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OREGON: PENDLETON GRAIN GROWERS WILL DETACH ITS GRAIN DIVISION Page 7 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2015 VOLUME 88, NUMBER 44 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM $2.00 Red meat industry disputes WHO cancer fi nding By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press he said. “Could you imagine hundreds of thousands of acres of ag lands being out of production? I just don’t get it that the state doesn’t get it.” The issue affects water district 63, which spans from The U.S. meat industry is seeing red over a World Health Organization agen- cy’s decision to add processed meat to its list of carcinogens and to link red meat to cancer. The industry contends the decision, by the Internation- al Agency for Research on Cancer, is not supported by science and defi es common sense, and numerous studies show no correlation between meat and cancer. The North American Meat Institute called the vote “dramatic and alarmist over- reach.” “I’m not sure how helpful this (listing) is to consumers,” National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President Philip Ellis said. Cancer is complex, and contributing factors include such things as the total diet, lifestyle, geographic location and socio-economic status, he said. The IARC this month vot- ed to classify processed meat as carcinogenic to humans, and red meat as probably car- cinogenic to humans. Processed meat refers to meat that had been trans- formed through salting, cur- ing, fermenting, smoking or other processes to enhance fl avor or improve preserva- tion. Examples include hot dogs, ham, sausages, corned beef, jerky and canned meat. The IARC classifi es sub- stances on a scale of 1 to 4. Substances such as processed meat in Group 1 are classifi ed “carcinogenic to humans” be- cause there’s enough evidence to conclude that they cause cancer. Group 2(a), the classifi - cation of red meat, includes substances for which IARC has found “limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and suffi cient evidence of car- cinogenicity in experimental animals.” In reaching its fi ndings, IARC did not conduct origi- nal research. It instead eval- uated available literature, in this case 800 cancer studies. The agency stated classifi - cation describes the strength of scientifi c evidence as a cause of cancer rather than the level of risk and an asso- ciation between red meat and cancer was observed mainly for colorectal cancer but was also seen for pancreatic and prostate cancer. The cancer risk, which it described as “small,” is pri- marily tied to chemicals that form during the cooking or processing of red meat, and the risk increases with the amount of meat consumed — Turn to REFILL, Page 12 Turn to WHO, Page 12 By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press ILLAMOOK, Ore. — The cows at the Averill family’s dairy seem unimpressed by the high-tech gadgetry surrounding them. They calmly pass through an auto- mated gate that sorts the cows based on how recent- ly they’ve been milked, which is monitored using radio-frequency identifi cation devices on their ears. Those who have been milked too recently are returned to their stalls, while those who are ready to be milked are ushered toward one of six robotic milkers. After waiting their turn in line, each cow steps into a pen and enjoys some grain while the giant robotic arm does its business. T Robotics ‘take off’ To many, this scenario represents the future of farming. As labor costs increase and the la- bor pool shrinks, farmers such as the Averills are turning to robotics and other technology to provide better care for their animals and increase efficiency. Adoption of robotic systems has been growing at about 25 percent a year, and has particularly “taken off” during the past decade, said Larry Tranel, an extension dairy specialist at Iowa State University who has studied the economics of au- tomation. “We don’t see it slowing down,” he said. At the Averills’ dairy, the robot fi rst sprays the entire udder with an iodine formula, then washes and dries each teat before attaching suction cups to harvest the milk. Each robot can handle 60 cows. Once the task is complete, the cow is again set loose among its peers, free to enjoy a comforting ses- sion with the robotic touch-activated spinning brush- es that clean off manure and remove loose hair. Turn to ROBOTIC, Page 12 Mateusz Perkowski/Capitol Press Dairyman Don Averill of Tillamook, Ore., explains the functioning of automated equipment at his operation. Behind him, cows line up to enter robotic milking ma- chines. Mateusz Perkowski/Capitol Press A cow at the Averill family’s dairy in Tillamook, Ore., is milked with a robotic system that measures her yields. Irrigators, state square off over fl ood control releases Water rights issue likely to end up in Supreme Court, both sides say By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press BOISE — Treasure Val- ley irrigators believe the state is trying to steal their senior water rights by counting fl ood control releases against their rights to water stored in Boise River system reservoirs. The state argues it is ac- tually trying to protect the storage water rights of all wa- ter right holders, senior and junior, and ensure the water is used for the maximum ben- efi t. The fi ght appears likely to end up in the Idaho Supreme Court, and Treasure Valley water users say they are pre- pared to fi ght the battle all the way to the top. “I know our irrigators are willing to go the distance to defend and protect their water rights, and they should be- cause the long-standing his- tory of water rights and water right delivery in this area is being ... wrongfully chal- lenged by the state of Idaho,” said Treasure Valley Water Users Association Executive Director Roger Batt. The association’s mem- bers represent 284,000 of the 350,000 acres in the Treasure Valley that is irrigated by wa- ter from the Boise River sys- tem’s three reservoirs. control releases, irrigation water could be shut off to hundreds of thousands of acres in the middle of sum- mer, said Daren Coon, secre- tary-treasurer of the Nampa & Meridian Irrigation Dis- trict, the valley’s largest. “That would be an abso- lutely catastrophic failure,” ‘Catastrophic failure’ Under the way the state wants to account for fl ood 44-7/#5