Boosting Economic Opportunities

Boosting Economic Opportunities

Boosting Economic Opportunities. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a plan written by Rep. Greg Walden to place the 290 acres of land currently home to Oregon State University's Hermiston Agriculture Research and Experiment Center fully under local control. Congressman Walden talks about the legislation.

WALDEN: H.R. 3366, the Hermiston Reversionary Lands Act is very important to the City of Hermiston as you all have heard and Umatilla County and to Oregon State University. Oregon, in the nearly 70-thousand square miles that I represent in my district, is full of unique landscapes ranging from high deserts to green valleys which produce more than 220 different agricultural crops. Farmers in the part of Oregon, the Columbia Basin, grow crops from commodities like corn and wheat to specialty crops like onions and potatoes, asparagus and of course the world famous Hermiston watermelons.

Walden says that Umatilla County is the second largest ag producing county in the state.

WALDEN: The land that this legislation deals with was conveyed to the State of Oregon and then to Oregon State University by the federal government. This common sense legislation simply places the home of the research center back fully under control by removing the retained reversionary interest. This bill also conveys six acres of land that was orphaned from the station after construction of a railroad line. This release and conveyance provides the flexibility OSU needs to better manage the station for the future benefit of area farmers.

That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.

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