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Agriculture Secretary Hears Inland Northwest Farm Concerns

Doug Nadvornick/SPR

Tariffs, trade and regulations were on the minds of agribusiness representatives who had breakfast Monday in Spokane with federal Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. It was the first stop of a three-stop tour hosted by Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers that also included Colfax and Pullman.

Several people praised Perdue and the Trump Administration’s push to roll back government regulations. Chris Voigt, the executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, had his own specific regulation he wants reviewed.

“There was an interesting rule that went into effect in the last administration and school breakfasts that said before a school could serve potatoes at breakfast, you had to serve two, what they called, “underserved vegetables” prior to serving a potato. I think the intent was to get kids to try other stuff," Voigt said. "The problem is it’s not working because there’s no kid that’s going to eat kale or spinach for breakfast. So, essentially, the school districts have said we’ve just stopped serving vegetables for breakfast.”

Voigt asked the Department of Agriculture to review the rule and give potatoes a chance to get back onto school breakfast menus.

While the tone of the meeting was positive, Perdue did field some tough questions about the president’s trade policies from people such as Michelle Hennings, the executive director of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers.

“Mr. Secretary, what am I supposed to tell my farmers, when they call in in this uncertain time, asking me how the government is going to help them get through the trade environment?” she asked.

Glenn Squires followed from the Washington Grain Commission.

“Some of these relationships that we have, the markets have been built over 60 years, we recognize that markets take a long time and a lot of money to develop, but they can be lost very quickly, because we’re in a competitive world," Squires said. "There’s a lot of suppliers of wheat out there and we know that if we lose a market, one that we’re really worried about, is Japan.”

By dropping out of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, “We’re essentially handing our market, number two market, 820,000 metric tons, to Canada and Australia,” he said.

Perdue acknowledged many industries are going through what he calls “trade disruption.” Speaking to reporters afterward, he said the administration is working to develop bilateral trade agreements with three of the U.S.’s most important trade partners: Mexico, Canada and China. With the Mexican presidential election now over, he hopes that agreement will be wrapped up soon.

“We’re trying to open up other markets as well in the Pacific Rim, the Indonesias, the Malaysias, the Thailands, the Vietnams and others to grow the market here," Perdue said. "The productive capacity of the Northwestern farmers is immense in the soft wheat and the only place in the United States it’s grown. The world loves it and we’ve got to figure out how to get more trade to get it out there.”

Perdue said, with all the uncertainty surrounding trade, he’s pressing the president to give farmers some security as they near their harvests.

“There’s a legitimate anxiety over there about do I sell my crop at these low prices or do I hold on or what? The mitigation strategy we refer to will hopefully give farmers some idea about whether they should hold those crops or sell them and if they hold or sell, what they can expect from the government," Perdue said. "My timeline on that is to give them some indication by Labor Day so they can make marketing decisions.”

McMorris Rodgers says she’s encouraging the administration, as it carries on its campaign over tariffs, to remember who is in the middle of the debate.

“Whatever we do, we need to make sure we’re keeping the farmer, whether it’s apples or wheat or cherries, at the forefront, recognizing that these markets have taken many years to develop and they can be lost overnight," she said.

McMorris Rodgers says Congress continues to negotiate a new farm bill that she believes will include many of the same programs that local farmers are supporting.