Pro-farmer Op Ed Reaction Pt 2
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Reader reaction to a recent Seattle Times op ed titled, ‘Wonder where your food comes from? Ask a Washington farmer,’ certainly justified the reason for the piece in the first place.Pam Lewison, Moses Lake farmer and ag director at the Washington Policy Center, wrote the op ed and says many of the comments were filled with commonly used myths about farming …
LEWISON … “So, when you couple these kinds of untruths and they kind of start stacking up together, I think there’s this sort of misconception about what farming in Washington looks like and what it means and how food producers operate.”
Lewison says there are some you just can’t reason with …
LEWISON … “I think that there are always going to be people who decide, because of where I work or because of how I look or sound or what have you, that I am not a person that’s credible. And, at the end of the day, I’m not trying to reach those people, to be honest. I’m trying to get the people in the middle.”
But, Lewison says not all the reaction was negative …
LEWISON … “What you don’t see in those comments are the people who sent me an email and said, I really want to thank you for the Op Ed that you wrote in the Seattle Times. I had no idea that farming was such a struggle and that it was so hard and I really appreciate you trying to shed light on that.”
Bottom line, Lewison says 80% of Washington state’s farms are owned and operated by good, hard working families who are, by no means, rich or privileged.