Waiting for Word on Flooding

The flooding the past couple of days has been all over the news,but I haven't heard anything yet about what concerns me most: the plight of local farmers. The agricultural land closest to Seattle is largely on flood plains near Carnation and Fall City, by the Tolt and Snoqualmie rivers. Farmers whose fields flood lose whatever crops are in the ground because regulatory agencies rightly forbid selling food that could have been contaminated with manure from neighboring farms, or even heavy metals from nearby industry. This is an especially big problem for organic farms, which run the risk of losing their organic certification if their land is contaminated by toxins in the water.

Flooding has especially been an issue the past couple of years as more markets stay open all winter and more farmers extend their growing season into the fall and winter flood season. We'll have to wait for the weekend to see how folks fared, but I'm betting there will be fewer farmers at the markets, and plenty of stories.