A Great Vision

This week, we're carrying Morgan Smith's front-page story about the first prospective tenants for Blue Mountain Sta- tion on the outskirts of Dayton.

Even though Port of Columbia officials are understandably careful not to release the names of the tenants until leases are signed, at least two of the three prospects appear solid after com- mitting verbally to the unique new business park.

This is exciting news for the Touchet Valley and we want to take this opportunity to congratulate Port of Columbia Man- ager Jennie Dickinson, Port Commissioners Gene Warren, Dale McKinley and Earle Marvin, and Marketing Consultant Gary White for putting the Blue Mountain Station firmly on the path to success.

The business park, which is designed as an eco-friendly campus of artisan food processors that is expected to become a tourist attraction as well, has had its detractors. Skeptics weren't convinced of its merits or its chances for success.

But we believe this one-of-a-kind travel destination is exactly what Dayton and the Touchet Valley need. Its food theme is more than appropriate for a community steeped in a long history and tradition of growing crops and processing the harvested results.

Our "little valley that could" is already becoming better known for its gourmet food and wine offerings at our pioneering restaurants in Waitsburg and Dayton, wineries like Dumas Sta- tion, Mace Mead Works and Dayton Wine Works, the Monteillet Fromagerie, Bubbles & Chocolate, Alexander's Chocolate and so on.

Blue Mountain Station is the product of a great vision for our area that honors our farming history and catches an irreversible trend in the food industry towards organic and natural consumer items.

Organic food sales in the United States has more than dou- bled from $14.2 billion in 2005 to $29.2 billion in 2011. In just one decade, organic food sales in this country have gone from a 1.4 percent market share to 4.2 percent.

As to the park's destination potential, two out of every five leisure travelers "feel that the opportunity to try different and unusual cuisines is a very or extremely desirable attribute of a vacation," according to the 2007 National Leisure Monitor.

At the same time, 85 percent of those culinary travelers enjoy learning about the local culture and cuisines of different travel destinations, while 66 percent of these visitors say they make an effort to try regional cuisines, culinary specialties and local wines and spirits.

Among the favorite and quickly growing food-related experi- ences are unique local restaurants, farmers markets, traditional artisan products, locally made beverages, culinary festivals and interpretive sites that educate about local and regional cuisines.

The Travel Industry Association reports that 70 percent of culinary travelers enjoy bringing back regional foods, recipes, wines and so on from places they have visited with friends and family. This travel trend called "culinary tourism" has become an important sector of the travel industry it has its own dedicated industry group.

Blue Mountain Station is the perfect economic development vehicle in an agricultural valley like ours, adding direct jobs at its campus and indirect jobs from the spill-over foot traffic. It dovetails in a very desirable way with the growing backbone of smaller local culinary enterprises on Main streets in Dayton and Waitsburg, not to mention the planned new Best Western Hotel.

The same well-educated food enthusiasts who are drawn to organic or natural artisan food producers are just as likely to visit our local museums, businesses and outdoor recreation attractions.

Last but not least, the local pursuit of organic and natural food production could help encourage the interest of local growers to explore these new and often more lucrative farming methods and lead to our valley's development as a hub of this fast-growing industry.

It may be some time for the tenants and local officials to work out all the details of their establishment at the port's new specialty business park, but with this week's news the train has left the station and we should all climb aboard.