The Farming Show

State Threatens To Take 85-Year-Old’s Farm Over Water Technicality

An 85-year-old lifelong Washington state farmer near Spokane could lose his entire farm if the Washington State Department of Ecology gets its way. The Department of Ecology is threatening to take Bob Greiff’s Deer Park-area property in an ongoing dispute over a minor water rights technicality. Greiff joins Dillon to explain how he’s tried to do everything Ecology has asked in order to solve the problem, and how the state continues to dig in its heels with little explanation.

Flooded For Second Time in 4 Years, Whatcom Farmer Asks Hard Questions

Homes, businesses and farms in Whatcom County are reeling after sustaining devastating damage in the second major Nooksack River flood in four years. Alexandra Williams, a Deming-area blueberry farmer and President of the Whatcom County Farm Bureau, joins Dillon to share the impacts this month’s flood had on her family’s farm, and ask hard questions about what authorities are doing to manage the river and stop what’s becoming a terrible pattern.

New “Farming On The Brink” Documentary Exposes WA Farm Labor Struggle

All-new documentary “Farming on the Brink” provides an unfiltered look at the increasing challenges confronting local farming, particularly the rising costs necessary to sustain operations. Launched publicly last week, this upcoming film chronicles the journey of Manuel Imperial, a committed second-generation farmer whose family immigrated from the Philippines over 40 years ago and begin farming in Wapato, Washington. He joins Dillon to talk about the new film and grappling with preserving his family’s farm in the face of escalating regulations and overwhelming expenses.

Whatcom Photographer Documents Local Farming Legacy With ‘Old Barns’ Books

Whatcom County has a long and storied history of farming, and what farming looks like in the county now is much different than many decades ago, often with only old barns remaining as landmarks of the farms that once were. Jeff Barclay, a retiree with a longtime love of photography, joins Dillon with details on his passion project to document all the old barns in the county–an effort that so far has already produced two locally-available photo books, called Old Barns of Whatcom County and Old Barns of Whatcom County, Volume 2.

Embarrassing EPA Revelations Expose Agency’s WA Dairy Lawsuit Motive

Embarrassing revelations from internal documents are exposing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s true motive behind legal attacks against three Washington state dairies in the Lower Yakima Valley–and it’s not protecting public health or the environment. Jay Gordon, Policy Director at the Washington State Dairy Federation, joins Dillon to call out the ugly truth behind the EPA’s and U.S. Department of Justice’s abusive legal games that have already pushed multiple longtime family farms out of business, apparently with no end in sight.