Organizing the Valley's Harvest
Hay growers meet in White Bluffs to discuss stabilizing the market through a new state-wide cooperative.
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Boyd Oliver, associate of Aaron Sapiro of San Francisco, and L. A. Hunt, manager of the Oregon Cooperative Hay association, spoke at a meeting of hay growers at Liberty Hall Thursday evening on the advisability of the hay growers in the Priest Rapids valley joining in the movement for the organization of an Oregon-Washington Hay Growers association that is being formed in the two states for the purpose of stabilizing the hay market to the end that the growers will receive a fair profit for their product and to help finance them during the growing season. Every hay grower at the meeting Thursday evening indicated his desire to join such a movement and R. J. Roberts and Sam Allard were appointed to call a meeting at a later date when the local organization will be formed.
“For the purpose of stabilizing the hay market to the end that the growers will receive a fair profit for their product.”
The drive for agricultural cooperatives reflects a perennial struggle for small-scale growers to secure fair pricing against larger market forces. While White Bluffs and the Priest Rapids valley underwent immense change due to the damming of the Columbia and the establishment of the Hanford site, the fundamental economic tension of independent producers seeking collective bargaining power remains a consistent thread in Washington's agricultural history.
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