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WATER: IRRIGATION DISTRICT SHUTS DOWN TEMPORARILY • WATER FUND RULES PROPOSED • MORE WATER STORIES Page 5 Capital Press The West s Weekly FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2015 VOLUME 88, NUMBER 19 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM $2.00 EXTENSION SERVICE AP Photo/Nati Harnik Corn is unloaded from a truck in this fi le photo. Much of the feed corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modifi ed to resist specifi c types of herbicide or to resist pests. Clare Sullivan, OSU Extension fi eld crops Faculty for the mid-Willamette Valley, examines the fi eld health of perennial ryegrass, checying for the presence of aphids and weeds. Courtesy of OSU Extension A NEW By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press ROLE By Mateusz PERKOWSKI Capital Press “ They don’t see directly the benefi ts of Extension liye their grandfathers did.” Ben West regional Extension director at the University of Tennessee USDA seeks input on new GMO rules At universities across the U.S., leaner Extension programs are reshaping themselves for the 21st century ears of recession-related state and county budget cuts have forced the Washington State University Extension to transform the way it serves the state’s farmers and ranchers. The result is a WSU Extension that looks far different to- day compared with a decade ago. “County agents are a thing of the past,” Koenig said Rich Koenig, di- rector of WSU Extension and asso- ciate dean of the College of Agricul- tural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences. Instead of having generalists in each county, Extension has become more focused. Fewer faculty mem- bers remain but they leverage their Turn to WSU, Page 12 Turn to GMO, Page 13 WSU Extension changes with the times W hen the fi rst crop of university Ex- tension agents took to the fi elds a century ago, U.S. agriculture was relatively primitive. Farm power was still mostly generated by hors- es and mules in 1914, and fertilizer came in the form of manure and crushed livestock bones. The human landscape was also much different — roughly 1 in 3 Americans were employed in agricul- ture back then, compared to fewer than 1 in 60 today. The population shift away from farming is one of the reasons university research and Extension is struggling to remain relevant to modern Americans, said Ben West, regional Extension director at the University of Tennessee, who has studied the issue. “They don’t see directly the benefi ts of Exten- sion like their grandfathers did,” he said. As university researchers and Extension agents look to the future, they’re contemplating how to de- ploy limited resources to stay useful to farmers as well as the trade-offs such decisions involve. Within agriculture, the role of Extension has changed in the past hundred years. Not only do Extension agents have fewer farm- ers to educate, but those growers are now more likely to have college degrees themselves, West said. At the same time, suppliers of seed, fertilizer and other inputs have hired cadres of agronomists who are sometimes seen as supplanting the role of Extension, he said. The USDA wants the pub- lic to weigh in on its author- ity to regulate biotech crops, possibly setting the stage for newly proposed genetic engi- neering rules. Earlier this year, the agen- cy’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service withdrew proposed biotechnology rules that had languished for about seven years without being en- acted. APHIS now plans to hold webinars — scheduled for May 12 and 20 — to solicit feedback on “alternative poli- cy approaches,” with the goal of informing “future regulato- ry activities.” The agency is asking for input on when biotech regu- lations are justifi ed, whether genetically modifi ed crops should be regulated as nox- ious weeds and what other authority it has to regulate ge- netic engineering beyond the Plant Protection Act. The USDA’s actions have drawn a mixed response from the Center for Food Safety, an environmental group in- volved in several prominent lawsuits over genetic engi- neering. “Updating and revis- ing their regulations is far overdue,” said George Kim- brell, senior attorney for the group. By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Y Courtesy of OSU Extension OSU Extension forestry specialist Chal Landgren works with Christmas tree growers to keep them competi- tive in the market by developing new tree varieties and solving pest and Turn to ROLE, Page 12 disease challenges. Frost worries fade to surplus apple worries By DAN WHEAT Capital Press WENATCHEE, Wash. — It looks like apple growers in Washington, New York and Michigan will make it through spring frost season without much, if any, damage. Three years ago, spring freezes devastated the crops in New York and Michigan, leaving Washington in the en- viable position of producing a huge crop with little com- petition. It made for a stellar sales season for Washington and a poor one for New York and Michigan, the largest U.S. apple producers after Wash- ington. Three years later, as the potential for spring freezes Dan Wheat/Capital Press Workers tie the limbs of Kanzi apple trees, preparing them for opti- mal apple growth in Mt. View Orchard, East Wenatchee, Wash., on May 1. The apple industry nationwide is concerned about the size of carryover from the 2014 crop as it prepares for the 2015 crop. and frosts dissipates the great- er concern is the size of carry- over from Washington’s huge 2014 apple crop and the earli- ness of its 2015 crop. With an early spring, Washington’s harvest of Gala apples may start in the end of July instead of early August. Other varieties may well fol- low earlier than normal. “It would compete with our entry and could negate our ability to move some of our early varieties,” said Don Ar- mock, president of Riveridge Produce in Sparta, Mich., one of that state’s largest apple growers. Too big a carryover of 2014 Washington apples into the new season is also a con- cern because it will keep pric- es down, Armock said. “There probably would be two levels of pricing (old crop and new crop),” said Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple and Cherry Grow- ers Association in Rochester, N.Y. “Marketers would have to determine which level to push. Retailers have been get- ting a good bargain all year and will want to continue that. It will be diffi cult to increase the price on new crop when there’s plenty of old crop left to go, unless the industry de- cides not to push old crop,” Allen said. “U.S. retailers come Au- gust will be hard put to buy old Red Delicious at any price if new Gala are available,” said Keith Matthews, CEO and general manager of First Fruits Marketing of Washing- ton in Yakima. How much fruit is divert- ed from packing on size and Turn to APPLES, Page 12