Ag Essay Winners, Water Quality Standards Meeting & Ag Hall Of Fame

Ag Essay Winners, Water Quality Standards Meeting & Ag Hall Of Fame

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

WSU graduate student Keiko Tuttle is one of thirty university students chosen to attend USDA’s 2014 Agricultural Outlook Forum to be held in Virginia February 20 and 21. University juniors and seniors were chosen on the basis of their essays on “Agriculture as a Career”, and their response to “The Greatest Challenge Facing Agriculture Over the Next Five Years”. To view the winning essays visit usda.gov/oce/forum/diversity.

The Washington State Department of Ecology will be meeting with key interest groups February 10 at Ecology’s building in Lacey to discuss proposed updates for state surface water quality standards and fish consumption rates. The public is invited to attend and will be given an opportunity to provide comments during the meeting. For more information visit Ecology’s website at ecy.wa.gov.

On January 23 four Mid-Columbia farmers and agribusiness leaders were inducted into the Mid-Columbia Ag Hall of Fame for their outstanding contributions in the local agricultural community. They were Willetta Burns and her late husband Robert Burns receiving the Pioneer Award, retired vocational ag teacher Lyle Holt received the Agriculture Mentor Leadership Award, Dorothy Schoeppach was bestowed the Visionary Award, and Othello cattle rancher Larry Olberding was honored with the Young Agribusiness Man of the Year Award. Also this year Ag Information Network’s Greg Martin was bestowed special recognition for the work he has done over the years to raise awareness on the importance of agriculture, not only locally, but nationally. In acceptance Greg had this to say.

MARTIN: The whole Ag Information Network salutes you - the farmers, the ranchers, because again without you and your job I don’t have one. And we’re trying to tell your story.

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