Rep. Dent Applauds FFA Presentation
I'm Bob Larson. The youth of agriculture get it! That's the feeling from State Representative Tom Dent after the Moses Lake Republican heard a presentation from a group of Future Farmers on the good and bad of trade tariffs ...
DENT ... "Right, so we have the kids from Washington Future Farmers of America Ag Issues Team, and they gave us a presentation about the tariffs that have been imposed by the Trump Administration and it was very good."
Dent says they were a small, but well-organized team ...
DENT ... "There were six kids. Two of them worked on the lead and talked about, gave us the overview as we went through the process. Two of them talked about the pros of the tariffs and doing something about the tariffs and two of them talked about the cons."
So, what were the pros and cons they presented? ...
DENT ... "Well, the pros of the tariffs was, you know, basically we do have some short-term negative effects, but the long-term benefit. If we can, you know, adjust these tariffs and get free trade with our agricultural products it's going to be a benefit for agriculture."
And the cons? ...
DENT ... "The cons? If we do nothing then it will stay the same which is basically an uphill battle."
Dent says the points they made are some of the same he hears from farmers every day...
DENT ... "Absolutely. They're saying the same thing. Sure, everybody's struggling with the tariffs, but you know they understand that if we can solve this issue that the long-term benefits will certainly outweigh the short-term"
So, it sounds like, after listening to these bright young Future Farmers, we should be confident about our future ...
DENT ... "Absolutely. America's going to be in good hands."
Dent was so impressed, he's going talk to the Chairman about making the presentation before the House Agriculture Committee.
