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OPINION 6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015 Our water-guzzling food factory Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager Water under the bridge Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers 10 years ago this week — 2005 Hey you guys! More than 400 Goonies fans from as far away as England and Australia are descending on Astoria this weekend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of “The Goonies,” the much-loved movie that features locations in Astoria and Cannon Beach. The “Goonies Never Say Die” event, organized by the Astoria-Warren- ton Area Chamber of Commerce, will be a weekend packed with tours of these locations, screenings of the movie and a documentary, and chances to meet and get autographs from cast members including Sean Astin, who played Mikey, and Jeff Cohen, who played Chunk. “I loved Astoria, Astoria was awesome,” said Cohen, who said he re- members feeding the birds from the porch of the Astoria Red Lion Inn. “It has a real special place in my heart.” “In war we serve; In peace we trade.” For Jim Durham and other American merchant Marine vet- erans, this was more than a motto, it was a way of life during World War II. With members of the U.S. Coast Guard, the veterans gath- ered to honor the memory of those they served with at Union- town’s Maritime Memorial Park on Memorial Day. 2QDUHFHQWIRJJ\HYHQLQJQHDUWKHPRXWKRIWKH&ROXPELD5LYHU¿VKHU- man Jim Wells was joined by just four other boats, a far cry from the crowds VHHQGXULQJWKHKH\GD\RIFRPPHUFLDOVDOPRQ¿VKLQJ A drastic decline from the promising spring chinook returns of the past ¿YH\HDUVKDVFRPPHUFLDOWULEDODQGVSRUW¿VKHUPHQDOLNHFULWLFL]LQJUHFRY- ery efforts for endangered and threatened salmon. Some blame poor ocean conditions for the low returns, while others point to farmers’ irrigation for UHGXFLQJULYHUÀRZV SEASIDE — The $32 million from Seaside’s rejected U.S. Highway 101 project has been assigned to projects in Astoria and Tillamook, as well as areas around Salem, Eugene and Newberg. By NICHOLAS KRISTOF New York Times News Service L et’s start with a quiz. Which consumes the most water? A) a 10-minute shower. B) a handful of 10 almonds. C) a quarter-pound hamburger patty. D) a washing machine load. The an- swer? By far, it’s the ham- burger patty. The shower might use 25 gallons. The al- monds take up almost a gallon each, or close to 10 gallons Nicholas for the handful. Kristof The washing machine uses about 35 gallons per load. And that beef patty, around 450 gallons. The drought in California hit home when I was backpacking with my daughter there recently on WKH3DFL¿F&UHVW7UDLODQGWKH¿UVW eight creeks or springs we reached were all dry. The crisis in California is a har- binger of water scarcity in much of the world. And while we associate extravagant water use with swim- ming pools and verdant lawns, the biggest consumer, by far, is agri- culture. In California, 80 percent of water used by humans goes to farm- ing and ranching. That’s where that hamburger pat- ty comes in. I grew up on a sheep and cher- ry farm near Yamhill. I worked for a year for the Future Farmers of America, and I still spend time ev- ery year on our family farm. But while I prize America’s rural heri- tage, let’s be blunt: It’s time for a fundamental rethinking of Ameri- ca’s food factory. A mandarin orange consumes 14 gallons of water. A head of lettuce, 12 gallons. A bunch of grapes, 24 gallons. One single walnut, 2 gal- lons. Animal products use even more water, mostly because of the need to raise grain or hay to feed the ani- mals. Plant material converts quite LQHI¿FLHQWO\LQWRDQLPDOSURWHLQ So a single egg takes 53 gal- lons of water to produce. A pound of chicken, 468 gallons. A gallon of milk, 880 gallons. And a pound of beef, 1,800 gallons of water. (Of FRXUVHWKHVH¿JXUHVDUHDOODSSUR[- imate, and estimates differ. These DUH EDVHG RQ GDWD IURP WKH 3DFL¿F Institute and National Geographic.) You can also calculate your own Max Whittaker/The New York Times Fritz Durst walks over an irrigation canal that hasn’t seen water since 2013 on his farm in Zamora, Calif., April 4. While we associate extrav- agant water use with swimming pools and verdant lawns, the biggest consumer, by far, is agriculture. In California, 80 percent of water used by humans goes to farming and ranching. water footprint at National Geo- West, water was mostly allocat- graphic’s website. ed on a first-come basis, so if you Our industrial food system pro- acquired water rights more than a duces food almost miraculously century ago you can mostly still ac- cheaply. In 1930, whole dressed cess water for uses (two gallons per chicken retailed for $6.48 per pound walnut!) that no longer make sense in today’s currency, according to in an age of scarcity. As for the foolishness of ag- the National Chicken Council; in ricultural subsidies, real terms, the price until recently, the fed- has fallen by more A single eral government paid than three-quarters. me, a New York jour- And, boy, is the sys- egg nalist, $588 a year not tem good at producing crops in Ore- cheap high-fructose takes 53 to gon. grow I rest my case. corn syrup! Let’s be clear that Yet industrial agri- gallons of it’s unfair to blame culture imposes other water to farmers for the pres- unsustainable costs: problems. We’re - It overuses antibi- produce. ent the ones eating those otics, resulting in dan- water-intensive ham- gers to the public from antibiotic-resistant diseases. About burgers, and we’re the ones whose 4/5 of antibiotics sold in the United political system created these irra- States are for livestock and poultry - tionalities. Like most Americans, I eat even as 23,000 people die annually in America from antibiotic resistant meat, but it’s worth thinking hard infections, according to the Centers about the inefficiency in that ham- for Disease Control and Prevention. burger patty - and the small lake - Farming overuses chemicals that has dried up to make it possi- such as pesticides, some of them ble. Maybe our industrial agricul- endocrine-disruptors that have been linked to possible cancer, obesity ture system is beginning to change, for we’re seeing some signs of a and reproductive disorders. - Factory farming is often based food revolution in America, with on treating animals, particularly greater emphasis on organic food and animal rights. Just a week poultry, with ruthless cruelty. To this indictment, we can add ago, Wal-Mart called on suppli- irrational subsidies and water en- ers to stop keeping calves in veal gineering projects that have led to crates and hogs in gestation crates. Something good could come irrigation in areas where it doesn’t make sense. Today, California, de- from the California drought if it spite the drought, is effectively ex- could push this revolution a bit porting water (in the form of milk, further, by forcing a reallocation of water to the most efficient beef, walnuts and produce). Most of agriculture’s irratio- uses. But remember that the cen- nalities aren’t the fault of farmers tral challenge can’t be solved by a but arise from lax regulation and good rain because the larger prob- mistaken pricing, and that’s true of lem is an irrational industrial food water as well. Traditionally in the system. Is Motown getting its groove back? run by a fourth-generation move the needle.” He’s Schwinn. right about that, of course. Although it was a phil- But, collectively, all these DETROIT — Tom Kartsotis, the anthropic impulse that small companies do seem wealthy co-founder of Fossil, has moved Kartsotis to set to be helping to bring De- no connection to the Motor City. He up shop in Detroit, it has troit back. Young people lives in Dallas, where he now over- turned out to be a very good are moving in to the down- sees a handful of ventures he’s in- business decision. The town and midtown areas. vested in. In early 2011, he decided space Shinola needed to The unemployment rate is to build a small watch factory that build its factory was cheap. dropping. Once-abandoned buildings are being reoccu- would sell high-quality watches that There was also plenty of Joe pied. There are retail stores were priced, as he puts it, “at the entry talent — engineers, for Nocera and restaurants that didn’t point of luxury.” sure, but also former auto exist even a few years ago. He also wanted to make these assembly-line workers, watches in America. “So many big people eager to work who Shinola Something very good is happening companies have sourcing infrastruc- could train to be watchmakers. When here, and it’s largely the result of tures whose knee-jerk reaction is to I visited the watch factory recently, private-sector activity. Kartsotis isn’t head to China,” he said. He couldn’t I saw rows of employees bent over the only entrepreneur whose desire to compete with China at the low end their desks, focusing intently as they come to the aid of a once-great city of the market — nobody can. But placed tiny, intricate parts inside the has turned out to be a smart business move. he felt that the kind of watches he unassembled watches. If it seems clear that companies had in mind — priced between $450 Indeed, to spend any time in De- and $600 at the low troit these days is like Shinola are the way forward for end, with a distinc- to be amazed at the Detroit, it is not so clear whether they tive but classic design extent to which it is are also the way forward for American All these — could be made humming with en- manufacturing more generally. “I’m small competitively in the trepreneurial activi- proud of what this company stands United States. So he ty. Dan Gilbert, the for,” Jacques Panis, Shinola’s presi- decided to put his new companies founder and chairman dent, told me. When I asked him just factory here in Detroit, do seem to of Quicken Loans — what that is, he replied: “High-quality a city once renowned which he relocated to manufacturing jobs for America.” Shinola’s products are well-de- for its manufacturing be helping Detroit — has bought prowess that, in recent more than 70 build- signed and made. They are selling to bring times, has needed all ings and is convert- briskly. But they are not cheap, and the help it can get. ing some of them into they’ll never be mass produced. I’ve Detroit That original idea RI¿FH VSDFH IRU VPDOO written before about how even big turned into a company businesses. There are manufacturers like Caterpillar and back. called Shinola. It has other buildings with General Electric employ far fewer eight retail outlets and common workspaces workers than they used to thanks to employs around 375 people, most of and tools like 3-D printers than can automation. Shinola offers a different them in Detroit. Although those styl- be shared. The city’s government and, twist on that idea. It’s not automation ized watches are its biggest sellers especially, its foundations are focused that is restricting the number of work- — the company expects to sell be- on helping people who want to start ers but rather the niche appeal of its tween 150,000 and 180,000 this year a new business. I spoke with a wom- products. I’m not sure its example is — it also designs and makes bicycles, an named Julie James, who, with her particularly replicable. As for Shinola, Kartsotis is ready- leather goods and other well-crafted, four sisters, manufactures a brand of high-end products. Not only are those juices they call Drought. It employs ing its next product: Shinola-style products built in Detroit, but Shinola 32 people. Another company, The headphones that can compete with also tries to buy the parts it needs from Floyd Leg, makes handsome, color- high-end models like those from other American companies. Its leath- ful legs for furniture; its workforce Beats. He told me that he has just com- er, for instance, comes from the Hor- is seven people. New companies like SOHWHGDURXQGRI¿QDQFLQJDQGKRSHV to take the company public one day. ween Leather Co., a Chicago tannery these are starting every day. Which will be good for him — more than a century old. Its bicycle Kartsotis told me that “creating frames are shipped from a company a few hundred jobs isn’t going to and Detroit. By JOE NOCERA New York Times News Service Photo shows Pier 166, built at Tongue Point, being barged into place in preparation for Span 166. 50 years ago — 1965 Span 166 of the Astoria bridge, which has been under construction at 7RQJXH3RLQWIRUPRUHWKDQDZHHNLVH[SHFWHGWREHUHDG\IRUÀRDWLQJLQWR position Monday, Web Ballinger of the Highway Department engineering staff said Friday. The steel span will connect Piers 166 and 167, which are north of the main ship channel, between it and the Desdemona Sands viaduct. No more steel will be placed, after this span, on the main ship channel crossing until Piers 168 and 169 are completed. The ferry M.R. Chessman was aground an hour and a half just north of the Columbia River ship channel Tuesday morning. The ferry grounded at 9:15 a.m., just before the 10 a.m. Low WLGHDQGSXOOHGLWVHOIIUHHDWDVWKHWLGHEHJDQWRÀRRG7KH boat apparently was undamaged. Four boys visited once too often a cache of stolen loot hidden in tunnels under the downtown streets Wednesday night. Patient police, who had been keeping watch over the cache, caught them. The four, aged 14 to 17, were all in detention in city jail’s juvenile quar- ters Thursday and police were preparing to round up nine or 10 more boys reported to be implicated in a series of burglaries of downtown store base- ments occurring over the past two months. Police recovered a substantial part of an estimated $1,000 of merchan- dise and tools stolen by the tunnel prowlers. 75 years ago — 1940 The senate today passed the bill providing an additional $2,000,000 authorization for Tongue Point Naval Air Station, according to word from Senator Ruifus Holman, sending the bill to conference with the house, which already has approved it. Speedy adjustment of differences is anticipated. Even though about 110 motorists received tickets for violations of the SDUNLQJPHWHUDQGWUDI¿FRUGLQDQFH0RQGD\WKHQHZPHWHUVZHUHUHFHLYHG more cordially by the public than was expected. HAMMOND — Residents of this peaceful village today got a taste of what war sounds like. Windows shook, dishes danced on WKHVKHOYHVDQGWKHURDURIJXQ¿UHPDGHWKHHDUWKWUHPEOHMXVW as in Flanders, only no one was being killed. Fort Stevens’ 12 inch mortars were blazing away at targets WRZHG DW VHD DV WKH IRUW¶V JDUULVRQ FRQGXFWHG ¿ULQJ SUDFWLFH *XQVRI)RUW&DQE\ZLOOEH¿UHGODWHUWKLVZHHN