Why Are We Importing Grapes?
An editorial critique argues that Washington's fertile soil and climate are being ignored by local farmers while markets are filled with New York imports.
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The Post-Intelligencer has more than once expressed its astonishment that with a soil and climate admirably adapted to the grape, our fruit growers do not raise enough to supply their home market. The Concord grapes are far finer for table use than any that come to us from California. Chautauqua county, N. Y., in six towns touching Lake Erie, raises an annual grape crop which sells for $750,000 to $1,000,000. These are the same variety, the Concord, that grow well in Washington. Our markets are filled with Concord grapes raised at Brocton, N. Y., when our soil and climate is good enough for grape culture to make Brocton feel that sending Concord grapes to Seattle was like sending coals to Newcastle. The trouble lies chiefly in the lack of disposition to take pains and do good farming. As good fruit and vegetables can be grown here as in any state of the East with the same care and systematic effort.
“Sending Concord grapes to Seattle was like sending coals to Newcastle.”
This piece highlights a recurring tension in the Pacific Northwest economy: the push to transition from simple extraction to high-value agricultural and local production. The sentiment that local farmers should better utilize the region's unique climate mirrors modern 'eat local' movements.
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