Wheat heads to Olympia Growers visit with legislators to discuss real-world ramifications of legislation

Last month, wheat representatives visited state legislators and agencies to talk about the industry’s priorities during the Washington Association of Wheat Growers’ (WAWG) annual Olympia Days trip. Cookies were involved.

“Growers spent two impactful days in Olympia, advocating for critical issues like tax exemptions and the Climate Commitment Act fuel rebate. With over 20 farmers, board members, and lobbyists in attendance, we held an impressive 51 meetings with legislators and agencies, effectively sharing our story and emphasizing the importance of our industry,” said Jeff Malone, WAWG president. “One of the highlights was a reception attended by many lawmakers, providing valuable, one-on-one opportunities for them to ask questions about our farming practices and gain a deeper understanding of the challenges we face.”

The night before meetings with legislators began, growers met with lobbyists Diana Carlen and Mark Strueli to go over WAWG’s priority list and develop talking points. Former legislator Kevin Van De Wege was also on hand to give tips and advice to growers about talking to legislators.

Besides the legislative meetings, wheat growers handed out sugar cookies adorned with WAWG’s logo and coffee in the Capitol Building to legislators and staff. Legislators were also invited to an evening reception at a local restaurant where more informal discussions could be held. The growers group included the 2025 Washington Wheat Ambassadors, Karly Wigen from Colfax and Zach Klein from Ritzville.

“We appreciate all the growers who took time away from their farms to participate in this year’s event. It makes a huge impression when a legislator can talk directly with a grower and hear the real-world impact a piece of legislation might have,” Hennings said. “We had some very good discussions with legislators on both sides of the aisle.”

WAWG’s priorities for the 2025 Washington State Legislative Session include:

Maintaining a viable agricultural industry in the state is vital for food security, the state’s economy, and environment stewardship. With a yearly economic contribution valued at $51 billion and 160,000 jobs, Washington farmers and agricultural businesses make up an essential and often overlooked segment of the state economy. However, we are losing family farms in the state at an alarming rate. Between 2017 and 2022, our state lost 3,717 farms and ranches. Rising production costs, such as labor and energy costs, are making it more difficult to have viable family farms in the state. Farmers are not like other businesses since they are price takers (i.e. they don’t set their own prices) and cannot pass on increased production costs like other businesses can to consumers. WAWG urges the Legislature to remember the uniqueness of the industry when crafting public policy that may result in increased production costs and further threaten the viability of family farms in the state.

Preserving Washington’s economic competitiveness. Carbon policies should ensure Washington State retains its economic competitiveness and does not disadvantage Washington farmers. When the Legislature passed the Climate Commitment Act (CCA), it exempted certain agriculture fuel uses for on the farm and transporting ag products. However, when the CCA became effective last year, many fuel suppliers began tacking on a carbon fuel surcharge for their compliance obligations under the law. Many fuel suppliers and distributors have implemented their own methods of exempting farmers, resulting in a patchwork that does not cover all producers. Ensuring there are mechanisms approved by Ecology to ensure all producers receive the exemption is critical to ensure that farmers do not see increased fuel prices as agriculture relies heavily on fuel and, as a price taker, cannot pass on these costs. During the 2024 Legislative Session, legislators appropriated $30 million to compensate farmers who paid the carbon fuel surcharge. WAWG urges the Legislature to leave those funds available for farmers and remove the cap for reimbursement so they can apply for full reimbursement for all gallons they purchased with the surcharge included.

Protecting the future viability of agriculture through voluntary conservation programs. WAWG is supportive of voluntary conservation programs that offer flexibility and fairly compensate farmers for riparian protection. WAWG stands in firm opposition to new regulatory requirements such as mandatory riparian buffers based on site potential tree height as it threatens the future viability of agriculture by removing significant portions of productive farmland out of production. In addition, mandatory buffers also jeopardize federal conservation funding. WAWG supports the continuation of the Governor’s Riparian Task Force to continue discussions on protecting salmon while also ensuring the viability of agriculture. WAWG also supports full funding of voluntary conservation programs like Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and the Voluntary Stewardship Program.

Preserving the lower Snake River dams. WAWG supports keeping the lower Snake River dams intact as they are vital to Washington and the nation’s economy and transportation infrastructure. WAWG also supports funding for maintaining the Columbia-Snake River System. Removal of the four lower Snake River dams would significantly increase carbon emissions that contribute to climate change and jeopardize health, safety, and livelihoods in already economically fragile local and regional economies. WAWG supports the findings in the current 2020 federal EIS and opposes any state, legislative, or administrative effort to remove or disrupt the Snake River dam system, including the recent U.S. Government’s Commitments in support of the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative.

Pesticide safety. Access to pesticides is essential to keeping Washington agriculture productive and globally competitive. WAWG supports the professional use of crop protection products that have been shown to be safe and effective through science-based research.

Providing seasonal flexibility to benefit both workers and farmers. Agricultural workers became eligible for overtime pay in 2021 after the Legislature removed the agricultural overtime exemption and adopted a phased-in approach. Unfortunately, Washington’s overtime requirement does not address the seasonal needs of Washington agriculture given the time-sensitive nature of growing and harvesting mature field crops and vegetables. The agricultural industry is unique from other types of industry because of pressures on farmers, ranchers, and workers caused by issues mainly out of their control, such as uncertainty of weather, yields, calving, national and international shifts in trade policy, and transportation inconsistencies. In addition, the overtime requirement has unintended consequences for farmworkers. A recent examination of California’s overtime requirement for agriculture conducted by a professor at UC Berkeley found that as a result of the overtime law, California farmworkers worked a total of 15,000 to 45,000 fewer hours and earned a total of $6 to $9 million less. WAWG supports legislation allowing farmworkers to earn money for up to 50 hours per week for 12 weeks of the year before overtime provisions kick in. This legislation will allow agricultural employers limited flexibility to shape work schedules during a narrow window of time to best fit the peaks of labor demand, thereby providing them some ability to weather the unpredictability of agricultural work and ensure that Washington’s second largest industry remains vital and strong while also ensuring security for farm workers.

Protecting existing tax policy. Retaining all food and farm-related tax incentives are critical to the agricultural industry. Agriculture tax incentives are a valuable benefit to our economy and offer farmers a more level playing field with other ag production states. Incentives are intended to be a long-term state investment into the agricultural industry.