In the fields, orchards, barns, and waters of Washington State, a quiet crisis is unfolding—one that threatens the future of family farms, rural communities, and the very food system we all rely on.
The Farming Show pulls back the curtain on the political, environmental, and social pressures reshaping agriculture in the Pacific Northwest. With unflinching honesty and a deep respect for the people who grow our food, host Dillon Honcoop takes listeners straight to the front lines of the fight for farming’s future.
Each week, the show tackles the top issues on the minds of farmers—from burdensome regulations and environmental litigation to labor challenges, market disruptions, and the threat of misinformation. But this isn’t just a policy podcast—it’s a storytelling platform. Listeners will hear directly from farmers, farmworkers, researchers, and advocates who are living the realities of today’s agricultural landscape.
What makes The Farming Show different is its willingness to ask hard questions, name names, and challenge powerful narratives that harm local farms. Backed by the advocacy and investigative work of Save Family Farming, this show doesn’t shy away from controversy—it leans in, bringing clarity, context, and conviction to the most complex issues.
Whether you’re a farmer, a policymaker, or just someone who cares about where your food comes from, The Farming Show offers a compelling look at what’s at stake—and what we can do to protect the future of farming in Washington State and beyond.
Subscribe to The Farming Show Podcast on your favorite audio platform to listen anytime. If you want to listen live, you can catch The Farming Show Saturday mornings at 7am on KGMI Radio, 96.5 FM and 790 AM in Bellingham, Washington.
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In the fields, orchards, barns, and waters of Washington State, a quiet crisis is unfolding—one that threatens the future of family farms, rural communities, and the very food system we all rely on.
The Farming Show pulls back the curtain on the political, environmental, and social pressures reshaping agriculture in the Pacific Northwest. With unflinching honesty and a deep respect for the people who grow our food, host Dillon Honcoop takes listeners straight to the front lines of the fight for farming’s future.
Each week, the show tackles the top issues on the minds of farmers—from burdensome regulations and environmental litigation to labor challenges, market disruptions, and the threat of misinformation. But this isn’t just a policy podcast—it’s a storytelling platform. Listeners will hear directly from farmers, farmworkers, researchers, and advocates who are living the realities of today’s agricultural landscape.
What makes The Farming Show different is its willingness to ask hard questions, name names, and challenge powerful narratives that harm local farms. Backed by the advocacy and investigative work of Save Family Farming, this show doesn’t shy away from controversy—it leans in, bringing clarity, context, and conviction to the most complex issues.
Whether you’re a farmer, a policymaker, or just someone who cares about where your food comes from, The Farming Show offers a compelling look at what’s at stake—and what we can do to protect the future of farming in Washington State and beyond.
Subscribe to The Farming Show Podcast on your favorite audio platform to listen anytime. If you want to listen live, you can catch The Farming Show Saturday mornings at 7am on KGMI Radio, 96.5 FM and 790 AM in Bellingham, Washington.
In a bizarre turn of events, a Yakima, WA-based anti-farming activist nonprofit required attendees to a recent screening of their propaganda film to disclose their occupation, subsequently charging anyone listing themself as a dairy farmer $535.38 for a ticket, while all others could get a ticket for free.
Ben Tindall, Executive Director of Save Family Farming, joins Dillon with details on the apparent attempt to block dairy farmers from attending the Nov. 7 film screening at Sunnyside's Grand Cinemas Yakima Valley, asking what the activist group may be trying to hide with the puzzling move.
Protecting Whatcom County farming and promoting a settlement to the state's Whatcom water adjudication lawsuit are the goals of a recently unveiled proposal from County Councilman Ben Elenbaas.
Elenbaas, a 4th-generation Whatcom County farmer, joins Dillon with details on the changes he wants to make to a foundational county plan that sets the county's growth agenda for decades to come.
Save Family Farming local affiliate Whatcom Family Farmers recently released a public statement in support of Elenbaas' proposal, saying they could help mark a path forward in the contentious water rights adjudication that's cast dark clouds over local farming's future in Whatcom County.
Farmers and many others across the Pacific Northwest and beyond have followed a unique, regional weather blog over the last more than three decades.
Its followers, or "patrons" in The Weather Café parlance, have made its twice-weekly posts part of their weekly routine, relying on its insights for weather-affected planning, particularly when the possibility of major storms or other weather events are predicted.
Rufus La Lone, the forecaster behind the blog, joins Dillon the day after his last forecast post, after announcing on Oct. 15 he was retiring from the project.
They talk not just about the final two-week weather outlook, but also reflect on 31 years of The Weather Café, including some of the major storms and weather events covered, the blog's unique approach, and how it became a fixture in the lives of tens of thousands of people across the region.
President Donald Trump's move to allow more cheap beef from Argentina into the United States sparked a swift backlash from U.S. cattle ranchers.
Chelsea Hajny, Washington Cattlemen's Association Executive Vice President, joins Dillon with the Washington state ranchers' reaction to the move and Trump's upsetting comments about it.
Accusing dairies in the Lower Yakima Valley of polluting groundwater, the U.S. Department of Justice, working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, hired University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist Dr. Rebecca Larson to make a legal declaration in support of their court case against the dairies.
But Stu Turner, an environmental contamination investigation expert, shows how Larson's declaration amounts to bad science, and joins Dillon with details not only on how she got it wrong, but on the truth about the dairies currently in DOJ's and EPA's crosshairs.
In vitro fertilization technology is changing the way farmers improve their herd's genetics, allowing them to raise the healthiest, best-producing animals much more quickly than traditional breeding.
And now Whatcom County is home to a facility where farmers can bring cows to use this technology.
McKenzie Corpron, an embryologist with Trans Ova Genetics, joins Dillon with details on the company's new satellite center housed at Mark Van Mersbergen's former Lynden-area dairy, Markwell Holsteins.
The Washington state farming community is speaking out against a new state plan to force large forested buffers on non-fish-bearing streams in working forest lands.
Farmers recognize the dangerous precedent the unscientific proposal would create for forcing similar buffers on farmland, ultimately harming fish while pushing countless family farms in our region out of business (read Save Family Farming's earlier letter to state officials about this bad idea here).
Dr. Elaine Oneil, Executive Director of the Washington Farm Forestry Association, joins Dillon again with more details and new ways for people to tell Olympia to stop this misguided plan before an expected decision in November.
You can listen to Dillon's earlier conversation with Dr. Oneil and Whatcom County small family farm forest owner Tom Westergreen here.
Many people, including news reporters, have been confused by recent layoff notices from Washington farms creating suspicion of major farm closures.
But what most don't realize is that the layoffs are the routine annual conclusion of seasonal farm jobs that haven't required such notices until state lawmakers changed the rules this spring.
Erik Zavala, Director of Field Staff for Wenatchee-based cooperative Blue Bird, tells Dillon even though the layoffs are routine and expected by the affected employees, the new reporting requirement has caught many people--even within the farming community--completely off guard.
Ongoing drought conditions have led to water shortages in the Yakima River Basin severe enough that water to many farms has been shut off.
Sunnyside-area dairy farmer Jason Sheehan, who also serves on the board of the affected Roza Irrigation District, joins Dillon and Whatcom Family Farmers Executive Director Fred Likkel to explain what the shutoffs have meant for farming, and how the collaborative Yakima Basin Integrated Plan has helped tribes, farmers and others share and protect the dwindling water supply.
Most people probably don't know that Washington state is number two in the nation for producing organic food. And demand for organic food nationally and globally continues to grow.
But Melissa Spear, the Executive Director of Seattle-based Tilth Alliance that advocates and assists many organic growers as part of its focus on supporting Washington's local and sustainable food movement, tells Dillon that WA organic growers also face many challenges and uncertainty right now.
This episode is part two of a two-part conversation. You can find part one here.
Most people probably don't know that Washington state is number two in the nation for producing organic food. And demand for organic food nationally and globally continues to grow.
But Melissa Spear, the Executive Director of Seattle-based Tilth Alliance that advocates and assists many organic growers as part of its focus on supporting Washington's local and sustainable food movement, tells Dillon that WA organic growers also face many challenges and uncertainty right now.
This episode is part one of a two-part conversation. You can find part two here.
Whatcom County is known for its dairy, berry and potato farms, but the area boasts a long list of other kinds of farms and specialty crops, including tree nuts.
Jon De Lange of Everson, WA-based Washington Hazelnut joins Dillon with details on how he grows, harvests and prepares his crop for market, including creating the tasty hazelnut treats his farm sells direct to consumers on its website, washingtonhazelnutllc.com.
The process of harvesting field corn for dairy cattle feed has evolved extensively in recent decades, as farmers here in Washington and around the Pacific Northwest face increasingly tight margins, high labor costs and other market pressures.
Duane Scholten, owner of Lynden, WA-based Scholten's Equipment, joins Dillon with a look at the equipment and technology farmers are using this fall as our region's corn harvest gets underway.
In the wake of the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, it's not just other political figures that worry about threats of political violence--farmers do, too.
Dillon talks about the recent history of radicalized political activists targeting farms, and explains why farmers live under the threat of protests, defamation, sabotage and political violence from people influenced by the overheated rhetoric pushed by farming's most angry critics.
"Animal feeding operations are increasing Whatcom's air pollution, study finds," read the initial headline on a misleading article in Bellingham-based Cascadia Daily News, obscuring the fact that the study it referenced did not make such a finding, and that a series of faulty assumptions led to this troubled reporting.
Fred Likkel, Whatcom Family Farmers' Executive Director, joins Dillon with a closer look at some of the mistakes this local news report made, and why bad reporting can cause such a problem for farming.
Despite fully funding its own legal needs after launching a massive lawsuit against all water users in Whatcom County, the state has dialed back its support for the 30,000-plus Whatcom residents it sued.
Fred Likkel, Executive Director of Whatcom Family Farmers, joins Dillon with the latest developments in the controversial court case, including how the state is legally required to assist the residents it has dragged into court.
Ryan Mensonides' dream of providing his farm's top-quality dairy products direct to the community was just starting to take off this summer, when a truck crash near Enumclaw, WA changed everything.
Mensonides joins Dillon with a call for the state to take an active role in quickly finding solutions to try to salvage the area's suddenly-suffering economy, including his new Mount Rainier Creamery & Market in nearby Buckley, WA.
Refrigeration is an important capacity many farms need when they're producing fresh food, but new Washington state restrictions on refrigeration systems could cripple farms with massive cost increases.
Ben Ingalls with IVI joins Dillon with the background on the new laws and what they'll mean for farming in the region.
A Yakima, WA-based activist group recently published anti-farm videos on its social media feeds that featured the Washington State Department of Health's official logo, raising troubling questions about possible tax dollars used for political purposes.
Save Family Farming has filed an official complaint with the WA Attorney General's Office calling for an investigation into possible state sponsorship of the nonprofit "We Are ELLA" group's anti-farm propaganda.
Kenton Gartrell, a farmer and rancher in the Yakima area, tells Dillon that he's been following the activist group nearly since its recent inception, and this wouldn't be the first time the young organization has already run afoul of rules against possible politicking on the public dime.
Discredited labor activist Rosalinda Guillén of Community to Community Development recently repeated false and offensive attacks on farms hiring guest workers via the federal H-2A visa program
Farms have been turning to the expensive and highly-regulated program as a last resort to help cover labor gaps resulting from the worsening farm labor shortage.
Enrique Gastelum, a former farmworker who's now CEO of the Worker And Farmer Labor Association (WAFLA), joins Dillon to discuss not just how wildly inaccurate Guillén's suggestions are that the guest worker program is unregulated and bad for workers, but also how offensive her comments are that compare the program to a "quasi-slave labor force."
In the fields, orchards, barns, and waters of Washington State, a quiet crisis is unfolding—one that threatens the future of family farms, rural communities, and the very food system we all rely on.
The Farming Show pulls back the curtain on the political, environmental, and social pressures reshaping agriculture in the Pacific Northwest. With unflinching honesty and a deep respect for the people who grow our food, host Dillon Honcoop takes listeners straight to the front lines of the fight for farming’s future.
Each week, the show tackles the top issues on the minds of farmers—from burdensome regulations and environmental litigation to labor challenges, market disruptions, and the threat of misinformation. But this isn’t just a policy podcast—it’s a storytelling platform. Listeners will hear directly from farmers, farmworkers, researchers, and advocates who are living the realities of today’s agricultural landscape.
What makes The Farming Show different is its willingness to ask hard questions, name names, and challenge powerful narratives that harm local farms. Backed by the advocacy and investigative work of Save Family Farming, this show doesn’t shy away from controversy—it leans in, bringing clarity, context, and conviction to the most complex issues.
Whether you’re a farmer, a policymaker, or just someone who cares about where your food comes from, The Farming Show offers a compelling look at what’s at stake—and what we can do to protect the future of farming in Washington State and beyond.
Subscribe to The Farming Show Podcast on your favorite audio platform to listen anytime. If you want to listen live, you can catch The Farming Show Saturday mornings at 7am on KGMI Radio, 96.5 FM and 790 AM in Bellingham, Washington.
