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By: Michael Owens | Bristol Herald Courier

http://www2.tricities.com/news/2012/aug/16/griffith-stumping-farm-tour-ar-2134293/

FORT BLACKMORE, Va. --

The congressman asked a simple question to start the conversation Wednesday afternoon: What are the most pressing concerns about government regulations?

The dozen farmers surrounding U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-9^th, mulled it over for a few moments before speaking.

Produce farmer David Mann mentioned a federal law dictating how farmers ferry in, house and pay immigrant workers. By the time federal workers had his paperwork ready, the season was over and he had no need to hire the farm hands, he said.

“I would say 90 percent of the produce in the U.S. is picked by migrant workers, like it or not,” Mann said. “[The law] just needs looking at.”

Griffith scratched his chin and pondered Mann’s problem.

“We’ve actually heard a lot about that this morning,” he said.

The congressman, who unseated longtime U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher two years ago, is seeking re-election to a second term in November. He is being challenged by Democrat Anthony Flaccavento of Abingdon.

Since Monday, the congressman has swooped across Southwest Virginia on a farm-to-farm quest to discern the obstacles faced by his constituents. His itinerary calls for 12 counties in four days.

By Wednesday afternoon, he reached Mann’s produce stand on Veterans Memorial Highway, where customers picked through buckets of tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce and other colorful vegetables as the farmers talked.

Griffith said he wanted to hear “what the federal should be doing and what they should not be doing.”

One farmer said just three letters – EPA – and everyone nodded in unison.

They spoke about the Environmental Protection Agency regulations that govern the use of farm land around waterways as well as an upcoming increase of corn ethanol in gas.

“Using corn crops to create fuel can be a problem,” Griffith said, adding that it might increase the cost of other foods, especially following a drought.

The congressman said he will take the farmers’ concerns to Washington, D.C., to try to help them solve their problems.