03/18/05 Wash spud commission meets with governor

03/18/05 Wash spud commission meets with governor

Farm and Ranch March 18, 2005 Representatives of the Washington State Potato Commission joined other agricultural interests earlier this week for a roundtable discussion of issues with Governor Christine Gregoire. Potato Commission executive director Pat Boss says the group used its time to talk about the produce rail car pool program to make sure the governor includes some funding for it in her budget. Boss: "And in fact she has put some money in her budget for that, at least preliminarily she has, to help Washington State Department of Transportation to implement the program because we were able to get a million dollars through Senator Murray and Doc Hastings' efforts and so now DOT needs money to run the program. She acknowledged she was working on that. She knew about it." Former Governor Gary Locke was active in promoting overseas trade and Boss says they asked Gregoire what her plans were. Boss: "And she did say she was going to Asia in September. She is going to Japan and China and she wants to do a mission there that focuses on agricultural issues. So, she clearly said that her top goal will be to open up new markets over there and work with ag commodity groups to make sure we can get the highest level access to the foreign governments." Boss says there was also discussion of the drought, and on the subject of the Columbia River Initiative, which Gregoire has put on hold, the governor said she was not wedded to the initiative and would keep an open mind. That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today. Good health tomorrow. I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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