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4 CapitalPress.com April 3, 2015 OSU expert says farmers would swamp pot market Growers already produce more than state consumes Oregon State’s Master Gardeners won’t offer pot growing advice By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press Pot quality would suffer and Oregon’s conventional farmers would swamp the market if they turned their skill, equipment, land and infrastructure to marijuana production, an Oregon State University expert says. Seth Crawford, who teach- es a pot policy class at OSU, said Oregon already produces far more high-quality canna- bis than the state consumes, and could meet the state de- mand on 35 acres of farmland in Southern Oregon. Crawford said Oregon’s growers could supply the total U.S. cannabis market on just 5,000 acres. “Throw in another 500 and you’d cover Canada, too,” Crawford said. He said Oregon now grows the best pot in the country at reasonable prices, and quality would decline if large grow- ers jumped into the business. Existing growers have refined their techniques over 20, 30 or 40 years, in some cases, he said. “There’s a difference be- tween large-scale agricultural producers and these marijuana producers,” he said. “They’re still small scale compared to a 10,000-acre wheat ranch. The way the Oregon market evolved was thousands of By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press Courtesy of Oregon State University Seth Crawford, who teaches a pot policy class at OSU, says cannabis is Oregon’s most valu- able crop and is widely exported. Pamplin Media Group small growers producing high quality products and unique products. You couldn’t do it on an industrial scale.” There don’t appear to be any conventional farmers clamoring to jump into the market. And for now, seeding the back 40 with sativa isn’t legal. The Oregon Liquor Con- trol Commission, which will regulate wholesale commer- cial production under Mea- sure 91, has yet to draft spe- cific rules. The law, which was ap- proved by voters in the No- vember 2014 election and takes effect July 1, allows individuals to possess up to eight ounces of pot and grow up to four plants per house- hold for personal use. As pot prohibition laws be- gin to recede nationally, how- ever, the prospect of bigger markets and industrial-sized grow operations occasionally comes up in casual, just-won- An OSU pot policy expert says conventional farmers would swamp the market if they got into large-scale commercial marijuana production. Existing growers, he says, already produce more than is consumed in Oregon. dering type of conversations, some producers say. What if Oregon’s grass seed growers decided to grow the other kind of grass? What if the state’s nursery operators turned their greenhouse expertise to mari- juana production? Crawford said they shouldn’t bother, because supply already outstrips de- mand. Crawford said cannabis — unofficially — is Oregon’s most valuable crop, with an estimated annual value ap- proaching $1 billion. Based on his surveys of legal and illegal growers, the state’s “internal marijuana demand” in 2014 was about 150,628 pounds. At $150 an ounce, that’s $361 million. Medical marijuana grow- ers grew and exported 391,694 pounds above the Oregon demand, worth $587 million, Crawford said. That makes the farm gate value of Oregon’s pot exports alone greater than the combined value of hazelnuts, pears, wine grapes, Christmas trees and blueberries, according to Crawford’s estimates. Crawford said his figures are based on self-reported data from growers he reached through a “chain referral” sur- vey technique, in which the first respondents invite oth- ers in their social network to take part, and the sample size grows in a snowball fashion. Still, the underground nature of the industry makes it diffi- cult to get precise information, Crawford acknowledged. Bruce Pokarney, spokes- man for the Oregon Depart- The Master Gardeners program offered through Oregon State University Extension is well-regarded for the advice, workshops, garden tours and demon- strations its volunteers provide to people learning how to grow and care for plants. But don’t expect Master Gardeners to provide mar- ijuana tips when Measure 91 takes effect July 1 and Oregonians are allowed to grow up to four plants per household. A policy adopted by OSU notes that the uni- versity receives federal funding, and the feds still ment of Agriculture, said the department has no way to as- sess the state’s cannabis crop value. “But, assuming the OSU numbers are correct, marijuana would likely be at the top of the list of commod- ities in terms of production value,” he said in an email. The department assists other commodity groups with research, marketing and reg- ulations, but is in a holding pattern as the Legislature decides how to implement classify cannabis as illegal. The university and its ex- tension programs are gov- erned by the federal Con- trolled Substance Act, the Drug Free Workplace Act and the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act. To avoid the risk of losing federal funding, the policy states, “OSU Exten- sion, staff and volunteers do not provide advice or referrals on the culture, care and/or use of marijua- na.” Because marijuana remains a federally con- trolled substance, OSU is not planning any courses on marijuana propagation, cultivation or production, the university said. Measure 91, Pokarney said. “Once the Legislature pro- vides direction, we will have a better idea of how we will be involved in supporting the industry.” Crawford teaches a sociol- ogy class titled, “Marijuana Policy in the 21st Century.” Students were asked to pro- duce a collectively-authored paper with their recommen- dations for how marijuana should be grown, sold and distributed in Oregon. Slugs remain a mystery, experts say State health agency More research needed on how to thwart the pests By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Courtesy of Robin Rosetta, OSU European red slugs are quite common in gardens and landscapes. but the lack of a clear cul- prit is one reason that more slug research is needed, ac- cording to summit partici- pants. In some years, a crop will be devastated by slugs despite the use of poison bait, but the same field will respond positively to treat- ment in other years, several growers said. Metaldehyde, a chemical commonly used to dessicate slugs, doesn’t always kill them, said George Hoffman, an OSU faculty research as- sociate. Those surviving mol- lusks are quick to develop an aversion to the slug bait, which varies in effective- ness depending on weath- er and crop conditions, he said. For example, it’s less ef- fective during low tempera- tures and harder for slugs to find in structurally “com- plex” mature field crops compared to those that have recently germinated, Hoff- man said. Young slugs also avoid metaldehyde granules in fa- vor of fungi and other food sources, so the chemical can be taken up by earthworms rather than the target pest, experts said. It’s unlikely that more toxic pesticides for slugs will come onto the market because of harmful collat- eral consequences for other species, said Paul Jepson, director of OSU’s Integrat- ed Plant Protection Center. Disrupting the pest’s reproduction with phero- mones or releasing natural predators are viable options, but these measures must be employed in concert to be effective, he said. “There are plenty of things that eat slugs and really love them, but the problem is they’re not suf- SAGE Fact #112 At the Tidewater Terminal in Boardman, cranes annually move more than 21,000 containers between barges and trucks. rewriting farmworker housing standards New rules could exceed federal requirements By DON JENKINS Capital Press OLYMPIA — Growers who provide housing for seasonal workers face ad- ditional costs to meet new standards proposed by the Washington Department of Health, farm groups and producers say. The department is ex- pected to soon revise regu- lations for temporary farm- worker housing. The rules will dictate everything from minimum living space to temperature settings for hot water tanks and refrig- erators. Health officials say the new rules, meant to protect workers, haven’t been final- ized and won’t be in effect for this growing season. But the department has released proposed rules that are drawing complaints from farm groups. In some ways, the pro- posed rules exceed federal standards set by the Occu- pational Safety and Health Administration. Growers have spent anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 per bed to satisfy federal rules and qualify to hire foreign workers on H-2A visas, Washington Farm Labor Association H-2A program manager Roxanna Macias said. Housing built under those standards should be exempt from the new rules, she said. “There needs to be a grandfather clause. If not, we’re going to lose a lot of beds and ultimately that’s going to impact our agri- cultural members and the industry as a whole.” The health department in 2014 licensed 266 tem- rop-6-26-5/#17 LEGAL 14-1/#6 PURSUANT TO ORS CHAPTER 87 Notice is hereby given that the following vehicle will be sold, for cash to the highest bidder, on 4/13/2015. The sale will be held at 10:00 am by ANDY’S TRUCK REPAIR 1395 INDUSTRIAL WAY WOODBURN, OR Freightliner Semi VIN=1FUYDSEB6YPH05512 Amount due on lien $6,155.00 Reputed owner(s) Mitchell Rickerd Trimac Equipment Leasing Legal-14-2-1/#4 Despite their close famil- iarity with the slimy pests, farmers in Oregon’s Willa- mette Valley continue to be baffled by slugs. Growers and researchers recently puzzled over the mollusk’s onslaught against numerous crops during Or- egon State University’s “Slug Summit,” held March 25 in Salem. Slugs have grown as a problem in recent de- cades but it’s debatable why they’re causing more damage, farmers and scien- tists from OSU and USDA agreed. Effectively thwarting the pest also remains a mystery. The decline of field burning and rise of no-till and reduced tillage farm- ing are sometimes blamed for increased slug numbers, creating better opportunities for the pest to find safe har- bor. However, some farm- ers reported persistent slug problems despite tilling heavily and burning fields. Other theories for the pest’s rise include climate change and the lower prev- alence of toxic pesticides, ficient,” Jepson said. Summit participants broached several other pos- sible control methods, in- cluding nematodes and dis- eases that affect slugs. Shutting off genes that are crucial to the slug’s life cycle with mollusk-specific “RNAi” pesticides was also discussed. For chemical manu- facturers to focus on the problem, they’d have to foresee a profitable return on investment for a mol- lusk-specific pesticide, said Sujaya Rao, an OSU field entomologist. Such a chemical would also have to work and be registered for a broad vari- ety of crops, which poses a challenge, she said. Dan Arp, dean of OSU’s College of Agricultural Sci- ences, said the university recognizes that slug re- search is a priority for farm- ers in the region. The university is seeking increased state funding for extension agents who could deal with the issue, he said. However, current proposals by key Oregon lawmakers would only raise funding for extension services enough to keep up with inflation, Arp said. Regardless of potential funding increases, new po- sitions may be created as existing OSU faculty mem- bers retire, he said. The university may also desig- nate a “strike team” of ex- isting professors and agents to help study and control slugs. “We need this coordinat- ed effort, it has to be done that way,” Arp said. Don Jenkins/Capital Press Okanogan County Farm Bu- reau President Jon Wyss looks at handouts on farmworker housing March 26 after a Sen- ate work session in Olympia on rules proposed by the Washing- ton Department of Health. porary farmworker resi- dences, with 16,633 beds. The department’s direc- tor of health facilities, Lisa Hodgson, said the agency based its proposed rules on meetings with agricultural groups and worker advo- cates. “Some of the areas we exceeded (federal stan- dards), we heard from the advocates that they want additional standards put into place to protect the workers,” she said. As proposed, the new rules would require grow- ers to provide more toilets than mandated by OSHA. The rules also would impose new requirements for locks on bathroom doors, partitions between kitchens and sleeping ar- eas, fire extinguishers, rails on bunk beds, and smoke and carbon monox- ide detectors, A lawyer who represents farmworkers, Dan Ford of Columbia Legal Services, said the proposed rules don’t go far enough in some cases. There should be at least one shower per six workers, not the proposed 10 work- ers, and housing should be cooled to at least 80 de- grees, not the proposed 90 degrees, he said. The health department proposes to adopt the fed- eral standard of 100 square feet of living space per worker. Ford said that’s too tight for physical and men- tal health. “Even the OSHA standards are not humane,” he said.