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NORTH CASCADE GRIZZLY BEAR RESTORATION CONSIDERED U.S. Department of the Interior will hold a series of informational open houses in coming weeks Page 7 Capital Press The West s Weekly FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2015 VOLUME 88, NUMBER 8 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM $2.00 Farm groups watch for changes under new governor SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT SMALL PROCESSORS GET A BIG BOOST Ag lobbyists hope Brown will keep key agency offi cials By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Photos by Eric Mortenson/Capital Press Scott Ogle checks a line of processed chickens that await bagging. The number of custom processors in Oregon is increasing rapidly. USDA exemption, change in Oregon law opens doors for poultry slaughterhouses themselves and process them on site. The legislation changed Oregon law to line up with the federal standard, which says producers are exempt from mandatory USDA inspection and can sell uncooked poultry on the farm and at farmers’ markets if they stay below the 1,000-bird threshhold. By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press BORING, Ore. — Fernando the rooster is doomed, no way around it. Owner Leslie Standen says the “Latin lover” has been bothering the ladies in her backyard fl ock and bossing around her other rooster, Henry, who has tenure. “So my hand-fed rooster is going to be dinner,” she said. Which is how she and Fernando ended up at Harrington’s Poultry Pro- cessing, 25 miles east of Portland. Harrington’s is one of the old guard in a rapidly growing sector of ag ser- vices: Small-scale slaughterhouses ei- ther operated by or catering to small farmers. Some also fi nd themselves doing the dirty work for urban hip- An ‘olive branch’ Scott Ogle dispatches chickens, includ- ing Fernando the rooster at far right. Ogle places chickens upside down in a “kill cone” and swiftly cuts their throats. sters who raise backyard fl ocks. A 2011 change in Oregon law freed poultry processors from state licensing if they handle no more than 1,000 birds per year, raise the birds “It was the fi rst olive branch to small farmers from the Oregon Legis- lature,” said Will Fargo, a food safety specialist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture who works with small- scale processors. “It’s one of the great- est success stories for small farmers. It’s allowed a lot of small farmers to get their products to market.” Turn to POULTRY, Page 12 Leslie Standen says farewell to her rooster, Fernando, after delivering him to a custom processor. “So my hand-fed rooster is going to be dinner,” she says. SALEM — With a new governor taking offi ce in Or- egon, farm groups are watch- ing for a possible domino effect of lead- ership change in natural re- source agen- cies. Agricultural lobbyists are also waiting Brown to see if Gov. Kate Brown will push for key policies es- poused by her predecessor, former Gov. John Kitzhaber, who planned to champion funding for increased water storage and other rural issues before his recent abrupt resig- nation. Over the course of Kitzhaber’s three terms, the farm industry had acquired a strong sense of his environ- mental policies that affect agriculture, said Blake Rowe, CEO of the Oregon Wheat Commission. “We don’t have a feeling about how Kate Brown feels about these same issues,” he said. Brown has a degree in en- vironmental law and a record of supporting environmental causes — earning a positive “score” of 87 percent from the Oregon League of Con- servation Voters — but farm industry lobbyists say they’re optimistic she’s not biased against agricultural interests. “We have no reason to be- lieve she won’t be open and Turn to BROWN, Page 12 Ag losses mount from port slowdown By DAN WHEAT Capital Press Agricultural shipments from West Coast ports are running at about 50 percent of the normal volume, and exporters have lost an esti- mated $1.75 billion in busi- ness during each of the past two months alone, according to the Agriculture Transpor- tation Coalition. Losses may continue at that level until work at the ports returns to normal, said Peter Friedmann, the coali- tion’s executive director. The International Long- shore and Warehouse Union and the terminal operators, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association, are in the eighth month of contract negotiations. They blame each other for the associat- ed work slowdown that has halved the number of con- tainer shipments at the 29 West Coast ports. Losses for agricultural Turn to PORT, Page 12 Container terminal operations at the Port of Portland, pictured in this Cap- ital Press fi le photo, and other facilities on the West Coast have suffered from serious congestion that is impeding Mateusz PerkowskiCapital Press fi le agricultural exports. THIS WEEK IN THE CAPITAL PRESS IMMIGRATION Obama immigration action creates pitfalls for employers So you’re an employer and an employee asks for your help in applying for a work permit granted under President Obama’s controversial immigration executive actions. Page 3 8-4/#5
