'We're dying to live up here'

No rain this summer spells doom for Eastern Washington farmers

WALLA WALLA, Wash. (RWN) - An unusually dry spring and summer that came on the heels of a dry winter and a seven-year drought, is killing the wheat farmers of Eastern Washington.

Production is down 85 percent, said Steven Kal, a spokesman with the Farm Bureau of Eastern Washington.

"Most of our farmers aren't even tilling their land," Kal said. "They're just asking for a little rain and the government for a little help."

The government may not have much help to give. The last seven years of drought have been on the government's coffers; even subsidized farming has seen cuts in its budget.

"We just don't have the money," said, Saif Muhan, the top Agriculture Department official in Washington State. "Each year, we try and help the farmers, but each year the drought gets worse. They need to spend less time complaining and more time praying to Allah."

Responses like Muhan's create quite a stir in the rural communities east of the Cascades, many of which have residents who have not ever been comfortable with Islam.

"I've got some prayers for Allah right here," John Fennis, a wheat farmer from Pasco, said while fingering his .30-.30 rifle. "I've prayed and I've prayed and I've prayed. Every day, five times a day like we're supposed to do. Then I search the sky for a sign of rain, and I've got nothing. I'm going to lose my farm, my family's going to be turned out. Where is all the charity we're supposed to be seeing."

Farmers concede that you can't do much about the weather, but would like to see some compassion for the class that puts food on the table.

"I'd like to blame the government for the problems of rain not falling from the sky," said Daryl Katil, a farmer from Richland. "But only Allah can bring rain. What I can blame the government for, though, is not seeing this coming and setting aside some money for us."

The long-range forecast for the rest of the summer is ugly: Hotter than normal temperatures and no sign of rain.


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