March 27, 2015
CapitalPress.com
3
Klamath water transfer bill draws suspicion
Opponents fear
legislation would
ratify controversial
water deal
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — Irrigators in
Oregon’s Klamath Basin are
seeking more flexibility in
how they manage water due to
concerns of looming drought
in the region.
However, legislation that
would allow Klamath irrigators
to transfer or lease water rights
has met with suspicion from op-
ponents of a controversial dam
removal project.
Currently, water transfers
and leases aren’t permitted in the
Klamath Basin because the own-
ership of water rights in the region
is still being legally adjudicated.
Senate Bills 206 and 264
would permit such transfers
for water rights that have al-
ready been quantified and al-
low state regulators to partic-
ipate in a “joint management
entity” with irrigators in the
upper Klamath Basin as part
of a legal settlement.
“We want to have the same
flexibility that other landowners
in the state do,” said Greg Add-
ington, executive director of the
Klamath Water Users Associa-
tion, during a March 23 legisla-
tive hearing.
Klamath Basin irrigators
must already leave water in-
stream for federally protected
fish, but allowing them to tech-
nically lease that water would
avoid the risk of forfeiting water
rights, he said.
“This is putting the basin on
equal footing with the rest of the
state,” said Richard Whitman,
natural resources advisor to Or-
egon Gov. Kate Brown.
While the bills refer to two
legal settlements between irri-
gators, tribes and conservation-
ists, the legislation in “no way”
represents a codification or rat-
ification of those agreements,
Whitman said.
Opponents of those broader
Klamath deals — which allo-
cate water use and require the
removal of four hydroelectric
dams, among other provisions
— claim that SB 206 and SB
264 are necessary for the legal
settlements to proceed.
“They are integral parts
and pieces of them,” said Tom
Mallams, a Klamath County
commissioner and opponent of
dam removal, during the Senate
Committee on Environment and
Natural Resources hearing.
Proponents claim removing
four dams from the Klamath
River would restore water qual-
ity and hyrdrological function,
but critics say it would release
toxic sediments and reduce prop-
erty tax revenues for counties.
Farmers who rely on the
Klamath Irrigation Project and
those who are upstream of it
have signed two separate water
use deals with tribes, which hold
“time immemmorial” water
rights in the region.
However, those deals still
hinge on dam removal and fed-
eral funding for environmental
restoration efforts.
Mallams said that local res-
idents continue to oppose dam
removal and claimed that farm-
ers have signed onto the broader
settlements under duress as they
fear losing the ability to irrigate.
$2 million bee health Oregon’s changing FFA elects new leaders
package sought
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — Oregon law-
makers are thinking of spend-
ing $2 million for pollinator
research, but a beekeeper
group is perturbed by some of
the legislation.
The legislative package —
House Bills 3360, 3361 and
3362 — would pay for a bee di-
agnostic facility at Oregon State
University and pollinator health
outreach efforts, with beekeep-
ers contributing part of the mon-
ey through an assessment of 50
cents per hive.
While the current bills don’t
specify funding levels, speak-
ers at a recent legislative hear-
ing said they envision about $1
million for four full-time staff,
$500,000 for equipment and
$500,000 for outreach during
the 2015-2017 biennium.
Beekeepers have been los-
ing roughly 30 percent of their
hives in recent years due to a
combination of factors, includ-
ing malnutrition, pests, diseas-
es, pesticides and low genetic
diversity, said Ramesh Sagili, a
bee entomologist at OSU.
“There is not a single good
explanation for this,” he said
during a March 19 hearing
before the House Committee
on Agriculture and Natural
Resources.
Last year, legislators direct-
ed a task force representing
beekeepers, pesticide users and
conservationists to examine
possible solutions to the prob-
lem, which resulted in the fund-
ing recommendations.
The Oregon State Beekeep-
ers Association is generally
supportive of the legislative
package but is troubled by
provisions in HB 3362, which
deals with registration and as-
sessments for beekeepers.
Harry Vanderpool, the
group’s vice president, said his
group objected to the bill’s re-
quirement that money collect-
ed from beekeepers be spent
on “honeybee and native bee
research.”
Beekeepers don’t rely on
native bees, so there’s no more
justification for using their as-
sessment fees on native pollina-
tor research than for spending
the money on salmon or oak
habitat, he said.
Funds from beekeepers —
expected to amount to about
$35,000 — should be directed
solely for honeybee research,
he said.
Committee Chair Brad Witt,
D-Clatskanie, said the bee-
keeper group could ask for
amendments to the bill but
cautioned that a perceived
lack of consensus could im-
peril the legislation.
Vanderpool said the cur-
rent language is too divisive
for the beekeeping communi-
ty, which is why he broached
the subject.
Other agricultural entities
benefit more directly from na-
tive pollinators, he said. “Those
revenue sources are there to be
identified and discussed.”
Rep. Greg Barreto, R-Cove,
said that paying for native bee
science seems to be justified
as there’s a public interest in
helping those pollinators.
SILVERTON, Ore. — Luis
Mendoza of Molalla High
School and Addie Howell
of Jefferson were elected
president and vice president
of Oregon FFA for 2015-16,
and will head a student orga-
nization that is growing and
changing.
Given the way delegates
danced to blaring hip hop
music during session breaks
at the state convention this
past week, FFA may stand
for Funky Farmers of Amer-
ica. Or, considering the in-
tense interest that has led
to an FFA chapter forming
at a deeply urban Portland
school, maybe call it Food
and Fiber of America.
Either way, FFA member-
ship in Oregon is about 5,600
students, up from 4,800 a
few years ago, and the orga-
nization’s breakaway from
state Department of Educa-
tion funding has paid off in
the form of industry support.
The result is an organiza-
tion that appears freshly vi-
brant while still rooted in the
FFA traditions of agricultur-
al education and leadership
training. The organization’s
intended message hasn’t
changed, either, said Kevin
White, executive director of
the Oregon FFA Foundation.
“Basically, FFA is life
changing,” White said.
Some farmers were indif-
ferent FFA members in high
school, of course, and some
weren’t members at all, but
others say they gained from
the experience.
“It taught me the impor-
tance of a firm handshake,
how to look people in the
eye when talking to them,
how to address people with
respect and how to speak in
public,” Willamette Valley
farmer Brenda Frketich said
in response to a Facebook
query.
Kathy Freeborn Hadley
said she and her husband,
Troy, were active in FFA as
high school students. Hadley
said she still farms Willa-
mette Valley fields she rent-
ed as part of her FFA project.
“Probably the biggest
benefit I gained was the
leadership and speaking
skills from attending con-
ferences and participating in
contests,” she said on Face-
book.
It wasn’t that long ago,
however, that Oregon FFA
faltered as public schools,
cramped for money, elimi-
nated the ag science, home
economics and shop classes
that often paralleled FFA in-
volvement.
In 2011, Oregon FFA be-
came financially indepen-
dent from the Oregon De-
partment of Education and
the Oregon FFA Foundation,
a nonprofit, was formed to
raise money from industry
sponsors. White, a former
California state FFA vice
president and national sec-
retary, was hired to run the
foundation.
White said FFA has three
main components: Classroom
instruction, supervised agri-
cultural projects and leader-
ship training. “It’s not just a
club on campus,” he said.
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
The 2015-16 Oregon FFA state officers are, from left: Sentinel
Bailey Myers, Reporter Ricky Molitor, Treasurer Alyssa Smith,
Secretary Joe Matteo, Vice President Addie Howell and Presi-
dent Luis Mendoza.
Rising interest in where
food and fiber come from
have helped the organization
grow, White said. “That’s
only making FFA more rel-
evant,” he said.
Madison High School in
Northeast Portland, with a
low-income, high-minority
student population, recently
formed a chapter. White said.
Although state funding
for FFA has been eliminated,
school districts are begin-
ning to re-establish career
and technical education, or
CTE, programs, said Reyn-
old Gardner,a specialist with
the state education depart-
ment. He credits Oregon
State University’s College of
Agricultural Sciences with
providing the “cultural lead”
in reviving the programs.
Students elected to state-
wide office are seniors, but
delay entering college to
spend a year traveling the
state working with local
chapters.
Mendoza, the newly elect-
ed president, said he met with
touring state officers when he
was a freshman.
“That definitely inspired
me,” he said. “I thought,
wow, I can do this. Follow
your dreams, don’t give
up.”
In addition to Mendoza
and Vice President How-
ell, other state officers are
Secretary Joe Matteo of
Sutherlin, Treasurer Alyssa
Smith of Elkton, Reporter
Ricky Molitor of Madras,
and Sentinel Bailey Myers
of Nyssa.
Oregon bill regulates use of livestock antibiotics
Capital Press
SALEM — Federal over-
sight of antibiotic use in livestock
production recently sparked de-
bate as Oregon lawmakers con-
sidered enacting state restric-
tions on such treatments.
Proponents of House Bill
2598, which would prohibit
treating livestock with “non-
therapeutic” doses of antibi-
otics, claim the legislation is
necessary because the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
doesn’t impose adequate limits
on the drugs.
Overuse of antibiotics is
causing resistance among patho-
gens, so using the medicine to
stimulate growth or to prevent
disease in livestock should be
stopped, said David Rosenfeld,
executive director of the OS-
PIRG consumer group.
Some antibiotics have al-
ready become less effective and
aren’t likely to be quickly re-
placed, he said during a March
24 hearing before the House
Committee on Agriculture and
Natural Resources.
“They’re not being devel-
oped at the same rate we’re los-
ing them,” Rosenfeld said.
The legislation would not
be rendered moot by the FDA’s
strategy of working with drug
manufacturers to phase out
some nontherapeutic antibiotic
use in livestock by the end of
2016, Rosenfeld said.
The federal program is vol-
untary and only ceases antibiot-
ic treatments meant to promote
growth — most nontherapeu-
tic use is aimed at preventing
diseases, so the FDA’s plan is
unlikely to significantly reduce
overuse, he said.
There’s currently no feder-
al statute restricting antibiotics
in livestock production, so the
FDA’s approach is vulnerable
to change under new presi-
dential administrations, said
Ivan Maluski, policy director
of Friends of Family Farmers,
a group that supports stronger
antibiotic regulations.
“We’re not necessarily con-
fident the solution is going to
come from Washington, D.C.,”
he said.
The Oregon Veterinary
Medical Association is also
concerned about antibiotic re-
sistance but believes HB 2598
falls short of its goals, said
Chuck Meyer, the group’s
president.
The bill would compromise
animal health by banning anti-
biotic use for disease preven-
tion, he said. Prevention is nec-
essary when dealing with herds
of animals rather than individu-
al people, Meyer said.
Proponents of HB 2598
oversimplify the FDA’s
strategy by characterizing it
as “voluntary,” said Richard
Carnevale, vice president
of regulatory, scientific and
international affairs for the
Animal Health Institute,
which represents drug man-
ufacturers.
The pharmaceutical indus-
try has agreed to cooperate with
FDA rather having the agency
go through with the formal pro-
cess of disallowing certain an-
tibiotic uses, which would drag
on for years, he said.
Companies are commit-
ting to antibiotic restrictions,
by which veterinarians and
farmers would have to abide,
Carnevale said. “Once this
takes place, those labels will be
changed forever.”
Of the 18 pathogens identi-
fied by the Centers for Disease
Control as posing an antibiotic
resistance threat, only salmo-
nella and campylobacter are
related to animal agriculture,
he said.
“In the whole scheme of
things, they don’t represent a
huge antibiotic resistance prob-
lem,” Carnevale said.
Apart from the ban on non-
therapeutic use, HB 2598 con-
tains other contentious provi-
sions: confined animal feeding
operations would have to report
antibiotic use to state regulators
and private citizens could file
lawsuits to enforce the law.
Proponents of the bill say
it’s necessary to track antibiot-
ic usage since the drugs could
still be used on healthy animals
during emergencies. As for the
lawsuits, proponents say the
law is meant to be “self-en-
forcing” and limit the role of
government.
Opponents counter that
the recordkeeping burden for
CAFOs is excessive and that
the lawsuit provision will spur
attorneys to seek out farmers
for litigation.
13-4/#4X
Bag needs?
Bag solutions!
SMITH PACKAGING
YOUR MAIN SUPPLIER FOR:
• Polyethylene Bags
• Polypropylene Bags
• Paper Bags
• Bulk Bags
• Stretch Films
• Hay Sleeves
• Mesh Produce Bags
• Plastic Pallet Covers
• Bag Closure Products
• General Warehouse
Supplies
Competitive pricing!
Great quality products!
Service you expect and trust!
rop-6-26-5/#17
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
NOW ALSO SERVING YOU IN
EASTERN WASHINGTON!
Call Ed Kropf:
509-936-2652
ed@smith-packaging.com
Halsey, Oregon
541-369-2850
www.smithpackagingservices.com
13-1/#5