Congratulations to Markus Keller, who is receiving the 2024 Award of Distinction from the Auction of Washington Wines! Markus will be honored for his outstanding contributions to the Washington wine industry at the TOAST! Honoree Celebration on Aug. 8.
A couple of weeks back I shared that Confluence, an annual CAHNRS product, was a finalist for the National Agricultural Alumni and Development Association’s Projects and Publications Competition. I am thrilled to share that the magazine won the first-place award. Congratulations to all who contributed to the publication! This was a large team effort from across the college.
We had good visits on the Hill last week. I greatly appreciate our partners who spent two days with us as we caught up with our legislators. The meeting that sticks out in my mind was our time with congresswoman Marilyn Strickland. I had met her previously, but she isn’t a member I see often.
We were talking about the need to ensure a strong Farm Bill and maintain capacity funding lines in the fiscal year 2025 appropriations, and congresswoman Strickland asked, “What are you afraid of?” Good discussion ensued from the responses shared. What immediately came to my mind was a fear that more people across the U.S. will face food insecurity — and that the situation is preventable. I say preventable because without the Farm Bill, farmers won’t have the programs they need to continue the risky business of farming. And, without investment in research and Extension, the work won’t happen to help agriculture stay ahead of the challenges it faces, whether it be climate change, pest or water pressures, security threats, or food safety.
We continued the conversation this week when several of us who were in Washington, D.C., met on the Pullman campus to brainstorm how CAHNRS can work with our commodity group and WSDA partners to better support Washington agriculture. The meeting was a good chance for a few of our commodity group leaders to meet with WSU leadership and catch up on things.
The CAHNRS Advisory Council met this week. The primary topic was gathering feedback on the draft strategic plan that Scot Hulbert and a team of individuals from across the college developed. We received great suggestions from the Council and will incorporate them into a new draft. I look forward to more conversation and work with this group.
Next week I head out to a conference and then to a week of vacation. Maybe warm weather will arrive in Pullman by the time I return.