April 2020 - 8

National Onion Association president lobbies for change
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
Increased participation and
advocacy are goals for the National
Onion Association's (NOA) new
president.
Trustees of the group, which
includes more than 500 growers,
shippers, packers and suppliers of
bulbs, recently elected Wisconsin's
Doug Bulgrin president. He'll lead
the organization for two years.
He grew up on a dairy farm in the
central Wisconsin town of Portage,
but for the nearly 30 years, he has
worked in specialty crops - first for
the Lewiston Corp. When Gumz
Farms bought out Lewiston in 1997,
" You might say I came on as part of
the deal, " Bulgrin said.
Currently, he's the onion packing
shed manager for Gumz, which
grows 750 acres of yellow onions in
addition to about a thousand acres
of red potatoes, some mint, corn and
soybeans. The mint is distilled on the
farm and the potatoes and onions are
" consumer-packed " for retail sales.
Doug's brother Tom manages the
potato packaging.
The NOA holds its summer and
winter meetings in different areas
each year so the growers can visit a
variety of operations. Bulgrin, who
Doug Bulgrin, left, said Washington, D.C. officials seemed open to input from growers during his visit. Photos: National Onion Association
became involved in the organization
a few years ago to work on food and
safety issues, has been impressed
with how differently onions are
grown across the country. Although
most onions are grown in the
Northwest, especially Washington
and Oregon, before being shipped
East, other main growing regions
include New York, Michigan,
Wisconsin, the South and its sweet
onions including Georgia Vidalias,
North Dakota and the Southwest
coast reaching into Mexico.
" In traveling around to the
different growing regions, it's kind
of interesting because each region
has its different challenges that they
deal with when they try to grow
onions, " Bulgrin said. " Environments
are so different. Some of the South
and West states are trying to get
enough water to produce a crop and
they're worried about how much
runoff they can capture. Here in the
Midwest, and to the East, it's kind
of the opposite. We're worried about
how we can pump water off or keep
the fields well-drained. Then in turn
with our lush vegetation around the
fields, we have more issues in terms
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April 2020

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