Community Liaison
Community Liaison
I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.
Ignacio Marquez was appointed Community Liaison for the Washington State Department of Agriculture earlier this year and has been working to help the agency better connect with the state’s spanish speaking workforce, as well as visiting with growers throughout the state to learn about the issues they face. Marquez spoke with Ag Information Network at the recent Hort Convention regarding the challenges he faces as the new Community Liaison.
MARQUEZ: It’s a challenge because it’s a challenge right now even for the existing farmers and small farmers. You have labor challenges, you have regulations, you have food safety, you have water rights. These are all challenges that the current growers are facing, let alone somebody that is not familiar with these issues, and the resources are limited for the spanish speaking folks out there. So it is not going to be easy, but I think we need to be doing that because, just like the small farmer that was from Arkansas or North Dakota came here and had to struggle and had to make it through and now is successful, they’re looking for that opportunity also.
In regards to the H-2A Guest Worker Program and whether it was going to be key to this or whether there were adjustments to be made Marquez had this to say.
MARQUEZ: It’s a federal program so we really have to count on the federal government to make those changes. The agency is trying to figure out how can we streamline it in the state of Washington. We have dialogues and we’re trying to figure out how can we make this fair for the U.S. workers, the foreign workers, for the growers, and there are also groups out there that don’t really like the H-2A program, so how can we find those areas that can be improved on - understanding that it is a federal program, but internally there are some things that we can do to make sure that U.S. workers have the opportunity to apply for these jobs and take those jobs if they want, and at the same time for foreign workers to be treated well, and for farmers to get the workers they need for as long as they need to have them.
That’s Washington Ag Today.
I’m Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.
