Lisa MeoliDecember 4, 2015

HST-591 Digital HistoryPlace History Final Project

Yakima Valley Hops – From a Commodity to High Value Crop

The Yakima Valley is the single most important hop-producing area in the world today. This

32,000 acre region in eastern Washington currently produces 73 percent of the hops grown in the

United States, which is more than a third of the global hop crop.1 Today, Yakima County

produces over 39 commodities and is also the largest production area for apples and mint in the

United.2

While hops have been grown in the Yakima Valley since the 1870s, and the region has

been the center of U.S. hop production since the mid-twentieth century. Ongoing market and

climate changes will require adaptation by growers for this to remain an economically viable and

sustainable industry. Specifically, in the past decade, the explosion of craft breweries across the

U.S. has created high demand for a large number of specialty hop varieties, which command a

premium price but require more diversity and specificity from growers. This specialty market

now resembles that for varietal wine grapes more than commodity crops like corn or potatoes.

While hop prices are at an all-time high, climate change threatens the sustainability of this crop,

and indeed all agriculture in the semi-arid Yakima Valley. Pressure on the water supply, crop

pathogens, and an evolving labor market all pose challenges to hop growers that will require

adaptation of historical farming practices. This essay also reviews the evolution of the labor

force used for hop harvest, from the Yakama Indians to migrant farm workers to increased

mechanization on larger farms.

1 United States Department of Agriculture. National Agricultural Statistics Service, Accessed October 24, 2015. http://www.nass.usda.gov/2 United States Department of Agriculture. National Agricultural Statistics Service, Yakima County Profile, Accessed October 22, 2015. http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Washington/County_Profiles/yakima.asp

1

North American brewing was started by Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam in 1607 when

the first brewery opened on Manhattan Island. Hops were never cultivated by the Dutch in the

new world, but were shipped from the Netherlands.3 It wasn’t until 1628 that the Endicott

expedition, a Massachusetts Bay Colony expansion group, introduced hops to New England.4

Massachusetts was the leader in American hop production from the middle of the eighteenth

century until the early nineteenth century. By the end of the eighteenth century American hops

were being exported to France and Germany.5 The spread of hops to other New England states,

New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont, began in the early nineteenth century. By 1836,

Massachusetts production peaked, only to steeply decline by 1840 for reasons that are not well

documented, though it is likely that environmental factors, such as poor soil conditions, climate,

and crop pathogens, were to blame. During this time, New York began commercial production of

hops to keep up with demand from breweries in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York City.6

According to 1840 census data, more than 447,000 pounds of hops were grown in New York,

and over the next decade U.S. production tripled. Due to demand and price pressure, hop

cultivation spread westerly into Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.7 Figure 1, from the David Rumsey

Historical Map Collection, shows U.S. hops production, per square mile of total area (based on

the returns of the tenth census) dated 1880 (refer to Blog Post Yakima Valley Hops Farms and

Pickers for additional detail).

By the end of the nineteenth century, east coast growers were encountering serious

competition from the west coast. As A.R. Eastman, a grower from Waterville, New York, stated

in 1890: “None of us are so blind that we cannot see the menace to our industry which is rapidly 3 Michael Tomlan. Tinged with Gold, Hop Culture in the Unites States. University of Georgia Press. Athens and London. Paperback edition. 2013, 11.4 Ibid, 11.5 Ibid, 12-13.6 Ibid, 16-17.7 Ibid, 25.

2

looming up on the Pacific Coast.” 8 Eastman, and other growers, acknowledged that hop growing

in the eastern U.S. would eventually surrender to better soil and growing conditions in

California, Oregon, and Washington. Hops were better adapted to the dryer conditions and

alluvial soil on the west coast, and suffered less insect infestation and disease, resulting in higher

yields.

The first hop vine in Washington State was planted in 1865 by Jacob Meeker in the

White River Valley in western Washington. The number of growers quickly increased in Pierce

(Tacoma) and King Counties (Seattle)9. By late 1880 to early 1890, King County was one of the

highest hop producing counties in the state. That is when word began to spread to Yakima

County in eastern Washington10. Meeker reported that, “the quality of our hops rates second only

to the New York State hops, which have heretofore been rated as a standard of quality. In some

respects ours are better than New York State hops, because of freedom from disease, cleaner

picking, and more uniform color. The market value of our hops now more nearly approaches that

of New York hops than ever before, and will eventually reach the same standard by judicious

management of our growers.”11 In 1885, hops reached the standard of value in markets equal to

any raised in the United States and growers were selling their crop for a profit while other

locations in the United States were suffering losses and would eventually discontinue growing

hops altogether.12

In 1872, Charles Carpenter, the first grower in Yakima Valley who settled in Ahtanum

near the small town of Moxee, planted his first hop rhizome from his father’s farm in Constable,

8 Ibid, 26.9 Resources and Development of the Territory of Washington: Message and Report of Watson C. Squire, Governor of Washington Territory, to the Legislative Assembly, Session of 1885-6. p. 43.10

Ibid. p. 43.11 Ibid. p. 43-44.12 Ibid. p. 43.

3

New York. By 1890, Yakima County became the primary growing area in the state.13 The

Yakima Valley also became a migration destination for many French Canadians, and today many

farms in the region are owned by generations of French Canadian families in this region.

Yakima County, located in south-central Washington on the east side of the Cascade

Mountains, was named after the Yakama Indians, whose large reservation covers nearly half the

valley. After the Yakama Indian War, a treaty was signed between the Territorial Governor Isaac

Stevens and the Yakama Indians, as well as other interior tribes, on June 9, 1855. The Yakamas

accepted the terms of the treaty which established a reservation of over 1,216,000 acres. Figure 2

shows Yakima County and the Yakama Indian Reservation boundary in 1909 (refer to Blog Post

Keeping Up in the Digital Age for additional mapping).

As hops became the Yakima Valley’s first major cash crop in the late 1800s, indigenous

members of Native American tribes, primarily the Yakama, made up the majority of the

workforce on hops farms. Over time, the valley saw an influx of white seasonal workers from

western Washington and eventually from other states. Based on census data from the mid-1900s,

the Native American workforce dropped off dramatically and the white workforce increased.

Figures 3 through 5 shows Native American hops pickers in the late 1800s.14

By the late 1920s, the Yakima Valley was one of the largest and most productive

agricultural centers on the west coast for not only hops, but also fruit and vegetable crops. Such

productive farming would not have been possible without irrigation projects built by the United

States Reclamation Service (USRS) in 1902 and excellent growing conditions due to climate and

rich volcanic soil. Irrigation was privately funded in the late 1870s until 1905, when the USRS

13 Paula Becker, HistoryLink.org, Essay 5274, Charles Carpenter plants hops in Ahtanum near Moxee in 1872, February 23,

2003.14 James N. Gregory, University of Washington, Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, Farm Workers in Washington State History Project, Chapter 1: Toward a History of Farm Workers in Washington State, 2009 (http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/farmwk_ch1.htm).

4

purchased existing canals and built water storage in Cascade Mountain reservoirs at Keechulus,

Kachess, and Lake Cle Elum, all feeding into the Yakima River, which, combined with its

tributaries, supplies the valley with 2,100 miles of irrigation canals. The work completed by

USRS was known as the “Yakima Project”15.

During the Depression white migrant farm workers began filtering in from dust bowl

states, as Washington was relatively unaffected by the devastating drought. In the summer of

1939, photographer Dorthea Lange, as well as Russell Lee and Arthur Rothstein, documented

migrant families and rural poverty in the Yakima Valley for the Farm Security Administration

(FSA). Lange documented the working, living, and social conditions of migrant workers’ lives

through her iconic photography. Her photographs helped a nation witness the effects of the

Depression bringing social issues to the forefront, such as unhealthy living and working

conditions and family suffering throughout the United States. As anyone can see from these

images, daily life was nothing less than a struggle. Entire families, including children and elders,

would pick hops for survival earning one dollar per day. These photographs create a sense of

time and space by capturing everything from the fertility of the landscape and farming practices

to migrant life in the Yakima Valley (see Blog Post Migrant Boy and Girl Farm Workers – Life

During the Depression and Dorethea Lange Collection – Yakima Valley Hops Crops and

Migrant Farm Workers for more detail).

By the 1970s, the Hispanic population began to join the workforce and white laborers

were on the decline.16 Figure 6 shows the race/ethnicity of Washington Farm Workers from 1900

to 2000. In 1971, Hispanic laborers went on strike after claiming that hop fields of Yakima

Valley were notorious for unfair labor practices. This strike was organized by the United Farm

15 Professor W.D. Lyman, History of the Yakima Valley Washington Comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1919.16 Ibid. Chapter 1.

5

Workers Organization (UFWO). After growers were successful in surface bargaining they

refused to hire those who were involved with union activity. However, the UFW was successful

in getting higher wages for laborers and in the end hop laborers did not form a union.17 The UFW

continued to work on the creation of a union throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Today, farms are worked primarily by family members that own the farms, with far less

reliance on migrant labor. Puterbaugh Farms, a Yakima Valley hop farm now in its fourth

generation, was founded in 1930 when Ernest Puterbaugh purchased 80 acres of land in Mabton,

Washington to grow corn and hay. The Charvets, a French Canadian family who planted their

first acres of hops from roots brought back from New York in 1932, later merged their farm with

the Puterbaughs and began growing hops on a larger scale. 18

Since World War II, modernization in farming practices, especially the transition from

hand-picking to mechanized harvesting has enabled larger farms and higher yields. Modern

machinery, such as specialized hop combines, have even eliminated the need for manual hanging

of each vine in the picking machine, because they can now strip the vine as it is cut from the

trellis (refer to Blog Post From Hand-Picking to Mechanization for more detail). However,

planting, growing, and vine maintenance still require extensive man power. Irrigation practices

have also changed and been made more efficient over time. In recent years, the Yakima Valley

has been affected by drought, with reduced water allocations available to growers. As a result,

hop fields that were once being irrigated by overhead sprinklers reaching above the 18 to 20 foot

high trellises have increasingly been converted, to subsurface drip irrigation systems that

conserve water and provide a steady supply to the roots. Due to recent drought conditions, water

consumption is now closely monitored and regulated by local irrigation companies. While some

17 University of Washington, Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, 2009. 18 Taylor Swafford (Public Relations & Marketing), Puterbaugh Farm, personal communication with the author, November 2015.

6

varieties of hops are drought tolerant, many varieties have been negatively impacted dry, hot

conditions of the last several years. Climate data and precipitation trends suggest that drought

conditions will be a more common occurrence and therefore the water supply will continue to be

limited (refer to Figure 7). 19 With constant and rising demand for hops, specifically the more

aromatic varieties that require ample water during specific growing periods, water supply will

continue to be a challenge. Warmer winter temperatures result in less mountain snow pack, and

lower reservoir levels. As a result of changing climate, hop farmers are more cautious about what

hop varieties they will plant, and now choose varieties that are able to withstand dry conditions,

while remaining resistant to pests and disease.

Hop farms are now implementing sustainable farming practices, including use of mulch,

comprised of leaves, stems, and hop twine (also known as coir yarn), placed after each harvest

from August to March as ground cover. This provides protection from wind-blown dust on the

vines, from pests, and it also returns nutrients to the soil.20

Demand ultimately drives all markets, and hops are currently in high demand due to the

rapid expansion of the craft brewing industry. If anything, Yakima Valley growers are having

difficulty keeping up with demand, which has caught the industry by surprise. Craft breweries,

which cater to specialty beer connoisseurs rather than the commodity beer drinker, require four

to five times the hops per unit volume than the amount used by mass-production brewers.21

Steve Miller, a hop specialist at Cornell University, said that “hop consumption nearly

quadrupled in the past decade, thanks in part to the popularity of super-hoppy India Pale Ales,

which now account for more than a fifth of the craft beer market.”22 While certain regions, such

19 Office of the Washington State Climatologist, Precipitation Trend Analysis, http://www.climate.washington.edu/trendanalysis/, last accessed December 3, 2015.20 Taylor Swafford (Public Relations & Marketing), Puterbaugh Farm, personal communication with the author, November 2015. 21 Nicholas K. Geranios, “Hop Grower Rush to Meet Rising Demand from Craft Brewers.” The Seattle Times, June 12, 2015.22 Matt Giles, Craft Beer is Annihilating the Hop Supply, Popular Science Magazine, May 2015.

7

as the Pacific Northwest, have long been epicenters of small-scale specialty brewing,

microbreweries are now a nationwide phenomenon.

This increase in demand has driven rapid escalation of wholesale hop prices, due both to

increased usage by craft brewers and the retail price of craft beer. Specialty brewers are willing

and able to pay premium prices for the high quality varietal hops required by their specialty

products. In 1915, hops sold for a mere 14 cents per pound. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that

hop prices exceed a dollar per pound. A steep increase in price occurred in the 1980s to just over

2 dollars per pound. Hop prices have been steadily increasing in the last three decades, and are

now at an all-time high of 4 dollars per pound (Figure 8).23 Not surprisingly, Yakima Valley hop

production has trended upward during this period of escalating prices, as growers respond to

increased demand. However, increased volatility is also apparent in the recent production data,

which has been influenced by both economic and climactic instability (Figure 9). In 2015,

approximately 58,000 pounds of Yakima Valley hops were produced, similar to peak production

levels in the 1980s and 1990s. While hop farming is currently a lucrative business for Yakima

Valley growers, significant market challenges still face modern growers. Beer brewing has been

descried as recession-proof, but many small hop growers were put out of business in 2009, due to

the economic downturn, possibly due to their increased reliance on the premium hop/boutique

brewing sector of the industry, which is dominated by more failure-prone small businesses. As

with other premium products, beer drinkers always have the option of switching to lower priced

options in lean times. Volatility in market pricing and demand may be a problematic side effect

of the craft brewing explosion. Production prices have also increased, and are now estimated at

$8,000 to $10,000 an acre.24

23 United States Department of Agriculture. National Agricultural Statistics Service, Accessed October 24, 2015. http://www.nass.usda.gov/24 Nicholas K. Geranios, “Hop Grower Rush to Meet Rising Demand from Craft Brewers.” The Seattle Times, June 12, 2015.

8

Over the last century and a half, Yakima Valley hop growing has grown from a few small

family farms to the world’s leading hop production area. Yakima Valley hops have evolved from

a commodity crop to a high value crop with a significant specialty market, requiring specific

varietal strains and cultivation methods. Not only do growers have to be responsive to the

dynamic market driven by trends in the brewing industry, they also have to adapt to ongoing

environmental changes, including global warming and increasing limits on water supply. In the

future, Yakima Valley hop growers will need to continue to be adaptive and innovative to remain

sustainable.

9

FIGURES

Figure 1: Hops Product, Per Square Mile of Total Area in the United States, 1880, Source: David Rumsey Map Collection.

Figure 2: Yakima County and Yakama Indian Reservation Boundaries, ca. 1909. Source: The United States Digital Map Library, A USGenWeb Archives Project.

10

Figure 3: Puget Sound area hops pickers pose with baskets, ca. 1893. Source: University of Washington, Digital Collections.

Figure 4: Old woman with hop basket, ca. 1900. Source: University of Washington, Digital Collections.

11

Figure 5: Hops pickers, ca. 1920 to 1930s, Source: University of Washington, Digital Collections.

Figure 6: Race/Ethnicity of Washington Farm Workers 1900-2000, Source: University of Washington, Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, 2009.

12

Figure 7: Office of the Washington State Climatologist Precipitation Trend Analysis 1895-2014 for Sunnyside, Washington in Yakima County.

190919131917192119251929193319371941194519491953195719611965196919731977198119851989199319972001200520092013

$0.00

$0.40

$0.80

$1.20

$1.60

$2.00

$2.40

$2.80

$3.20

$3.60

$4.00

$4.40 Hop Price 1909 to 2015

Year

Dolla

rs

Figure 8: Hop Price from 1909 to 2015. Data Source: USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

13

19151919192319271931193519391943194719511955195919631967197119751979198319871991199519992003200720112015

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000 Hops Production 1915 to 2015

Year

Poun

ds

Figure 9: Hops Production in Total Pounds per Year from 1915 to 2015. Data source: USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

14

Bibliography

Becker, Paula, HistoryLink, Essay 5274, Charles Carpenter plants hops in Ahtanum near Moxee in 1872, February 23, 2003. www.historylink.org.

David Rumsey Map Collection. Last accessed December 1, 2015. http://www.davidrumsey.com/

Geranios, Nicholas K., “Hops Growers Rush to Meet Rising Demand from Craft Brewers.” The Seattle Times, June 12, 2015.

Governor, Washington. Report of the Governor of Washington Territory, Made to the Secretary of the Interior, for the Year 1878[-June 30, 1889]. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1885.

Resources and Development of the Territory of Washington: Message and Report of Watson C. Squire, Governor of Washington Territory, to the Legislative Assembly, Session of 1885-6. W.T., Lowman & Hanford, stationery and printing Company, 1886.

Gregory, James N., University of Washington, Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, “Farm Workers in Washington State History Project, Chapter 1: Toward a History of Farm Workers in Washington State”, 2009. http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/farmwk_ch1.htm.

Giles, Matt, Craft Beer is Annihilating the Hop Supply, Popular Science Magazine, May 2015.

Seattle Times, Hops Growers Rush to Meet Rising Demand from Craft Brewers. Accessed December 3, 2015. http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/hops-growers-rush-to-meet-rising-demand-from-craft-brewers/

Library of Congress, “Dorthea Lange Photographic Collection”. Last accessed November 11, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=dorothea%20lange%20yakima%20valley&st=gallery

Lyman, W.D. (Professor), History of the Yakima Valley Washington Comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1919.

Office of the Washington State Climatologist, “Climate Data”. Last accessed December 3, 2015. http://www.climate.washington.edu/climate.html

Raibmon, Paige, 2005. Authentic Indians: Episodes of Encounter from the Late-Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast. Duke University Press. June.

15

Swafford, Taylor (Public Relations & Marketing), Puterbaugh Farm, personal communication with the author, November 2015.

The United States Digital Map Library, A USGenWeb Archives Project. Last accessed November 11, 2015. http://usgwarchives.net/maps/

Tomlan, Michael, 2013. Tinged with Gold, Hop Culture in the Unites States. University of Georgia Press. Athens and London. Paperback edition.

USA Hops. Last accessed November 11, 2015. http://www.usahops.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=hop_farming&pageID=13.

United States Department of Agriculture. National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Accessed October 24, 2015. http://www.nass.usda.gov/

NASS, Yakima County Profile, Accessed October 22, 2015. http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Washington/County_Profiles/yakima.asp

University of Washington Digital Collections and Special Collections. Last accessed December 2, 2015. http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/

University of Washington, “Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project – Farm Workers in Washington State History Project”. Last accessed December 1, 2015. http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/farmwk_history.htm

Washington State Library Digital Collection, Last accessed November 11, 2015. http://www.sos.wa.gov/library/libraries/All-Services.aspx

16