Farming Roots Extend to DC

With the fruit grower report, I'm Susan Allen, I had a chance to speak with U.S.Representative Dan Newhouse from Washington's 4th District, and my takeaway was that we have someone serving on the House Committee on Agriculture, and a Subcommittee member in the Biotech, horticulture, and research who actually gets farming, that's refreshing,. Here is Representative Newhouse:

NEWHOUSE: I was born and raised on a farm, still farm today with my son we are 4th generation on our farm, my son is taking over the management. But to be able to stand up in Congress and speak from experience, speak from the heart on issues that we are dealing with, that's the most powerful impactful testimony that you can have. I am one of about 15 active farmers and ranchers in the whole Congress.

The majority of those farmers come from a mid-west background dealing with corn and soybeans and don't understand how our NW region could have such a variety of crops, many of tree fruit and grapes with high labor input to mention the influence of the environmental community and then we have the ports.

NEWHOUSE: Aboslulty the ports pay a huge role in the ability to get our crops to market. So to have that experience that I bring to the table has been very helpful to making the case and the arguments for some of the policy changes we need in our industry.

Representative Newhouse said it was an honor to serve his district in this capacity.