Jay Inslee: “Family farmers are hard working and disciplined; but I want to point out that there are some other groups of people who…”

“Family farmers are hard working and disciplined; but I want to point out that there are some other groups of people who provide us nourishment, and one is the family fisherman and fisherwoman. I know a guy named Rudy who used to run a boat called the Shirley Anne when there were abundant salmon stocks in the State of Washington. His family does not fish any more because the salmon are gone, destroyed, caput, because we have silted up the rivers and destroyed a great natural resource. What this amendment will do and why I am supporting it in part is it will expand the number of farmers and crops who can use this money to help other people who provide food, namely fishermen and fisherwomen. I do not think that is too much to ask. We are taking only 3 percent of the people who benefit from this, and we are spreading it around to every farmer in the country and saying if they want to help, they are going to have this money simply for conservation. Let me point out also, this is not a question of taking money away from farmers. It is only a question of what they will do in return for the money. All this amendment suggests is instead of asking them to grow corn, help us grow some fish because it is not corn that is on the Endangered Species Act, it is fish. We are asking farmers who want to help to be allowed to help in that regard.”