Ag Is Everywhere You Look

Erik Andersson SEDCOR President

While on a recent drive up to Portland, before the inevitable stress-inducing sea of brake lights, I looked out my window to see the gorgeous shades of green along the Interstate. Because of my work at SEDCOR, I know that this patchwork is the result of hundreds of small, family-owned farms. If I didn’t know better, I might assume it’s just merely open space, waiting for future development opportunities.

Or like many of us, I might recognize it as productive agriculture land, which is reflected in the array of products we see at our farmers’ markets and grocery stores.

But it is just underneath that beauty where we find the grinding gears of our region’s economic engine.

The longer I work as the President of SEDCOR, the more obvious it becomes just how vital agriculture is for our region. If our region were a human body, ag would be the heart. It is the core of our economy, the essential piece that makes where we live so unique, so livable, and so attractive.

I’m not just saying this because I live here: our home is truly special. The quality and quantity of what we grow is remarkable. In our region alone (Marion, Polk, and Yamhill Counties), we grow over 170 different crops and livestock items. This includes (but is certainly not limited to) grass and legume seeds, fruits, hazelnuts, wine grapes, berries, vegetables, nursery plants, Christmas trees, field crops such as wheat, oats, mint and hops, hay, hemp, and livestock and poultry. The list goes on.

When we talk about agriculture, we don’t just mean the things we grow and pull out of the ground. Like I said, ag is the heart of an economy that is driven by a number of other industries. Processing. Winemaking. Shipping. Manufacturing. Packaging. Brewing. Warehousing. Exporting. Technology. Tourism. Food service. All of these things are brought to life by our incredible and unique ability to grow almost anything we want and grow it well.

In our Agricultural Issue of Enterprise, we are going to take a moment to celebrate everything agriculture. We’ll also show you some exciting things happening in the future of ag and what a changing, globalized economy means for growers, processors, producers, and every other industry agriculture supports. While blueberry fields and hop farms provide beautiful scenery, they are also becoming technology hubs where block chain processes will be used to collect and trace data on products from the field to the grocery store. I jokingly refer to a goal of having every commercial pie produced in the region feature an “Intel Inside” sticker on its packaging.

I want something to happen to you after you read this issue. The next time you go for a drive over the mountains or through the woods and you look out of the window, I hope you won’t merely see a picturesque scene to stow away as a mental picture. After reading this, I hope you’ll recognize the remarkable machine that moves our region forward. — Erik

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