11-8 NWR More than a President

This is your Northwest report for Tuesday, November 8, otherwise known as election day, I'm David Sparks and I am urging you to vote. Of course the presidential election is first and foremost on all of our minds, however, administrative changes accompanying the presidential race are going to figure in as having a huge impact on you farmers and ranchers throughout the Northwest. Courtesy of agri-pulse.com, we have Dale Moore with the American Farm Bureau Association tells us the presidential race will lead the way to changes in the administration. "Who are the secretaries, the undersecretaries and so forth, all of those folks who come into play the leadership roles at the political level in the various agencies so for us at Farm bureau, it's not just the USDA, we are looking at Interior, Labor, EPA,... All those different agencies that we have to deal with on some of the other issues that are affecting farmers and ranchers. It is a new Congress so the committees will have to be set, new members brought up to speed and whatever leadership changes may be occurring, for example, Senate Democrat leader Harry Reid stepping down at the end of this Congress, there's going to be another Senate Democrat leader."

During the Presidential campaign both candidates have been trash talking trade. So how will the winner deal with trade once in office? Trade policy is important to agriculture and the ability to see our farm products on the world market is key to future prosperity in agriculture. But can a constructive approach to trade be possible after this election? One issue that did not get much attention during the campaign was the state of the rural economy and despite several swing states having large rural and farm populations, neither campaign focused on the issue.