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By Wes Bunch

http://www.timesnews.net/article/9050485/griffith-hears-farmers-concerns-during-tour-of-southwest-virginia

FORT BLACKMORE -- U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith made stops at farms in Lee and Scott counties Wednesday as part of a four-day, 12-county listening tour through his Southwest Virginia district.

Griffith -- a freshman Republican from Salem -- spoke with farmers and constituents at the Calvin and Slemp farms in Lee County and at Mann Farms in Scott County before wrapping up the day's portion of the tour in Smyth County.

On Monday, Griffith visited farms in Craig, Montgomery and Pulaski counties before stopping Tuesday at locations in Washington, Tazewell and Russell counties.

While at Mann Farms, Griffith spoke with several local farmers about a number of issues impacting their industry ranging from migrant worker visas and ethanol subsidies to regulations on fencing and pesticides.

"It was just one of those things where I wanted to make sure I was hearing from people about the issues," Griffith said. "Taxes I already knew about, and ethanol I was a little bit ahead of the curve on that, but it's good to get out and hear these things."

Griffith added: "This kind of tour helps because I can take real-life stories back and say, 'Hey, here's what it's like in my district.'"

One of the topics Griffith heard about firsthand was the frustration farmers had with the H-2A visa process for migrant workers.

Mann Farms owner David Mann, whose farm grows a wide range of produce for Food City and other distributors, told Griffith that the red tape surrounding the H-2A process was one of his biggest problem areas.

"Our issues are mostly with the H-2A program," Mann said. "We try to do everything we can to do it the right way, but it seems like the government is not very cooperative. Everything you do is difficult in the whole process. I don't know if it needs streamlining, I don't have the fixes for it, but it's a lot of trouble getting the workers when we want them."

The overall amount of paperwork associated with farming has become such a burden in recent years, Mann told Griffith it would be helpful to farmers if lawmakers avoided making more rules, or adding more paperwork to their routine, for the next couple of years.

From there the conversation moved on to cover concerns over rapid wage increases for workers, pesticide regulations and the inheritance tax, or "death tax" as Griffith called it.

"A lot of folks are worried about the death tax," Griffith said. "For a lot of farmers I talk to, the death tax means they can't pass it on to the next generation."

Griffith was also asked for his thoughts on subsidies for farmers that grow corn for ethanol, which he said he opposed.

Griffith also called for the Obama administration to waive the mandate that 40 percent of the nation's corn crop go to the production of ethanol due to the extreme drought conditions facing large parts of the country's interior.

Following the meeting, Mann said he was glad Griffith took the time to talk one on one with farmers and take an interest in the challenges they face.

"It feels good to talk to somebody that could possibly fix your problems," Mann said. "Hopefully, if enough people talk to the congressman about these problems, he can kind of get a feel for what they are."

While farming was the focus of the tour, it wasn't the only topic of discussion during the meeting. One of the main non-farming areas of concern centered on the future of coal mining in Southwest Virginia and the impact Environmental Protection Agency regulations are having on the coal industry.

"I'm doing what I can, trying to fight some of these regulations that adversely affect coal from the EPA," Griffith said. "It has spin-offs. It's not just the mining of the coal. It's the Joy Manufacturing. It's the Norfolk Southern Railroad. It has this ripple effect on the economy that, as a whole, is unbelievable."

Although Griffith was critical of the EPA's actions concerning the coal industry, he did compliment the federal agency's work on expanding the availability of public drinking water to rural areas like Southwest Virginia.

"That's one thing I think the EPA is doing okay," Griffith said. "They have some clean water programs where they're doing something right. I'd like to see them take some of the money from some of these other things that I don't think they are doing right and put them in these drinking water programs because that's the place where I think they can actually help some people."

Griffith, who is running for a second term this fall, also weighed in on what he felt key issues would be in his upcoming re-election campaign and gave his thoughts on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's pick for a running mate.

Griffith said he thought the Obama administration's stance on coal and the nation's debt would be topics that would be on the minds of most Southwest Virginia voters when they cast their votes in November.

"There's no question they have a war on coal, so we have to take a look at what (the Obama administration is) doing, and then we have to take a look at the debt we're piling up on our children and grandchildren," Griffith said. "My generation had a good life, but we have to be careful how we spend our kids' money, because that's what we're doing."

On the topic of the Republican nominee for vice president, Griffith said he liked Romney's selection of Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, but time would tell if it was the right choice to win the election.

"I think it's a good choice for governing, but history will tell us if it's the right choice for politics," Griffith said. "But really, I'm kind of proud of Mitt Romney. He made a decision to put the best people around him, and one of those best people is Paul Ryan. He's knows the budget better than anyone else in Washington, and he knows how to fix the budget without breaking the country."