Farming has always been a challenging career path, and rising costs of land and living bring further uncertainty.
Sam Dillingham, co-owner of Goosefoot Produce, digs a hole for a post for an irrigation timer while their dog barks in the background. The farm had put off this important task for the last four years waiting for the window between harvesting and before Washington’s winter rain returns for good to Lopez Island.
Farmers have always worked at the mercy of weather and government choices. In 2025, climate change, high costs and federal policy changes have increased the uncertainty, especially on small, beginning Pacific Northwest farmers.
Dear Table Farm in Skagit County outside Burlington experienced firsthand the results of the pause of SNAP benefits this fall.
“We had so many customers that were buying from us using SNAP at the markets. It was so crazy that first week when SNAP was cut,” Grace Lemley said, co-owner of the farm. “It was very significant … we had three-quarters less of SNAP than we normally would have.”
This policy change came on top of economic pressures small farmers face.
“Small businesses can be so easily affected by larger-scale things that are happening right in our government, in our climate, so little things like the price of packaging costs, I’ve seen go up astronomically since our first year, but we can’t necessarily, continue to charge more,” Lemley said.
Shifting weather and water
Island farming brings particular struggles including access to materials, ferry reliability and water availability.
Goosefoot Produce, started by Dillingham and Emma Carter, has been on Lopez Island for five years. What started as an undeveloped hay field has turned into two acres of farmland.
“Being on an island, there’s a lot of additional costs in terms of getting materials here and what’s available to you. And since the ferries have become kind of increasingly unreliable, it’s not really possible to do a quick run to the mainland to get something. You kind of have to assume you’re going to be stuck all day,” Dillingham said.
Lopez Island’s water wells are also difficult to rely on. Residents lack the ability to check what is in the aquifer, or the ground water. The ground water is also at risk of saltwater intrusion due to sea level rise.
While surface water is rare on Lopez Island, Goosefoot Produce is able to irrigate off of a pond on the property. While the owners hope to expand eventually, the pond would not be able to support it. Thus needing more development and money into the infrastructure.
Maia Binhammer of Broomstick Farms, a small organic vegetable farm in Bow, has also faced additional uncertainty due to climate change.
“Not knowing year to year what we should expect in terms of, when are we going to get that last frost or that first frost that’s been shifting? What kind of rain can we expect and when will it start in the fall?” she said. “It makes it difficult to plan and to really think about scheduling our crop plan. And the other aspect, I think, too, that plays into that is the changing dynamics of the pest and disease pressure out here.”
Broomstick Farms had been facing more pest and disease issues as shifting patterns of both moisture and heat units allowed for particular pests and diseases to have an ideal habitat. Management and quarantine of pests is a particular issue for organic farming.
“This past year had a real wireworm issue, which is a click beetle larva, basically that burrows into and eats roots. It will take out transplants, but it also will burrow into things like garlic,” Binhammer said.
Finding stability
Farming has never been a financially solid career path, and with rising costs of land and living brings further uncertainty.
“All three of us who are co-owners and managers of the business and also provide nearly all the labor for the business,” Binhammer said. “We all have other jobs as well, so we do not rely at this point on the income from the business, and we’re able to put most of what’s earned back into the business.”
The same is true for Goosefoot Produce.
“Without family support, I don’t think our operation would be possible. And I think that’s kind of an increasing trend in farming, and especially small-scale farming, is land prices just keep going up and infrastructure prices keep going up. And to be able to farm in a way that makes you a living without having access to generational wealth, it seems it’s not common.”
Goosefoot Produce is a Community Supported Agriculture farm which is a partnership between a farm and its consumers, where members pay upfront for a share of the farm’s seasonal harvest.
Dear Table Farm also has a CSA which helped build a reliable income in the world of uncertainty in farming. Increased costs not only affect the farm but the shoppers as well.
According to Dillingham, local farmers have become more reliant on organizations such as the Lopez Island Community Land Trust, a nonprofit that offers affordable housing, sustainable agriculture and other rural development programs.
“(The land trust has) been purchasing agricultural properties, holding them in trust and leasing them out to farmers. I think that’s the only future of farming, at least in this county, that’s such a playground for the wealthy,” Dillingham said.
— By Mars Wetzbarger
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Overmarsh Farm Commons, Year One,” Nov. 13, 2025
• “Addressing the physical toll of farming,” Nov. 6, 2025
• “Small farmers seek Skagit’s big magic,” Sept. 16, 2025
• “Farm models land stewardship, animal welfare,” Aug. 14, 2025
• “Island food hub links farms to customers,” July 1, 2024