Seattle Press
Community Log & News Digest
Whidbey Island Fire Destroys Startup Farm - Arson Suspected
For the past ten years I've been working with a group that is seeking to help small, minority businesses to start farming enterprises. Our emphasis has been on indoor farming and lately on microgreens.

An associate of one of our members had acquired a substantial endowment of equipment for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and recently moved it to a location on an island in Puget Sound. Much of the food produced was distributed via food banks in the northern part of the Seattle metropolitan area. Our group had previously provided a modest amount of fresh green produce to the distribution effort, and I can attest to the efficacy of their program.

Within a day of the delivery the equipment and before it could become operational it was set afire by person or persons unknown and totally destroyed with a loss of about $250,000. The non-profit was of course devastated.

Because the affected organization is related to a minority community, no one is seriously discounting the probability that the attack was racially or ethnically motivated.

Anyone wishing to know more or to help may find more information here
(https://www.kiro7.com/.../whi.../OTC2UZDOJFGY7KWGHQ46YJZZ5Q/)
plus a GoFundMe here (https://www.gofundme.com/.../support-blackseed-farms)

And if you live in the area and hear the inevitable whispers, the Island County sheriff wants to hear from you. Someone needs to go to jail.


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