At harvest time in Washington state, you can increasingly find a diverse array of local farm products, including fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, dairy products, beef, pork, and poultry.

Despite this bounty, Washington farmers are struggling to remain part of our landscape. Family farm profits are in sharp decline, threatening the long-term viability of the state’s family farms as well as the health and vitality of rural communities. About 2,500 farms went out of business in the past decade, and more fold each year.

If we value farmland, care about farmers, and want fresh, delicious local foods, we need to recognize the tremendous efforts of some farmers to produce top quality goods while also embracing stewardship practices that keep our land, water and wildlife healthy, too.

Last year, F&E created a new award to do just that. Named after the late Vim Wright, a tireless advocate for protecting Washington’s environment and keeping family farms in business, the award marks the first time environmentalists and farmers have worked collaboratively to identify and honor a farmer whose stewardship practices sustain both the production of safe, healthy food and maintain the long-term health of the land and water.

If we don’t find a way to reward the farmers who are taking steps, often at great cost, to produce food in a manner that respects the long-term health of the soil, air, water and life they support, we risk losing the very landscape and quality of life we value. Many farmers want to be good stewards. The hard part is agreeing on what exactly goes into good stewardship. Farming and the Environment worked for nearly five years to develop standards for evaluating farms. The standards, known as F&E's Stewardship Principles, are now being used to identify farmers so that we can finally recognize farmers for their efforts in a public way.