3-20 NWR Ag Budget Cuts
This is your Northwest report for Monday, March 20, I am David Sparks, this is National Agriculture Week and just to give you some notion about the importance of agriculture to the Northwest's economy, listen to Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Alexis Taylor: “National Ag Week to me is really about connecting people who don’t think about where their food comes from every single day and taking a week to talk about who are our farmers and ranchers and what are they doing, not just to feed us and feed our families, but also provide real economic drivers in a lot of our communities across the state.Actually, Oregon State University concluded that all ag-related activities added $29 billion of economic activity to this state. That’s an astounding number. Just the ag products itself is bringing in $5 billion.”
Elsewhere and according to agri-pulse.com, the White House rolled out the first budget outline of the Trump administration and it had deep cuts to food and ag programs. Discretionary spending would be cut by 21%. Roger Johnson is the president of the National Farmers Union.