SKAGIT COUNTY, Wash. Decades ago, growing green peas was so profitable in Skagit County that farmers used to say the crop sent their kids to college. In 1978, peas sold for freezing or canning brought local producers about $7.1 million, more than $35 million adjusted for inflation, according to Washington State University Extension estimates cited by Cascadia Daily News. In 2024, that figure was $0.
"Peas were king in this county," said Owen Peth, a fifth-generation farmer in Bow. At the industry's high point in 1971, Skagit County farmers harvested 41,200 tons of green peas for processing, almost 8 percent of the entire country's output that year.
The crop thrived alongside a web of local processors. Dave Hedlin, a longtime farmer near La Conner, remembers a peak of about 12 major processors in the region from the 1940s through the 1960s. The plants were significant employers, and they also supported dairies and beef operations: discarded plant material made cheap, quality feed. Peth's family, cattle ranchers since about the 1950s, grew peas for nearly four decades and baled the leftover vines for their cows, a practice he likened to getting a double crop.
Peas also fit the land. Hedlin said their relatively short growing season and their ability to fix nitrogen in the soil meant that about half the time after harvest he could plant fall crops using no fertilizer at all.
The decline had no single cause. Farmers grew peas too many years in a row, fueling outbreaks of Fusarium wilt, and consumer demand was slipping. Industry consolidation delivered the lasting blow: a 1980 Bellingham Herald article counted four processing plant closures in 12 years, including Stokely Van Camp's Mount Vernon plant, as processors left for locations closer to major population centers. J.R. Simplot's Ferndale facility closed in 1989, and the exodus continued from there.
The story echoes today, as agricultural groups raise alarms about processing closures for other crops. Mikala Staples Hughes, president of the Western Washington Agricultural Association, said fewer farmers are farming now, with some consolidating or selling out in part because they lack the resources to build their own processing infrastructure. Still, efforts to open new processing plants in Skagit County are showing encouraging signs, and Mike Peroni, executive director of the Northwest Agricultural Business Center, said he remains hopeful and optimistic, though he called how the ideas will scale an open question.