Lost Revenue & Supporting Pulse Crops

Lost Revenue & Supporting Pulse Crops. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Recently, the Idaho House legislature's Representative Caroline Nillson Troy, of Genesee, brought to the floor a resolution to recognize the International Year of Pulses. Officially known as House Concurrent Resolution 32, the house literally gave a shout-out to pulses, peas, lentils, dry beans and chickpeas and the commissions that grow, promote and sell them. The resolution states that pulse crops "are a vital source of plant based proteins and amino acids" and should "be eaten as part of a healthy diet to address obesity, as well as to prevent and help manage chronic diseases such as diabetes, coronary conditions and cancer."

Last year's West Coast port dispute put quite a dent in the states revenue. the Washington Council on International Trade has released a study that highlights exactly how much the dispute cost the state. Eric Schinfeld is the President of WCIT.

SCHINFELD: The overall study found almost $770-million dollars of economic losses during that six-month period and I think what's really important about that is, that's only the impact of just during that period. There are long-term consequences in terms of lost customer relationships or people that were laid off that will last for, frankly, years and we weren't able to capture the economic cost of those as well. So, $770-million dollars from that specific period but well over a billion dollars when you look at the long term impacts.

Schinfeld says the ag industry really took the brunt of the dispute.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.