Page 33 - Rural Tourism Report Washington County

CHAPTER 2: THE WASHINGTON COUNTY AGRICULTURE SECTOR

Stakeholder Outreach and regional. It appears that the processed-vege-

Qualitative data aggregated below was gathered table market may diminish in the future. Nearly all
through one-on-one and small group interviews. interviewed said that they were highly dependent
Interviewees included 10 Washington County on local markets for their individual operations.
agriculture producers who were perceived
as not having rural tourism operations, and 3. What would you like to do that you are not cur-
representatives of agriculture organizations and rently doing – or could do better – in agriculture?
agencies. What is preventing you from doing so?

Questions and Summary of Responses: Most of the producers indicated they wished to
1. Please describe your production agriculture busi- continue doing the same type of farming and would
ness (size, product, market, practice). like to do it better.

Interviewees represented a mix of small, mid-sized, Things preventing them from doing it better include:
and large farms in different areas of the County, • Lack of labor. There are fewer laborers
growing different commodities and using various available to plant, maintain, and harvest
agricultural practices from conventional methods crops or manage animals.
to sustainable organic farming. Additionally, a food • Regulations that make it more difficult to do
web coordinator, leaders of commodity groups, and business and plan future expansion.
specialists from OSU Extension Service and the USDA • Lower availability of shippers for

Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) were transporting products to market. The Port of
interviewed.
Portland shipping slowdown has affected the
international market, which is 48 percent of
2. Would you describe your customer base as lo-
cal, West Coast, national, international or all of the grass seed market.
the above? On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being most • Farmers nearing retirement age and lack of
dependent, how much would you say your business certainty over how to pass the farm down to
depends on local markets? the next generation.
• Disagreements with farm’s younger
Interviewees indicated that most of their markets generation's vision for the farm regarding
are local, state, and/or Pacific Northwest. Grass crops to raise and growing practices to use.
seed and wheat farmers have a national or interna- • Concern that breaking the farm up into
tional market. The grass seed market is 48 percent smaller parcels would be undesirable.
international, and the rest is a domestic market. The

nursery market is almost all domestic and local. The • Questions about the availability of farmland
wine industry is mostly local, followed by domestic. in the future – concern about what will
happen with the Urban and Rural Reserves
The Christmas tree market is international, domes- and Urban Growth Boundary.
tic, and local. The fresh vegetable industry is local

WASHINGTON COUNTY RURAL TOURISM STUDY 29