PacTech Roundtable in Pasco
I'm Susan Allen. Why is the cell phone service worse on my farm today than five years ago? How can I adapt to smart farm technology when I have spotty internet service? A couple of good questions from yesterday's Pacific Technology Alliance (PacTech) round table in Pasco, Hosted by Pac Tech and the Pasco Chamber of Commerce. I spoke with Tom Gurr Executive Director of PacTech for his take-away of the event attended by farmers and ag industry professionals.
Gerr: Mobile Technology is obliviously a booming sector of our economy. It's one of the bright spots really where we have seen billions of dollars of investment. It's becoming more and more important to all aspect of our lives; healthcare, education, the way we feed our families. It's also becoming important to agriculture. Agriculture is no exception, and it's important that we talk about the issue, how we can improve agriculture, improve efficiency and
and better drive our economy.
Tom explain what the ag economy means to Washington State.
GURR: Agriculture in Washington is 13 % of the state's economy, it's 46, billion dollars, agriculture is a second largest industry in the state of Washington and an exporter behind only aerospace, so these are critical issue that we need to learn about..... and talk about. It's great to have Congressman Dan Newhouse here to better understand how we can regulate in this space, how we need to drive investment, we need to drive access to broad band and mobile broadband in particular. And I think we' ve accomplished that today, and feel pretty good about educating him a little bit about what's happening in the farming space and providing maybe some guidance in terms of others in Congress that are doing some great things around agriculture particularly Rep. Walden in Oregon, Rep McMorris Rodgers in the Eastern section in Washington and Senator Maria Cantwell as well. All in all, a great event and a great conversation around agriculture and mobile technology
The Pacific Technology Alliance is a coalition of civic and tech leaders that works to ensure investment and adoption of high-speed internet access and access to technology for consumers across the Northwest.
