A History of Farming and the Environment

By Peter J. Goldmark, Founding Chair of Farming &the Environment's Board of Directors

Farming and the Environment (F&E) began in 2001 when statewide leaders from both the farming and environmental communities met to discuss whether they could set aside differences and work together to improve the environmental performance and sustainability of Washington state agriculture. The answer was a resounding yes! We formed a partnership and created an independent, nonprofit organization complete with an ambitious agenda. The reason we could all agree on the importance of forming this organization goes back many decades, if not centuries.

For generations, most people felt a direct connection with the natural world and agriculture. Directly or indirectly, most people’s livelihoods were dependent on the food, fiber, and other goods produced from the land. With industrialization, more and more people moved to cities and most lost their connection with the food system. Over time, America evolved into a culture split between rural and urban ways of life. In Washington state, this split is geographically very obvious with the Cascade Mountains forming a clear divide.

The environmental roots of this organization were born in the environmental movement of the 1970’s. Members of the environmental community often live and work in cities, but feel a strong bond with the natural world and care about natural resources. Their caring is the foundation of their advocacy to protect the environment and sustain natural resources. This advocacy frequently conflicts with farmers, ranchers, and land managers who must focus on economic realities and short-term necessities and so are less able to recognize the longer term goals of environmental protection.

Those were the historical realities when we sat down together to talk. At our initial meeting, we discovered our common ground—a strong bond with the land. This is the heart of Farming and the Environment. We share a devotion to stewarding the land. For farmers, it’s a generational deep commitment born out of decades of blood, sweat, tears and smiles. This bond sustains farmers even when economic returns are small or negative. Many Washington State farms and ranches are managed by families and individuals who are true stewards. While producing food, their operations also enhance and protect the environment. This has value to the public and to the state. Environmentalists feel an equally strong connection. They feel a deep reverence for this state’s awe-inspiring mountains and rivers, its rolling farmlands and coastlines; and a deep responsibility and commitment to helping sustain them.

This common bond is at the core of the partnership that is F&E. Together, farmers and the environmentalists are helping each other and the land through embracing a shared vision of healthy farms and ranches producing food and fiber profitably while enhancing and sustaining the land and environment. It sounds simple, but in Washington State it is a huge challenge.

Agriculture needs to be economically healthy to be a friendly steward of the land. In the past five or six years, the realities of drought, global competition, and depressed commodity prices have threatened the very economic sustainability of agriculture. A broad goal of F&E is to develop policies and mechanisms that reward stewardship. Providing incentives for good stewardship to increase farm profits could help counter the economic spiral that is swallowing farms and ranches. We all want healthy farms, ranches and ecosystems. Now F&E is working to make this ambitious goal a reality.