No Seed Potatoes No Food Pt 1

No Seed Potatoes No Food Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. Farmers in Washington state are worried about the overreach of government and a lack of outreach with legislation that appears to be written without much input from the farming community.

Whatcom County seed potato grower, Scott Bedlington says, for the small, family farms like his, the regulations and soaring costs are making it very difficult …

BEDLINGTON … “We’re in a position where all of the third and fourth generation people are taking over family farms and it’s almost to the feeling that we get, or that I get, that society doesn’t want the family farm no more, right? They want to go corporate.”

Regardless, Bedlington says family operations make up the vast majority of the farms and we’re doing it right …

BEDLINGTON … “Farmers aren’t doing anything to hurt anybody or anything, right? Everything that we do is regulated. Every chemical we spray is regulated by the government. We’re not breaking laws. When we irrigate, we’re irrigating with water rights. No one’s stealing water, that I know of.”

And if the Buffer bill becomes mandatory …

BEDLINGTON … “The option for guys like me is, that if we’re going to lose our land, and you know we’re farming a few thousand acres up here, and that’s just me. If you take this buffer, and let’s just say a couple hundred feet of buffers on every waterway or streamway, that’s what we farm.

That would eat up a third of my land.”

Tune in tomorrow for more on family farms in Washington state and additional regulations that could mean the end for some.

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