The history of oats in western Washington and the evolution of regionality in agriculture

Abstract

Concern is expressed in the literature that as agriculture industrializes, regionality is lost; and with it, social, economic and environmental benefits. The example of oats in western Washington provides an opportunity to examine forces driving agricultural evolution during the twentieth century and to reflect on whether and to what degree they reveal changes in the extent and nature of regionality in agriculture over time. Research based on historic literature explores five themes which highlight different ways in which the disappearance of the oat crop from western Washington was associated with the decline of regionality in its agriculture. Whereas regionally grown oats as horse feed were once an important energy source for transport and machinery in western Washington, they have been superseded by fossil fuels following mechanization. Oats were eclipsed in importance as livestock and poultry feed by corn and soy, preferred by a professionalized animal feed production industry and better supported by agricultural policy and research. Regional milling operations for food oats have also given way to industrial scale production in national centers. Increased need for farmers to participate in the monetized economy drove them away from the small grains, whose market value has declined as their commoditization progressed. Lastly, the role of oats as an agronomic tool for weed and disease control was undermined by crop protection chemicals. Oats thus exemplify evolution away from regional self sufficiency and towards greater integration with national and global markets by western Washington farmers. While the process was in part compelled by wider developments in agriculture and industry, it was also self-driven: regional farmers and agriculture sector leaders embraced opportunities to grow cash crops and participate in national and global markets from an early stage of western Washington's agricultural history. In a more recent phase of agricultural evolution, social interest in and consumer demand for local and regional agriculture are growing. This phase represents deliberate choice of regionality in the knowledge that it is neither necessary for farmers nor the cheapest possible option for consumers. Reinvented roles for oats are becoming possible in the present context and demonstrate a new and more purposeful approach to regionality which leverages technology and the market.