COVID-19 Recovery Pt 2
I’m Bob Larson. Everybody is living their lives with some different rules these days, like social distancing and wearing masks in public, in an effort to keep everyone else healthy.
U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse says Governor Inslee’s new rules for agriculture makes these challenging tasks even tougher …
NEWHOUSE … “So, it makes it very difficult, particularly for small farmers, to be able to have the infrastructure in place and they need people to make these systems work. It’s very expensive to put into place some of the things that they’re asking for.”
So, with all of the new hoops to jump through, Newhouse feels it pays to be realistic …
NEWHOUSE … “I think we’ve got to be pragmatic. We have to be reasonable. It’s great to have all kinds of restrictions and requirements, but if it makes it too onerous for people to comply then you’re not going to accomplish what it is you’re trying to accomplish.”
The smaller operations, Newhouse says will have the most difficulty meeting every requirement …
NEWHOUSE … “That’s the complaint that I’ve been hearing, that it’s going to be too expensive for a lot of farms to do. They’re going to do the best they can and what we need to, absolutely need to. Ag workers are essential and we want to keep food production going because it’s critical. But, I think there has to be a lot of common sense put into this too so that we actually get compliance in making the workplace safe.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on the challenge’s producers are facing and if there might be more federal aid to help them along.
