Ranking Republican Looking Out For Ag

Ranking Republican Looking Out For Ag. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Washington State Senator, Jerome Delvin is glad to be back as part of the State Senate Agriculture and Rural Economic Development Committee for 2011-12. When he was member of the House he spent 10 years on the ag committee.

DELVIN: You know the state minimum wage is an issue we’re going to deal with I’m sure because it affects ag more than anything. I think we’re going to be looking at the minimum wage and look at the federal role in supporting our research stations and things like that and see what more we can do to enhance that.

Delvin says there are some other pressing issues as well.

DELVIN: The issues that are there all the time, a lot of energy and water but I think water is a big deal to agriculture so I’m sure we’ll talk about it in agriculture more than just talking about it the Environment and Energy Committee.

One thing he would like to do is to try and help educate the west side politicians on east side agriculture.

DELVIN: We’ve talked about it but you know what we did with educating the west side legislators about what nuclear energy is here; you know the difference between Energy Northwest and Hanford - you know there’s no relation there but most of them will lump it all together and so I think we can do the same with agriculture.

The Committee considers issues relating to agricultural land; the production, sale, and marketing of agricultural products; food safety; and policies and programs affecting economic development in rural areas of the state.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.