BUSINESS & AG LIFE
THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2021
THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — 3B
VACCINES
according to data from the
county health department.
The population also tested
positive at a rate over three
times higher than non-His-
panics, the data shows.
Saito said the event
was a collaborative eff ort
between a number of
groups to immunize a
community they recognize
as a “priority population.”
“We know they’re
exposed because they have
to be close together when
they work, and there’s been
a lot of racism and injus-
tice that’s happened over
time,” Saito said, adding
that “ending health ineq-
uities” is part of the state’s
10-year plan. “This is
one of the ways we’re
making sure we have an
equity focus and that we’re
looking at those popula-
tions that have been dis-
proportionately infected
and who have historically
been underserved.”
Offi cials have said
working conditions in
essential workplaces have
been a driving factor
behind the pandemic’s dis-
proportionate impact on
Hispanic communities
nationwide.
“We have this whole
row of processing plants,
so (it’s) defi nitely a high-
risk community,” Rivera
said, looking out at the cars
moving swiftly through the
clinic, dwarfed by the large
industrial facilities in the
background.
Because of this, every-
thing down to the sched-
uling of the daily clinics
was geared to accommo-
date agricultural workers,
partly because they often
cannot take time off work
to get a shot, Rivera said.
He added that the health
department engaged in a
variety of eff orts to inform
residents about the clinic,
like advertising it on local
Spanish radio stations.
Similar eff orts are
ongoing in Umatilla
County, where county
health offi cials have been
reaching out to agricultural
facilities to bring vaccines
to workers while they’re on
the job.
Umatilla County offi -
cials have said they also
want to hold similar
eff orts as the Morrow
County clinic, particularly
because the state brings
more doses with them,
which could help with the
county’s dismal vaccina-
tion rates, which remain
the lowest in Oregon,
according to state data.
since it’s just him and his
wife.
“If I had kids, it’d be
harder,” he said.
While it can be tough
work with an element
of danger, there are
advantages.
“You get to see things
you wouldn’t normally
see,” Cariss said.
In Eastern Oregon,
Med Transport has at least
three other paramedics,
the release stated. Bruce
Cheeseman is based in
La Grande, Nick Cripe is
based in Baker City, and
Mark Lewis is a recently
retired fi refi ghter para-
medic from Pendleton.
“Some of our medics
have done multiple
deployments of 15-30
days and some have been
out for over 90 days,”
Arvidson said in the
release.
For more information
on Med Transport, visit
http://medtransporteo.com
or its Facebook page.
When it comes to
hemp, Ates said they are
only at the beginning
of what promises to be
a vast area of continued
research.
“It is a super exciting
research area for all of us,”
he said. “This is a byproduct
that has a high potential,
but it requires extensive
research before it’s approved
by the FDA and going into
the food chain.”
Continued from Page 1B
1,000 agricultural workers
at the clinic, according to
the Morrow County Health
Department.
Saito said state offi -
cials are looking to hold
similar eff orts statewide.
State offi cials recently con-
ducted a survey with 585
agricultural facilities that
showed more than 21,000
workers were eligible for
the vaccine.
“We’re working with
our local public health
authorities to connect agri-
cultural, migrant and sea-
sonal workplaces to see if
they can do an event(s) like
this” across Oregon, Saito
said.
The clinic began two
days after Morrow County
received approval from the
state to move ahead and
start vaccinating farm-
workers after suffi ciently
providing doses to all other
eligible groups.
At least 20 coun-
ties, most of them east of
the Cascades, received
approval from the state last
week, including Umatilla
County.
The change also comes
just in time for harvest
season, which brings thou-
sands of jobs to the area.
Morrow County Public
Health Director Nazario
Rivera said harvest season
can bring as many as 8,000
workers to the region
annually.
“We want to make sure
we get some of these vul-
nerable communities,” he
said. “We know with the
season changing to spring,
a lot more farmworkers
are going to be out there.
So if we can get them
now, before the season
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Staff at a COVID-19 mass vaccination clinic at the Sage Center in Boardman administer doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
A driver waits in an observation area after receiving a dose of the
COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination clinic at the Sage Center in Board-
man on Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
starts, it’ll be a lot easier
to get them vaccinated,
rather than having to ask
them to take time out of
their busy schedules to
come get a vaccine.”
It’s a workforce
that drives the region’s
economy, but is widely
known to place workers,
many of whom are His-
panic and Latino, at
increased risk of infection.
In Morrow County,
Hispanic residents have
accounted for 57% of the
county’s total COVID-19
cases, according to data
provided by county health
offi cials earlier this month.
About 38% of Morrow
County’s population is His-
panic, according to 2019
U.S. Census data.
Similar trends have
been reported in Uma-
tilla County, where resi-
dents reporting Hispanic
ethnicity accounted for
41% of the county’s total
COVID-19 cases in 2020,
AMBULANCE
fi eld hospitals where low-
er-risk patients are sent
while recovering from the
virus when hospitals are at
capacity.
“We did see some pretty
sick COVID patients,
although they’re now on the
road to recovery,” he said.
There also are COVID
infusion centers, such as in
California where the state
health authority is trying
experimental medication
to help with symptoms of
the virus, he said.
Cariss said in an inter-
view that he’s only been
with Med Transport since
September 2020. He’s
been living in Enter-
prise since 2017, primarily
working as a paramedic,
but also doing wildland
fi refi ghting.
He got started with Med
Transport while working
part time in eastern Uma-
tilla County and Arvidson
called where he was
working looking for addi-
tional staff .
He said he likes the
type of work since it gives
him plenty of time off to
spend with his wife.
“It’s not guaranteed
work; it’s contract work,”
he said. “It’s hit-and-miss
stuff .”
He said it works well
The idea for the study
traces back to 2019, when
OSU fi rst established the
Global Hemp Innovation
Center.
Jay Noller, the center
director, approached
Serkan Ates, an assis-
tant professor specializing
in sustainable pasture
management, to discuss
whether processed hemp
byproducts could be fed to
animals. Ates said he was
intrigued, and partnered
with Bionaz to examine
the product’s nutritional
content.
What they found was
hemp biomass has roughly
the same protein content
as alfalfa, and roughly
the same fi ber content as
barley. In some attributes,
Ates said hemp was nutri-
tionally superior to the tra-
ditional feeds.
“There was this great
potential,” Ates said.
“Many of the livestock
farmers, they are inter-
ested in some sort of
cheaper feed source.”
With those traits in
mind, the team worked
up several proposals and
received more than 10
tons of donated biomass
from two Oregon-based
extractors.
Last year, Ates fed
the material to lambs for
two months. Their diets
included a mix of 10% and
20% hemp, along with a
control group.
One question, Ates said,
was whether the animals
would even eat hemp. Not
only did they eat it, but he
said the group that was fed
10% hemp ate more than
any other group.
The lambs have since
been slaughtered, and their
meat will be lab tested for
the presence of residual
cannabinoids such as CBD
or THC.
Those results, Ates said,
will be key for future FDA
authorization of hemp as
animal feed.
A second trial, this time
feeding hemp to cows at
the OSU Dairy Farm in
Corvallis, is set to begin
in late April. Similar to
the lamb study, the team
will feed hemp biomass to
cows for two months, and
then test for residual can-
nabinoids in the animals’
milk and meat.
In announcing the
USDA grant for the project,
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden
said the research could
potentially be a big win for
farmers and ranchers across
the country.
“This OSU research
will help to continue
building the case for fed-
eral approval of hemp
biomass on cattle farms,
making a natural connec-
tion between two signature
Oregon products — live-
stock and hemp,” Wyden
said.
Jenifer Cruickshank,
who works with OSU
Extension Service as the
regional dairy faculty for
the Willamette Valley,
said she is also contacting
ranchers and consumers to
gauge public acceptance of
consuming products from
animals fed with hemp.
Cruickshank is working
with Juliana Ranches,
another extension spe-
cialist at OSU’s Eastern
Oregon Agricultural
Research Center in Burns,
to survey producers. Their
feedback will be included
as part of the overall study.
Continued from Page 1B
him in Central Oregon,”
Arvidson said in the
release. “He’s a compe-
tent paramedic and is cur-
rently fi nishing up his crit-
ical-care certifi cations
while on deployments.”
While Med Transport
used to chiefl y do interfa-
cility transfers, the service
got heavily into wildfi re
relief and, last year, doing
vaccination clinics. Of
late, Cariss said, he’s been
to California and New
Jersey doing such clinics.
“They’re all over the
place,” he said. “Wherever
the federal government
asks to have resources
sent.”
Med Transport is get-
ting involved with a
variety of activities to
combat the pandemic.
The press release men-
tioned COVID step-down
units that, Cariss said, are
HEMP
Continued from Page 1B
alfalfa hay, long considered
the gold standard of animal
forages, especially for dairy
cows.
“Personally, when they
told me about hemp, I
didn’t even know what the
plant looked like,” said
Bionaz, an associate pro-
fessor of dairy nutrige-
nomics at OSU. “The more
we analyzed, we were
really amazed by the nutri-
tive value.”
Rich in protein, fi ber
and minerals, hemp bio-
mass appears to have
promise as a cheaper alter-
native animal feed. It
could also provide hemp
farmers with an added rev-
enue stream, turning what
was a waste product into a
cash crop.
But therein lies the
challenge, Bionaz said
— hemp is not currently
approved for animal feed
by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. He hopes
their research will generate
the data needed for the
FDA to take that next step.
“The more I study the
plant, the more I see data,
I get more enthused about
it,” Bionaz said.
Med Transport/Contributed Photo
Med Transport takes trauma patients from local Eastern Oregon intensive care units and emergency depart-
ments to trauma centers throughout the Northwest.
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