Japanese Ag Training Program farmer retires after 43 years

MOSES LAKE — After 43 years, Moses Lake-area farmer Phil McLean retired from teaching agriculture to Japanese trainees through Big Bend Community College’s Japanese Agriculture Training Program (JATP).

Sandy Cheek, the director of the JATP at Big Bend, said McLean taught American agriculture and farm safety to “two or three generations” of trainees.

“He takes great interest in these young people and cares a lot about sharing his knowledge about farming practices in the United States,” she said via a release from the college.

McLean is still passionate about the program and its mission and found it difficult to step back, but decided it was time, according to BBCC’s release.

“Trainees would ask if I was the same Mr. McLean who taught agriculture to their father, and I would say, ‘yes, I am the same Mr. McLean,” he said.

Most of the trainees who learned from McLean had no experience in irrigated agriculture, which he taught, because Japan’s agriculture revolves around monsoon seasons, per BBCC’s release. One of his most important duties, though, was teaching farm safety before the Japanese students left for host farms that use heavy equipment they were unfamiliar with.

Though McLean is stepping away from his official capacity with the Japanese Agriculture Training Program, he is not disappearing altogether. McLean and his wife, Rayma, who have developed lifelong friendships with student trainees, still entertain former trainees at their home and pay visits to former trainees in Japan, according to the release.

McLean was also honored Monday at the welcoming ceremony for new JATP trainees arriving at Big Bend.

— Staff report