09/04/07 County Fairs

County Fairs. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Nothing quite beats the sights, sounds and aroma of a county fair. Something about walking onto the fairgrounds creates its own excitement. They pump plenty of dollars and interest into an area and of course are just plain fun. Recently a new study prepared for the Washington State Department of Agriculture found that fairs are also just good business for a state. Mike Louisell is the Public Information Officer for the WSDA. LOUISELL: Fairs are pretty much in all of the states 39 counties including regional fairs and it has just tremendous economic value. This report shows that some 350 to 385 million dollars can be attributable to fairs and other events that happen at fairgrounds and just the fact that there is so much you can do with fairs. One of the big upsides to the county fair is exposing a larger audience to agriculture. LOUISELL: Fairs definitely have a role in promoting agriculture in the state. You get a lot of urban visitors that don't know a lot about how agriculture is conducted in the state and when they go to a fair they can see first hand livestock that show younger people and older just how do we get our milk and how do we produce so much food in this state. An eye opener for me is that fairs are nearly a year round event. LOUISELL: I was fascinated to see the length of the season. It's almost as long as baseball or football season. Fairs go over a six month period in this state and that gives a distribution where people can attend several different fairs either as exhibitors or displayers or just the general public wanting to get the flavor of Washington. Another aspect of the county fair is the support it lends to youth organizations that help promote ag careers. LOUISELL: The Washington State FFA Exhibition in Puyallup starts September 7th and also the Washington State 4-H Fair in Puyallup starts at the same time and I believe you are just 100% right. Think of all the work that young people all across the state do to compete in fairs but all the work that goes up to the climax which is the fair they are entering. The study shows that nearly 8 million people attended fairs across the state in 2005. In addition the various fairs provide a great number of part-time and seasonal jobs. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.