April 10, 2015
CapitalPress.com
13
Vilsack: Enormous opportunity hinges on trade deal, TPA
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The U.S. could realize an additional
$123 billion in overall trade activity and
$11 billion in agricultural sales through
the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership
Agreement, but that won’t happen un-
less Congress grants President Obama
trade promotion authority, Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a con-
ference call with small business owners
last week.
He said TPP is an enormous op-
portunity to expand U.S. exports of
high-value agricultural products by
reining in foreign tariffs that run as high
as 200 percent in some of the other 11
negotiating countries, he said.
Asia alone is home to 525 million
middle-class consumers interested in
those U.S. products. That population is
forecast to grow to as much as 3.2 bil-
lion in the next 15 years — 10 times the
populations of the entire U.S., he said.
Without so-called “fast track” au-
thority, the president will have a diffi-
cult time concluding negotiations this
year, he said.
Deals made without such authority
are subject to amendment by Congress.
Trade promotion authority limits Con-
gress to an up or down vote on any pro-
posed pact.
Democrats and trade unions have
rallied strong opposition to the trade
pact and to granting trade promotion
authority to the president, contending a
wide array of policy issues in free trade
agreements — such as labor, health and
environmental standards — demand
more input from Congress.
They also argue granting trade pro-
motion authority will lead to a repeat of
previous trade deals that they say low-
ered U.S. wages and sent jobs overseas.
Ag organizations, however, have
largely supported both fast track and
the negotiations.
Vilsack said foreign agricultural
trade is critically important to both the
rural and national economies, with 30
percent of all U.S. agricultural sales
connected to exports.
The U.S. exported $152.5 billion in
agricultural products in fiscal year 2014,
and record agricultural export sales in
four of the last six years represents 1.1
million in U.S. jobs, Vilsack said.
In addition to the opportunity to in-
crease ag exports, TPP also offers the
opportunity to point out to the rest of
the world the need to continue to focus
on higher standards of labor, environ-
ment and intellectual property protec-
tion, he said.
“I think we have in front of us with
TPP negotiations a fundamental ques-
tion: whether we’re going to allow
the United States to lead that effort or
whether we’re going to cede that oppor-
tunity to China,” he said.
China is in the process of negoti-
ating an all-Asia trade agreement that
won’t be as concerned with reducing
trade tariffs or opening up opportuni-
ties for U.S. products and clearly won’t
address those higher standards, he said.
“So it’s important for us to get en-
gaged in this, and it’s important for
Congress now to provide this president
the same authority in terms of trade pro-
motion that every president’s had since
Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” he said.
There is serious, organized, vocal
opposition to TPA and trade agree-
ments, he said.
“We need a correspondingly well
organized and powerful counter mes-
sage, and that can come from small
business,” he said.
Nearly 300,000 small businesses
across the country are engaged in ex-
port activity, hiring people, maintaining
jobs and spreading the value of Ameri-
can system through trade, he said.
“These are powerful stories that
need to be told. It’s important that busi-
ness owners make their voice heard,”
he said.
Second major container carrier stops visiting Portland Blackleg
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)
— The Port of Portland
might be almost completely
out of the container business.
Hanjin Shipping left in
February, taking nearly 80
percent of the Port of Port-
land’s container business
with it. Now there’s concern
that Hapag-Lloyd, the other
major carrier, has ended Port-
land service.
“Although Hapag-Lloyd
has not made an official an-
nouncement or given notifi-
cation that it will no longer
be calling on Terminal 6, its
current vessel schedule does
not show any such calls for
the near future,” Elvis Gan-
da, CEO of port operator
ICTSI Oregon, told The Or-
egonian.
Not long ago, more than
1,000 businesses, primarily
in Idaho, Oregon and Wash-
ington, relied on the contain-
er terminal to get their goods
to or from international mar-
kets. Having to send cargo
by truck or rail to or from an
out-of-state port adds costs.
The Hanjin pullout hap-
pened amid continuing labor
turmoil at the Port of Port-
land.
ICTSI, a major global
ports operator, signed a 25-
year lease in 2010 to operate
the Port of Portland’s strug-
gling container terminal. It
represented the company’s
first venture in the Unit-
confirmed
in N. Idaho
canola fields
Researchers work to
protect Washington
brassica seed industry
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
A view of the Port of Portland is seen in this file photo. The port is losing a second container carrier.
ed States, and management
quickly clashed with Ameri-
can labor.
The union described the
operator’s labor-management
model as “authoritarian and
intimidation-based,” and said
worker morale was low.
Ganda said the workers
staged slowdowns to sabo-
tage the company and drive it
out of business.
Agriculture industry offi-
cials have expressed concern
that shipping goods from
Puget Sound will become
more expensive without Port-
land competing for the same
business.
Hapag-Lloyd represent-
ed about 20 percent of Port-
land’s container business, but
more than 90 percent of the
Port of Lewiston’s, upriver
in Idaho. Pea and lentil farm-
ers in Idaho ship their prod-
uct up the Columbia Snake
River channel to the Port of
Portland throughout the year,
except for the yearly lock
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
maintenance.
“Hapag-Lloyd has been a
wonderful supporter of peas
and lentils in our region for
decades, so it would be a
huge blow to our area if Ha-
pag-Lloyd were to discontin-
ue Portland,” said David Do-
eringsfeld, Port of Lewiston
general manager.
Blueberry farmers plan to fight diabetes in children
By MITCH LIES
Online
For the Capital Press
www.bbfamilyhealth.org
A nonprofit organization
founded by blueberry farm-
ers is launching a campaign
April 11 to raise awareness
of Type 2 diabetes and its
effects on child health.
The Blueberry Family
Health Foundation is tim-
ing the launch of its first
campaign with the April
11 opening of the Flori-
da Blueberry Festival in
Brookesville, Fla. Located
near Tampa, the area is one
of two communities serv-
ing as pilot-project sites
for the campaign. The oth-
er is Portland, where the
Blueberry Family Health
Foundation campaign will
be featured at the LifeWise
Oregon Berry Festival, July
17 and 18 at the Ecotrust
Event Space, 721 NW
Ninth Ave.
Blueberry farmers from
across the nation were be-
hind the formation of the
foundation in September
2013, including Fall Creek
Farm and Nursery in Lowell,
Ore.; Homegrown Organic
Farms in Porterville, Calif.;
Thomas Creek Farms, also
in Porterville; HBF Inter-
national in McMinnville,
Ore.; Agricare in Jefferson,
Ore.; Naturipe, Family Tree
Farms and Driscoll’s, all
from California; several
farms from Florida; a Mich-
igan farm; a British Colum-
bia farm; Atlantic Blueberry
Co. from Hammonton, N.J.;
and farms in Georgia, North
Carolina and elsewhere.
The organization’s board
of directors includes Amelie
Aust, owner and board mem-
ber for Fall Creek Farm and
Nursery; Karen M. Avinelis,
president of Thomas Creek
Farms and representatives
of the financial and diabetes
medical professions.
Kari Rosenfeld, sister
of Fall Creek Farm and
Nursery President Dave
Brazelton, serves as exec-
Kari Rosenfeld
utive director of the foun-
dation.
Rosenfeld has been ac-
tive in the diabetes commu-
nity since 1993, when her
7-year-old daughter was di-
agnosed with Type 1 diabe-
tes. Rosenfeld has extensive
management experience in
for-profit and nonprofit or-
ganizations and has created
and led national and inter-
national health-awareness
programs and campaigns,
including the American Di-
abetes Association Youth
Advocacy Program.
The foundation’s Acti-
vate the Awareness Cam-
paign includes messaging
through Florida Blueberry
Festival
advertisements,
which are being broadcast
across four regional tele-
vision stations and will air
approximately 800 times. It
will include message-shar-
ing with upwards of 60,000
festival attendees over the
course of the two-day festi-
val, and it will include dis-
tribution of coloring activi-
ty sheets to help kids learn
about eating a “healthy
rainbow of fruits and vege-
tables.”
Rosenfeld said the or-
ganization developed its
campaign materials with
help from leading pediatric
endocrinologists and nutri-
tionists.
“The plan is to leverage
our relationships in the local
health-care and community
organizations to post and
distribute these materials
in the venues where those
most at risk have access to
help, while at the same time
engaging local media to
raise awareness among care
providers and the general
public,” Rosenfeld said.
Rosenfeld characterized
the foundation’s work as
“a multi-year philanthrop-
ic strategic plan to raise
awareness of children’s risk
of Type 2 diabetes.”
“Because a key barrier
to prevention of Type 2 di-
“We have created a campaign to raise
awareness that 1 in 3 children are now facing
Type 2 diabetes, and that it is preventable.”
Kari Rosenfeld, executive director of the
Blueberry Family Health Foundation
abetes in children is lack of
awareness, we have created
a campaign to raise aware-
ness that 1 in 3 children are
now facing Type 2 diabetes,
and that it is preventable,”
Rosenfeld said.
The foundation is invit-
ing people to join and get
involved in its effort, espe-
cially healthy food and pro-
duce organizations.
“This organization is
open and eager to work with
all individuals and compa-
nies,” Rosenfeld said. “If
you want to help shine a
spotlight on a newly brew-
ing health epidemic where
your products are part of
the solution, we are eager to
talk about how to scale the
program and impact your
community,” she said.
Researchers have con-
firmed the fungal disease
blackleg in 10 of 11 canola
fields in northern Idaho.
The effect ranges from 1
percent to 30-40 percent of
the fields, said Karen Sow-
ers, outreach specialist for
oilseeds for Washington State
University Extension.
“I don’t think it’s necessar-
ily cause for a panic attack but
since last spring, we’ve been
upping the education cam-
paign on awareness,” she said.
Blackleg affects brassica
crops, including canola and
rapeseed.
Tim Paulitz, USDA Ag-
ricultural Research Service
plant pathologist, believes
blackleg has likely estab-
lished in the area from Mos-
cow to Grangeville, after
isolated incidents in Bonners
Ferry in 2009 and near Lewis-
ton last fall.
“It’s at the point where
those growers are going to
have to manage it,” Paulitz
said.
Sowers and Lindsey du
Toit, a WSU vegetable seed
pathologist, say this outbreak
isn’t as bad as a blackleg out-
break in Oregon’s Willamette
Valley last year.
Du Toit said farmers
should only buy certified,
treated seed that’s been tested
for blackleg.
In the vegetable seed in-
dustry, blackleg is a zero-tol-
erance pathogen, du Toit said.
Sowers
recommends
growers check their fields,
examining leaves and stems
for lesions. Fungicide can be
applied.
“It won’t kill the disease
if it’s already there, but it will
prevent non-infected plants
from getting infected,” Sow-
ers said.
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