Action Plan and Covering New Ground

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

This week West Coast leaders signed the Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy. In doing so Governor Jay Inslee, California Governor Ed Brown Jr., Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, and British Columbia's Premier Christy Clark have committed their governments to combatting climate change and promoting clean energy. The agreement is based on the recognition that the West Coast is bounded together by a common geography, shared infrastructure and a regional economy with a combined GDP of $2.8 trillion, making it the world's fifth largest economy. Bill Dewey, Manager of Public Affairs for Taylor Shellfish Farms a family owned business in Shelton, was also on hand to speak at the event.

DEWEY: The Taylor family has been growing shellfish since 1890. In recent years our Washington hatchery and the Whiskey Creek hatchery in Oregon have had problems producing baby oysters due to ocean acidification. Ocean acidification is separate from climate change and sea level rise - it's another problem caused by carbon dioxide emissions. And if you are a shellfish farmer or a calcareous critter in the ocean it's far more insidious. As CO2 is absorbed by the ocean it reduces the availability of carbonate ions, which are the building blocks of shell, so a bad deal if you're an oyster. We're excited obviously to see in this agreement - it includes research monitoring and action to combat ocean acidification.

Registration is now open for the 2014 Direct Seed and Oilseed Cropping Systems

Conference - "Covering New Ground" to be held in Kennewick January 20 - 22. Topics to be covered include risk management, the benefits of oilseeds in direct seed cropping rotations, market outlook, and international and national policies driving oilseed production and direct seeding. For more information visit directseed.org.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.