November 13, 2015
CapitalPress.com
9
TPP could boost California ag exports, researchers say
and food products have a
worldwide reputation for high
quality, and our ports have
the ability to deliver those
SURGXFWV HI¿FLHQWO\´ &)%)
president Paul Wenger said
in a statement. He added that
increased farm exports would
lead to jobs in urban as well as
rural areas.
For the U.S. economy as a
whole, the TPP’s impacts will
be “moderate at best,” Sumner
and the other researchers
wrote. Its most important in-
ÀXHQFHPD\EHWRHQWLFH&KL-
na and other large Asian econ-
omies to join, which would
“add substantially to the mar-
ket for California agricultural
exports,” the researchers con-
cluded.
mist at the Uni-
versity of Cali-
fornia-Davis.
DAVIS, Calif. — The pro-
Further, bet-
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ter access to
Partnership trade pact could
imports from
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TPP countries
Sumner
lowering import barriers and
would
give
enabling more of the state’s
U.S. consumers
agricultural products to be more spending power, and
sent to Japan and other na- thus could increase domestic
tions, university researchers demand for California farm
conclude.
products, Sumner observes in
The deal, the full text of an essay outlining the impacts
which was unveiled by Pres- of the trade deal.
ident Barack Obama’s admin-
Freer trade “generally
istration on Nov. 5, would also means more economic growth
enable California’s industries and expanded markets” at
to reach developing markets home and abroad as well as
such as Malaysia and Viet- more political and economic
nam, asserts a study led by stability, the paper asserts.
Daniel Sumner, an ag econo-
“California
agriculture
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essay argues.
Sumner wrote the analy-
sis with the help of research-
ers Hyunok Lee and William
A. Matthews of the UC’s
Agricultural Issues Center,
which Sumner leads. The
paper was an update for the
university’s Giannini Foun-
dation of Agricultural Eco-
nomics.
California now sends
about 40 percent of its ex-
ported agricultural goods to
TPP countries, with about 72
percent of that total shipped
to the “big three” — Canada,
Japan and Mexico, accord-
ing to the Agricultural Issues
Center.
Proposed ban on
chlorpyrifos could have
big impact in California
NAWG looks to grow wheat acreage
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
6$&5$0(172 ²$ IHG-
eral proposal to ban the pesticide
chlorpyrifos for agricultural use
could have a big impact in Cali-
fornia, where it is used on some
60 crops including tree nuts, or-
anges and grapes, regulators say.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency is taking
public comments on a plan to re-
voke food residue tolerances for
chlorpyrifos, which is produced
by Dow AgroSciences and
controls many different pests,
including termites, mosquitoes
and roundworms.
The EPA said on its web-
site that humans’ exposure risk
to chlorpyrifos could exceed
safety standards “in certain wa-
tersheds” — particularly small
watersheds where the pesticide
is heavily used. Chlorpyrifos
was banned for residential use
about 15 years ago.
While the chemical is heav-
ily regulated in California and
its use has declined, between
1 million and 2 million pounds
of chlorpyrifos is still applied
to crops in the state each year,
said Charlotte Fadipe, a spokes-
woman for the state Depart-
PHQWRI3HVWLFLGH5HJXODWLRQ
“This ... would be a major
change for California growers,
as it is used on many crops,
“Fadipe said in an email. She
DGGHGWKH'35KDVEHHQ³DQWLF-
ipating for a while” that the fed-
eral government would move to
limit or ban chlorpyrifos, and
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been encouraging growers to
seek alternatives to the organo-
phosphate pesticide.
Tehama County Farm Bu-
reau president Michael Vasey
said he has used chlorpyrifos in
the walnut groves at Lindauer
5LYHU5DQFKLQ5HG%OXII&D-
lif., which he manages. He said
he needed to study the EPA pro-
posal more thoroughly before
commenting on it.
He said growers are some-
times frustrated by the lack of
available alternatives when
regulators move to ban various
pesticides. For instance, the
phaseout of the fumigant methyl
bromide began two decades ago,
and growers are still looking for
technically or economically fea-
sible alternatives, he said.
Under an August ruling by
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, the EPA had until Oct.
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chlorpyrifos, put a proposed ban
out for public review or deny
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the Pesticide Action Network
North America.
Issuing a proposed revoca-
tion allows the EPA to gather
SXELFLQSXWEHIRUHPDNLQJD¿-
nal decision, which it plans to do
by December 2016, according
to the agency’s website. Envi-
ronmental groups praised the
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petition to ban the chemical.
“At long last, the agency is
signaling its intention to protect
children, workers and their fam-
ilies by banning this hazardous
pesticide,” Earthjustice attorney
Patti Goldman said in a state-
ment.
In recent years, California
KDV SXW VLJQL¿FDQW FRQWUROV RQ
the use of chlorpyrifos, requir-
ing training, licensing and local
county approval for anyone who
uses it. Growers must tell their
county agricultural commis-
sioner when, where and how
they want to use the pesticide,
and counties require buffers of
up to 150 feet between the user
and a school, river or other sen-
sitive site.
Last year, the Department of
3HVWLFLGH5HJXODWLRQFRQWUDFWHG
with the University of Califor-
nia Statewide Integrated Pest
Management Program to create
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for using chlorpyrifos. Teams
focused on its use on alfalfa,
almonds, citrus fruit and cotton,
identifying alternatives as well
as instances when use of the
chemical is critical to protect-
ing the crop.
A resulting report by the
university examined other
pest-control tactics, including
planting pest-resistant crop va-
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sanitation and other insecticides.
However,
the
teams
“agreed that chlorpyrifos is an
essential element to their IPM
programs to continue pro-
duction and quality standards
heretofore established for their
commodities,” the report’s ex-
ecutive summary stated.
Almond exports from Cal-
ifornia to TPP nations in 2013
were valued at $650 million,
with wine and table grapes
closely behind at about $500
million in export value each,
according to the researchers.
Under the TPP, Japan,
Malaysia and Vietnam would
eliminate tariffs for tree nuts.
The current tariff into Japan
is just 5.6 percent, but Viet-
nam’s tariff is 23 percent, the
researchers note.
Tariffs for citrus fruit in
Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam
would also be eliminated. Al-
ready, Japan imported about
$170 million in California
citrus fruit in 2013 despite
a 12 percent tariff, and Ma-
laysian buyers added another
$24 million to California cit-
rus exports that year, Sumner
wrote.
The analysis comes as
farm groups nationwide have
had mixed reactions to the
30-chapter, 2,000-page agree-
ment. The National Potato
Council and Northwest Horti-
cultural Council were among
groups that endorsed the deal,
while the National Farmers
Union is among its critics.
The California Farm Bu-
reau Federation is urging the
state’s congressional delega-
tion to support the deal, ar-
guing that the Golden State’s
SUR[LPLW\ WR 3DFL¿F 5LP
countries uniquely positions
the state to gain from it.
“California-grown food
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
SPOKANE — The Nation-
al Association of Wheat Grow-
ers will survey U.S. farmers as
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how to increase the amount of
wheat grown nationwide.
“They need to see more pro-
ductivity on their own farms to
keep planting wheat, or consid-
er wheat as a viable alternative
in their rotation,” NAWG pres-
ident Brett Blankenship told the
Washington Grain Commission
at a recent meeting.
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in developing the association’s
national wheat action plan,
designed to reinvigorate the
industry, said Blankenship, a
Washtucna, Wash., farmer.
In the last two decades U.S.
wheat acreage has decreased
from roughly 90 million acres
to 54 million acres. Most of
the decline has occurred in the
Midwest.
In 1995 farmers in Wash-
ington, Idaho and Oregon grew
5.14 million acres of wheat. In
2015 they planted 4.56 million
acres.
He attributed the decline in
the region to an increase in the
number of USDA conservation
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Brett Blankenship, president of the National Association of Wheat
Growers, addresses the Washington Grain Commission March
11 during a commission meeting in Spokane. NAWG will survey
farmers across the country to assess their needs in an effort to
increase wheat acreage.
reserve program acres.
“A farmer who grew wheat
now perhaps grows soybeans
and corn, and is making almost
twice the dollars per acre as he
was before, so as an individual
farmer, he doesn’t view that as
a crisis, he views that as a bene-
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The wheat industry needs
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acreage while it’s still healthy,
Blankenship said.
“If we wait, it may be too
late to reverse the trend and
we could drift into becoming
a more minor crop,” he said.
“The smaller you get in your
land and economic base, your
political base shrinks.
“If you want to stay in the
game, so to speak, we need to
stay a major, growing, vibrant
wheat economy,” he said.
A study by Texas A&M
University predicts that a 20
percent increase in productivity
would reverse the downward
trend, Blankenship said. He be-
lieves that’s within reach with
improved management and
gains provided through wheat
research.
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declines, fewer funds collected
through assessments are re-in-
vested in research or market de-
velopment, Blankenship said.
Budgets for state commissions
will also become increasingly
stressed, he said.
“This conversation needs
to include, ‘What do we really
need to prosper?’” Blankenship
said. “When you compare our-
selves to other industries, even
though we have invested sig-
QL¿FDQWGROODUVLQWRUHVHDUFKLW
pales in comparison to some of
the other commodities.”
Blankenship hopes to sur-
vey farmers by the end of the
year.
NAWG has raised roughly
$250,000 from technical pro-
viders to begin the effort.
The organization will solic-
it other companies that would
EHQH¿W IURP JURZWK LQ WKH
wheat industry, Blankenship
said.
NAWG will also spend
the next year asking for infor-
mation from all sectors of the
industry, including export
market development and re-
search.
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