A dialogue with both the Ag Secretary and the EPA Administrator

Farm and Ranch March 31, 2010 Representatives of major field crop organizations, including the National Association of Wheat Growers, met for an hour last week with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. The topic was pending environmental regulations such as those for spray drift and permits for chemical applications on, over or near water.

NAWG President Jerry McReynolds talks about what this dialogue may mean for growers.

McReynolds: “This is the beginning of a relationship and both the Secretary and the Administrator agreed they want to continue to this dialogue and it will continue in the future. The next one will probably be at the USDA. This one was at the EPA. So, it begins that dialogue process that should have taken place a long time ago but puts that in place. Then when you personally meet these individuals, in whatever capacity they are, then they become a person that you can relate to and in most cases you find that they are listening and accepting and are just trying to do their job, and if we can input in any way to help them do their job so it doesn‘t cause hardship on us we want do to that.”

The idea for last week’s session surfaced out of conversations at the 2010 Commodity Classic with Vilsack and members of his staff, who had a chance to hear first-hand from farmers about their level of concern regarding the cumulative impact of the EPA’s activities on their operations.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.