Grant County area residents lobby for potatoes
Brandy Tucker/courtesy photo Washington State Potato Commission members serve up plates of spudly goodness to legislators and staff at the annual Potato Day event in Olympia.
Several lobbyists from the Grant County area traveled to Olympia Wednesday to raise awareness of potatoes.
Brandy Tucker of Moses Lake, the director of operations for the Washington State Potato Commission, said the group served 1,600 potatoes to legislators and staff during their annual Potato Day event.
Trish Sage of Ephrata and Angie Griffith of Moses Lake are new members of the Potato Commission and used this as an opportunity to learn about the issues in the industry.
The group met with several local legislators, including Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake and Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy to discuss potato policy.
Chris Voigt, executive director of the Potato Commission, said the commission does have some specific laws they are lobbying for this session. He added that their overall goal is to bring awareness of the jobs and value potato farmers and processors add to the state.
“A lot of people not only may not know, but they don’t know how many,” Voigt said. “It really has a huge impact, particularly in rural communities.”