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May 11, 2017

Today's podcast features my friend Ashley Ellixson, the Vice President of Legal and Environmental Affairs for the United Dairymen of Arizona.  We focus on two areas during our conversation today.  

First, we talk about the winding, interesting path Ashley took from law school to landing her dream job with United Dairymen of Arizona.  She offers some great insight to anyone in the trenches working towards a job they have always wanted.  Her examples of flat out working hard and how she used networking to her advantage are both humorous and inspiring.  ,

Second, we talked briefly about some of the key legal issues facing the dairy industry.  Not surprisingly, animal rights was at the top of her list.  We discuss the FARM program, which helps to encourage and equip farmers to implement the newest and best animal handling and care practices.  Next, we turned our attention to farm labor and discussed the difficulties for the dairy industry when it comes to immigrant labor and not fitting into the current H2A visa program.  We also discuss the importance of dairy farms having their ducks in a row when it comes to I9 verifications for all employees.  Lastly, we discussed the importance of trade policy on the dairy industry nationwide.

We closed out the show with Ashley offering the Waters of the United States Rule ("WOTUS") as the one law she would like to see changed and offering a restaurant recommendation for a good steak at Las Brisas in Lubbock, Texas.

 

Contact Information for Ashley Ellixson

(Email address) aellixson@UDAZ.ORG

(Twitter)  https://twitter.com/Legally_Ashley

 

Links to topics mentioned on the show:

- United Dairymen of Arizona

- American Agricultural Law Association

- FARM Program

- I-9 Fact Sheet

- WOTUS podcast with Jim Bradbury