Chapter 11: The Agricultural Core

The agricultural contribution of Washington state is significant in the nation as they ranked 16th overall in 2007 with $6.8 billion total value of products sold. 12 percent of the gross state product is attributed to agricultural production, processing, and marketing. Apples have recently overtaken wheat and dairy products as the state's leading commodity. As I have mentioned in an earlier blog post, more than half of the nation's apple crop is produced in the state.

Crops grown are very diverse depending on where in the state it is harvested. The climate and soils in the eastern and western parts of the state allow farmers to grow different crops. The eastern side has larger farms, which produce wheat and barley, potatoes, fruit, and vegetables. The western side has smaller farms and produce dairy products, poultry, and berries.

This success in farming is in danger due to the loss of farmland. The state had about 14.8 million acres of farms in 2009 compared to about 16.5 million acres in 1982 and 18 million in 1950. "The pressure to convert farmland to urban and suburban uses is substantial because farmland is usually easy to develop, and it is difficult to make a living from a small farm."

"Farmers in Washington State face the following:

• Loss of traditional advantages like adequate water, low electricity rates, efficient transportation system.
• Increasing competition for water, related to the protection of endangered salmon, demand related to new development for limited water rights, and increasing costs associated with environmental regulations such as the Shoreline Management Act, Endangered Species Act, and others.
• Substantial transportation costs due to distance from U.S. markets and increased congestion.
• Lack of available low-cost labor.
• Consolidation of agricultural production into larger farms.
• Increasing competition, particularly from Asian producers. China has supplanted Washington State as the world's largest apple producer."

Sources:
"Agricultural Lands - Introduction." Municipal Research and Service Center for Washington. 22 Apr 2011. <http://www.mrsc.org/subjects/planning/aglands.aspx>.