The Huffington Post shares how farmers in California, Oregon and Washington “are dealing with the [wildfire] crisis and to find out what you can do to help these farmers, who produce the food we eat each day.”

For many, even if the disasters aren’t a direct threat, are still working in hazardous conditions and dealing with the wildfires.

“Farming continues even with COVID, smoke or whatever’s going on,” said Barb Iverson, who co-owns Woodburn, Oregon’s Iverson Family Farms and is president of the Oregon Farm Bureau. “The plants keep growing, the livestock still need to be fed. You have to get out and deal with what’s going on and make the best of it.”

Even weeks later, the full impact on farms throughout the region is not clear. Oregon Tilth’s Sarah Brown, director of education and advocacy and co-founder of Diggin’ Roots Farm in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, discussed the stress of evacuating with her children. At the same time, her husband and farm partner, Conner Voss, stayed behind at the farm.

The wildfires hit home for Brown as organic farming is seen as an approach to combat climate change, storing more carbon in soil and building better resilience to extreme weather events.

“The science is clear that increased weather extremes and weather events are directly related to climate change,” Brown said. “I read that these fires are hotter and dryer, which is why we’re seeing these extremes.”

The author shares how individuals can support farmers through direct purchasing, joining a CSA, doing online sales or pre-ordering, and donating to farmer-focused funding.

Full article at Huffington Post