Agriculture, more “essential” than ever

WSDA Communications

Agriculture and the businesses that support it are essential.

Last week, Gov. Jay Inslee intensified our state’s coronavirus response with a statewide, Stay Home, Stay Healthy order to suspend all non-essential activity. Inslee called on people to stay home and for businesses to close, except for essential activities and services.

Though the spirit of the mandate is clear, some workers and business owners are still unsure if the directive applies to them and if their activities are viewed as essential.

For the agriculture industry, here’s what it means to you.

Agriculture and supporting businesses remain open

If you work or do business in food and agriculture – farming, ranching, food processing and production, food distribution; or you work in a business that supports agriculture, like pesticide application, fertilizer distribution, or veterinary care – then you can continue to operate.

Our basic needs, including the need for food, drink and other agricultural products have not changed. Washington is committed to keeping the food supply chain open and operational -- especially during the current crisis.

This is why “Food and Agriculture” is identified in the Governor’s Essential Business list.

Keeping the food moving helps in the fight
against coronavirus.

New guidelines to help stop COVID-19

During these extraordinary times, essential businesses that remain in operation must do their part to protect workers and fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus by implementing social distancing and sanitation practices.

To help, WSDA has been sharing guidelines for the agriculture industry to help protect workers so they can safely fulfill their essential function. Those resources, for food processors, storage warehouses and packing houses, are available on the WSDA website coronavirus webpage, many of them in English and Spanish.

Keeping food on the shelves

Deliveries to grocery stores are continuing at a steady pace and farmers, ranchers and food processors are producing plenty to meet our needs. By maintaining the food supply chain and safe conditions for workers, we can ensure that store shelves will not go empty and the public can ride out this storm.

WSDA remains committed to ensuring that Washington’s agriculture industry continues to thrive for the benefit of those in the agriculture community, and those of us who depend upon them.

WSDA joins the national call to reduce food waste

Chris McGann
Communications

In the U.S., more than one-third of all available food goes uneaten through loss or waste. Food is the single largest type of waste in our daily trash.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1.3 billion tons of food worth nearly $680 billion are wasted each year. In Washington, more than 350,000 tons of edible food was disposed of in landfills in 2015.

WSDA Director Derek Sandison (L) speaks
with a colleague at the NASDA conference.
* credit NASDA 

For the industry that feeds the world and also depends on limited, costly and increasingly scarce resources, that’s an unsustainable problem that needs to be addressed and it’s one of the big issues addressed this month at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) annual meeting.

NASDA, a non-profit organization supporting agriculture, held its annual conference in New Mexico this year, drawing agriculture leaders from around the country, including WSDA Director Derek Sandison. Conference attendees discuss a broad range of food policy issues, including food waste.

Director Sandison joined NASDA members at the meeting as they adopted a new policy on food waste that follows the group’s “Pledge to End Food Waste.”

"Agriculture both defines and demands sustainability," he said. "It’s too costly to the agriculture industry, the environment and the people who rely on the nutritious food we work so hard to produce to let it go to waste."

WSDA has joined NASDA's pledge to support:

• public policies that offer opportunities to reduce, recover and recycle food waste.
• efforts to improve coordination and communication among federal, state and municipal stakeholders to use resources more efficiently and effectively to address food waste.
• the food waste hierarchy framework.
• research efforts and new technologies that address reduction and recovery of food waste.

Waste reduction in Washington 

Washington state has already adopted a waste-reduction goal shared by our federal partners.

For more than a year, WSDA worked with lawmakers, stakeholders and other agencies to craft food-waste-reduction legislation that was passed this year.

The newly approved legislation directs the state Department of Ecology to develop a plan to cut food-waste in half by 2030 in consultation with WSDA and the Department of Health.

To achieve that waste-reduction goal, the first step is preventing food waste in the first place, then rescuing edible food that would go to waste and getting it to hungry people. When that’s not possible, recovering the nutrients in that food through composting and anaerobic digesters is another option.

WSDA's role in waste reduction 

WSDA is leading two stakeholder engagement groups – one for food businesses and one for hunger relief professionals.

This month, WSDA organized a meeting of stakeholders from Kroger, Washington Hospitality Association, Pasco Farmers Market, the Washington Dairy Council and the Washington State Tree Fruit Association. The group shared ideas, voiced their concerns, and let us know what they’ve been doing to to reduce food waste in their respective industries.

Over the coming months, WSDA will engage experts in food safety, food waste collection and conversion, education and behavioral change, hunger relief and food business as partners in developing the plan.

Drafts of the Washington Food Waste Reduction Plan are scheduled to be available in spring 2020, with a final plan ready by September 2020.

Women in agriculture learn how to power up their communication

Kathy Davis
Communications

If you picture attendees of a Women in Agriculture conference learning how to fix a tractor or take soil samples, think again -- at least regarding this year’s conference held on March 19. 

Participants of the 2016 Women in Agriculture Conference, gathered at the
Olympia site in the Natural Resources Building.

The 600 participants who gathered in 28 networked sites across five states learned about a skill essential to any industry – interpersonal communication. More than 20 participants attending in Olympia were hosted by WSDA at the Natural Resources Building. Christina Harlow with USDA was the site facilitator, and the whole event was emceed by Margaret Viebock, director of Chelan and Douglas counties WSU Extension.  

The morning speakers, Wendy Knapp and Michael Stolp of Northwest Farm Credit Services, presented a personal assessment model called DiSC®. By reviewing the four behavior styles in the DiSC® personality profile, conference attendees better understood their own communication tendencies and how they affect others. 

During group activities, participants identified themselves with one of the four styles and joined

others like them to discuss what works and what doesn’t when interacting with those having different styles. Based on the DiSC® descriptions, I joined a table of others with the “Steadiness” profile. We related and joked about our similar personality traits and how we cope with those in our lives who function differently. 

Another activity presented real-world examples, such as marketing your product to a restaurant or securing financing. Groups brainstormed how to approach different personalities to achieve these goals. 

One of the unique challenges in agriculture is that business partners are often family members. Michael and Wendy pointed out that work conversations around the dinner table or at the truck tailgate may not yield desired results. 

The afternoon’s keynote speaker, Shelly Boshart Davis, talked about how her family’s farm in Tangent, Oregon, has used the DiSC® assessment to improve their relationships and their business. Her extended family and all permanent employees have taken the assessment. 

My own favorite take-away of the day was the notion that various communication styles are like ingredients in a recipe. The key to the success of a business, family or team is to respect each individual, strike a balance and blend accordingly.