Warnick: Pesticides Transportation Key Issues In 2019

The 2019 Washington Legislative Session kicks off January 14^th, and there will be a host of issues the Ag community will watch with a close eye.  State Senator Judy Warnick said in her option, the top issue for the upcoming session is pesticide drift.

"We’ve had a wonderful task force put together to report on what we should be doing.  Not only educating the applicators but the workers in the fields and the farmers themselves.  I think that’s going to be first out of the gate.”

Warnick said they will also focus on water systems, both in urban and rural settings.  As well as the Brand Program which is well into the red at this point.  She added this year’s transportation conversation could be beneficial to Ag, especially high valley crops, like cherries.

“Short time period.  Getting them into trucks right now over to Sea-Tac airport right now, getting them on to an airplane and over to China for example, is time consuming.  Those cherries will degrade very, very quickly.”

Warnick says when discussing transportation, she would like to look at alternatives, including flying cherries out of Moses Lake, which she says can shave up to two days of transporting.  Warnick added with fewer lawmakers in Olympia connected to the farming community, it’s going to be important that she and others are very vocal for the industry.

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