Ag Tour

Ag Tour

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
“Welcome to our ag tour. Again, we want to thank all of you for being part of this tour today.”

 

The annual Treasure Valley Agricultural Tour took place with a bus full of state legislators, county commissioners, local city leaders and ag industry leaders. Charlie Connelly, tour chairman and a member of the Caldwell/ Nampa Chambers of Commerce, says it's all about education and understanding the huge ag industry in the valley.

 

“We sincerely hope that we're helping not only the legislators, but the general public understand agriculture in Canyon County and agribusiness Canyon county to a better level because of what we're doing here.”

 

The day starts with a briefing from Trent Clark, a retired Monsanto and Bayer employee who knows the Roundup class action litigation issue inside and out.

 

“A lot of farmers will know that they've been using it for 40 years and they'll have some pretty good familiarity with it. In fact, what has been amazing to me is the support for glyphosate is stronger among farmers than it is at Bayer. And that's because to Bayer this is just a product and they have hundreds of thousands of products and they change products all the time.”

 

Drew Eggers, a 50 year veteran Treasure Valley farmer who is retiring this year, supports the use of Roundup.

 

“Roundup Ready crops are a safer way to go. And I believe that because back in the day, I raised sugar beets where we put a mix of herbicides and try to keep the weeds out of the sugar beets. And I know that was harder to the environment than than what the practices are today with the cropping system of Roundup Ready. So I think it's a great tool. I've used it a lot over the years and we need it to feed the world.”

 

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