Will Yakima Growers Organize?
A government-backed marketing plan for fruit crops is stalling because local growers refuse to engage with the system.
“Indifference is the only stumbling block in the way of success for the government’s plan for marketing the fruit crop of the Northwest,” said County Agriculturalist Lee M. Lampson on his return from a meeting of the Fruitgrowers’ agency in Spokane. Mr. Lampson reports that this indifference originates with the growers themselves—the very men who have petitioned Uncle Sam for help with marketing problems. While shippers remain neutral, they refuse to join the agency because they say the growers have not demanded it. To set the machinery in motion, growers must simply refuse to sell their crops except under a uniform contract prepared by the government agency. This requires shippers to join the organization and contribute to its operating budget, which is capped at $1 per car of fruit.
“The shipper is not showing a hostile attitude to the movement but argues, ‘what’s the use of our joining—the growers do not seem to be interested?’”
The tension between small-scale agricultural producers and centralized market control remains a defining feature of the Yakima Valley's economy. Today's growers continue to debate the balance between independent branding and the benefits of collective industry bargaining.
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