Save Family Farming Marks A Decade Of Advocacy

Recently, Save Family Farming celebrated 10 years of advocating for the farming community across Washington.  The organization, which started its work addressing the anti-farm lobbying effort known as What’s Upstream, has grown and expanded to cover not just the dairy sector but all of agriculture.

We Want To Fight For What's True

Past Save Family Farming President Larry Stap says what makes them unique, they're a dog that will bite, and not just bark.

"And the reason behind that is there's a lot of fantastic organizations out there that deal with legislatures and public relations and stuff like that," Stap said.  "And they have to, you know, say things out loud, but not really get aggressive. And we as a Save Family Farming. Kind of our mission is to educate, but also to, you know, if we need to put somebody's name in the front page of a paper that says this is a crooked deal, we're not afraid to do it.” 

Stap added Save Family Farming has decided to go a more aggressive route because, “we've got nothing to lose and everything to gain by exposing this stuff.”

Attacks On Agriculture Come From A Variety Of Directions

While a lot has changed and developed over the past decade, one thing that hasn't Stap noted, is the need for the farming community to stand up for itself.  He said there are so many groups, and individuals attacking Washington agriculture, whether that’s livestock, crop production or anything in the middle.

“I don't care if it's tree fruit, look at the labor issues they have to continually fight, as well as dairy farms," Stap said.  "Trying to take their tools of crop protection and weed control away, you know the pesticides the herbicides. Trying to take our land away from us for buffers. So, we're trying to advocate for our agricultural community that these are things we need. We're not abusing them.”

Stap added for Save Family Farming, advocacy means stepping up and fighting hard for the farming community and telling the truth.

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