Kennewick Farmers Rally Against Spokane Market Prices
Local producers reject low offers from Spokane firms in favor of cooperative selling to maintain fair prices for eggs and butter.
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.
We have just received a circular letter from a Spokane concern offering us, among other things, the following prices: butter, 23c; eggs, 36c; steers, 6c; veal, 14c. It is safe to say that the amount of butter and eggs received would not pay the postage bill, but the price of steers and veal looks good to us, for it is reasonable to believe that a firm which offers 23c for butter is not paying too much for veal. The reason is not hard to find. By organizing cooperative institutions the farmers of the valley have been able to get what was coming to them along certain lines and today are getting 43 cents for their eggs and 36 cents for their butter fat right here in Kennewick, and naturally they are not interested in prices of 36 cents for eggs and 23 cents for butter f.o.b. Spokane. The granges of Benton county have not availed themselves of these opportunities as they should, and the plan is to make the coming Pomona meeting at Finley a co-operative meeting.
“The granges of Benton county have not availed themselves of these opportunities as they should.”
This 1916 struggle for fair market pricing mirrors modern challenges for local producers navigating globalized supply chains. Like the farmers of 1916 who used the Grange to bypass middlemen, many regional growers today are turning to farm-to-table cooperatives and farmers' markets to reclaim their margins from distant, indifferent buyers.
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