Oregon's Christmas crops
spread cheer worldwide
Eighty percent of Oregon's agricultural products are
distributed across the country and internationally
BY ANTHONY LUCERO
NEWS REPORTER
The state of Oregon plays a big role
in creating Christmas cheer around
the nation and the world. From
hazelnuts to Christmas trees, Oregon
agricultural businesses account for
the majority of crops consumed by
other states and international mar
kets during the holiday season.
In fact, other states buy 40 per
cent of Oregon’s $3.68 billion agri
cultural products and other coun
tries buy another 40 percent, leaving
the last 20 percent of homegrown
trees and nuts for Oregonians to en
joy, said Bruce Pokarney, director of
communications for the Oregon De
partment of Agriculture.
“We don’t have the population to
use what we produce,” Pokarney
said. “We rely more heavily on export
than most states do.”
Oregon contains many Christmas
traditions within its state borders —
producing holiday classics such as
reindeer and Christmas trees on
farms — and California and other
southwestern states rely on Oregon
for Christmas trees, Pokarney said.
Oregon also exports other crops to
other states and countries, ranging
from hazelnuts — Oregon grows 95
percent of the $39 million national
market — to the $32 million
peppermint oil market that is popu
larly used in candy canes. These two
markets are overshadowed by the
$158 million Christmas tree market
and the even larger $700 million
greenhouse/nursery market, but
hazelnuts and peppermint oil main
tain a dominant market unrivaled by
any other state or country.
The Christmas days of old are
meeting the Internet generation, with
many Oregon-based businesses ex
panding online to meet the over
whelming demand from other states
and foreign markets.
One company meeting this outside
demand is Freddy Guys Filberts,
which sells hazelnuts grown from its
60-acre orchard in Monmouth, Ore.
Jocie Foulke, who helps to run the
family-owned orchard, said many of
the crops produced go to a larger co
op, but the remaining crops are sold
through the Farmers’ Market and on
the orchard’s Web site, www.fred
dyguys.com.
“We’re shipping worldwide and
get orders from out-of-state,” Foulke
said. “We get out-of-state business
from visitors who come to Oregon’s
farmer markets and get our hazelnuts
and want to continue buying them
when they get back home.”
The larger Made in Oregon compa
ny, spanning 10 stores across the
state, receives an outside market
from its online component,
www.madeinoregon.com. The Web
site received 15,000-18,000 cus
tomers over the holiday season, rep
resenting an eighth of the company’s
sales, Dawn Malchow, assistant to
buyers, said.
During the Christmas season,
Made in Oregon stores sold gift
packs with sausages and cheese
from Tillamook and Bandon, Mal
chow said.
“Since we’re only from Oregon it’s
a benefit to the state,” Malchow said.
“Business was great this year.”
Malchow said online purchases
were also made by tourists who keep
coming back for more of what the
state has to offer.
Most of Made in Oregon’s online
sales are gift packs, which Malchow
said consist of a “little bit of every- *
thing,” including cheese, jams,
sausage and hazelnuts. Another pop
ular item sold during the Christmas
season is lavender. Pokarney said
while Christmas provides a boost for
agriculture sales with specialty crops
like Christmas trees, much of the
crops Oregon produces have strong
sales throughout the year.
“Christmas is a great spotlight time
— a time to feature (Christmas
crops)— but if you take away Christ
mas you’d still have a strong agricul
ture market.” Pokarney said. “Most
of our products are year-round.”
anthonylucero@dailyemerald. com
Commentator: Journal fights for funding
Continued from page 1
Commentator had jeopardized the
safety of the student,” Quiroz said.
Quiroz said he felt it was his duty
as a PFC member to determine
whether the magazine should be
student fee-funded. Citing the
ASUO’s Green Tape Notebook,
Quiroz said it is the PFC’s responsi
bility to decide how a student group
is culturally and physically advanta
geous to students. According to the
rule book, “each program ... must
submit a goal statement which al
lows each Finance Committee to de
termine for itself whether the pro
gram or activity meets the statutory
standard of ORS 351.070(3)(d),
which authorizes the (Oregon State
Board of Higher Education) to col
lect fees to fund programs for the
cultural and physical development
of students.”
Nonetheless, Quiroz said he
decided that the PFC should recall
the decision because there is lack of
clarity among the PFC members
about exactly why the mission state
ment was not approved. In addition,
the Commentator was also not pres
ent at the hearing when the decision
was made. Quiroz said he still
believes the issue of the Commenta
tor’s content should be pursued and
he plans to have it discussed at
the magazine’s budget hearing. He
said it is important for students to
have an avenue for their concerns to
be addressed.
“I’ve been really disappointed
with the lack of action not taken by
the other bodies in student govern
ment,” he said.
However, Pohowalla said the PFC
could not make decisions about a pub
lication’s content. The work of the PFC
is only to determine whether student
groups are following the rules, fulfill
ing their goals and missions and being
fiscally responsible, she said.
“Every group is supposed to fulfill
its mission and goals, and the
Commentator does that,” she said,
adding that the Commentator “is a
service to campus.”
She said PFC should not discuss
content, adding that “that’s not part of
what we’re supposed to do.”
“As PFC we realized we’d made a
mistake,” she said. “We misinterpret
ed what the rules were. ”
She said she believes PFC members
were “not educated enough” about
what the rules are when the initial de
cision was made.
“We have to stay very viewpoint
neutral,” she said, adding that if the
PFC started to question the Commen
tator’s content, it would also have to
discuss content from other campus
publications.
But Quiroz said he is not judging the
magazine’s content, but rather how
that content might affect students.
“I don’t think students should pay
for hateful messages,” Quiroz said.
“That’s poor use of student money.”
Graf said the PFC did not have the
authority to question the magazine’s
editorial content.
“The PFC tried to do a very under
handed thing thinking we wouldn’t
respond,” Graf said. “They couldn’t
reason their way out of it. I don’t think
legally they had a leg to stand on. ”
Although the PFC did not specify
which student made complaints, one
student came out publicly to protest
the Commentator’s content.
ASUO Senator Toby Hill-Meyer
wrote in a statement given to
the Emerald that the Commentator
“has repeatedly and maliciously tar
geted me with hate speech, ridicul
ing my gender identity, even with vi
olent innuendo.”
Hill-Meyer, who is transgender,
said the Commentator attributed
false quotes to Hill-Meyer in the
last summer issue. The student sen
ator said the comments provoked
safety concerns.
Hill-Meyer wrote the statement
in response to comments published
in the Commentator regarding
Hill-Meyer’s preference to be referred
to by a non-gender-specific pronoun.
“While I do not know the specifics
of the PFC’s decision or how they plan
to proceed, I myself have read through
the Commentator and wondered how
they can use student money to print
their magazine,” Hill-Meyer said.
Hill-Meyer said there was no de
sire to have the magazine defunded,
but wished to see “some kind of
University response to this kind of
hate speech.”
“I am glad that the PFC has decid
ed to go down a path that will create a
forum to discuss these issues,” Hill
Meyer said.
Graf said the paper does not publish
hate speech, adding that it is evident
that what was written about Hill-Mey
er was satirical.
“We’re not going to allow Toby
Hill-Meyer to dictate the editorial
content of the paper,” Graf said.
“The quote that we had on him was
clearly in jest.”
Graf said the Commentator has no
intentions to cause anyone any harm.
“We’re very conscious of whether
we’re going to put someone in a bad
position,” Graf said.
ASUO President Adam Petkun
said it is important to separate the
issue of the Commentator’s funding
from that of whether it publishes
hateful content. He said the Com
mentator operates under First
Amendment rules that he wouldn’t
want to be violated.
“We need to make sure that
(the PFC is) allocating student funds
in a viewpoint-neutral manner,”
Petkun said.
Petkun added that ASUO is devel
oping other ways to address the alle
gations of hate speech made against
the Commentator.
ayishayahya@dailyememld.com
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