NW Fishing Activist Dies & Losing Small Farms

NW Fishing Activist Dies & Losing Small Farms plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Ever wonder what leads people down their life path? In the case of Billy Frank Jr. it was getting arrested in his teens for salmon fishing. The Nisqually tribal fisherman that led the northwest "fish wars" has died at 83. Northwest leaders are mourning the passing and Washington Governor Jay Inslee called Frank a "true legend." A statement from the Nisqually tribe says that "Billy dedicated his life to protecting our traditional way of life and our salmon."

One of the details that the latest Census of Agriculture is showing is that at least in Oregon small farms are struggling. Farms that recorded less than 10-thousand dollars in annual sales appear to have difficulty staying viable or are growing their way out of the category by making more than 10-thousand. Dave Losh of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service says some of the state's smaller farms seem to be disappearing.

LOSH:  What the data is showing us from the 2012 census is that there is some consolidation going on, we are losing some of the smaller farms or they are gaining economies of scale and moving up in their size.

Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.

With the release of the latest numbers from the 2012 Census of Agriculture on Friday it can still safely be said that agriculture continues to be a driver for most state economies. The response from farmers and ranchers was tremendous with more than 80 percent returning their Census of Ag forms. While beef continues to hold its top spot as the single most valuable commodity in the United States, an interesting thing happened in 2012 - the value of all crop sales outpaced overall livestock sales for the first time since 1974. Some interesting highlights from the ag census include that while there were fewer acres in farming in 2012, the average farm grew by 20 acres to 434 acres, and that family farms account for a whopping 87 percent of operations in the U.S.. Other impressive stats show that women now make up 30.5 percent of farm operators and the number of Latino farmers grew by 21 percent. There are more than 6 million individual pieces of information presented in the ag census that the experts will now delve into. If you would like to view the data yourself visit www.agcensus.usda.gov.

Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.