06/24/05 Lawmakers learn ag on wheat tour

Washington Ag June 24, 2005 State Representative Eric Pettigrew has a field or two in his 37th Legislative District in south Seattle, like Safeco Field, but nothing like the fields the urban Democrat saw during this week's Wheat Tour sponsored by the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. The tour focused on Lincoln and Spokane counties. Pettigrew says farming is much more sophisticated than people on the Westside imagine and he wants to see more of them exposed to eastern Washington agriculture.. Pettigrew: "Which if we can do that we can do a lot more for the farmers over here. And that is a challenge I think I am going to take on myself and that's getting more westerners to come over and actually see what land looks like. And what livestock is about and livestock management and nutrient management and all that stuff. I think with that we can make better common sense type laws that help everybody in the state and not looking at it from the perspective of what is happening in Puget Sound." The tour went through some of State Senator Mark Schoesler's district and and he says such events are always a positive. Schoesler: "We've had lawmakers talk about their first experience with a hillside combine 10 years later, or the first time experience watching center pivot irrigation go around. They never lose those memories of agriculture, what those costs are and what our problems are." I'm Bob Hoff.