12/11/08 Far West Update

Far West Update. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Jim Fitzgerald is the new guy on the block but he has a history of working with agriculture. FITZGERALD: Back in 1976 when I was in college I ran out of money like most college students do and so I went to work on my family farm for my dad and my brother but in the spring I worked for now, one of our members and I delivered fertilizer, I calibrated the machines and cleaned out sprayers and did all the things that servicemen do. Interesting that 35 years or so later here you are back and working within the same industry so life's an interesting circle. Fitzgerald is the new Executive Director for Far West Agribusiness Association. Far West's mission is to enhance the business and safety environment for the fertilizer and agrichemical industry. FITZGERALD: It's an interesting time for Far West. We're just concluding our 50th year and we're looking at using the last 50 years to help us prepare for the next 50 years and learn the lessons and pay attention to what the trends have been. It's a changing world. We fully anticipate changing with it. Quite frankly there's a whole number of avenues which we need to address and be paying attention to. He says that legislation is a big issue to be dealt with. FITZGERALD: Washington State has something in common with California in that there is a certain movement under foot; attention to cap and trade, carbon credits, the environment, potential toxicity whether it comes in toys from abroad or in products that are used. All these things are finding their way into the legislature and then if they do or don't become law, they find their way into the regulations and so Far West is really committed to making sure that the right people have the right information to wake the right kind of decisions. There are a lot of challenges facing Far West in the next couple of years and Fitzgerald talks about one. FITZGERALD: Recently some of the railroads, I'll leave the names out, are reluctant to haul what are called toxic inhalants. We call it anhydrous ammonia. The thought is they don't want to haul this product on the rail because it goes through populated areas and that would be a health concern to people. And every rail car is equal to 4 container trucks and you know where container trucks go. They're in greater exposure to the public. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.