July 10, 2015
CapitalPress.com
3
Hawaii GMO battles will shape West’s rules
Key court cases will impact entire 9th Circuit
ANALYSIS
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Legal battles over genet-
ically modified organisms in
Hawaii are expected to shape
government authority over
biotech crops across the West.
Three attempts to regulate
GMOs by counties in that state
— Kauai, Hawaii and Maui —
have all been overturned by
federal judges.
How those decisions play
out in the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals will affect
the ability of state and local
governments to set their own
rules for biotechnology, ex-
perts say.
The 9th Circuit has juris-
diction over seven states, in-
cluding Oregon, Washington
and California, where several
counties have enacted GMO
bans that are subject to its rul-
ings.
“Hawaii is definitely the
bellwether right now,” said
Kristine Tidgren, staff attorney
for the Center for Agricultur-
al Law and Taxation at Iowa
State University.
A federal judge most re-
cently struck down Maui
County’s prohibition against
biotech crops on multiple legal
grounds.
Significantly, Chief U.S.
District Judge Susan Oki
Mollway held that federal
regulations entirely pre-empt
Maui County’s ordinance ban-
ning GMOs, which was passed
last year.
If the ruling is upheld by the
9th Circuit, that would direct-
ly implicate other GMO bans
within the same jurisdiction,
meaning they’d be pre-empted
as well, said Tidgren.
Conversely, if the appellate
court finds that state and local
government GMO rules are
not pre-empted by the federal
regulations, then it would clear
the way for such ordinances.
“It’s a huge case for local
and state GMO bans,” Tidgren
said. “The stakes are very
high. All eyes will be on the
9th Circuit when this case goes
forward.”
Supporters of county GMO
bans contend that Mollway’s
legal reasoning is faulty.
In their view, federal regu-
lations cannot pre-empt state
and local GMO regulations
once the USDA allows such
crops to be grown without re-
striction.
The 9th Circuit has held
that USDA has no authori-
ty over biotech crops once it
determines they’re not plant
pests, so commercialized
GMOs aren’t subject to feder-
al regulations, critics say.
“I don’t believe there’s any
basis whatsoever that feder-
al law pre-empts state law
over deregulated crops,” said
Paul Achitoff, an attorney for
groups that support the ban.
The situation is compli-
AP Photo/The Maui News, Matthew Thayer
In this photo taken Sept. 10, 2014, Monsanto crew leader Zenaida
Arcala places a pollination bag over a corn tassel in Kihei, Hawaii.
A federal judge has ruled that the Maui County ban of GMO crops
is illegal. It and two other Hawaii GMO cases are expected to be
heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
cated by the fact that another
federal judge earlier reached a
different conclusion regarding
a similar GMO ban in Hawaii
County, he said.
In that case, the judge
found that the GMO ban is
pre-empted by federal regu-
lation only in regard to crops
that remain regulated by
USDA, not those that have
been totally deregulated,
Achitoff said.
That opinion is likely to be
reviewed by the 9th Circuit
much earlier than the recent
Maui decision.
If the panel of judges hear-
ing the Maui County case
comes to a different conclu-
sion than the panel for Ha-
waii County — which isn’t
likely but remains possible —
that could set the stage for a
broader “en banc” review by
a larger group of 9th Circuit
judges.
Another GMO case out of
Kauai County is likely to be
decided first, but that lawsuit
pertains to regulations that
require growers to report the
location of GMO crops but
don’t prohibit them.
It’s unlikely that all three
of the cases will be resolved
earlier than late 2016, experts
say.
Idaho’s table grape Grass seed suffers from drought, heat
yields reduced but Willamette Valley
growers report
better than expected yield reductions of
20-50 percent
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
they have a chance to reach
dormancy before the first
cold spell hits, Elias said.
Growers who did that last
year had “vines that were
more in a dormant stage
than other vines that were
not taken care of,” Fallahi
said. “Those are the growers
whose vineyards survived
the best.”
Growers in the region
should give their table grape
vines one more good shot of
water after harvest and then
shut irrigation down for the
year, Elias said.
When irrigation is cut
off, sugars and starch are
pushed into the root sys-
tem and when a deep freeze
comes, “there’s nothing in
there to freeze and it really
doesn’t hurt the vines,” he
said.
There are still a lot of
growers in the region who
fear their vines will die if
they stop irrigating in Sep-
tember because it’s still hot
out, Elias said.
“The plant’s not going to
die,” he said. “It’s going to
go dormant.”
But even many growers
who followed that cultural
practice got hit hard by the
November frost because of
the dramatic swing in tem-
peratures, Elias said.
Cindy Chumley, who
grows table grapes between
Kuna and Nampa, lost a lot
of vines to the cold and is
seeing a lower volume of
grapes on many of her sur-
viving vines.
“It’s a reduced crop this
year,” she said. “The table
grape industry got hit hard
this year.”
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Alborz table grapes grow in a
Parma, Idaho, vineyard June
25. Idaho’s table grape harvest
will be reduced this year due to
the effects of a November cold
snap, but it’s looking much bet-
ter than growers and research-
ers had initially thought.
Drought and heat have
stressed Oregon’s grass seed
crops in multiple ways, which
has farmers expecting a sub-
stantial decrease in yields
now that harvest is underway.
It’s still too early to know
the exact impact, but farm-
ers are preliminarily report-
ing yield reductions of 20-50
percent, said Mark Simmons,
Photos courtesy of Ron Cooper
executive director of the Or- A combine empties an full bin of orchard grass seed into a truck during harvest on the Alan McKee
egon Grass Seed Bargaining farm in Polk County, Ore. The unusual perspective was taken by Salem photographer Ron Cooper
Association.
using a photo drone camera piloted by Devin Fadenrecht.
“This year is extremely
Ron DeConinck, a farm-
unusual. It’s the equivalent
of the 50-year flood,” he said. er near Woodburn, Ore., said
“It’s really tough for farmers he’s expecting a 20 percent
reduction in yields despite ir-
who grow grass seed.”
With less water available, rigating his fields, though that
grass cannot carry as much figure remains speculative at
sugar to its seed, said Tom this point.
Fields that were irrigated
Chastain, seed crop physiolo-
gy professor at Oregon State twice seem to be faring well A combine seems toy like as it moves across a patchwork of fields
but those only irrigated once and orchards while harvesting orchard grass seed on the Alan
University.
That sugar is converted are clearly damaged, he said. McKee farm in Polk County, Ore. The unusual perspective was
to starch that’s used to “bulk “There were a few days there, taken by Salem photographer Ron Cooper using a photo drone
up” the embryonic plant and it literally burned it.”
camera piloted by Devin Fadenrecht.
Rodney Hightower, a
the “endosperm” that feeds it
within the seed, he said. This farmer near Junction City, the acre, said Banyard.
mons. “From that perspective,
The only upside to the low we’re hopeful.”
year, dry conditions in spring Ore., said growers in the
have hindered grasses from southern Willamette Valley yield expectations is that de-
Farmers in the Willamette
filling the seed, reducing its are expecting yield losses of mand for grass seed may con- Valley have scaled back their
sume this year’s crop as well grass seed production in fa-
30 percent.
weight.
His farm produces several as leftover inventories.
Enzymes that convert sug-
vor of other crops in recent
If that happens, growers years, which has reduced
ars to starch are also affected grass types, as well as special-
by high temperatures, said ty seeds and some grain, and will be in a strong market supplies and improved pric-
Chastain. “The heat is exacer- the drought stress has affected position next year, said Sim- es, he said.
bating the problem because it most of them, he said. “This
interferes with some of those year, being diversified may
not help a whole lot.”
enzymes.”
Marion Ag Service’s seed
Not only are seeds light-
er, but there are also fewer of cleaning operation is 10 days
them — drought hinders pol- ahead of schedule due to the
lination and causes the “abor- warm weather, which is the
earliest that the company’s
tion” of seeds, he said.
“We have a lot of produc- seed specialist, Scott Ban-
15-5/16 x 10 x 2
ers who are very concerned yard, can remember.
18-3/4 x 14-3/8 x 3
An acre usually generates
right now,” Chastain said.
CALL FOR PRICING AND AVAILABILITY.
During 1992, which had roughly 2,500 pounds of grass
Delivery Available
503-588-8313
weather conditions similar to seed, but this year the range is
2561 Pringle Rd. SE
this year’s, grass seed yields about 1,700-2,000 pounds to
Salem, OR
in Oregon’s Willamette Valley
were cut by 11-14.5 percent
overall, he said. That average
includes irrigated acres, so
dryland farmers likely expe-
rienced more severe impacts.
Chastain said the outlook
for 2015 currently appears
bleaker, with growers report-
ing average yield losses of 25
percent.
“Hopefully, that’s a worst-
case scenario,” he said.
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PARMA, Idaho — Table
grape yields in Idaho are
expected to be significantly
reduced this year due to the
effects of a sudden Novem-
ber cold snap.
The state’s 2015 ta-
ble grape harvest will be
about 65 percent of normal,
though researchers initially
feared it would be far worse,
said University of Idaho re-
searcher Essie Fallahi, who
heads UI’s pomology pro-
gram in Parma.
“Table grapes this year
are doing much better than
we thought they would,”
Fallahi said. “We thought
we weren’t going to have
any crop at all but now
we’re looking at 65 percent
of normal, which is much
better than nothing.”
Several daily low tem-
perature records were bro-
ken in mid-November when
the mercury fell suddenly
and dramatically. The low
reached minus 5 degrees at
UI’s Parma research station
and hovered near 0 for four
days.
A few days before the
temperature drop, highs
were in the 60s and many
grape vines never had a
chance to go into dormancy.
Researchers and growers
feared the worst, said grape
grower Tom Elias, secre-
tary-treasurer of the Snake
River Table Grape Growers
Association.
“We were very worried.
We’re much happier now,”
he said while looking at ro-
bust clusters of grapes in a
Parma vineyard.
Elias said growers who
followed the cultural prac-
tices developed and promot-
ed by UI’s pomology pro-
gram fared better in general
than those who didn’t.
The majority of Idaho’s
table grapes are grown in
Ada, Canyon and Owyhee
counties in Southwestern
Idaho, where winter tem-
peratures can routinely drop
below zero degrees.
The most important cul-
tural practice in this area is
cutting off irrigation to grape
vines shortly after harvest so
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