Legislative Days, Immigration Reform & Potato Expo

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Washington Farm Bureau Legislative Days will once again be held at the WFB office building in Lacey February 3 and 4. As always the annual event will include updates from key legislators, important issue briefings, and visits to legislative offices. To register for the event visit wsfb.com.

President Obama's immigration plan announced in late November, which defers deportation of illegals who have been in the U.S. five years or more, have children who are legal residents and have passed a criminal background check, has attracted a great deal of criticism. Washington Farm Labor Association's Dan Fazio says that those in the ag industry do remain hopeful that Congress and the President will reach an agreement on immigration reform. But whether large numbers of illegal immigrants will sign up May 15 to take advantage of President Obama's executive action granting them temporary legal status remains to be seen.

Washington potato growers joined other producers from around the country at the sixth annual Potato Expo January 7 through the 9 in Orlando, Florida. Ag Network's KayDee Gilkey was on hand for the three day event featuring roughly 150 different potato-related businesses from around the world.

GILKEY: Thanks, Lacy. This year's theme has been "Experience the Electricity". Speakers throughout the conference have spoken about the tremendous export opportunities, how to market to those that are different than you —just to name a few. This has been my first trip to Potato Expo and I've been impressed with the caliber of speakers, networking opportunities and the vast amount of knowledge shared here.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray with the Ag Information Network of the West.