U.S. Needs Guestworker Program and U.S./China Ag Symposium

U.S. Needs Guestworker Program and U.S./China Ag Symposium. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Washington Congressman Doc Hastings met this last week with Washington State Department of Agriculture Director Dan Newhouse where there discussions turned to the threat of new buffer zones and of course the need for a guest worker program.

HASTINGS: The good news and this has evolved over the last several years and I think there is becoming more and more of a realization that labor intensive agriculture needs to be treated a little bit differently as it relates to immigration policy meaning that labor intensive agriculture needs a workable guest worker program.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced yesterday that government and industry leaders from the United States and China will gather in Des Moines, Iowa next Thursday for the first U.S.-China Agricultural Symposium. Vilsack traveled to China for the second time as Agriculture Secretary in November to continue to strengthen bilateral trade relations and support the American brand of agriculture throughout the Asia Pacific region. During the visit, Vilsack and Chinese officials developed the U.S.-China Agriculture Symposium as a key forum to expand their discussions into 2012 and beyond.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange report.

(Grange)

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