Minimum Wage & Hunting Season Trouble

Minimum Wage & Hunting Season Trouble

Minimum Wage & Hunting Season Trouble plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Washington already has the nation's highest state minimum wage at $9.19 an hour but now Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn says he would support a minimum wage above $15 an hour saying he thought $15 an hour was a "fair starting point." McGinn is up for re-election and his challenger has also said he would push for a $15 minimum wage but planned to proceed with a phased-in approach. What do you think? Can businesses support a $15 an hour wage?

Hunting season is taking a hit from the government shutdown. Steve Williams with the Wildlife Management Institute calls it a slap in the face to people who hunt and fish.

WILLIAMS: Because of this shutdown 329 refuges have been closed to hunting, 271 refuges closed to fishing.??Desiree Sorenson-Groves with the National Wildlife Refuge Association says hunters and anglers aren't the only ones effected - as there's no bird watching, photography or school children allowed - either. The Department of the Interior says there is limited staffing at refuge areas to respond to emergencies if necessary.

Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.

Due to the government shutdown over 800 thousand federal workers are on furlough, a large portion of them are FDA workers whose jobs were to track and identify pathogens in food related illness outbreaks. In fact, if you were to call the FDA food safety division looking for information about food inspection, or suspected food contamination you would hear this, "Unfortunately, we are unable to answer your call due to government shutdown". Food safety experts say this has serious implications for consumers, in as far as we're not doing food inspections and we're not looking for national food borne illness outbreaks, then obviously the public is at risk. A former FDA official said that their biggest concern regarding food safety during the government shutdown would be from foreign food imports, because even in the best of times the FDA is "pinched" when it comes to having enough staff to inspect those shipments. So, if you aren't in the habit of asking questions about where your food comes from, now might be the time to start. Perhaps the only good thing to come out of the shutdown will be an upsurge in people buying and eating locally grown foods.

Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.

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