Northwest Fruit Growers Plan a Unified Front
Orchardists across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana seek to organize a regional union to challenge Eastern market dominance and manage local pests.
Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana are to be called together through representatives of their Horticultural Union to form a Northwest Fruitgrowers' Union. The object of which will be to eliminate rivalry between sections engaged in the same line of production, and also to establish a body which can effectively fight Eastern organizations. Hood River, Medford, North Yakima, Wenatchee, Moscow, Dayton, Missoula and other sections have been asked to agree to the plan. There is a move among fruitgrowers here looking toward the better protection of fruit; it is planned to tax each fruit tree of the 4,000,000 there half a cent for a fund for inspectors. It is planned also to import thrushes, linnets and finches and other insect-eating birds. The orchard heater has already been adopted, and many thousands are in use in the Yakima Valley now.
“The object of which will be to eliminate rivalry between sections engaged in the same line of production, and also to establish a body which can effectively fight Eastern organizations.”
This 1910 push for a regional agricultural union reflects the ongoing struggle of Pacific Northwest farmers to maintain leverage against global supply chains and corporate consolidation. The mention of importing birds for pest control highlights an era of ecological intervention that preceded modern integrated pest management.
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