King County efforts came too late
(continued)
One of the things King County did was get voter approval in 1979 for a $50 million bond issue to buy rights to 12,600 acres of farmland to ensure that the land would not be developed. But the farming infrastructure was already dead.
These days, you have to look pretty hard to find big tractors tilling the soil, prosperous-looking orchards and other economic signs that many King County residents are still engaged in the business of farming.
"King County started too late," said Bob Rose, executive director of Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland. "You've got to have a critical mass of land. Skagit County has the only fully functioning farm economy left" in Western Washington.
Rose said it takes a broad infrastructure of produce buyers, processing plants, fertilizer dealers, tractor dealerships, bankers who understand farming and others for farming to be economically practical.
His 7-year-old organization supports zoning and other measures, including the new tax to begin buying development rights.
The group is also mindful of the need to preserve the farming economy itself and supports agricultural research to find new crops and help farmers market their products.
Nobody knows exactly at what point the mix of farmland and farm-related businesses declines to the point that a farm economy hits the skids.
"It's a really touchy thing," said Wilbur Anderson, manager and horticulturist at Washington State University's Mount Vernon Research and Extension Unit.
The Skagit Valley produces a good share of the world's vegetable seed, because its mild climate allows winter survival of plants that go to seed in the second year. However, the seed buyers require that seed crops be separated by at least 1.5 miles to prevent cross-pollination.
"If we get too crowded, this whole thing can tumble very fast," Anderson said.
Next page:
Farmers turn to higher-value crops
March 5, 1997
