Ag Not Appreciated
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. The farm economy in Washington and around the country is in crisis, but that crisis is not getting the attention it deserves.
Pam Lewison, Ag Director at the Washington Policy Center, says the fruit we grow, for instance, is something not everyone can grow …
LEWISON … “We have this abundant, local fruit resource that is unique and is coveted by other places where it’s not something that’s readily available. It’s imported in and people pay a vast premium to have it.”
And without our growers, Lewison says there goes our state’s third largest economic contributor …
LEWISON … “We talked about that economic pour in from a relatively small community. All of that money goes away, not just the actual dollar amount from the sale of produce, but it’s a loss in tax base, it’s a loss in spending power from those earnings that people are accruing. There are a lot of, sort of, ripple effects.”
Lewison says there’s a lot of research around what happens when farm economies become depressed …
LEWISON … “All of that research overwhelmingly shows that when farms go out of business the communities around them die. So, that’s what you would see is sort of this death of all of these communities that rely very heavily upon those farms that are around them.”
There are a lot of people, Lewison says who don’t understand how food production works, including lawmakers, but it’s time they learn.
Again, that’s Pam Lewison, Ag Director at the Washington Policy Center.
