SPOKANE — Jim Fitzgerald, executive director of Far West Agribusiness Association, will retire at the end of the year, marking the end of a career that took him from the farm to Washington, D.C.

The association is primarily made up of agricultural retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and agronomists who provide critical crop inputs and services to farmers and ranchers in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Nevada.

Roughly 120 businesses are members.

Fitzgerald, 64, said he will remain through May 1 to help with the transition during the legislative sessions in all five states and provide his counsel to the new director.

In retirement, Fitzgerald said he hopes to explore both professional and personal interests.

A fourth-generation farmer, he has a dryland wheat and barley farm in Asotin County in the southeastern corner of Washington state. He said he has projects still remaining to be done there. The farmland is mostly in the Conservation Reserve Program and tenants use the pasture, he said.

He looks forward to spending more time with his granddaughters, ages 8 and 11.

“There’s places on the farm they’ve never been,” he said. “And teach them about what really happens out there — why there are certain game trails and why they move during what time of the year; why a cow will always smell the grass before it takes a bite. … Kids otherwise won’t learn these things, they’ll be lost.”

Fitzgerald has a long-running interest in the political process, particularly agricultural policy.

He graduated from Washington State University in 1978, worked two years with the company now known as Northwest Farm Credit Services, then returned to the farm for 20 years.

In 2000, he was appointed state director of the USDA Farm Service Agency for six years, then spent two years as chief of staff for USDA Rural Development in Washington, D.C.

He joined Far West in 2008.

“This has been a very good fit,” he said. “I like people, I like agriculture and I like business. You get all three right here.”

The organization’s top priority has been legislation. Fitzgerald said he’s particularly pleased with the selection of full-time lobbyists in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

“They are different people with different styles, but they are really good at what they do,” he said. “They’re the ones that know the personalities of the different legislators, what makes them tick, pitfalls to avoid.”

The second priority is regulations. Fitzgerald said the organization has developed trust and credibility with regulators, to the point where Far West can call and ask questions.

Fitzgerald sees the federal regulatory environment improving for the industry.

“I don’t think by any measure that it’s lax,” he said. “But it’s more of a business approach — does it really make people safer? Or if it was just a jobs program, somebody to monitor people, keep them employed? Of course we want the former, as opposed to the latter.”

“Our goal is to provide a seamless transition in leadership as we begin a new decade of challenges,” Far West president Don Eucker said in a press release. “Jim has taken us through our 50th and our 60th anniversaries, growing both the association and its influence and now we have the arduous task of finding a suitable replacement.”