Ag Laws Need Changes Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. With Washington’s Ag Industry facing so many economic and regulatory challenges, are there changes we could make to ease the pressure?
Pam Lewison, Ag Director at the Washington Policy Center says the first is holding legislators accountable, which was in a bill that didn’t pass earlier this year …
LEWISON … “That was a Senate bill to protect Washington Farmers, 5117. And it effectively would have required legislators to think about the fiscal responsibilities that any piece of legislation would attach to farms, or I should say, the fiscal damage that any legislation would have to farms moving forward.”
Recent legislation, Lewison says has made it extraordinarily difficult for farm to operate …
LEWISON … “So much so that we lose two farms a day every day, which is something that we should be seriously concerned about as a state. We, our agricultural community is in freefall.”
And one of those new laws, Lewison says is a big one …
LEWISON … “I think the other that we need to seriously look at and address is our overtime law. We have the single-most restrictive overtime law in the country for overtime pay in agriculture.”
Tune in tomorrow to hear more on Washington’s burdensome ag overtime law.
