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.
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