tury. Today, it represents an intricate fan-
hoax, correct her. We can all act together
tasy world that is both sad and danger-
on behalf of the American West, and right
ous, as fake soldiers with real weapons
now that means standing against igno-
threaten the safety of actual civilians flee- rance, racism and intolerance, in any
ing actual violence.
form, whether it comes from the border,
Luckily, common sense can and some-
the White House or the house next door.
times does prevail. Citizens along the
———
border are getting fed up with the ongo-
Brian Calvert is the editor-in-chief of
ing antics of militias. In one town, Ari-
High Country News.