Good chemistry

Pete Romano is a tall man with a ready smile, friendly demeanor, and a firm handshake. The 64-year-old Business Unit Manager of Quincy Farm Chemicals has been working in agriculture nearly his entire life, almost all of that in the family business.

In 1952, Tony and Jane Romano, Pete's parents, started Quincy Farm Chemicals, moving the family to Quincy in 1953 when Pete was in the second grade. Pete has lived in Quincy since then except when he went to college in Oregon. Before and during college he would work for spray operations or the family business during the summer. He attended Oregon State University, planning to be a coach, and majored in education, graduating with a B.S. OSU was also where Pete met his wife of 42 years, Susan. They now have two grown daughters, Sadie and Kelly.

Tony Romano died in 1965 and Jane ran Quincy Farm Chemicals with the help of a manager, Zene Flinn. Pete returned from college in 1971 and started working there. He learned the company "on the fly" from long-time company employees he calls "mentors" such as Gerry Atwood and Arnie Greenwalt. Jane died in 1978 and in 1982 Pete and his older sister, Lucy Jacques, took over running the QFC. "I ran the company and she did the books," Romano explains. "It was a good partnership." Lucy has since retired and in 2005 QFC became part of The McGregor Company, and is now a division of McGregor.

 "I love the seasons," Romano says about working in agriculture. "Farmers in general are salt of the Earth and great people to work with." Romano says farmers are "Just amazing" as is the productivity of agriculture "especially in this area." "Over forty-some years I've had a lot of good relationships" with growers, he adds.

But there are challenges the agriculture industry faces. "A lot of it is lack of understanding by the general public where their food comes from. It's not the shelves of Safeway or Fred Meyer but the land." He says the environmentalists think farmers are "just throwing chemicals around" and don't understand that it's expensive. "Farmers are good stewards of their resources. They have to be; it's a business."

People are so far removed from the source of their food and don't understand the role farming plays in our communities, Romano says, that it's led to over-regulation.

Farms are getting bigger and more mechanized, Romano adds, because farmers have to be more efficient. They face the challenge of staying profitable in a "commodity-driven economy." "It's a global economy they are contending with," he adds.

The biggest change Romano says he's seen is the rise of technology. "It's ever changing," he explains. "A lot of exciting things are happening and it's hard to stay abreast of it." He adds that sometimes there's a payback with new technology and sometimes there isn't. "There's lots of information available and it takes time and effort to stay on top of it and find that diamond in the rough," Romano adds.

On the wall of Romano's office are multiple plaques from his service to both the Quincy community and his industry. "I've been through the chairs of the local industry and service clubs," he says with a smile, seeming reluctant to boast about his accomplishments. "It's important that everyone serve their industry and their community," he explains.

Romano is a Certified Crop Advisor and requires all his account managers to also become certified. Certification requires taking a "national test" that lasts three hours and then 20 hours per year of continuing education. "It's a pretty healthy requirement," Romano explains, but feels it is worth the investment in the return it brings to QFC's customers.

Turning 65 in September, Romano is starting to think about retirement. "It's been a fun ride," he says but "I have to decide what I'm going to do when I grow up," he adds with a smile. He enjoys playing golf about once a week on average and once a year goes salmon fishing in Sitka, Alaska. But his biggest plans revolve around his 15-month-old granddaughter. "Looking forward to watching her grow up," he says.