WATER UTILITY TEAMS UP WITH FARMERS TO FIGHT HAZELNUT WORMS Page 3
Capital
Press
The West s
Weekly
FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2015
Area in
detail
Lake
Chelan
WENATCHEE
NAT’L FOR.
Chelan
Alt
97
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
i
a
97
VOLUME 88, NUMBER 27
Col u m b
Approximate
site of Sleepy
Hollow Fire
2
DOUGLAS
2
East Wenatchee
Wenatchee
CHELAN
28
N
KITTITAS
5 miles
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
More
shutoff
notices
issued
San Francisco
among latest
batch of senior
water right holders
to receive stop-
diversion orders
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
Wenatchee wildfi re losses reach $100 million
R i ve
r
WASH.
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
More than two dozen homes,
two major tree fruit pack-
ing plants and two other tree
fruit businesses were heavily
damaged or destroyed when
wind blew a wildfi re into
Wenatchee the evening of
June 28.
Losses “easily total $100
million” and hundreds of
workers employed by the
companies will be out of
work, said Brian Moore, a fi re
spokesman and Washington
State Patrol trooper.
About 24 to 28 residenc-
es were destroyed, mainly in
Wenatchee’s Broadview sub-
division at the north end of
town, Moore said. Some were
million-dollar homes, he said.
Blue Bird’s Wenatchee
packing plant is probably a
$30 million loss, said Ron
Gonsalves, general manager
of Blue Bird Inc. of Peshastin.
“We had an organic apple
line and multiple cherry lines
A structure is
shown in the Horse
Lake Road area on
the north edge of
Wenatchee, Wash.,
at 8:12 p.m. June
28, shortly before
fi re surrounded it.
The fi re destroyed
many homes and
agricultural
businesses.
Dan Wheat
Capital Press
Turn to FIRE, Page 12
BUYING
LOCAL
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — As
the hot, dry summer wears
on, shutoff notices to Califor-
nia’s most longstanding water
right holders could occur on
a weekly or even daily basis,
state offi -
cials and DROUGHT
farm groups STORIES
warn.
• Hydropower
W a t e r challenge
regulators could impact
“ p r e t t y irrigators
much are • Drought
looking at reduces
water sup- hydroelectric
ply versus output
d e m a n d • Drought
every day,” conditions
said George take hold
Western
Kostyrko, in
Washington
spokesman
PAGE 4
for the State
Water Re-
sources Control Board.
The warming comes as
the city of San Francisco was
among the latest batch of se-
nior water right holders south
of the Sacramento-San Joa-
quin River Delta to receive
stop-diversion orders. The
Turn to SHUTOFF,
Page 12
Photos by Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Fernando Divina, executive chef at Oregon Health & Science University, heads a staff that feeds hospital patients 1,200 meals a day, plus many more for staff, students
and visitors.
Increased institutional food
purchasing could bolster local farms
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
P
ORTLAND — At Oregon
Health & Science Uni-
versity recently, the lunch
offerings included sand-
wiches made with organic
chicken breast — locally sourced —
on focaccia bread, baked locally and
delivered daily. Plus salad made from
local greens. Not a pre-packaged,
mass-produced item in sight.
This is hospital food?
Providing minimally processed,
nutritious food at a hospital, where
the clientele includes patients, doc-
tors and nurses, medical students and
visitors, seems like a solid idea. And
OHSU, the teaching hospital that
employs 13,700 people and has one
of Oregon’s biggest economic foot-
prints, was an early adopter of the
practice.
The greater impact, however,
could be to what a recent study re-
ferred to as “Ag of the Middle.” That
is, the farmers, ranchers and proces-
sors who are too big to make a living
selling solely at farmers’ markets and
CSAs, but too small to compete at the
commodity level.
The study by Ecotrust, a Portland
Eecole Copen, OHSU’s sustainable
foods program coordinator.
Ecotrust report said.
Ranchers benefi t
Purchasing agent Scott Cochrane, who buys food for Oregon Health & Science
University, checks vegetables and herbs planted in new planter boxes on the
hospital campus in Portland.
nonprofi t, identifi ed institutions as a
prime market opportunity for mid-
dle-sized producers.
Ecotrust estimated Oregon’s hos-
pitals, schools, prisons, assisted liv-
ing facilities and other institutions
serve 40 million meals a year.
Institutional food service de-
partments have immense buying
power and purchase large quanti-
ties, the report pointed out. Even
a relatively small tweak toward
buying more Oregon grown and
processed products would have a
“significant ripple effect across
the domestic food system,” the
It paid off for a pair of North-
east Oregon cattle ranches. Carman
Ranch in Wallowa, in partnership
with McClaren Ranch, sells about
1,000 pounds of beef and bones a
week to OHSU. The ranches take
about fi ve cows a week to a proces-
sor in Brownsville, 90 miles south
of Portland, and sell the hospital 500
pounds of ground beef, 200 pounds of
Turn to LOCAL, Page 12
“You have to commit to being OK with dealing with multiple vendors.
The whole system is based on willingness.”
Eecole Copen, OHSU’s sustainable foods program coordinator
27-7/#5