February 13, 2015
CapitalPress.com
3
State’s first industrial
hemp license goes to a
Southern Oregon man
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Wash. potato growers serve Capitol spuds
Annual day brings
attention to
industry
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — The Wash-
ington potato industry served
up 110-calorie baked potatoes
Tuesday. What recipients did
after that was their business.
Salsa and broccoli were
available. So were chili, but-
ter, sour cream and cheese.
“We love to please every
taste,” Washington State Pota-
to Commission Executive Di-
rector Chris Voigt said. “The
potato is versatile.”
For every legislative ses-
sion for the past 17 years, the
commission has hosted Potato
Day, serving free spuds and
toppings in the Capitol Ro-
tunda. The 1,500 Russet Nor-
kotahs were going fast.
Potatoes, however, aren’t
moving as fast from West
Coast ports. The potato in-
dustry combines promotion
with politicking and came
to Olympia with taxes and
transportation projects on its
agenda. But the industry’s
most-pressing problem is the
port slowdowns as the Pacif-
ic Maritime Association and
International Longshore and
Warehouse Union bargain and
trade accusations.
Every potato Quincy grow-
er Rex Callowy produces is
processed into french fries.
And every potato he grew in
2014 remains in cool storage
on his farm. The potatoes will
keep through the summer, but
they had better be gone by
next fall when the 2015 crop
is ready to harvest, he said.
“I’m very, very concerned.
We need to get this product
moving,” said Callowy, who
helped top the potatoes.
Even when ports return to
normal, processors will need
time to take his potatoes and
empty his storage bins, Cal-
lowy said. “It’s not going to
get cleaned up immediately.”
Callowy said the potato
industry will talk to state law-
makers about the problem.
There may be little legislators
can do directly, but they can
join export-dependent busi-
nesses in urging the port slow-
downs to end.
“We need some sup-
port. We need to get people
talking,” he said. “We need to
come to a settlement.”
Voigt said Washington has
250 potato growers and about
60 percent of what they grow
is exported and 90 percent is
processed.
The potato industry sup-
ports renewing tax exemp-
tions for food processors. The
exemptions are due to expire
June 30. Gov. Jay Inslee has
proposed extending the tax
breaks for 10 more years.
Senate and House budget
writers will have to agree to
insert the exemptions in the
2015-17 budget.
The potato industry also has
an interest in transportation im-
provements, such as improving
the flow of traffic into the Seat-
tle and Tacoma ports and over
Snoqualmie Pass.
The potato industry also
supports legislation increas-
ing weight limits for new
truck tires with higher side-
wall strength ratings. Voigt
said the measure will allow
trucks to carry more potatoes.
Biotech critics claim GMO loophole will backfire
Limited USDA authority strengthens
argument for more regulation, critics say
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Critics say a loophole in
federal regulations for genet-
ically engineered crops will
backfire against biotech com-
panies.
Under current rules, USDA
can only restrict biotech crops
if they incorporate genes that
pose a possible plant pest risk.
Many common genetical-
ly modified crops relied on a
soil bacteria for gene trans-
fer and thus were regulated
until the agency determined
they weren’t a hazard to other
plants.
Since 2011, though, USDA
has allowed companies to free-
ly cultivate biotech crops with-
out any environmental analysis
because they’re not made with
genes from plant pathogens.
Recent examples include
varieties of glyphosate-resis-
tant tall fescue, a non-bruising
potato and a higher-density
pine tree.
These approvals of biotech
crops are a “trickle that turned
into stream” and undermine
claims by large biotech devel-
opers that genetically modified
organisms are robustly scru-
tinized by the federal gov-
ernment, said George Kim-
brell, attorney for the Center
for Food Safety, a group that
wants stronger biotech regu-
lations.
“They need the facade,”
Kimbrell said.
Most of the biotech crops
allowed to sidestep USDA’s
environmental reviews were
developed by universities and
small start-up companies, not
major agribusiness firms that
already dominate the market
for biotech seed.
Minimal USDA oversight
of GMOs that pose no plant
pest risk will create problems
for the mainstream biotech
industry, as it strengthens the
case for stronger regulations,
said Frank Morton, an organic
seed producer from Philomath,
Ore., who sued the federal
government over biotech sug-
ar beets.
Trading partners may disre-
gard USDA’s conclusions that
crops altered with “gene gun”
technology don’t fall under its
biotech jurisdiction, he said.
Export complications cre-
ated by unregulated biotech
grass varieties could prompt
calls for the Oregon Depart-
ment of Agriculture to step in
with state restrictions, he said.
Several such proposals
will be considered by Oregon
lawmakers during the current
legislative session, said Ivan
Maluski, policy director for
Friends of Family Farmers, a
group that supports stronger
GMO regulations.
The legislature pre-empted
local governments from set-
ting GMO rules in 2013 with
the idea that such regulations
should be statewide rather than
a county-by-county “patch-
work,” he said.
While Oregon lawmakers
have in the past been reticent
to broach the GMO issue, ad-
vocates for stronger regulation
can now hold their feet to the
fire, Maluski said.
The Biotechnology Indus-
try Organization believes that
federal agencies adequately
regulate biotech crops, includ-
ing those produced with gene
guns that aren’t considered
possible plant pests, said Clint
Nesbitt, the group’s director of
regulatory affairs for food and
agriculture.
Those that are resistant to
herbicides, like certain turf
grasses, would still need to be
approved by the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency, he
said.
“Current regulations cover
all the risk of biotech,” Nesbitt
said, adding that non-GMO
crops aren’t subject to any reg-
ulatory scrutiny.
Edgar Winters
Ron Pence, who oversees
the industrial hemp growing
program for the state agriculture
department, said the seed issue
is one of three tweaks the Legis-
lature may want to make during
the 2015 session.
As written, a 2009 state stat-
ute says hemp seed collected
in an Oregon harvest can only
be used to produce a new crop
— not crushed for oil or other
high-value products, for exam-
ple, or used as livestock feed.
Pence said the restriction ap-
pears to be an oversight.
Another issue is the require-
ment for a three-year growing
and handling license and a
three-year seed handling permit,
each of which cost $500 a year,
or $1,500 for the required three
years.
“A person could easily in-
vest $3,000 in a license and
permit before spinning a wheel
to produce hemp,” Pence said.
The fees may be restructured to
an annual basis, at $500 each,
so a person could try his or her
hand at it for a year at less ex-
pense.
A provision that requires a
minimum production area of 2.5
acres also may be reconsidered,
Pence said.
The Oregon Legislature
legalized hemp cultivation in
2009, but the law was never
implemented because the U.S.
Department of Justice classified
hemp the same as marijuana.
The federal classification re-
mains, but the justice depart-
ment has said it won’t interfere
in states that have legalized
hemp production if they adopt
a robust regulatory system. In-
dustrial hemp was included in
the November 2014 ballot mea-
sure that legalized recreational
marijuana use, possession and
cultivation.
rop-6-26-5/#17
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
The Washington State Potato Commission’s director of industry outreach, Matthew Blau, hands out a potato with the trimmings Feb. 10 in
the Legislative Building in Olympia as Quincy grower Rex Callowy, center facing camera, and the commission’s director of marketing and
industry affairs, Ryan Holterhoff, stand by to heap on more. The industry help its annual Potato Day at the Capitol.
A man who was issued the
first state permit to grow indus-
trial hemp said he and a nonprof-
it group of growers and activists
hope to plant a 25-acre field in
Southwest Oregon this spring.
Edgar Winters, of Eagle
Point, Ore., who describes him-
self as director of the Oregon
Agriculture Food & Rural Con-
sortium, acknowledged there
are problems obtaining seeds
for planting and other compli-
cations, but said he is optimistic.
Winters also said warehousing
and processing facilities will be
ready to go when a crop is har-
vested in late summer.
“We are in position to do
40 tons a day at our processing
mill,” Winters said. “We’ve got
our ducks in a row.”
Getting seed to plant is one
of the major hurdles. Importing
it requires the approval of the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Ad-
ministration, and the Oregon
Department of Agriculture and
Oregon State University are
working with the DEA on that
process. In addition, Winters
said a major Canadian hemp
company, Hemp Textiles Inter-
national, has breeders’ rights to
its seed and will not allow Or-
egon growers to retain seed for
planting. Meanwhile, the exist-
ing state statute requires hemp
seed produced in Oregon to be
replanted.
“We’re at a standstill,” Win-
ters said.
He said hemp seeds might be
available from Russia, Hungary,
Australia or New Zealand.
“We have to import to get
started,” Winters said. “We
don’t want our farmers to sit
around another year.”
Winters’ LinkedIn profile
lists him as self-employed and
the chief operations officer for
Natural Good Medicines. It also
lists him as a master gardener
and involved in research and
development services for indus-
trial hemp. He said people often
hear his name and mistake him
for Texas rock and blues musi-
cian Edgar Winter.
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