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CapitalPress.com
October 2, 2015
People & Places
Speaking up for agriculture
Paulette Pyle lends
a voice to farmers
in the halls of the
nation’s Capitol
Western Innovator
Paulette Pyle
Who: Retiring grass roots director of the lobbying group Orego-
nians for Food and Shelter.
Career: Came to Oregon in late 1970s, was hired by OFS as
temporary campaign worker to defeat measures that would have
banned application of phoenoxy
herbicides. OFS offered her a job in
1980 and she was with them until
announcing retirement this year.
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Paulette Pyle says she is
retired after 35 years as grass
roots director of the lobbyist
group Oregonians for Food
and Shelter, but that may not
be possible.
For one thing, she works
40 hours a month while new
Executive Director Katie Fast
gets her feet on the ground. “I
told Katie I want to make sure
she’s successful,” Pyle said.
Beyond that, her status as
mentor and model — espe-
cially to women in agriculture
and forestry — may not allow
her to simply slide out of the
limelight.
The Capital Press caught
up with Pyle as she was once
again on the move, this time
to the Oregon Farm Bureau’s
annual golf tournament. A
sampling of the conversation:
Her best accomplishment?
“You mean what WE’VE
done and what WE’VE ac-
complished?” Pyle corrected,
emphasizing that a coalition
of people has worked together
to represent producers.
“I think the highlight for
me has been engaging in a
profession that is my pas-
sion,” she said. “Helping ag
and forestry is very reward-
ing.”
She regrets that in an era
of highly partisan politics, the
people who supply society’s
Personal: 69, lives in Albany with her
husband, Ken. They have six grown
children and 16 grandchildren.
Awards and honors: Pyle will be pre-
sented the Oregon Agri-Business Council’s 2015 Ag Connection
of the Year Award in November. A council news release said she
“excelled at connecting natural resources groups with lawmakers
to defend and protect Oregon’s natural resources industry.”
She previously received the 2013 Ted Young Award from the
Oregon Forest Industries Council, which said she has “done so
much to unite agriculture and forestry — and not allowed any
one of our immediate interests to forsake the greater partner-
ship. She also was presented the 2014 President’s Award from
the Oregon Farm Bureau.
Courtesy of Oregonians for Food and Shelter
Paulette Pyle, shown here during a visit to Washington, D.C., says
a unified voice is needed for Oregon agriculture and forestry.
food, fiber and shelter have
been “demonized.”
And yet there appears to be
growing recognition, at least
among legislators and agen-
cy policy-makers, that rural
Oregon and natural resource
industries are critical parts of
the state’s economic structure.
Producers have been able to
make the case that their view-
points deserve consideration,
Pyle agreed.
“I think, politically, we
have,” she said. “When we
have time to tell our story and
present the facts, we do pre-
vail. It’s a struggle and it’s
hard work all the time, but we
can get it done.”
She has three major con-
cerns over the next couple
years. At the top of her list is
the urban-rural divide.
“The biggest challenge
is for rural Oregon to stay in
business,” Pyle said. “Life
begins and ends with politics,
it’s a true statement. Until ur-
ban legislators take the time to
understand the challenges of
the less populated part of the
state, that will be the number
one challenge.”
Second on her list is anoth-
er divide, this time between
various types of farmers, “Ini-
tiated by our organic friends,”
Pyle said. Oregonians for
Food and Shelter supports
all kinds of agriculture — or-
ganic, conventional or using
genetically modified crops,
she said. But she said organic
Advice to her successor, Katie Fast: “Stay close to the ground
roots. Don’t take your eye off the ag and forestry businesses we
represent.”
farmers, hoping to get an edge
in the market, are trying hard
to bend public policy their
way and complicate life for
farmers who use other tools to
get their crops to market.
“We ought to let them all
grow what they want to grow
on their own private property,
and take it from there,” Pyle
said.
Pyle did not include the
flap between Oregon wine
grape growers and other
farmers over spray drift that
can damage vineyards. Some
wine grape growers explored
taking the issue to the Legisla-
ture, but OFS helped steer it to
farmer-to-farmer discussions
instead.
“I think we are on track to
resolve that issue,” Pyle said.
Third is the growers them-
selves. “I believe they need to
step it up,” Pyle said. “Every
farmer in this state, all farm-
ers — GMO, biotech, con-
ventional, organic — needs to
stand up and tell their story in
a positive way.”
On another topic, Pyle
praised the young women
farmers who have emerged
to effectively tell ag’s story
through social media and at
the Legislature.
“They come as a whole
person — a mom, a farmer
— and present a different ver-
sion of what agriculture is all
about,” she said.
Police: Man steals combine, sparks slow-speed chase
By BILL DRAPER
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. —
John Roth figures it was a bullet
to the oil filter that killed his old
Case IH combine and brought
a slow-speed police chase to an
otherwise peaceful end.
Officers fired 18 rounds
into the farm implement,
which had been stolen Tues-
day night from a cornfield
east of Ellinwood in central
Kansas. But not before the
combine rammed two pa-
trol cars, hit a parked pickup
truck and damaged power
poles as it attempted to elude
officers at speeds approach-
ing 20 mph.
“Since 1981 I’ve chased
a lot of vehicles, but we’ve
never chased a combine,” Bar-
Courtesy Andrew Sieker via AP
This photo shows a stolen combine on the side of a road near
Ellinwood, Kan., where it stopped after police in pursuit fired at
the fleeing piece of farm equipment to disable it. Authorities say a
Kansas man was arrested after stealing the combine and hitting
power poles and law enforcement vehicles as he fled.
ton County Sheriff Brian Bel-
lendir said.
A 37-year-old Ellinwood
man was arrested on suspicion
of a number of charges, but no
formal charges had been filed
as of Wednesday afternoon.
Barton County prosecutor
Doug Matthews said he antici-
pated that would happen soon.
Deputies arrived at a coun-
ty road near Roth’s property
around 9:45 p.m. Tuesday
after receiving a call about
an abandoned vehicle. Soon,
a 911 call told of a combine
with no lights “weaving from
ditch to ditch” east of the
1,200-person town, Bellendir
said.
Andrew Sieker slowed
down for a curve when he en-
countered the oncoming im-
plement — an eight-row corn
head on the front.
“We met right at the curve
and I swerved out of the way,”
said Sieker, himself a farmer.
“He swerved and hit some guy
wires. It was close.”
The combine struck several
power poles and a pickup truck
in Ellinwood, ripping the corn
head from the implement.
When an officer ap-
proached, the man put the ma-
chine in reverse and rammed
the officer’s car before flee-
ing the scene, Bellendir said.
During the chase, a deputy
pulled in front of the machine
to set a roadblock, but it was
rammed and dragged. Two of-
ficers then opened fire, shoot-
ing out the tires and hitting the
motor.
The sheriff said the suspect,
who owns the vehicle that was
found abandoned on the road,
was trying to restart the ma-
chine when he was taken into
custody.
Bellendir said no adminis-
trative action would be taken
against the officers, who were
deemed justified in disabling
the farm implement because of
the threat it posed.
Insect researcher: Drones will help feed growing population
By DAVE KOLPACK
Associated Press
GRAND FORKS, N.D.
— A college professor who
studies insects said Wednes-
day that unmanned aircraft
can help grow better crops
and produce more food, but
it’s going to take more coop-
eration among researchers to
pull it off.
Kansas State entomology
professor Brian McCornack
said the use of drones in ag-
riculture will be an import-
ant application because the
world’s population is project-
ed to increase by 2 billion peo-
ple in the next 30 years and
there will be “the same sliver
of land” to produce food.
“Access to resources is
limited. Not only land, but
water and energy,” McCor-
nack told attendees at the final
day of an annual unmanned
aircraft conference.
The UAS Summit and
Expo began nine years ago as
a regional event but has ex-
panded to include some of the
top companies in the industry,
including defense contractors
Northrup Grumman and Gen-
eral Atomics. North Dakota
has one of six sites in the na-
tion testing drones for com-
mercial use and also is home
to the nation’s first unmanned
aircraft tech park, Grand Sky.
The president of Grand Sky,
Tom Swoyer Jr., gave the key-
note address.
Precision agriculture has
become a favorite topic at
the expo, partly because it’s
expected to be the No. 1 in-
dustry for drone use. McCor-
nack outlined several possible
farming applications, includ-
ing outfitting unmanned air-
craft with the robotic capabil-
ities to collect insect samples
or set traps.
“We as researchers have
to wrap our minds around
it,” McCornack said. “For
me, personally, this is not
only about the pests we have
here, but trying to anticipate
what’s going to happen in the
future with invasive species.
Invasive species can com-
pletely change the cropping
system.”
McCornack told the group
that making an entomologist
part of a drone discussion
shows not only how far the in-
dustry has advanced, but how
many different disciplines it
entails.
Afterward, he said ear-
lier research on unmanned
aircraft for farming may not
have been complete because it
didn’t include experts in ento-
mology, plant pathology, fer-
tility and cropping systems, to
name a few.
“This is what we do, un-
fortunately, really well in ac-
ademia,” McCornack said in
an interview. “We get into our
specialist mode and we want
to be so refined in our partic-
ular system that we lose sight
of the 20 other variables that
someone else wants to con-
tribute.”
North
Dakota
State
University professor John
Nowatzki, who is spearhead-
ing a research project that
would use a large drone to
monitor crop conditions from
high altitudes, said he’s happy
that McCornack emphasized
collaboration.
Calendar
To submit an event go to the Community
Events calendar on the home page of our
website at www.capitalpress.com and click
on “submit an event.” Calendar items can
also be mailed to Capital Press, 1400 Broad-
way St. NE, Salem, OR 97.01.
Saturday-Sunday
Oct. 3-4
Alpaca Harvest Fest, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Alpacas
of Oregon, Sherwood, 50.-628-202.. Two
farms, one convenient location.
Wednesday-Sunday
Oct. 7-11
Dinner, 5-9 p.m., CH2M Hill Alumni Center,
Oregon State University Campus, Corvallis.
$50 in advance, $65 at the door, oregonaitc.
org/fall-harvest
Saturday-Sunday
Oct. 17-18
The All About Fruit Show, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.,
Clackamas County Fairplex, Canby, Ore.
http: //www.homeorchardsociety.org/events/
Thursday, Oct. 22
Columbia County, Ore., Farm Bureau Annual
Meeting, 6: .0-9 p.m., Fultano’s Pizza, 770
E. Columbia River Hwy., Clatskania.
Trailing of the Sheep Festival, 9 a.m. Sun
Valley, Ketchum and Hailey, Idaho.
Thursday, Oct. 22
Saturday, Oct. 10
Livestock grazing water quality seminar, 10
a.m.-3 p.m., Fairfield Community Center, 218
E. Main St., Fairfield, Wash. Washington
Oregon Ag in the Classroom Fall Harvest
State University Extension rangeland and
livestock management regional specialist
Tip Hudson, retired Oregon State Univer-
sity rangeland ecology and management
extension specialist John Buckhouse and
University of California-Davis rangeland wa-
tershed specialist Kenneth Tate will address
ranchers during a livestock grazing water
quality seminar.
a.m., Northern Quest Casino, 100 N Hayford
Road, Airway Heights, Wash. www.north-
westfarmersunion.com
Friday-Saturday
Oct. 30-31
Friday, Nov. 20
Washington State Sheep Producers Annual
Convention 8 a.m. Marriott Courtyard, Walla
Walla.
Friday-Saturday
Oct. 30-31
Northwest Farmers Union Convention, 8
Thursday-Sunday
Nov. 5-8
American Agri-Women National Convention
DoubleTree Hotel, South Portland, Maine.
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Index
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50.-595-9121.