Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
If you haven’t thanked a potato farmer today, you should.
While the governor may consider farmers essential, his quarantine has destroyed the supply line to move farm products to consumers.
The shutdown order that closed restaurants also took with it processing plants, the distribution chain and all the hard work Eastern Washington potato farmers had previously put into the ground.
The result was on eye-sprouting display yesterday in Ritzville and this morning in Moses Lake. At least 20 tons of potatos had been given away as of this writing.
Accoring to Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, farmers have to find a home for approximately 3 billion pounds of tubers. In the absense of a home, that poundage will end up in the garbage or plowed under.
During the past couple weeks, Eastern Washington potato farmers decided it was better to give the spuds away to residents and food banks, than throw them on the compost pile.
Ironic, isn’t it? Only a month ago, panic buying caused a shortage of potatoes in stores. Now, there’s so many there’s a real chance they’ll be thrown away.
That’s unfortunate.
Agriculture is the fuel of Eastern Washington’s economic engine. Without produce sales and supply lines, our ecomonic future and many lives may be in peril.
So, I say, thank a farmer today. And while you’re at it, call on elected officials to lift local quarantines, with or without the governor’s support.
— Roger Harnack is the publisher of Free Press Publishing. Email him at Roger@cheneyfreepress.com.
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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