Mike McCarthy is a farmer near Parkdale in the upper Hood River Valley. He and his wife grow apples, pears, cherries, and hay, and raise cattle. They also manage some timberland that’s been in the family since 1910.

The McCarthy family could have filed several Measure 37 claims, but when they sat down and thought about it, as Mike puts it, they didn’t think they’d lost anything. Mike doesn’t feel that his family’s property rights have been taken away by land use planning. But he does feel that their property rights will be taken away by Measure 37. He and his family have Measure 37 claims all around them that could have a very negative effect on their ability to farm.

Mike loves farming, but he’ll admit that farms don’t make the best of neighbors. He is up at the crack of dawn—or earlier—and sometimes he makes a lot of noise. Mike says any farmer can tell you that putting a subdivision next to a working farm is just asking for trouble.

Mike says his family is not unique—there are Measure 37 claims throughout the entire Hood River Valley. It’s a slippery slope, he says. Once you start trading farmland for subdivisions, you make it that much harder for the rest of us to stay in business.

Mike says he really believes that, for his family and for future generations in his family, they would produce more income and more profit for the family and for the community by continuing to farm. We need to protect valuable farmland and keep it in farmland. Once land is gone from farming, it’s gone forever, he says.

Mike and his family have had some good years and some not so good years, but he is happy to report that his Bartlett pear prices are the highest they’ve ever been. Same goes for his winter pear prices.

Mike’s family would like to buy more farmland and increase their farming operation. They believe it’s a very profitable thing to be in and hope they are going to continue to do that over the next few generations. Mike says that Measure 49 is critical to preserving the Hood River Valley and his family’s way of life.

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