Agricultural Fair, Drought Emergency & MAFF Visits Washington

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

This Thursday 11 ag and commodity groups will come together for the first Washington Grown Ag Fair on the Capitol Campus in Olympia from 10 am to 3pm. Karla Salp, Executive Director of Washington Farmers and Ranchers, says the event will provide attendees with a lot of great information about agriculture in the state.

SALP: Some of those include a salmon cannon; so you're going to get to see how salmon are actually loaded from where they're grown onto a truck. We'll have salmon samples out there; we're going to have goats and chickens. Anyone is welcome to come. It's really an effort to have a positive image for agriculture in Olympia. It's going to be fun.

Funding opportunities will now become available to address hardships from drought conditions in areas of the state where snowpack conditions are at near record low levels. Governor Inslee recently declared drought emergency for the Olympic Peninsula, the east side of the central Cascade Mountains including Yakima, Wenatchee, and the Walla Walla region. Ecology has requested $9 million in drought relief from the legislature to pay for agricultural and fisheries projects, emergency water-right permits, changes to existing water rights, and grant water-right transfers.

An official from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries recently visited two potato packinghouses in Pasco to review the U.S. chipping potato market access program. The MAFF inspector observed the inspection and packing of potatoes destined for Japan, examined shipping records and posed questions about inspection practices. No issues of concern were identified during the visit. Under current protocol, the Japanese market will remain open until July 31, 2015. 

That's Washington Ag Today.

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