Western Washington University, Washington, United States
Abstract: Northwest Washington boasts a strong agricultural system, mainly focused on fruits, vegetables, and animal products like berries, lettuce, and dairy. Other crops, including cereals, are commonly grown on the Eastern side of the state, despite a history of productive and lucrative grain farmland in Northwest Washington. In the past few years, there has been a rise in grain growth on the Western side of the state. However, little analysis has been completed on the climatic and cultural effects that influence farmers' decisions to grow grains in this area. In addition, there is no readily available source of geospatial data that can be used to visualize the changing extent of grain agriculture over the 20th and early 21st centuries. This knowledge gap hampers our understanding of historical and modern patterns of shifting agricultural grain production in the region. To identify factors that contribute to the rising popularity of grain growth in Northwest Washington, an interdisciplinary approach must be taken. Using physical factors like temperature and precipitation, a suitability analysis can be completed and overlaid with human and policy factors, like land zoning and cultural norms in this region. By speaking with farmers, common themes among farmers can be identified.
In this session, the research will be presented from a current graduate student addressing how these analyses can deepen historical knowledge of community relationships with farming, particularly cereals and grain farming in Northwest Washington since the early 20th century. This research is critical to understand how community relationships with ecosystems and agriculture change over time, affecting local landscapes and economy. This relationship analysis emphasizes the importance of supporting local communities and their farmers, as well as raising several questions: how do small, local communities affect the landscapes near them? Can we predict how cultural preferences will impact future agricultural decisions? These questions may be impossible to answer due to the challenging nature of human and physical intersections, but are important to understand how food access and quality may be affected in the future.
