April 24, 2015
CapitalPress.com
3
GMO control area proposal dies in Oregon House
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — A bill to create
“control areas” for increased
regulation of genetically
modified crops in Oregon has
died in committee, but the
basic idea may be revived.
House Bill 2674 would re-
quire the Oregon Department
of Agriculture to designate
control areas where biotech
crops would come under
new restrictions, such as iso-
lation distances to prevent
cross-pollination with other
crops. Genetically modified
organisms growing outside
control areas would be “sub-
ject to eradication.”
Rep. Brian Clem, D-Sa-
lem, said the bill was too nar-
row in scope to keep alive,
since Oregon agriculture
faces other conflicts between
crops that don’t involve ge-
netic engineering.
For example, growers
have similar cross-pollina-
tion concerns about canola
and related brassica species
and between the newly legal-
ized crops of hemp and mari-
juana, he said.
While Clem allowed the
bill to die during an April 21
work session of the House
Committee on Rural Com-
munities, Land Use and Wa-
ter, he said there will be an
ongoing effort to create a tool
for ODA to resolve such dis-
putes.
It’s possible such a pro-
posal will be considered by
the House Rules Committee,
where bills can stay alive un-
til the end of the legislative
session.
Oregonians for Food
and Shelter, an agribusiness
group that supports biotech-
nology, is heartened that HB
2674 has died in committee
Maiden season for new apple line
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
EAST
WENATCHEE,
Wash. — McDougall & Sons
Inc. began operating its new
multi-million dollar apple pack-
ing line eight months ago, just
in time to help handle its share
of the industry’s largest crop on
record.
The 39-year-old Wenatchee
company typically packs about
3 million 40-pound boxes of ap-
ples in a season but this year had
an extra 500,000.
The new line, at double the
speed of the old line, enables the
company to pack the additional
volume while maintaining two,
eight-hour shifts per day, five
days a week, said Bryon Mc-
Dougall, director of operations.
Without it the company
would have extended its shifts to
10 to 12 hours, six days a week,
costing more money, he said.
Each shift operates with
105 to 110 employees and an
additional 40 in repacking, said
Brenda O’Brien, packing man-
ager.
“It’s going quite well. We’re
still figuring some things out
and have identified some areas
for improvement. In general, it’s
working like we thought,” Mc-
Dougall said.
The line began running in
early September in the compa-
ny’s new 527,000-square-foot
North Baker Flats facility north
of East Wenatchee.
There’s racked storage for
400,000 boxes of packed apples
that ship out through 15 truck
loading bays. There’s controlled
atmosphere storage for 48,000
Capital Press
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Brenda O’Brien, packing manager, on new North Baker Flats apple packing line of McDougall & Sons
Inc., April 9. Lighting is augmented by 200, 2-by-2-foot skylights.
bins of apples. The company
has capacity for another 152,000
bins in facilities elsewhere.
A new, high-tech cher-
ry line is being built in an
82,000-square-foot room for
this year’s cherry season. With
Unitec optical sizer-sorters it
will be 20 to 25 percent faster
and reduce sorting labor by at
least 50 percent, McDougall
said. There will be 20 lanes for
red cherries and 10 lanes for
Rainiers and organic reds.
The new apple line is in a
157,000-square-foot room that
has space for an additional ap-
ple line of the same size in the
future.
The new apple line was built
to stay competitive and handle
an anticipated 20 to 25-percent
increase in apple volume in
five years from the company’s
orchard expansions. It saves 25
to 30 percent in labor over the
old line at Olds Station north
of Wenatchee that now is being
used exclusively to pack organic
apples.
The new apple line is capa-
ble of receiving 80 to 90 bins of
apples an hour, but more often
runs at 60 to 70 given variabil-
ity of trays, bags and clamshell
packaging, McDougall said.
That’s still 50 to 75 percent
more fruit than the Olds Station
plant, he said.
“We’ve definitely increased
productivity but maybe not to
the level we anticipated,” he
said. The line packs 18,000 to
20,000 boxes per day, double
that of Olds Station.
A big part of the increased
speed are two, Dutch-made
Greefa sizer-sorters that take 16
images of each apple in a second
and instantaneously sort for size,
color and external and internal
defects.
Different sorting profiles are
followed depending on how
rough or clean the fruit is. Line
speed, flume water temperature,
brush beds and many other as-
pects are controlled by an oper-
ator overlooking the entire line
and using several large monitors.
Four robotic arms move
packed boxes to pallets for ship-
ment, reducing manual stacking
75 percent. Each arm can handle
four different sizes and grades of
fruit simultaneously.
Capital Press
FRESNO, Calif. — Califor-
nia’s new FFA president says
the youth organization has a key
role in bringing agriculture’s
message to urban residents amid
all the challenges facing farm-
ing.
“The members of FFA are
going to be the ones who are the
future farmers,” Joelle Lewis of
San Luis Obispo said in an in-
terview moments after being an-
nounced as the new state leader
for the next year.
“I’m just excited to meet
all of the members and get to
know” fellow leaders, said Lew-
is, who was the South Coast Re-
gion president for 2014-2015.
Lewis leads a slate of new
officers elected at the 87th an-
nual California FFA Leadership
Conference, held April 18-21
at Fresno’s convention center
complex. More than 5,000 high
school agriculture students at-
tended the conference, whose
theme was “Reach Out.”
Lewis was among 59 candi-
dates for state office, including
35 who were interviewed and
12 who were named as finalists.
She is joined by new Vice Pres-
ident Sydnie Sousa of Tulare,
Secretary Breanna Holbert of
Lodi, Treasurer Trevor Autry of
Nipomo, Reporter Danielle Di-
ele of Merced and Sentinel Tim
Truax of Turlock.
In remarks during the last
of six rock concert-like general
sessions in Selland Arena, Lew-
is urged fellow members to take
whatever inspired them during
the four-day conference back to
their hometowns.
“Whatever that moment was,
don’t let it stay here in Selland
Arena,” she said. “Use what you
heard to help everyone around
you.”
The new officers were an-
nounced after each of the out-
going state leaders had taken
turns giving heartfelt speeches
about their time in office. Each
also had their parents and ad-
visers on stage to thank them
Outgoing California
FFA President Dipak
Kumar, left, gives
incoming President Jo-
elle Lewis a new jacket
to signify her role
during the organiza-
tion’s state conference
April 21 at Selland
Tim Hearden/Capital Press Arena in Fresno.
in moving tributes.
Outgoing president Dipak
Kumar of Tulare spoke of his
admiration for his father, a doc-
tor who moved the family from
what was then war-torn India to
the Central Valley and planted
almonds, walnuts and pistachios.
He said his family’s experi-
ence taught him to use challeng-
es as well as good fortune to help
others.
“In life, each of us has been
given something,” Kumar said.
“No matter the nature of what
we have, we can choose to have
amazing outcomes.”
Haley Warner of Angels
Camp, the outgoing vice pres-
ident, noted that people today
“live in a world of words” in
texts and social media and urged
her fellow members to use words
constructively.
“The power of our words
is stronger than we know,” she
said. “Those words — our words
— can cut deep and they leave
scars. But I have seen people em-
powered to do more because of
the helpful, constructive words
that people said to them.”
It instead supports ODA
conducting mediation to re-
solve such conflicts.
Friends of Family Farmers,
which supports GMO regula-
tion, favored a more specific
mechanism for dealing with
biotechnology conflicts, said
Ivan Maluski, the group’s pol-
icy director.
“Our preference would
have been that we focused
very narrowly on the issues
surrounding genetic engineer-
ing,” he said.
Idaho lawmakers
approve rule lifting
elk import restriction
By SEAN ELLIS
New Calif. FFA leaders strive to meet challenges
By TIM HEARDEN
and plans to oppose similar
concepts, said Scott Dahl-
man, its policy director.
“Coexistence is not en-
hanced by directing a state
department to tell farmers
what they can grow and how
they can grow it,” he said.
Farmers who own land
that’s often been in their fam-
ily for generations can’t sim-
ply move their operations to
grow a genetically engineered
crop within a designated con-
trol area, Dahlman said.
BOISE — After signif-
icant debate and several
votes, Idaho lawmakers ap-
proved a rule that commer-
cial elk breeders say will
help their industry be more
competitive but opponents
argue will endanger wild elk
and other animals in Idaho.
The rule lifts the state’s
ban on domestic elk from
states where the meningeal
worm is endemic. The par-
asite can cause fatal neu-
rological problems in elk,
sheep, goats, llamas and
alpacas.
The rule change also re-
quires elk to be treated for
meningeal worm within 30
days of being shipped to
Idaho.
Commercial elk breeders
told lawmakers they needed
the restriction to be lifted so
they can compete for genet-
ics and elk with other West-
ern states that don’t have
the restriction.
Those who supported
the rule argued that elk are
a dead-end host for the par-
asite, the same as sheep,
goats, llamas and alpacas.
“Why isn’t there a men-
ingeal worm restriction
on those species?” Shawn
Schafer, executive director
of the North American Deer
Farmers Association, asked
lawmakers. “It is because
science tells us that just
like elk, they are a dead-end
host.”
Ada County Fish and
Game League representa-
tive Forrest Goodrum, who
led the opposition, said
lawmakers were presented
with evidence that shows
the worm can be passed on
by elk in Idaho and there
is no 100 percent effective
de-worming treatment but
he believes they were con-
fused by the widely con-
flicting testimony presented
during public hearings.
Goodrum said lifting the
import restriction was fool-
hardy.
“Elk are not a dead-end
host,” he said.
The rule change was op-
posed by Idaho Department
of Fish and Game Director
Virgil Moore, who told the
Idaho State Department of
Agriculture in a letter that
the department is “very con-
cerned about the potential
importation of meningeal
worm.”
The Senate Agricultural
Affairs Committee rejected
the rule but the House Ag-
ricultural Affairs Commit-
tee approved it. In Idaho,
a pending rule that doesn’t
involve a fee increase only
needs one committee to ap-
prove it for it to become
final.
Rep. Ken Andrus, the
House ag committee chair-
man, who voted in favor of
the rule, said the fact that
sheep, goats, llamas and
alpacas can also carry the
worm but there are no im-
port restrictions on those
animals played an import-
ant role in the debate.
Andrus, a Republican
sheep rancher from Lava
Hot Springs, said he was
convinced by testimony
and the state veterinarian
that Idaho lacks the inter-
mediate host, a mollusk,
necessary for the worm to
complete its life cycle and
be passed on.
“It really came down
to whether or not we were
basing the rule on science
or whether (some people)
have an aversion do domes-
tic elk,” he said.
Idaho Wool Growers
Association Executive Di-
rector Stan Boyd, who rep-
resented commercial elk
breeders on the issue, said
other Western states have
lifted similar restrictions
“and there’s been no prob-
lem in those states with
meningeal worm. Idaho
did not break new ground
here.”
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