Northwest farmer chairs NAWG's committee on environmental issues
Farm and Ranch March 23, 2010 North Idaho farmer Eric Hasselstrom should have an interesting and challenging year. He is the new chairman of the National Association of Wheat Growers Environment and Renewable Resources Committee. One of the issues that panel deals with is cap and trade or climate change legislation. At a committee meeting at the Commodity Classic earlier this month, Hasselstrom says members got a report from Informa Economics on a study it is doing on the House passed cap and trade bill. Hasselstrom: “A lot of this is the best educated guess that they have. There‘s really no concrete data to see what this will be worth down the road when they pass this. So, we wanted to see how it could affect wheat growers in different regions with different farming practices and to see who it works for and who it doesn‘t to the best of their knowledge.” Hasselstrom says NAWG is still firm on its position that the organization does not support climate change legislation unless there is a net economic benefit to wheat growers. But he says growers need to be at the table. Hasselstrom: “We need to influence it to protect our interests. We can‘t just stand back and even if we don‘t believe there is climate change, we can‘t just say we are not going to be engaged in the discussion.” Other issues for Hasselstrom’s NAWG committee are the EPA and crop chemical regulation. That story tomorrow. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ?
