January 29, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
Idaho
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Idaho FFA raffling tractor Idaho grower
to head NPC
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho — Students
involved in Idaho FFA hope to raise
$50,000 by raffling a 1975 Massey-Fer-
guson 275 tractor.
The tractor, which Canyon County
farmer Sid Freeman displayed outside
Idaho State University’s Holt Arena
during the recent 2016 Ag Expo, is fitted
with a farm-hand loader on the front and
a rear blade. Raffle tickets are $10 each
and may be purchased from any Idaho
FFA member or online at idffafounda-
tion.org.
Freeman is founder of the Idaho FFA
Foundation’s annual tractor raffle. He
said 60 percent of the raffle revenue goes
toward scholarships for FFA members.
The remainder of the funding supports
Idaho FFA Foundation programs, such as
the state convention in April, a leadership
program for underclassmen in February
and career-development competitions
hosted in June in Moscow, Idaho.
Freeman said the drawing will take
place during the state conference, and he
offered to deliver the grand prize to any
winner residing within a reasonable dis-
tance of his farm.
Freeman said FFA students hope to
break their current record of selling 3,750
tickets.
“The previous tractors have all been
antique tractors,” Freeman said. “The
agricultural education advisers said if we
had a little newer model type of tractor,
maybe we could sell more tickets and we
could reach that goal this year.”
Freeman said his organization pur-
chased the tractor for $5,000 from an
owner in Marsing, Idaho. The owner
gave FFA a good deal and will be al-
lowed to write off on taxes the differ-
ence between the sale price and the trac-
tor’s book value of about $6,500.
The tractor has new tires, and
Massey-Ferguson agreed to be a spon-
sor, providing replacement parts and
mechanical work.
Lawmakers approve new rule on cottage foods
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Idaho lawmak-
ers have approved a new rule
designed to provide cottage
food producers with the con-
sistency and legal certainty
they have been seeking.
The House Health and
Welfare Committee voted
unanimously Jan. 21 to adopt
a pending rule that spells out
what cottage foods are and
exempts them from the state’s
food establishment regula-
tions.
Cottage foods are products
produced in home kitchens
and sold directly to consum-
ers.
Though the state’s seven
health districts have allowed
cottage foods to be sold with-
out regulation for at least two
decades, the industry was
never before specifically ad-
dressed in state laws or rules.
Cottage food producers
told lawmakers last year that
left them in legal limbo and
was holding the industry back.
They also said the districts’
handling of cottage foods was
inconsistent.
A bill that would have set
state standards for cottage
food producers in state law
was withdrawn last year after
facing tough scrutiny from
some lawmakers and opposi-
tion from the Idaho Depart-
ment of Health and Welfare,
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Members of the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils, which
represents cottage food producers, speak with Rep. Caroline Troy,
R-Genesee, second from right, on Jan. 21, after she and other
lawmakers approved a new rule that addresses cottage foods.
Cottage food producers have been pushing for state recognition of
their industry since last year and Troy has backed that effort.
which argued that addressing
the issue through rules was
preferable to passing a new
law.
The Idaho Organization
of Resource Councils, which
represents many cottage food
producers, helped lead the
push for state recognition of
the industry.
Cottage food producers
were seeking a clear defini-
tion of cottage foods, the right
to sell their products directly
to consumers and consisten-
cy across the health districts,
IORC board member Julia
Page told committee mem-
bers.
“The rules you are consid-
ering today accomplish these
goals and will help our mem-
bers avoid the delays, uncer-
tainty and cost they have ex-
perienced in the past when the
health districts had different
... requirements that differed
from place to place,” she said.
She said the rules “will
unlock entrepreneurship and
vitality across the state, by
making this home-grown,
small-scale business model
available all over Idaho.”
IDHW Food Protection
Manager Patrick Guzzle, who
hosted 18 meetings across
Idaho last year on the issue,
said the message he heard
from cottage food producers
was that the industry needed a
rule but not regulation.
The new rule simply re-
quires producers to submit an
application that is available
online that discloses what
kind of cottage foods they
produce.
They must also include
a label on their product that
says it was prepared in a home
kitchen not subject to state
inspection and that it may
contain allergens. The rule
says cottage foods include,
but are not limited to, baked
goods, fruit jams and jellies,
fruit pies, breads, cakes, pas-
tries, cookies, dried fruits, dry
herbs and seasonings.
“The history (of these
foods) is that they don’t have
any record of causing any
food-borne disease outbreaks
and they are in a form that
doesn’t allow for any bacteri-
al growth, so we see them as
safe foods,” Guzzle said.
The new rules will provide
food entrepreneurs consis-
tency when dealing with the
different health districts, said
Eileen Stachowski, program
manager for the Idaho Farm-
ers’ Market Association.
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
AMERICAN
FALLS,
Idaho — Southeast Idaho
grower Jim Tiede has been
elected as the National Po-
tato Council’s president for
2016.
Tiede, who was elected
during NPC’s annual meet-
ing Jan. 14-15 in Las Vegas,
is a past chairman of both the
U.S. Potato Board and the
Idaho Potato Commission.
Tiede has also served as vice
president of legislative and
governmental affairs and
vice president of grower re-
lations with NPC.
NPC’s mission is to pro-
vide a unified voice for U.S.
potato growers on regulato-
ry, legislative and trade is-
sues.
Tiede is encouraging po-
tato growers to register for
the upcoming Potato D.C.
Fly-in, scheduled for Feb.
22-25. Growers from around
the country participate in the
annual Fly-in in Washington,
D.C., for the opportunity to
tell regulators and lawmak-
ers about the challenges they
face, and actions they would
like to see taken to help their
industry.
“Help us deliver the mes-
sage to lawmakers,” Tiede
said. “That direct impact is
really important. I’d encour-
age everybody to go online
and register and come to
D.C.”
Tiede said he’ll be fo-
cused on five main issues
when he meets with lawmak-
ers and officials from federal
agencies such as the USDA
and the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency.
Increasing truck weights
on federal interstate high-
ways in states where limits
remain low to make agricul-
tural shipping more efficient
will be a top priority. Idaho
recently succeeded in get-
ting authority for its own in-
terstate truck limits.
Tiede said NPC will
support a uniform, national
standard for voluntary label-
ing of genetically modified
organisms in food to avoid a
patchwork of statewide stan-
dards.
NPC will continue lob-
bying against the federal
change to the Waters of the
U.S. policy. Tiede consid-
ers the revision to be an
EPA overreach, allowing the
agency to expand its author-
ity to include “every pothole
and ditch in the country.”
Tiede said NPC will
continue requesting stable
funding for potato breeding
programs, having received
a 40 percent increase in that
category in the most recent
budget.
Tiede said his organi-
zation will also continue
its battle in Mexico’s court
system to restore access to
fresh U.S. potatoes beyond
a 26-kilometer zone from
the U.S. border with Mexi-
co. Fresh potato trade with
all of Mexico was briefly
allowed in 2014, but was
closed after Mexican po-
tato growers filed several
requests for temporary in-
junctions and constitutional
lawsuits.
“The USDA has absolute-
ly been a champion for us in
that regard,” Tiede said.
As president, Tiede will
be tasked as president with
hosting NPC’s summer
meeting July 13-15 in Park
City, Utah.
Also in Las Vegas, Britt
Raybould, of St. Anthony,
Idaho, was elected as a new
member of NPC’s Executive
Committee and will serve as
vice president of the Legis-
lative and Government Af-
fairs Committee.
Cully Easterday, of Pas-
co, Wash., also remains on
the Executive Committee.
UI launches new potato websites
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
POCATELLO,
Idaho
— The University of Idaho
launched two new websites
promoting Idaho potatoes
during its recent 2016 Potato
Conference, hosted Jan. 20-21
on the Idaho State University
campus.
One new site, uidaho.edu/
potatoes, will highlight UI’s
efforts to aid growers, as well
as career opportunities for stu-
dents interested in the industry.
The other site, doceocenter.
org/node/539, includes a pota-
to-centric curriculum for sixth-
and seventh-grade teachers to
utilize in their classrooms.
The sites were developed as
part of the university’s efforts to
emphasize its potato research
as part of a Program of Dis-
tinction, which provides spe-
cial funding opportunities and
seeks to get researchers across
several disciplines to work to-
gether toward common goals.
Uidaho.edu/potatoes will be
updated regularly and will in-
clude the latest pest alerts, up-
dates on UI potato research, UI
potato news and publications,
current potato psyllid numbers
and zebra chip recommen-
dations, storage data, variety
news, details about upcoming
potato conferences and meet-
ings and other information of
importance to growers.
Amy Calabretta, marketing
and communications manager
with UI’s College of Agricul-
tural and Life Sciences, said
the website will feature several
videos, including one by UI’s
Pale Cyst Nematode program
director Louise-Marie Dan-
durand, and has been designed
to function well on a tablet or
smart phone.
For students, Calabretta said
the new site will include infor-
mation on career opportunities
and features on program grad-
uates in the industry to show
potential students “if they in-
vest in UI, there will be a career
waiting for them.”
Calabretta has requested
that industry sources offer ideas
for good career-profile candi-
dates. The site will include a
feature for users to offer their
feedback that will remain live
for a few weeks.
“We need more students in
plant sciences,” Calabretta said.
“What we want to do here is
give them a place to go and see
all of the careers available in
the potato industry.”
UI’s new junior high school
curriculum offers four interac-
tive potato lessons that meet
Idaho standards for science,
technology, engineering, math,
history, agriculture, geography,
nutrition and health.
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