MONROE – Dan Bartelheimer, a third-generation farmer from Snohomish, said he isn’t encouraging his two children to pursue careers in agriculture.
“Why encourage your offspring to come back to something that has very limited future?” said Bartelheimer, 61.
He grows few crops on his 50-acre farm because farming doesn’t pay well, Bartelheimer said. His wife, Judy, has worked as an elementary school teacher for 39 years to support the farm.
A few decades ago, Bartelheimer’s family owned 1,000 acres. Since the 1980s, the difficulties of running a farm have snowballed, he said. Competition from cheaper foreign products has driven local farmers like him out of the market.
Government agencies bought and converted some of his land to wetlands, and urbanization has encroached on farmlands.
It’s time the county helped make farming viable, Bartelheimer said. That’s why he joined more than 300 people Thursday at a farming conference at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe.
Snohomish County held the conference for the first time in three years to get farmers’ input on how to revitalize county agriculture, said John Roney, the county’s agricultural coordinator.
The farmers shared their concerns with county officials, who will use the feedback to create a plan aimed at revitalizing local agriculture, County Executive Aaron Reardon said.
“There’s no silver bullet to revive agriculture in Snohomish County. It has to be done step by step,” he said.
The county’s agricultural land has declined from 195,000 acres in 1945 to 69,000 acres in 2002. Out of the remaining agricultural land, about 25,000 acres are not being farmed, county officials said.
But agriculture remains a strong component of the county’s economy, Roney said. Annual sales of local agricultural products total about $126 million, he said.
“We have good products for our folks to eat,” he said.
Regulations force the county to strike a balance among competing issues, including preservation of agricultural lands, residential and commercial development, and conservation of fish and wildlife habitat, said Craig Ladiser, director of the county’s Department of Planning and Development Services.
“All the tension is there. It’s real. It is very real,” he said.
County Councilman John Koster and Reardon organized the conference.
“The best thing we can do is listen to farmers,” Koster said.
Farmers have a lot to say, but don’t often know how to get their voices heard, he said.
The county’s agricultural board exists to advise the County Council, said Andy Hofstra, 63, a board member.
“People are not informed or don’t know” about the agricultural board, he said.
Hofstra, who owns a dairy farm east of Monroe, said preserving local agriculture could lead to economic independence.
“We’re going to be dependent on foreign food like we are dependent on foreign oil,” he said. “I hope it will slow down. Whether it gets stopped, I don’t know.”
Angela Davis, 25, was among a few young adults who participated in the conference. She and her husband would like to start a hobby farm on their 2 acres in Snohomish, Davis said.
“I want to preserve the tradition of farming and be self-sufficient,” she said.
Davis, who works for the U.S. Forest Service, said she wishes she could start a commercial farm.
“Unfortunately, with regulations and rules in Snohomish County, I think it’s going to be extremely difficult,” she said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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