02/08/06 Topics at recent pulse grower meet

02/08/06 Topics at recent pulse grower meet

Farm and Ranch February 8, 2006 Domestic marketing was one of the focal points at the recent annual meeting of the Western Pea and Lentil Growers Association held in Spokane. Growers heard from Jennifer Roberts who was hired by the U.S. Dry Pea & Lentil Council as its domestic food marketing manager. Roy Dube, president of the Washington division of the Growers Association thinks the domestic market is where the future lies for the pulse industry in the Pacific Northwest. Dube: "One of the things we know we have is a high quality product that we raise right here in the northwest and it has high food value. The things that Jennifer is doing I think that is quite promising. Her presentation was well received. Personally I am glad we were able to make that move and bring her on board." Dube says there was also a long discussion about the Conservation Security Program, CSP, at the meeting. Dube: "And there a lot of questions on that and some of them are unanswered at this point. But as watersheds are coming in people want to know what they need to be doing. Pulse crops have a nice fit in that. But here are some things we have to work and we have talked about that too just to make sure that people understand the nitrogen fixing value of the pulse crops, the erosion control value of those things. So we still have some work and like I said before there are a lot of unanswered questions that still need to be addressed." Dube pointed to the unfairness of a producer being in a CSP eligible watershed while his next door neighbor is not. He says like many farm organizations they understand the value of CSP, it's just trying to work through the implementation of it I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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