Advocate For The Industry

Advocate For The Industry

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Bud Hover, newly appointed director for the Washington State Department of Agriculture, was in attendance at the May 22nd Washington Grain Commission meeting where he spoke about the many issues facing the agriculture industry today. Hover says that as the agency director he intends to do everything he can to be the voice for agriculture that helps.

HOVER: Protecting the food supply, working with industry to ensure the best quality products - safe products. Serving the people of the state of Washington so people can see exactly what we are doing.

Hover talked about how that is all part of the department’s communication and outreach mission, and that he has met with both the Department of Ecology director and the director of the Washington Conservation Commission to discuss the importance of stakeholder input to their agencies workings.

HOVER: Potato Commission, Wheat Commission, the beef folks, dairy folks, all of those organizations are key to not just providing us with those products, but I mean the economic impact that they have and the number of jobs that they create - all of that goes to make for a stronger economy for all of us.

Hover says that at present he has no plans to make a lot of changes to staff, but has added key positions addressing natural resource issues, farm labor, and outreach to the Hispanic community.

HOVER: I’ve got a great staff. I’ve got people that are very forward thinking, hard working. I really want to build this organization, or do the best I can to advance this organization and have it kind of a shining star, and that we contribute everything we can to helping industry be one of the economic drivers that brings us out of this recession and gets us really moving.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network.