Farming in Washington state relies heavily on irrigation, flood control, transportation and other benefits from dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. But activists have claimed that those dams are the main problem harming endangered salmon in those streams, and they want the dams to be taken down. A major new study from a leading salmon researcher, Dr. David Welch, shows that dams are not the obvious culprit in the ongoing decline of Chinook salmon. Dr. Welch joins Dillon to explain the findings and share evidence pointing to where the real problems harming salmon are occurring.

If a farm no longer has reliable access to water, everyone knows that's a threat to their crops that need to be irrigated to grow. But the problems start long before that ever happens. Jay Gordon with the Washington State Dairy Federation joins Dillon to explain how the uncertainty of a water rights adjudication like state officials have proposed in the Nooksack Basin would start killing farms long before any water were to be shut off.

Although the Washington State Supreme Court's recent ruling on overtime for farm workers was focused on dairy farm employees, fruit farms and many others are bracing for major changes as well. Dan Fazio, Wafla Executive Director, joins Dillon to explain the impact the ruling will have far beyond dairy, and how ultimately it will hurt farm workers and force more and more of our food to be produced in foreign countries.

Whatcom Family Farmers has launched the Virtual Farm Circle, transforming the traditionally in-person event to an online activity in response to pandemic restrictions. WFF Outreach Director Gavin Willis talks with Dillon about the project and how it was produced.

Politically-driven activists are applauding a WA Supreme Court ruling forcing dairy farms to pay all workers overtime. But the reality is that this will ultimately take opportunities away from farm workers, Scott Dilley with the Washington State Dairy Federation tells Dillon.

Despite state officials pushing a new plan to "adjudicate" water rights in the Nooksack basin, some people still naively believe salmon restoration work and community collaboration will be able to continue as the state's legal process plays out over coming decades. But natural resources attorney Bill Clarke says that's not reality. He joins Dillon to explain how the plan would leave much environmental work in the basin deadlocked.

Ongoing sampling shows years of efforts by farmers, cities, environmentalists and regular citizens have succeeded in reducing bacterial contamination and other pollution in Whatcom County's waterways. Meg Harris, Whatcom Conservation District Water Quality Data Coordinator, joins Dillon as well as Fred Likkel, Whatcom Family Farmers' Director, to talk about the latest sampling results, the stories of success, and the work that still needs to be done.

The special minimum wage the federal government requires farmers pay foreign guest workers has far outpaced wage growth in virtually any other category. Now, Wafla director Dan Fazio joins Dillon to explain how an effort to bring the so-called Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) more in line with other workers' wages has been challenged in court.

New data is exposing more lies from labor activist groups Familias Unidas por la Justicia and Community Community Development led by Rosalinda Guillen. The groups had blamed an Eastern Washington fruit farm for a COVID outbreak, claiming the farm hadn't done enough to protect workers. Save Family Farming Executive Director Gerald Baron joins Dillon to explain how a public health official is now calling out the activists' false narrative and asking them to stop spreading fear.

After an Eastern Washington dairy farm decided to fight the false accusations of activist Oregon lawyer Charlie Tebbutt--rather than settle out of court as other farms have done--the lawyer and the activist groups he represents asked for the case to be dismissed. Fred Likkel, Whatcom Family Farmers' Executive Director, joins Dillon to explain what we know so far about the situation, and how this could spell the beginning of the end for Tebbutt's sue-and-settle scheme to take down Washington dairy farms.