2B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
BUSINESS & AG LIFE
Agricultural exporters
want DOT to address
shipping challenges
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
WASHINGTON —
Nearly 300 groups rep-
resenting agricultural
exporters, farmers and
ranchers are appealing to
the U.S. Department of
Transportation to intervene
in “predatory and unrea-
sonable” practices by ocean
carriers.
In a letter to U.S. Secre-
tary of Transportation Pete
Buttigieg, the groups said
carriers are declining to
ship U.S. agricultural com-
modity exports from U.S.
ports and imposing hun-
dreds of millions of dollars
in punitive charges already
determined to be unreason-
able by the Federal Mari-
time Commission.
“The burden on hard-
working exporters, manu-
facturers, farmers, ranchers
and our rural commu-
nities is overwhelming.
We urge the Department
of Transportation to uti-
lize all existing authorities
to remedy the challenges
experienced by U.S. agri-
cultural exporters,” they
said.
The groups said the
ocean shipping industry,
which once had dozens of
carriers, has consolidated
over the last three decades.
A result of that consolida-
tion is complete reliance on
less than a dozen foreign
carriers to deliver U.S. agri-
cultural products overseas.
“The tenuous nature of
this arrangement is evident
as VOCCs (vessel-oper-
ating common carriers) are
delivering massive volumes
of imported shipments
to U.S. ports and then
electing to leave without
refi lling empty containers
with American goods and
products.
The lucrative freight
rates paid by the import
cargo, combined with con-
gestion and delay at ports
on the West and East Coasts
are leading VOCCs to
immediately return empty
containers to their overseas
ports of origin, they said.
“The situation is exac-
erbated by carriers’ failure
to provide accurate notice
to our exporters of arrival/
departure and cargo loading
times, and then imposing
draconian fi nancial pen-
alties on the exporters for
‘missing’ those loading
windows — a practice that
the FMC has found to be
unreasonable,” they said.
Foreign markets are crit-
ical to American farmers
and ranchers with more
than 20% of agricultural
production going abroad. It
is cost prohibitive for pro-
ducers to rework the supply
chain and fi nd alternative
means of fulfi lling their
overseas contracts, they
said.
“This impossibility cou-
pled with signifi cant pricing
increases explains estimates
of nearly $1.5 billion in lost
agriculture exports. These
losses come on the heels of
trade confl ict and pandemic
that have wiped away mar-
kets globally,” they said.
The mounting frustra-
tion of U.S. agriculture is
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021
BAKERY
Continued from Page 1B
Associated Press, File
This undated photo shows Ter-
minal 18 at the Port of Seattle. A
group of nearly 300 groups rep-
resenting ag exporters, farmers
and ranchers are asking the U.S.
Department of Transportation to
intervene in the practices of ocean
carriers.
why a vast array of food
and agriculture associations
supported the Federal Mar-
itime Commission’s inves-
tigation to address VOCCs
predatory or unreasonable
behavior and its rule setting
forth guidelines for deten-
tion and demurrage, they
said.
“We need action now;
not additional studies. We
ask the Department of
Transportation to assist the
Commission in expediting
its enforcement options,”
they said.
The groups also urged
the department to consider
its existing authorities to
determine how it can assist
in overcoming the cur-
rent challenges in shipping
goods and products.
The groups sent copies
of the letter to USDA and
chairpersons of Senate
and House committees
involved in transportation
and commerce.
GRAZING
branding parties. Schreiber explained that
the cost of the cookie partially depends on
the size, number of colors used, whether
there is an air brush technique used or
she uses a projector. She cited the FFA
cookies she made for the state FFA offi -
cers as an example. The FFA emblem
is intricate and there are several colors
involved in each cookie.
They have made Valentine heart-
shaped cookies, shamrocks and beer mugs
decorated with green, foamy, white icing
for St. Patrick’s Day, tulips and eggs for
spring and the list seems to go on.
Their most popular cookie thus far?
Ear tag-shaped cookies that have been
ordered for several branding events.
There have even been Weeds of the
West cookies for someone who is a pesti-
cide applicator.
A popular cookie has been “the
Dipper,” a small cookie that is dipped in
buttercream icing. Rancho Road Bakery
also makes what they call their “Rustic
Ranch” cookie that Warnock describes
as, “a huge, almost half-pound chocolate
chip, dark chocolate and peanut butter,
cookie.”
For spring and summer, they will be
trying strawberry and lemonade cookie
varieties.
Although there is not that much sugar
in the cookies, Warnock said they easily go
through 50 pounds of fl our in a month and
a lot of powdered sugar.
Quality control has been in-house with
Warnock’s husband, Charlie, and her son,
Devin and Schreiber’s boyfriend, Matt,
all making sure nothing goes out that isn’t
top of the line.
They like to have a week’s notice for
orders especially if the cookies involve
diff erent techniques or multiple colors;
costs vary. If they can, they will try
to accommodate people’s requests for
Debi Warnock/Contributed Photo
Deidre Schreiber, a full-time student at Eastern Or-
egon University, La Grande, holds a plate of cookies
baked at the Wallowa County business — Rancho
Road Bakery — she and her mother, Debi Warnock,
started last year.
cookies, with shorter lead times.
“If we can, we’ll fi t them in,” said
Schreiber.
Orders can be made by texting,
through Instagram, calling or messaging,
and can be delivered within the area or
picked up at agreed-upon locations.
Although there are no plans in the
works for a brick-and-mortar location,
Rancho Road Bakery has plans for a
Cookie-of-the-Month project with themed
cookies and to set up at the Wallowa
County Farmers Market.
They have also experimented with
themed kits, which include the baked
cookies along with the frosting and dec-
orations for people to do their own
decorating.
Schreiber summed up their baking
endeavor in one short sentence. She
said Rancho Road Bakery is “local
cookies for local people.”
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Owyhee Cattlemen’s
Association, which have
argued the BLM’s actions
threaten to undermine
the important connection
between private property
and surrounding grazing
allotments.
Schroeder said the BLM
has in the past revoked
grazing preferences sep-
arately from grazing per-
mits, which simply allow
cattle to be released onto
government property.
In the case of Nevada
rancher Wayne Hage, an
icon of the “Sagebrush
Rebellion” against govern-
ment grazing restrictions,
12 years elapsed between
the two actions.
The government’s own
defi nition of grazing pref-
erence provides a prop-
erty with super-priority to
apply for grazing access
regardless of why a permit
was lost, Schroeder said.
“It doesn’t say it must
be an existing permit. It
doesn’t say it must be an
expiring permit,” he said.
Christine England,
ROBOTS
Continued from Page 1B
with the idea around 2018
when talking with friends
who farm. Mikesell had
previously worked on tech-
nology for Uber. After
hearing farmers’ frustra-
tions about labor, Mike-
sell set out to create robotic
weeders.
Carbon Robotics is still
small-scale. The company
produced about half a dozen
units in 2021. They quickly
sold out, and in 2022, the
company plans to produce
30 units.
Several farmers in Cal-
ifornia, Oregon, Wash-
ington, Idaho and New
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We're just west of I-84 (exit 261)
on Adams Ave at 20th St.
From left to right, Mike Hanley and his wife, Linda, stand with daughter
Martha Corrigan and her husband, John., at the family’s ranch near Jor-
dan Valley. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments
Monday, May 3, 2021, in the family’s lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of
Land Management.
attorney for the govern-
ment, argued that Han-
ley’s permit was canceled
for non-compliance with
grazing regulations and
thus “could not hold this
authority of renewal.”
When the permit is can-
celed, “the grazing pref-
erence is automatically
and simultaneously extin-
guished,” England said.
The BLM must invoke
a separate process to
cancel a grazing prefer-
ence only when a grazing
permit isn’t renewed after
a 10-year term, she said.
If that term is inter-
rupted because the permit
is canceled for non-compli-
ance, as in Hanley’s case,
the grazing preference is
lost as well, she said.
Mexico have already
pre-ordered them. One
New Mexico grower, James
Johnson of Carzalia Valley
Produce, pre-ordered four
robots after participating in
trials last year.
Mikesell, the CEO,
declined to name the price
of a robot, but said it’s
“approximately the cost of a
medium-sized tractor.”
Mikesell said most of
his customers have 4,000 to
15,000 acres, but the robots
can be used in smaller
farms. The units have
been tested with carrots,
asparagus, onions, broc-
coli, leafy greens and other
commodities.
Some farmers say they
hope the technology will
allow them to convert some
conventional acreage to
organic production.
Several groups that rep-
resent farm laborers have
expressed concern about the
rise of automation, saying
robots could eventually dis-
place agricultural workers
from their jobs.
But many industry asso-
ciations say they expect
agricultural automation to
continue expanding.
Johnson, the New
Mexico farmer, said he
“absolutely” sees automa-
tion as farming’s future.
Myers, of Owyhee Pro-
duce, agrees.
“We’re watching the
future,” Myers said, “right
now.”
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