Pam Lewison: Are farmers Washington’s welfare kings?

By Pam Lewison

There is a persistent myth, probably courtesy of the many labels in grocery stores, that most cattle spend their lives eating only grain. What happens most often is cattle spend their lives eating grass or similar forages before being “finished” for up to six months with a diet of grain tailored specifically to their nutritional needs by a beef nutritionist before making its way to the grocery store.

The point is, sometimes, we don’t know what we don’t know. That is often the case with subsidies and discussions around the irrigation that takes place across Eastern Washington. Walking in someone else’s shoes can be as easy as asking a question and listening for an answer, but we’re human, so too often we don’t think to ask the question or don’t know there’s a question to be asked.

It might surprise many that the majority of farm subsidy dollars from the federal government are spent in the Midwest and the South rather than in the Pacific Northwest. Between 1995 and 2021, a 26-year span, Washington state growers received 1.6 percent of all subsidy payouts from the federal government – a total of $7.4 billion; less than 50% of that total went to crop raisers. Comparatively, Texas, received $44.45 billion.

More importantly, about 30% of those subsidy dollars are spent paying farmers and ranchers to provide habitat for threatened and endangered species and to conserve our wildlands. The Conservation Reserve Program, the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and similar programs are designed to pay farmers and ranchers to preserve land on their property for various wildlife and plant species. That’s not so much a “subsidy” as it is a purchase of value – certain lands are set aside so that the public enjoys the value of additional habitat and wildlife preservation. It’s a win-win.

Not all farm subsides are about conservation and preservation, though. Some producers simply don’t qualify because what they grow isn’t conventional enough. If a farmer or rancher doesn’t grow soybeans, corn, wheat, barley, rice or several other crops, he or she probably doesn’t qualify for a subsidy payment. Washington state is home to numerous fresh flower producers, potato seed growers, berry producers and more, the bounty of which is not part of the subsidy discussion. But for those outside of agriculture, the idea that farmers receives subsidies is often assumed.

Turning to water, the Columbia Basin Project brought life and people to the desert of central Washington. This incredible feat of human engineering harnessed the Great River of the West and delivered the promise of fertile farmland.

But the project wasn’t free.

Every irrigator who moved onto project land also signed onto a 60-year repayment plan to pay back the cost of building the East Low Canal and all component pieces of it, including my grandparents, parents, and my husband and me. Each successive building “block” of the project paid their share of the build out over generations.

The original cost of signing onto the project was just 5 cents per acre. For some in the 1930s it was a cost-prohibitive amount. Landowners were given the option to opt out of the project and save themselves the repayment fee and many did. Landowners who chose to pay the building cost are those who receive water today.

My legacy as a farmer is not unearned. Nor is the legacy of any farmer or rancher in our state. All farms and ranches in Washington have a story – some long, some short – but all are stories of work, effort and privilege in the truest sense of the word. Ranchers and farmers have the privilege of working the land, of seeing things grow and tending to new life, of feeding people they don’t even know, and of caring for the land so that its abundance and beauty can be enjoyed for generations to come.

Too many people in rural areas no longer have a connection to the land or their food. They’re making decisions based on what they think they know about farming, and they are too often wrong. We in the agricultural sector need to do a better job re-connecting people to what they eat and the tradeoffs involved in the decisions made about agriculture.

It’s not just family farms at stake, it’s what you eat and where it’s from.

Washington Policy Center’s Center for Agriculture Director Pam Lewison is based in Moses Lake. Members of the Cowles family, owners of The Spokesman-Review, have previously hosted fundraisers for the Washington Policy Center and sit on the board.