Today, Western Growers hosted a meeting in Washington, D.C., of business and agriculture associations to discuss immigration reform and to build consensus for supporting an agricultural worker pilot program. WG President & CEO Tom Nassif emphasized the need to break the impasse on immigration reform saying, "Everyone knows that comprehensive immigration reform is not likely to move in the near future. Agriculture has made a case for Congress to move forward with a fix for agriculture, and we would like the business community to be supportive of an ag-first, incremental approach."

California cantaloupe handlers voted overwhelmingly in support of the state’s first mandatory food safety program to be implemented by a commodity board.

California’s efforts to protect agriculture from pests and disease that infiltrate the border could face a “rolling crisis” of budget cuts that could weaken pest protection and put more pressure on the industry to foot the bill. That’s according to Dave Puglia, Western Growers senior vice president of government affairs and communications.