Bentz says tariffs and unstable markets are battering Eastern Oregon farmers as wheat prices stagnate and oversupplied cherry crops collapse.

“It’s been a hard year for the growers. We had some labor shortages early on because California’s harvest went later than usual, then we had several rain events that were scary, thankfully those events didn’t do too much damage to the crop. And then we had this heat event that really did damage to the crop,” said Ashley Thompson, Assistant Professor of Horticulture at Oregon State University.