Newhouse: Washington Has Great Potential For Ag Growth

Farming is a multi-billion-dollar industry for the state of Washington, but Dan Newhouse says more ag business can be done in the Evergreen state.  The central Washington representative said there’s a lot of potential for growth and future development, such as the recent ground breaking of Darigold’s million-dollar facility outside of Pasco.  Newhouse says to encourage farming economic growth, lawmakers in Olympia and D.C.  need to keep farmers in mind when decisions are made.

“We have to make smart decisions, smart choices, about how we impact some of the costs of the inputs that we’re facing.  Whether it’s fuel and energy, certainly decisions we make impact the costs of those inputs to our producers.”

Newhouse added state and federal lawmakers can also do more to improve supply chain disruptions that have plagued farmers for nearly two years.  He added Olympia can also do more to reduce labor costs, allowing producers to be more competitive on the national and global stage.

And while Newhouse says many things can be changed and improved to help farmers, some things need to stay the same.  He noted the Snake River dams are a huge asset to the farming community, not just from a transportation perspective, but the also allow for food processing and other ag businesses to grow and expand.

“We are blessed in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest, to have a river system that lends itself to producing clean, renewable baseload carbon-free energy, and we need to make sure that we protect that, make sure that it continues to be one of the things that we can count as an asset as we move forward and we build our economy.”

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