Richland Farmers Organize to Set Their Own Potato Prices
A packed meeting at Amon Hall backs a growers’ union, and organizers head to Kennewick to bring neighboring farmers into the cooperative before the 1916 crop.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A mass meeting of the potato growers was held in Amon Hall Wednesday evening to hear the report of the committee appointed to sign up the growers. Practically everyone signified themselves in favor of the proposed union, and steps will be taken immediately to form an organization along the lines of the strawberry union. Kennewick growers are being earnestly invited to join the Richland men and so make a better price and market for the 1916 potato crop an assured fact.
A. L. Nelson and F. J. O'Brien made a trip to Kennewick Tuesday to interview several business men and farmers relative to the Kennewick men joining the Richland farmers in the proposed potato growers' union. The sentiment expressed by all who were seen was strongly in favor of this action being taken, and steps will be taken this week to organize the Kennewick growers so that they may join the potato association.
“Kennewick growers are being earnestly invited to join the Richland men and so make a better price and market for the 1916 potato crop an assured fact.”
More than a century before “farm to table” and supply-chain justice became buzzwords, these growers were trying to bargain collectively for a better price. The same questions—who sets the price of food, and whether small producers can hold their ground—still shape agricultural politics in the Columbia Basin.
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