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CapitalPress.com
December 18, 2015
Idaho
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State appeals district court ruling that invalidated ‘ag gag’ law
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — The question of
whether Idaho’s Agricultural
Security Act is constitutional
is headed to the 9th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals.
The Idaho attorney gener-
al’s office will ask the appeals
court to reverse a district court
judge’s decision earlier this
year that invalidated key pro-
visions of the statute, which
opponents refer to as an “ag-
gag” law.
The law makes it a crime to
film an agricultural operation
without the owner’s consent
or gain employment with a
farm operation through decep-
tion with the intent to cause it
harm.
The legislation was craft-
ed by the Idaho Dairymen’s
Association and supported by
most Idaho farm groups.
“I’m glad to hear it’s be-
ing appealed,” said Sen. Jim
Patrick, a Republican farmer
from Twin Falls who spon-
sored the legislation in the
Idaho Senate.
“It’s a private property
rights issue for all of agricul-
ture, not just cattle,” he said.
A coalition of animal
rights, civil liberties and other
groups filed a lawsuit against
the law in federal court in Ida-
ho.
Chief U.S. District Judge
B. Lynn Winmill struck down
the major provisions of the law,
agreeing with plaintiffs that
it violated the First Amend-
ment’s free speech provision
as well as the U.S. Constitu-
tion’s Equal Protection Clause.
In his Aug. 3 ruling, Win-
mill stated that “an agricultural
facility’s operations that affect
food and worker safety are
not exclusively a private mat-
ter. Food and worker safety
are matters of public concern.
Moreover, laws against tres-
pass, fraud, theft and defama-
tion already exist. These types
of laws serve the property and
privacy interests the state pro-
fesses to protect through the
passage of (the legislation)
but without infringing on free
speech rights.”
Winmill also wrote that the
law discriminates based on
viewpoint, saying that the nat-
ural effect of the recording and
misrepresentation provisions
“is to burden speech critical of
the animal-agriculture indus-
try.”
IDA attorney David Clai-
borne applauded the state’s
decision to appeal Winmill’s
ruling.
“We feel very confident we
will be able to obtain a rever-
sal of many aspects of Judge
Winmill’s decision,” he said.
Claiborne said the bill was
crafted in a way that prohib-
its certain conduct on private
property but doesn’t single
out a specific group.
“It only prohibits record-
ing in non-public areas on pri-
vate property, where people
have a reasonable expectation
of privacy,” he said. “The
court kind of overlooked that
fact. That’s an important con-
cern we will bring up during
the appeal.”
Representatives of plain-
tiffs expressed confidence the
9th Circuit will uphold Win-
mill’s decision.
The law’s intent “is to
shield animal abusers from
public scrutiny (and) it’s clear
the law in intended to stifle
and suppress the speech of a
specific group of people,” said
Mercy for Animals President
Nathan Runkle. “We believe
that the judge rightly deemed
it unconstitutional and that it
will and should be upheld.”
Animal Legal Defense
Fund Senior Attorney Mat-
thew Liebman in an email
statement said his group ex-
pects the 9th Circuit “will
agree with us that Idaho’s
ag-gag law violates the First
Amendment by silencing crit-
ics of the meat, egg and dairy
industries.”
PCN panel considering compensating affected growers
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
From left to right, Sara Erb, Margie Cooke, Susan Brown and
Elizabeth Kohtz receive Woman of the Year awards Dec. 2 during
Idaho Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting in Fort Hall.
Idaho Farm Bureau
honors four women
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
FORT HALL, Idaho — The
Idaho Farm Bureau Federation
has honored a dairy veterinar-
ian, a livestock auction owner,
a Christmas tree farmer and a
potato farmer and rancher with
the organization’s Woman of
Year awards.
The awards, presented
during a Dec. 2 luncheon in
conjunction with the organiza-
tion’s annual convention, rec-
ognized a woman in each Farm
Bureau district who has made
outstanding contributions to
agriculture.
Award recipient Eliza-
beth Kohtz, president of Twin
Falls County Farm Bureau,
was raised on a dairy and has
worked as a dairy veterinarian
for 11 years. She’s employed
by Cedar Ridge Dairy, which
has more than 10,000 cows.
Kohtz was also among 10
women from around the coun-
try chosen by American Farm
Bureau Federation to partic-
ipate in a two-year program,
which recently finished, for
young leaders in agriculture.
She was also selected to rep-
resent farming and ranching
during the recent shareholders
meeting of Dean Foods, the
nation’s largest dairy processor.
Kohtz said the meeting in
Dallas marked the first time
Farm Bureau has had a voice
before the company’s share-
holders.
Award recipient Sara Erb
has owned the Blackfoot live-
stock auction, with her hus-
band, Cole, for the past 14
years.
“The livestock auction has
a big role in the agriculture in-
dustry,” Erb said. “We’re the
middle guy to help the buyers
and to help their sellers.”
Erb was raised on a farm
and ranch, where she said she
learned to appreciate the value
of hard labor, “working from
sunup to sundown.”
Margie Cooke owns For-
ever Green Tree Farm in St.
Maries with her husband, Lar-
ry. In addition, she has a full-
time job as a nurse.
Her farm, which they pur-
chased 35 years ago, spe-
cializes in providing Christ-
mas-season memories for
families — hosting sleigh
rides, meetings with Santa
Claus and a U-pick tree oper-
ation, in addition to wholesale
sales.
They also have a shop with
holiday merchandise. Cooke
said her land is ideally locat-
ed for a Christmas tree farm,
as there’s plenty of natural
rainfall for the evergreens,
and raising them at 3,500 feet
makes them winter hardy for
sale in cold environments.
Award recipient Susan
Brown and her husband,
Randy, own a potato farm
and cow-calf operation with
416 mother cows in Madison
County.
In addition to her involve-
ment with Farm Bureau,
Brown serves as a local pre-
cinct chairwoman with the
Republican Party. In that
capacity, she’s helped elect
lawmakers to the state Legis-
lature.
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho —
Discussions among members
of an Idaho State Department
of Agriculture pale cyst nem-
atode program advisory com-
mittee have turned toward
compensating growers for
past and future hardships due
to farming under quarantine.
The growers and indus-
try leaders on the committee,
who met Dec. 8, acknowledge
finding the funding will be a
challenge.
“We feel like there ought
to be some help there that at
least keeps a person whole
as they grow through this,”
said Bryan Searle, a Shelley
farmer on the committee who
has fields under quarantine,
speaking on behalf of other
affected growers.
The only confirmed U.S.
infestation of PCN — a mi-
croscopic worm that feeds
on potato roots — was de-
tected in dirt from Eastern
Idaho potatoes in 2006. Cur-
rently, 2,897 acres within a
7.5-mile radius in Bonneville
and Bingham counties are un-
der quarantine. The growers
are prohibited from planting
spuds while their fields under-
go rigorous PCN eradication
treatments, which have in-
cluded the use of the powerful
fumigant methyl bromide in
the past.
Some quarantined growers
have filed a lawsuit alleging
methyl bromide has tainted
their soil, and alfalfa from
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Members of an Idaho State Department of Agriculture pale cyst
nematode program advisory committee discuss proposed changes
to the program, including compensation for affected growers,
during a Dec. 8 meeting in Idaho Falls.
treated ground has made live-
stock sick.
Another 7,419 acres are
being regulated, facing spe-
cial sanitation and testing re-
quirements for known associ-
ations with infested fields.
The committee quickly
dismissed eight previously
proposed alternatives to the
current program it deemed
would adversely affect trade.
The plan they’re now serious-
ly considering entails retiring
land from production — or at
least potato production — for
up to three decades, which is
the maximum duration PCN
cysts are known to remain vi-
able in soil in the absence of
a host.
St. Anthony grower Jeff
Raybould suggested a one-
time payment — perhaps
$3 million — to be divvied
among landowners in the pro-
gram to compensate for soil
damage and other losses.
For future years, he ad-
vised an extra penny potato
assessment per hundred-
weight, which would generate
roughly $1 million per year
to pay growers to idle land,
similar to a conservation ease-
ment.
“We’ve got to put our arms
around a solution and move
forward,” Raybould said, em-
phasizing his funding num-
bers are open for debate. “We
can’t continue to offload this
problem on a handful of indi-
viduals in the state.”
Raybould advised ap-
proaching the state Legislature
for the one-time payment. The
committee discussed increas-
ing the Idaho Potato Commis-
sion’s assessment to cover the
continuing payments, though
some were uncomfortable
granting the organization ad-
ditional authority to redirect
revenue to individual grow-
ers. They also suggested cre-
ating a stand-alone entity to
administer the assessment.
Both options would require
legislative action.
Though USDA has indi-
cated it won’t be in the busi-
ness of buying or leasing land,
IPC President and CEO Frank
Muir suggested approaching
the agency for funding any-
way, given the apparent re-
percussions to growers who
followed its methyl bromide
program.
“I’ll be surprised if there’s
rousing support for a tax in-
crease,” Muir said.
ISDA Director Celia
Gould said her agency has
commenced research into
what crops can be grown safe-
ly on land treated with methyl
bromide.
Tina Gresham, director
of USDA’s PCN program,
said one field that’s advanced
through the program was
planted to red potatoes this
season, and testing for viable
cysts is underway. Further-
more, she said the program is
awaiting data on use of a trap
crop, planted in two commer-
cial fields this season to stim-
ulate hatching in the absence
of a host, and is researching
other tools such as biological
controls, alternative chemi-
cals and resistant potato vari-
eties.
The committee is sched-
uled to meet again at 1 p.m.
Jan. 6 in Idaho Falls.
Pocatello ranch provides holiday wagon tradition
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho —
Back when Cherie and Jim Hart
raised cattle and buffalo, their
draft horses had an important
job, helping them distribute
feed throughout snowdrift-cov-
ered pastures.
Hart Ranch, which once
kept a herd of about 75 mother
cows and 20 bison, got out of
the livestock business in 2005,
and is now solely focused on
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Residents of the Pocatello, Idaho, area take a wagon tour Dec. 12
to check out holiday lights.
alfalfa production.
But their six draft horses
are still earning their keep, as
the stars of a longstanding Po-
catello agri-tourism tradition.
The city’s former mayor grant-
ed the Harts lifetime permis-
sion to take groups on horse-
drawn wagon rides through
51-2/#5
51-1/#4x
city streets. Their route passes
by some of the largest homes
in the community, highlight-
ing holiday lights, and ends at
the couple’s renovated dairy
barn, where guests are served
Dutch-oven dinners. Groups
have ranged from 15 to 80
people, traveling in a train of
wagons covered in lights and
playing Christmas music. They
charge $25 per adult and $13
per child for the ride and meal.
“It’s really just a way to
share with those people what
these big horses can do,” Che-
rie Hart said. “It’s all about the
experience — an experience
of the Old West and the way
things used to be.”
Their 2,000-acre ranch on
the outskirts of Pocatello was
homesteaded by Jim Hart’s
grandparents nearly 110 years
ago. Visitors can still find wag-
on ruts and relics left by travel-
ers on the Oregon Trail.
They started offering wagon
rides in 2000, originally bas-
ing them out of a tepee, where
they served hot dogs and chili.
In 2004, Cherie Hart and her
cousins renovated a dilapidated
dairy barn into a reception hall
with a dance floor and a bar for
serving Dutch-oven dinners.
They also offer catering and
wagon services for weddings,
and a local funeral home some-
times uses their draft horses to
pull a funeral buggy.
Cherie Hart said the ranch
occasionally uses the draft
horses for farm labor, such as
pulling a harrow or road grad-
er.
Rick Giles, president of the
Southern Idaho Draft Horse
Association, said insurance
takes a large chunk out of prof-
its for members who use their
animals for agri-tourism, but
many still offer public services,
such as wedding transportation,
due to their love of working
with their horse teams.
Giles, who runs a 40-acre
farm in Magic Valley, said
some members earn a supple-
mental income with their hors-
es by working with a sled-ride
service at Sun Valley Ski Re-
sort. A couple of members have
a carriage business.