SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS

"They decided they could get cucumbers cheaper elsewhere", cucumber grower Don Kruse pf La Conner, Wash., told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Kruse said he stands to lose half his gross annual income.

Bay Valley will close its Portland, Ore., plant and pay 20 farmers more than $1 million. But a good crop would have netted about $5 million, the report said.

"I think the company is being fair, but we would prefer to grow the crop and we would be financially better off to grow the crop", said Skagit County Commissioner Ken Dahlstedt, who helped negotiate the settlement.

Ron Bottrell, a spokesman for Bay Valley Foods of Green Bay, Wis., said the company would find pickles "elsewhere." in the United States.

While Pleasant Valley, a smaller outlet for cucumbers remains, some farmers will lose an important part of their income and others a farming tradition.

"You can switch wives way easier than you can switch crops", said Mike Youngquist, a fourth-generation farmer from Mount Vernon, Wash.

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