Well, here we are at the beginning of a new year so it’s a great time to take stock of what we accomplished in the prior year and what lays ahead in the new year. Most notably, Western Growers (WG), working with hundreds of other agriculture associations, rural water districts, and urban water users was able to secure $8 billion in funding for Western water priorities as part of the bipartisan reconciliation package. That package passed the Senate in early August and the President signed it into lawin mid-November. The $8 billion in Western water funds is the culmination of months of work that WG and other associations undertook to first frame this as a critical priority, identify programs and projects in need of funding, and then steadily work topush members of Congress to including then passing these provisions. Growers throughout the West, including mushroom farms, have struggled for years with water issues. These concerns about available water are not temporary concerns—we all know that every good ‘wet’ year can quickly be followed by two-three-four years of drought. As such, it is critical we invest in modernizing our water infrastructure system in the West.
展开▼
