12 CapitalPress.com
February 20, 2015
Legislation was intended to provide economic opportunities
POULTRY from Page 1
The ag department now lists more
than 30 small on-farm, stand-alone
and mobile poultry processors.
The state legislation was intended
to provide new economic opportuni-
ties for small farms and to increase
consumer access to locally produced
meat, said Ivan Maluski, director of
Friends of Family Farmers, which
backed the bill along with the Oregon
Farmers’ Market Association.
“I think there is a recognition by
ODA and the Legislature that local
food, direct-to-consumer sales and
small farms are important parts of ag-
riculture in Oregon, and that market
demand for this is growing,” Maluski
said in an email. “We think that will
only increase as time goes on.”
USDA exemption
There’s a bigger commercial as-
pect blossoming as well. Processors
such as Harrington’s and Mineral
Springs Poultry, in Willamina, Ore.,
can take advantage of a “small enter-
prise” USDA exemption that allows
them to process up to 20,000 birds
annually without having to have an
on-site USDA inspector.
Under the exemption, people who
have their birds processed at facili-
ties such as Harrington’s or Mineral
Springs can then sell them not only
at farmers’ markets, but to grocery
stores and restaurants as well.
“When I started to do that, that
blew the doors wide open,” said
Nels Youngberg, owner of Miner-
al Springs Poultry. “Anybody who
raised a few chickens, they could take
their birds and go out and sell them.
That changed the game plan for a lot
of folks.”
Youngberg said about six years
ago he increasingly began doing
business with new farmers, usually
young people with a couple acres,
who would bring him a dozen, 20 or
100 chickens at a time for processing.
Some are primarily entrepreneurs,
looking to create income on the side,
while others are deeply concerned
about how grocery store food is
raised and processed.
“That creates a lot of fear,” Young-
berg said. “They find out it’s better to
raise their own meat, grow their own
vegetables — that’s been a major
thrust on it.
“I’ve seen a lot of them come and
go, but every year we get somebody
new,” he said.
Fargo, of the ODA, agrees. “I
think it’s partially the local food
movement,” he said. “People are
skeptical about raising chickens in a
confined environment, they’re con-
cerned about all the things involved
with that.”
So far, Oregon’s small processors
have operated without food safety
problems, he said.
‘A national thing’
Fargo said he’s received inqui-
ries from four or five other states
that are looking for ways to accom-
Photos by Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
A rooster, Fernando, awaits his fate at Harrington’s Poultry Processing near Boring, Ore. Small, custom meat processors have
found a niche market among backyard flock owners and local-food advocates.
After soaking in hot water, a few turns
in a tumbler removes feathers and the
bird is ready for cutting.
down in a “kill cone” and swiftly cuts
its throat to bleed him out.
The process
Oregon’s custom processors are often small operations on the edge of urban
areas. Customers include city residents who raise small flocks of chickens in their
back yards.
modate small farmers and small
processors. “It’s absolutely a na-
tional thing,” he said.
Proof of that may be the Niche
Meat Processors Assistance Net-
work, which shares information
among affiliates in 40 states.
Lauren Gwin, a small farms and
community food systems special-
ist with Oregon State University
Extension, is co-coordinator of
the network.
Consumers are interested in
pasture-raised poultry, sustain-
able production methods and hu-
mane treatment of farm animals,
Gwin said. In addition, occasion-
al salmonella outbreaks at large-
scale processing facilities have
“given some people pause.”
Despite that, small processors
may struggle to transition beyond
niche status, she said.
“Let’s be frank, convention-
al, mainstream meat production is
enormous,” Gwin said. “This type
of alternative meat … is very, very
small. How do you mainstream
some of this into more conventional
channels?”
But she said some small produc-
ers will accomplish that.
“They’re very entrepreneurial,”
she said. “These people will figure
out where they fit in the market.”
Back at Harrington’s Poultry Pro-
cessing, owner Scott Ogle makes
quick work of Fernando the rooster.
Ogle, a wise-cracking third-generation
“chicken killer,” places the bird upside
Ogle said he gets a mix of cus-
tomers, including one who brings
him a couple hundred chickens ev-
ery other week and sells to restau-
rants.
“I get a lot from in town,” he
said. “People bring me roosters be-
cause they can’t crow in town.”
A brief soak in hot water, fol-
lowed by a tumble in a metal drum
lined with rubber knobs, removes
Fernando’s feathers. The rooster’s
head and feet come off with quick
chops, and Ogle slides the carcass
to assistant Stephanie Morse for fi-
nal cleaning. Then it’s off to a chill-
ing bath.
By the time owner Leslie Stan-
den returns, Fernando is bagged and
ready to go.
“You want your liver, gizzard
and heart?” Ogle asks. Standen says
she does, and accepts her bagged
rooster with mixed feelings.
“Oh,” she says, “I should take
him home and bury him instead of
eat him.”
Piece rate case likely to change employment practices, lawyers say
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
Piece rate — the practice of
paying farmworkers by how
much work they do — like-
ly will be forever changed in
Washington as the result of a
Supreme Court case, regard-
less of how the court rules,
labor attorneys say.
An hourly wage plus a
bonus for a certain amount
of work is replacing piece
rate in California and would
be a safer way to go in Wash-
ington, said attorneys at the
Washington Farm Labor As-
sociation’s Workforce Sum-
mit and Labor Conference in
Wenatchee.
If growers lose the case,
back wages could be ordered
for three years which could
be a few hundred dollars for
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
From left: Roxana Macias, program manager of WAFLA; and labor at-
torneys, Jeanne Malitz, San Diego, Kristen Ferrera, Wenatchee, Leon
Sequiera, Washington, D.C., discuss H-2A visa guestworker issues.
workers, a few million dol-
lars for lawyers and $100
million or more for the in-
dustry, said Dan Fazio, an at-
torney and WAFLA director.
The Supreme Court will
hear arguments March 17 at
Heritage University in Top-
penish but is not expected to
rule until July or August.
At issue is whether piece
rate includes rest breaks that
workers take at their own
discretion. Workers may skip
the breaks in an effort to earn
more money. Legal services
representing
farmworkers
argue farmworkers should
be paid separately for rest
breaks on top of piece rate.
WAFLA, the Washington
State Tree Fruit Association
and Sakuma Bros. Farms of
Skagit County argue piece
rate includes rest breaks.
State law says employees,
whether hourly or piece rate,
shall be allowed 10 minutes
rest for every four hours of
work but doesn’t say em-
ployees have to take it, Fazio
said.
WAFLA
recommends
growers permit piece-rate
workers to take rest breaks,
to inform them that piece rate
includes rest breaks and to
get their signatures that they
have been so informed.
“If it were me, I would
blow a whistle and get every-
one out of the field and say
take a rest break,” Fazio said.
Then there’s no question, he
said.
Unless the whole industry
does that at the same time,
workers will simply quit
and go to another orchard
where breaks aren’t required
and they can keep working
to make more money, said
Brendan Monahan, a Yaki-
ma attorney. The issue is a
contrived money grab for
farmworkers by their legal
services, he said.
“No matter what the Su-
preme Court does, piece rate
will be changed forever. We
will have continual assault
by worker organizations, and
wage commission piece rate
that is performance-based
will be challenged,” Monah-
an said.
Of the $1.75 billion in monthly losses, $170 million is meat exports
PORT from Page 1
shippers accelerated in No-
vember, December and Jan-
uary, key export months for
apples, french fries, animal
feed and other commodities
bound for Asia and else-
where.
The $444 million per
week average in lost busi-
ness to agricultural shippers
does not account for eco-
nomic injury and job losses
in ancillary industries such
as processing, farming,
trucking and warehousing,
Friedmann said.
“So it’s not even close to
a total economic impact to
U.S. agriculture,” he said.
U.S. commodities also
are being displaced in glob-
al markets by competition,
and it won’t be easy to win
those markets back, he said.
Of the $1.75 billion in
monthly losses, Friedmann
said $170 million is meat
exports, including the loss
of new markets in South
Korea. About $185 million
in monthly losses is hides,
which are shipped to Asia
for processing.
Washington apples are
losing $40 million to $60
million per month in export
volume, said Tim Evans,
general sales manager of
Chelan Fresh Marketing.
Trucks sitting at the
ports awaiting unloading
cost growers more, he said.
Combined with a large ap-
ple crop, the slowdown is
depressing prices, he said.
The U.S. Forage Export
Council estimated West
Coast hay exporters lost
$25.6 million in November
alone.
Washington lost $23.5
million in frozen french fry
exports in November and
probably as much or more
during each month since,
the state Potato Commis-
sion has said.
U.S. containerized ag
exports shrank to $1.754
billion in November, down
from $3.483 billion in No-
vember 2013, Friedmann
said.
Last week, 359 Oregon
agriculture and forest prod-
uct companies and organi-
zations and 222 in Wash-
ington sent letters to their
congressional delegations
seeking help in resolving
the port dispute. Members
of Congress sent letters to
President Barack Obama,
who sent Labor Secretary
Ray Perez to San Francisco
to engage in the negotia-
tions, starting Feb. 17.
The same day, long-
shoremen at the Port of
Oakland shifted a stop-work
meeting from an afternoon
to a morning shift, shutting
down the port for Feb. 19.
Container ships remain
backed up at many West
Coast harbors waiting to
unload cargo from Asia and
load cargo for the return
trip.
“Agriculture is being
damaged, currently and
permanently. Our ability to
be dependable suppliers in
the global market is jeop-
ardized. Job losses and the
loss to family farms and
businesses is unconsciona-
ble,” Friedmann said.
Groups hopeful
Brown will
keep Coba as
ODA director
BROWN from Page 1
engaging with us,” said Paulette
Pyle, grass roots director for Ore-
gonians for Food and Shelter, an
agribusiness group.
Farm groups are hopeful that
Brown will keep Katy Coba as
the director of the Oregon Depart-
ment of Agriculture, a position
she has served in since 2003.
The industry appreciates Co-
ba’s even-handed approach in
dealing with controversial issues,
said Rowe. “She has a good feel
for what is good for agriculture
and what is not.”
Dick Pedersen, director of Or-
egon’s Department of Environ-
mental Quality since 2008, also
has a positive relationship with
the agricultural industry and will
hopefully be retained by the new
administration, said Jim Welsh,
lobbyist for the Oregon Cattle-
men’s Association and the Oregon
State Grange.
Kitzhaber’s natural resources
policy director, Richard Whit-
man, has been a “great bridge”
among various stakeholders af-
fected by government policy
since his appointment in 2011,
said Jeff Stone, executive direc-
tor of the Oregon Association of
Nurseries.
“We have enormous faith an
trust in him,” Stone said, adding
that he hopes Whitman will con-
tinue to serve in his current role
under Brown.
While it’s often best for a
chief executive to get settled be-
fore making dramatic changes,
it’s common for a new leader to
replace top advisers, said Rowe.
“Any time you see a new person
come into a position, you see a
turnover in staff.”
The Oregon Farm Bureau was
excited that Kitzhaber proposed
an aggressive water supply strate-
gy in his biennial budget, said Ka-
tie Fast, vice president of public
policy for the group.
Kitzhaber wanted to invest
nearly $55 million to develop
water resources in Oregon in the
2015-2017 budget.
While the former governer was
leading the push for funding, leg-
islators have also been engaged in
the effort, said Fast.
“My hope is the water package
continues to be in play,” she said.
Another important compo-
nent of Kitzhaber’s budget was
an investment of $45.6 million
on “working forests and farms,”
which included money for im-
proving watershed health and
sage grouse habitat.
It remains to be seen whether
this proposal will have the same
momentum under Brown, said
Fast.
Water supply development still
has the potential to be a bipartisan
issue that lawmakers from regions
around Oregon can get behind,
said Roger Beyer, executive di-
rector of the Oregon Seed Council
and lobbyist for the Oregon Dairy
Farmers Association and the Ore-
gon Blueberry Commission.
“There is not a community in
the state that does not face water
issues at some time of year,” Bey-
er said.
Environmental groups say
they’re heartened by Brown’s vot-
ing record in the state legislature.
In the short term, though, her
ability to steer the legislative ses-
sion will likely be muted, said Jes-
sica Moskovitz, communications
director for the Oregon Environ-
mental Council.
At this point in the 2015 ses-
sion, Oregon lawmakers have set
their priorities and it’s unlikely
that Brown could seriously al-
ter those even if she wanted to,
Moskovitz said. “I don’t expect
that to significantly change.”
Moscovitz said the new
governor should persist with
Kitzhaber’s environmental goals
related to clean fuels and renew-
able energy.
However, Brown should take a
new direction in forest policy, said
Sean Stevens, executive director
of the Oregon Wild environmen-
tal group.
Kitzhaber was on board with
proposals to increase logging on
federal lands in the state that Or-
egon Wild opposed, Stevens said.
“We’re hopeful as governor,
Brown will take a pause on
some of those efforts,” he said.
Stevens said reforms to the
Oregon Forest Practices Act,
which governs logging, will
meet with greater success under
Brown.
“That’s really something that
hasn’t been given attention the
last couple decades,” he said.