Michelle Palacios Oral History Interview, April 23, 2018

Partial Transcript: All right so, Michelle Palacios and today is April 23rd, 2018 and I was born June 9th, 1974.

Segment Synopsis: Michelle Palacios discusses her background and early childhood memories. She was born in Milwaukee, Oregon, and grew up in Canby, Oregon. Her father came from a farming background but worked as a teacher, as did her mother. She was very close with both her parents and her siblings. Her parents owned a small family farm and she remembers helping with chores and playing with the animals during her childhood.

Partial Transcript: So as you moved into high school, what were the. The things that were kind of drawing you subject wise?

Segment Synopsis: Palacios recalls that her favorite subjects in high school were language arts, history, and speech and debate. Both of her parents were teachers, and she originally wanted to be a teacher herself.

Partial Transcript: So you went to college?

Segment Synopsis: Palacios talks about making the decision to first take a gap year, and then to attend college. She notes that she was heavily introduced in livestock judging competitions, and briefly contemplated attending Oklahoma State University because of their livestock program.

Partial Transcript: So one question about your gap year. Yeah. Yeah. Did you get paid?

Segment Synopsis: Prior to attending college, Palacios took a gap year, during which she traveled to different rural towns throughout Oregon to work as an agricultural teacher. She talks about this experience, describing the different towns she visited and the role she played as a teacher.

Partial Transcript: Did you move down to Albany when you were at Lincoln?

Segment Synopsis: For her first years of college, Palacios attended Oregon State University. She notes that she was interested in the livestock program, but that she didn’t spend much time participating in campus life, preferring to avoid parties, sports games, and other popular activities.

Partial Transcript: So what were some things that you like to do, one of those kind of cultural touch points or things that you remember about being a young adult. Hmm. Like music or movies or food. Do you like to eat?

Segment Synopsis: Palacios talks about the forms of entertainment she was interested in while an undergraduate. She loved Garth Brooks and listened to a lot of country music, but states that she’s not a very musical person.

Partial Transcript: What was it like to go to Portland State then?

Segment Synopsis: Palacios talks about transferring to Portland State University. She notes she experienced some culture shock at first; as PSU is a commuter school located in a large city whereas OSU is a larger school in a college town. She enjoyed living in Portland, and felt she benefited from attending PSU.

Partial Transcript: So talk about what that application was like. Why were they hiring? What did they want from the the position that you were?

Segment Synopsis: Palacios talks about her job at the Oregon Hop Commission. She was hired shortly after she graduated college, when the OHC was a relatively new institution. She talks about her coworkers and notes that she spent most of her first year at the OHC learning more about the hop industry and her role in it. She notes that she felt very welcomed, and that while she was hired as a temporary employee she was eventually hired to a permanent position.

Partial Transcript: And what are some of those, those early memories? Tell me about how you what sticks in your mind from the early first harvest that you were at the first convention?

Segment Synopsis: Palacios talks about her memories of attending hop harvests after being hired at the OHC. She states that she was impressed by how abundant the harvests were and by how much work went into them. She spent her first years familiarizing herself with the different farms and hop growers, which she felt gave her a better understanding and appreciation for the industry.

Partial Transcript: So what were those early field days?

Segment Synopsis: Palacios talks about her work building connections between hop growers and breweries. She notes that when she first began at the OHC, the interactions between growers and breweries were often limited, but that she tried to build relationships and create spaces and events where the two groups could meet. She talks about some of these events, recalling the different people she met and worked with.

Partial Transcript: So when did you leave your first stint?

Segment Synopsis: Palacios talks about her children; she has two sons and two daughters. She discusses raising them, bringing them into the office with her, and her dedication to raising them on a farm so they could grow up around nature and close to the industry she works in.

Partial Transcript: What were some of the major issues during that first ten years that you remember?

Segment Synopsis: Palacios talks about most prominent issues in the hop industry during her career. She discusses pest management, disease management, environmental issues, and disaster preparedness. She talks about how these issues were addressed and her role in solution development.

Partial Transcript: So you'd take a step away?

Segment Synopsis: As a result of a medical emergency concerning one of her sons, Palacios stopped working for a few years, and fell away from the hop industry. She ended up returning after meeting an old contact, Kevin Crosby, who offered her a job at his family hop farm.

Partial Transcript: So did you feel in a way that you had to learn in a different way or re learn more things or learn more things with that kind of shift?

Segment Synopsis: Palacios talks about how the hop industry changed during her time away. She notes that new hop varieties were developed, and that consumers became more interested in specific and diverse flavor profiles. She also talks about the differences in working at the OHC as a state employee as opposed to working as a private employee for a hop farm.

Partial Transcript: Oh, well, I guess I guess it's the the question of people being fifth generation farmers, that there are these things that change, markets evolve.

Segment Synopsis: Palacio talks about her views on the hop industry. She notes that she greatly respects the fact that many hop farms are family farms that have been handed down through generations, and that she hopes to see that continue into the future. She also discusses the importance of hops to Oregon and the brewing industry.

Partial Transcript: So I'm curious whether that is something that you see. I didn't coined the term agritourism, but I think this this idea that this is a working farm, but we can have either brewing facilities or tour facilities.

Segment Synopsis: Palacio talks about the increased popularity of agritourism, and its benefits and drawbacks for hop farms. She notes that it brings in a new stream of income, but that it often involves visitors drinking alcohol while at the farm, which can cause problems for employees.

Partial Transcript: I'm curious about the kind of growth of these smaller one to two acre farms.

Segment Synopsis: Palacios talks about the increased prevalence of small, one to two acre farms, within the hop industry. She notes that it’s a fairly recent development, and reflects the fact that consumers are interested in a wide variety of hops that have to be provided by a broad array of hop growers.

Partial Transcript: Can you just explain why it is that there is such a thing as public and private or proprietary hops and what the impact is on all the parties involved?

Segment Synopsis: Palacios talks about the differences between public hops, which are developed by the USDA hop research program and other government institutions, and which are publicly available to all growers, and private hops, which are developed by private research institutions and which are not shared between all growers. She states that the increase in private hops has limited growers’ ability to expand their crops.