Quincy Farmer Consumer Awareness Day

On the second Saturday in September, tractors come down Central Avenue in Quincy, Washington. In the parade of September 12, 2026, some were so big, a Basin Business Journal caption noted, that the cab could fit a whole crowd. Marching bands followed, along with floats carrying community groups and horses of all kinds. Some of the horses danced, and a bull rode along among them. A young rider sat his horse the length of the route. At the head of the line went the Farm Family of the Year.

This is Farmer-Consumer Awareness Day, known in town as FCAD, which Quincy has held since 1981. The parade is downtown. Everything else happens on the grounds of Quincy Middle School, at 16 6th Avenue SE.

Down Central Avenue at ten

The parade steps off at 10:00 a.m. Trophies are handed out beforehand in front of the Quincy Public Library on Central Avenue. The committee’s categories show what will come down the street: Best Antique Tractor, Best Use of Farm Equipment, Most Agricultural Spirit, Best Youth Participation, Best Classic Car, and a class for lowriders. Walkers hand candy to spectators or toss it onto the sidewalks. Nothing is thrown from a moving vehicle.

The route runs down Central Avenue, turns left on E Street to 2nd Avenue SE, then left to C Street SE. From there it turns right onto 4th Avenue SE past Ancient Lakes Elementary School, where marching children may stop to meet their parents. It ends with a left to Division. At Division the entries break up, some turning right toward the festival grounds.

Tractors, a chopped Blazer, and lunch from the valley

At the middle school, the Quincy High School FFA chapter sells produce in the parking lot, and the proceeds go to the chapter. The Quincy Valley Chamber of Commerce sponsors a car show. In 2026 its entries included a Chevrolet Blazer chopped into a roadster, the result, its owner admitted, of a couple extra beers. Not far from the Blazer stood a display of antique tractors and stationary engines, once essential farm machinery.

The Quincy Rotary sponsored the 2026 lunch, made from foods grown in the Quincy area. There was live music and there were games for children. The Quincy Valley Historical Society kept a booth on the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.

The festival’s own site lists a quilt show, a cook off, a soccer tournament, vendors, tours, and a fun run. Its forms page marks the Ben Horning Beat the Beast Fun Run as canceled. The City of Quincy’s page describes a wider program:

• tours of area processing plants and farms
• informational and commodity booths
• a farmer’s market selling produce at wholesale prices
• an afternoon of entertainment on a stage
• displays of arts and crafts
• a large number of food booths

The organizers are volunteers. Their Facebook page describes the day as a chance “to learn about where your groceries come from and to talk to the people who grow them for a living, the farmers!” Leia Watkins chairs the committee. “The whole point is to connect the farmer with the consumer,” she said in 2026. Information is easier to find than it was in 1981, she said, but many people still do not understand how food is produced, and plenty of disinformation circulates alongside the accurate information. “We’re doing our best to combat it,” she said.

A caller on Paul Harvey

The day began in 1981 with Quincy farmer Dennis Higashiyama listening to Paul Harvey on the radio. The two accounts of what he heard differ.

The festival’s account says a woman called in and asked who needs farmers when “people could just go to the grocery store and get their food.” Local farmers, it says, were outraged and set out to teach consumers the value of agriculture, and the day grew from that.

The city’s account is longer. Harvey was telling the story of a woman who had complained to her grocer about the high cost of food. The grocer explained where her money went. Some paid his bills and his employees’ wages, some went to the processors who package the food, and some went to the farmer. She answered that the farmer ought to be done away with. The surprised grocer asked where she thought food came from. “From Safeway, naturally,” she said.

In the city’s telling, Higashiyama then thought of a day when the public could see firsthand what agriculture is about. He wanted people to know that farmers are not getting rich, and that they don’t want to be taken for granted either.