Reducing Regulatory Stress In Washington Agriculture

Legislation introduced this session by state Representative Tom Dent looks to reduce the stress that the farming sector across Washington faces. The Moses Lake Republican noted House Bill 2619 is a result of a statewide mental health study, showing the pressures producers and ranchers face.

Dent said while some things have been done to help address the mental health struggles farmers are facing, many of those are band-aids, and he wants to get to root issue of stress in Washington agriculture.

Photo: USDA

“Number one thing, of course, is the financial economic condition of agriculture," Dent said. "But the big thing that really came through was regulatory overload. We have just put so much on our farmers and ranchers that they just can't carry the load anymore. And it's just too much.”

The Farming Community Is At Risk

Several national studies have shown that agriculture has the highest suicide rate of all occupations in the United States.

Dent said his legislation looks to put together a task force to determine what regulatory burdens can be reduced or removed.

"And if we go back to President Franklin Roosevelt, they had the chief food policy back in those days," Dent said. "They put together the farm programs; ‘We're going to keep our farmers in business. We're going to help them be successful’. And so we still have that program. But what we've added to them. Farmers and ranchers have been a little bit exempt from a lot of things out there, but we begin to add more regulations on them that they have to meet, and then they just can't carry the load.”

Photo: Glenn Vaagen