Agribusiness Update for Thursday 03/19/15

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told the National Farmers Union convention she's renaming the Waters of the U.S. rule the Clean Water Rule and said EPA should have done a better job of rolling out its Clean Water Rule - from calling it WOTUS instead of the Clean Water Rule - to not being more clear about what EPA was and was not proposing - to not talking to farmers and others before EPA put out the interpretive rule. McCarthy says the Clean Water Rule boils down to three simple facts. First - one in three Americans get their drinking water from streams and wetlands that lack clear protection from pollution today. Second - the U.S. economy can't function without clean water. Third - the species Americans depend on and the places they love for recreation can't survive without it.

The Agriculture Workforce Coalition has sent a letter to House leadership - signed by more than 140 food and ag organizations - opposing the Legal Workforce Act recently reported out of the House Judiciary Committee. The organizations say mandatory E-Verify would have a devastating impact on the ag industry in the absence of a legislative solution for ag's labor needs.

That's today's Agribusiness Update from the Ag Information Network of the West.