2021 Booster Program Message Announced

By Tom Gwin
State Grange
Master/President

Each Grange across the state is encouraged to hold a booster program this fall. The booster program is intended to provide a “boost” in the activities and membership of each Grange as we prepare for the new year.

The State Grange President annually provides a message for each Grange’s Booster Program. The message is intended to introduce the Grange organization to those in attendance and to provide inspiration to those members present. While some Granges don’t have a booster program or utilize the message, it is important for all current and potential members to hear the message.

2021 GRANGE BOOSTER MESSAGE “Washington State Grange: Working to Enrich Lives, Strengthen Families and Enhance Communities across our State since 1889”

This mission statement identifies our organization. It reflects our organization’s values, our storied past, our modern-day projects and activities of the present, and the opportunities facing us in the future.

Every community in our state is impacted by the positive contributions of our Granges. Every successful community Grange provides the opportunity for its’ members to enhance their community. We strengthen families through our support of youth programs. We cultivate connections by creating partnerships with local schools. This may include our efforts to provide school supplies, dictionaries, and to present scholarships for students. We enrich lives by supporting food banks, reading programs, and other volunteer organizations. In each instance, the connection between the Grange and the community creates an impact by making each community a better place for our citizens.

The Grange is truly a “grass roots” organization. Grange legislative policy development begins at the local level. Subordinate and Pomona Granges have an opportunity to submit resolutions that will update or change our current Grange legislative policy. Each resolution is considered at our State Grange Session, held annually in June. The 2022 session is scheduled to be held in Puyallup. The resolutions adopted by the delegates become policy of the State Grange, while those with a national scope are forwarded on to the National Grange for their consideration as well. Our lobbyists, both in Olympia and in Washington DC, use these policies as they lobby on behalf of all Granges.

The new “normal”, as created by the Covid pandemic has altered the traditional way of doing business in most Granges. For the past 18 months, our Granges have not met face-to-face. We are utilizing technology to hold meetings via zoom and other alternative means. We’ve also had to adapt our fundraising efforts to be able to pay our monthly expenses. We truly have been forced out of our traditional box in our ways of thinking and conducting business. The lessons learned will prove invaluable to our organization as we move forward to the future.

While our storied past is well documented and well written, perhaps our greatest opportunity for success is still ahead of us. We must continue thinking outside of our traditional programs and activities as we continue to enhance our communities, strengthen families and enrich lives.

Nearly 600 members have joined the Grange in our state thus far in 2021. We ask that all potential members consider joining our organization, and to share in our values as we cultivate the connections that will continue making an impact across the state.

Attention Growers: Recent Actions Can Affect Your Operation

By Heather Hansen
Legislative Lobbyist

For growers who use water, pesticides, or hire workers, recent actions by state and federal agencies could affect the future of your operation.

WATER: The Department of Ecology is beginning two water adjudications, in in WRIA 1 in Whatcom County and the other WRIA 58 in the Lake Roosevelt area in Eastern Washington. They are looking at handling the adjudications either in batches of similar size and type of water right holders or by sub basins or both. They plan to file the two adjudications with the court in June 2023. Whatcom Superior Court will be the venue for the WRIA 1 adjudication. Spokane Superior Court will be the most likely venue for the WRIA 58 (Lake Roosevelt) adjudication. Ecology still has to secure funding for the two courts to handle their expenses.

Ecology expects these adjudications to cost less and be completed more quickly than the 50-year long Yakima adjudication. The process will be streamlined due to improved technology and the ability to start with a “report of findings” that Ecology will prepare. Ecology intends to include permit-exempt well users in the Nooksack adjudication. In total, that adjudication will include about 5400 people. More background can be found in the “Water Resources Adjudication Assessment Legislative Report” and the “Water Resources Inventory Area No. 1 Watershed Management Project”. Both are available online.

LABOR: Among the many new provisions in the state budget, which took effect on July 1st, was increased funding for the Department of Labor and Industries to do inspections in agriculture. The Department is establishing a dedicated Agricultural Compliance Unit with sixteen new positions, thirteen of whom will be engaged in safety and health inspections and investigations and three dedicated to education and outreach. This initiative covers all of agriculture and growers should be prepared for an increased likelihood of a site inspection by the agency. One of the areas L&I plans to focus on is tractor and equipment safety. The new Agricultural Compliance Manager is David Yunker. He expects having staff dedicated to agriculture will improve relationships with industry. Staff will be more knowledgeable about what they are inspecting and the relevant rules.

The Washington State Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against two Yakima orchards in an effort to recoup more than $450,000 in back wages, they believe are owed to workers. The lawsuit is based on a Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) investigation of wages paid between 2018 and 2020. Part of the dispute is over how piece-rate wages were calculated for fruit harvest.

PESTICIDES: The Washington Department of Agriculture is beginning to write rules in several areas related to pesticide use. First, they will deal with pesticide exam fees to allow computer-based testing administered at testing centers, including community colleges. Second, they will update the penalty matrix for pesticide application violations. The maximum penalty will not change, but there will be an increase in some penalty amounts. Penalties for incidents involving human health will increase. The matrix will be reorganized so human health and crop damage penalties will increase, record keeping penalties will decrease. WSDA wants input from stakeholders. They plan to hold webinars to gather input.

In addition to rule-writing, the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Pesticide Management Division, is expanding its education and technical assistance program. They conduct a variety of training and technical assistance classes in Spanish and English, focused on reduction of pesticide off target drift and Worker Protection Standard (WPS) training at all levels of agricultural operations.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced on August 18, 2021, that it will revoke all food tolerances for the insecticide chlorpyrifos. This action effectively bans use of the product on food crops. The rule will become effective in six months. Chlorpyrifos has been widely used in agriculture for more than 50 years. Non-food, non-feed uses, will not be affected at this time so the product can still be used on ornamentals, seeds, Christmas trees and other such crops. However, EPA indicated that it would continue to review non-food uses of chlorpyrifos and expects to make a decision by the end of 2022.

Many fruit and vegetable crops grown in Washington count on chlorpyrifos to control insect pests. The product is generally used at a time of year when it cannot leave residue on the food crop. For many, there are no viable alternatives. This action may have a dramatic effect on agriculture in Washington State.

Many national farm organizations opposed this decision, saying "President Biden campaigned with the slogan of “Science over Fiction,” but the EPA’s decision to cancel all tolerances of chlorpyrifos does not live up to that standard or to the EPA’s commitment to scientific integrity. Decades of review by EPA career staff and independent scientific advisory panels have repeatedly supported safe uses for this product, yet this decision comes without a full scientific review or a thoughtful assessment of the beneficial uses of this product. Farmers need tools to fight insect pests, but the agency has taken an overly broad action that will cause significant problems for farmers.”

In a fierce competition, Humptulips Grange #730 was awarded first place in both arrangement and overall Grange display at the 2021 Washington State Fair. Ten Granges created displays for this year’s fair.

The displays are judged on a wide range of criteria. The arrangement of the display is based upon the design, artistic effects, arrangement of fresh and preserved produce, and overall impact. Each of the five judges scores the displays, with special emphasis from a judge with an artistic background. Humptulips Grange was awarded first place for their arrangement, followed by Black Lake Grange in second place, McMillin Grange in third place, Thurston County Pomona Grange in fourth place, and East Hill Grange in fifth place. The arrangement score factors in as 20% of the total display score.

The items included in the display contribute the other 80% of the overall score. Agricultural products include grains and seeds is worth 20%, while livestock products (meats, dairy, poultry, honey, shellfish, etc.) contribute an additional 20%.

Horticultural products include fruits, berries, nursery stock, plants, forest products, and herbs. This section contributes 20%, while the vegetable category contributes the final 20%. Each display is required to have 50 items in each of the four categories.

Four judges, one for each category, scores their category based up quantity, variety, and quality. After judging is completed, fair officials tally the scores to determine the overall winners. Humptulips Grange was the first place overall winner, followed by Black Lake Grange in second place, East Hill Grange in third place, Fruitland Grange in fourth place, and Ohop Grange in fifth place.

Other participating Granges in 2021 were Collins, Meridian, and Edgewood.

Each of the ten exhibiting Grange spend hundreds, and possibly even thousands, of hours of work on their Grange displays at the Washington State Fair in Puyallup. Each starts out with the same dimensions, approximately 8 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The slope of the displays is predetermined and remains the same each year. Grange members spend months creating designs, canning and dehydrating fresh produce, collecting seeds and cones, and gathering display items from their Grange members, neighbors, and friends.

Each Grange is responsible for their own design and builds a framework with their design prior to arriving at the fair. The Grange display building in Puyallup is usually ready for the Granges to start moving in two weeks prior to the fair. Most Granges will get their framework set up and the basic design in place a week before the fair. The final week is spent gathering the fresh produce items and placing them into the display. It is a push to the finish to get everything into the display and have it arranged in an attractive manner.

The Washington State Fair, formerly known as the Western Washington Fair and the Puyallup Fair, was first held in 1900. Grange displays have been a part of the fair since its inception.

By Jerry Gwin
State Youth Director

We are pleased to have Brittney Oliver, a member of Moses Lake Grange and Collins Grange, be the recipient of the John Trimble Legislative Experience for this year’s National Grange Session. Brittney will be attending the session in Wichita, Kansas as the youth delegate. She will be serving on one of the session committees and participating in the delegate body at the convention.

Unfortunately, there were no other applications from our state in the various National Grange Youth Programs. We can only hope to move away from the Covid pandemic and begin to rebuild our youth programs.

The Western Regional Conference was held in August in Boise, Idaho. Our state was represented by seven delegates this year. Brittney Oliver placed first in the Impromptu Public Speaking Contest and in Grange Baseball for the young adults. In the Junior Grange division, Jacob Smith placed first in Grange Baseball.

The 2022 Regional Conference will be hosted by the Oregon State Grange.