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Asparagus: Will It Be Speared? |
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Written On: July/August 2004 |
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Written By: By Charles Henry Thomas |
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This is the end of the asparagus season in the Yakima and Walla Walla river valleys—and hopefully not the end of what once was a $100 million a year business.
The region’s rich volcanic soils, cold mountain water, hot early summer days, and cool nights are perfect growing conditions, and 2004 was another bumper crop of high-quality asparagus. Despite that, Washington’s asparagus industry is in jeopardy.
On June 3, Seneca Foods Corporation announced that, after 70 years in operation, it will close its Dayton packing plant next year. The news followed a decision by General Mills, Seneca’s largest customer, to begin importing its asparagus from Peru.
Seneca Foods is the third and final Washington asparagus canner to shut its doors in less than a year, following Del Monte in Toppenish and Chiquita in Walla Walla.
Asparagus Acreage Declining in Washington
In fact, since 1990, Washington’s asparagus farmlands have shrunk from 30,000 acres to 15,000. Another 1,700 acres are being plowed under since Del Monte Foods moved its asparagus processing line to Peru along with 350 jobs.
But the Seneca announcement is different. The company’s plant in Dayton is the world’s largest asparagus processing facility, employing more than 1,100 seasonal workers, 50 full-time employees, and providing growers with more than $15 million in annual revenues.
In other words, Seneca is to Dayton what Boeing is to Seattle.
AWB Board member and Pasco asparagus grower Bryan Alford estimates the industry will downsize to fewer than 8,000 acres and become more like a U-pick or truck garden type industry. Fortunately, consumers on the West Coast prefer freshly picked asparagus while folks in the Atlantic states go for the canned variety.
“I think many growers don't believe the situation will change and are looking beyond asparagus to other crops that are less labor dependent,” Alford said.
That’s too bad because Washington asparagus is shipped to virtually every state and is also marketed throughout Europe and Asia. According to the Washington Asparagus Commission, 60 percent of Washington's asparagus crop is whole-spear canned asparagus. The remaining 40 percent is sold to the fresh market.
Our state’s asparagus has the "Washington Extra Fancy" label for good reason. It exceeds the standards set by the government for U.S. Number One asparagus, but despite its reputation, it is being squeezed from the market because of costs.
Andean Trade Preference Act Is a Big Problem
This crisis has nothing to do with growing conditions, urban sprawl, or plant diseases; it has a lot to do with well-intentioned federal and state policies that are combining to kill a big chunk of an industry which should be growing, not shrinking.
One of those policies is the Andean Trade Preference Act. Part of America’s war on drugs, the Act was supposed to get Andean farmers to switch from growing coca leaves – the base for cocaine – to other crops, such as asparagus. As an incentive, the U.S. agreed to eliminate tariffs on Peruvian asparagus imports.
Unfortunately, the agreement was doomed to fail from the start because asparagus and coca are grown in two very different regions. Instead of switching from coca to asparagus, Peruvians are now growing both crops. And since the Andean agreement allows Peruvian asparagus to enter the United States duty free, it undercuts our crops at supermarkets.
According to the General Accounting Office, this 1991 act has not stemmed coca production but has put asparagus growers in Washington, California and Michigan at risk.
Washington’s Minimum Wage Law is Costing State Jobs
Along with federal trade policy, Washington’s minimum wage law is also helping to kill this labor-intensive industry. Our state’s growers and processors must pay $7.16 per hour – the highest starting wage in the nation, which automatically escalates each year. In Peru, workers get $5 per day.
Congress and the Washington State Legislature would have to step in if our state’s asparagus industry is to be saved.
First, the federal Dept. of Commerce would have to impose a tariff on Peruvian asparagus. It could do so tomorrow if it wanted to. It has done just that for powerful sugar and wheat interests but has turned a deaf ear to the pleas of asparagus growers.
Secondly, lawmakers in Olympia would have to change our state’s minimum wage law. Because our starting wage automatically increases each year, it continually widens the gap between Washington and the rest of the world. Legislators would have to freeze the wage at $7.16 until the rest of the country catches up and tie future increases to economic conditions in agriculture and other industries where labor costs are especially sensitive.
Last year, the Legislature put $3.5 million aside to help labor-intensive industries mechanize and provided a $330,000 grant to Washington State University to research a mechanized harvester.
“Rather than going to the root of the problem with job-loss, lawmakers sidestepped tackling the minimum wage law,” AWB President Don Brunell said. They didn’t want to incur the wrath of the unions which, together with some church groups, passed Initiative 688 in 1998.
According to the Washington State Labor Council (AFL-CIO) if you work full time, you shouldn't live in poverty. That discounts the fact that many minimum wage jobs are secondary, entry level or seasonal.
Unions Believe Job Loss Claims are Scare Tactics
By providing automatic increases, union leaders believe they have taken the politics out of the issue because the Legislature doesn’t have to vote in Washington to increase the starting wage.
They dismiss employer claims of job losses as scare tactics. Their Web site claims countless studies show raising the minimum wage has negligible impact on inflation and business failures.
But wage rates are at the crux of the problem in the domestic asparagus industry. Brunell concluded, “Unfortunately, it is all about costs otherwise why would anyone plow under a high-value crop like asparagus?”
Asparagus growers are not asking for a special deal, just fair treatment. But an entire industry in Washington is in danger of collapse unless elected officials in Olympia and Washington, D.C. act quickly.
SIDEBAR
Do You Know Your Asparagus?
Asparagus has been in cultivation for more than 2,500 years. The Greeks and Romans valued asparagus for medicinal uses — treating bee stings, heart ailments, dropsy and toothaches. It was also prized as an aphrodisiac.
Asparagus has been harvested in the United States since the 1870s. California produces approximately 70 to 80 percent of the domestic fresh supply in the United States, with Washington and Michigan providing the rest. Washington and Michigan direct their production to processors, both freezers and canners. Others states also grow asparagus in smaller quantities, but California, Washington and Michigan are considered the major asparagus growing states.
Modern technology reveals asparagus is a leading source of glutathione, a potent antioxidant and a cancer fighting agent; it is high in rutin which strengthens blood vessels; it is high in folacin which could help prevent neurological birth defects of spina bifida and anencephaly. Asparagus is a nutrient-dense food which is high in folic acid and is a good source of potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C, and thiamin. Asparagus has no fat, contains no cholesterol and is low in sodium.
For the Biologist in Everyone...
An asparagus field is usually not harvested for the first three years after the crowns are planted, allowing the crown to develop a strong, fibrous root system. A well-cared for asparagus planting will generally produce for about 15 years without being replanted.
Asparagus is a member of the lily family. The lily family of plants also includes onions, garlic, chives, shallots, yams, flowering lilies of hundreds of kinds, yucca, daffodils, aloe, tulips and hyacinths. Most of them are characterized by underground bulbs or tubers.
Asparagus will grow 7 to 10 inches in a day when the temperatures reach 90 degrees. Some say you can lie on the ground and watch asparagus grow. The asparagus beds are cut every day and the length of harvest is generally 70 to 80 days. After harvesting is done the spears grow into ferns, which produce red berries, and the food and nutrients necessary for a healthy and productive crop the next season.
Charles Henry Thomas is a western Washington freelance writer.
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