February 12, 2016
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Reid Saito, second from left, and Ron Mio, second from right, are inducted into the Idaho-Eastern Ore-
gon Onion Hall of Fame Feb. 2, and receive plaques from Malheur County Onion Growers Association
President Paul Skeen, left, and Idaho Onion Growers Association President Clinton Wissel.
Mio stopped growing on-
ions in 2013 because pres-
sure from the iris yellow spot
virus, an onion disease, has
greatly reduced onion acreage
in that area, but he still grows
mint, seed beans and wheat.
Saito said the two worked
closely on several issues crit-
ical to the industry, including
a successful effort to bridge
the once wide communication
gap between onion growers
and shippers.
That paid off in a major
way nine years ago, he said,
after several growers in the
area were investigated and
ined for using carbofuran, a
pesticide that controlled onion
thrips but wasn’t approved for
onion use.
“Growers worked with
shippers, the state and EPA
and got that worked out,”
Saito said. “The way we
worked that out, it was the
best outcome for consumers,
for growers and for shippers.”
More recently, onion
growers and shippers worked
together to provide input to
the Food and Drug Adminis-
tration on the agency’s pro-
posed produce safety rule.
Onion industry leaders said
the rule’s strict agricultural
water standards would put
many onion farmers in the re-
gion out of business.
But the FDA altered those
rules after hearing the outcry
from onion farmers and ship-
pers in the region and visiting
the area in 2013 and the rules
are now something the indus-
try says it can live with.
Paul Skeen, current pres-
ident of the Malheur County
Onion Growers Association,
said Saito’s and Mio’s prac-
tical and forthright leader-
ship skills were most evident
during the carbofuran crisis.
“They are real leaders who
stood up and called a spade a
spade and did what we had to
do,” Skeen said. “On top of
that, they are both really good
farmers.”
Pyle takes job at Portland lobbying irm
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Retirement didn’t last
long for Paulette Pyle.
The longtime legislative
advocate and grass-roots or-
ganizer for Oregonians for
Food and Shelter has been
hired by Gallatin Public Af-
fairs, a Portland-based lob-
bying group.
The company announced
13
Oregon
Oregon, Idaho onion farmers
inducted into hall of fame
ONTARIO, Ore. — Two
long-time leaders of the Ida-
ho and Oregon onion indus-
tries who worked side by side
on many issues important to
onion growers in both states
have been inducted into the
Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion
Hall of Fame together.
Reid Saito, past president
of the Malheur County On-
ion Growers Association, and
Ron Mio, past president of the
Idaho Onion Growers Associ-
ation, were inducted into the
group’s joint hall of fame on
Feb. 2.
Both farmers said it was
appropriate they entered
the hall together since they
worked together on issues im-
portant to the onion industry
for almost 14 years while they
served as presidents of the
states’ respective onion grow-
er associations.
“It was an honor to go into
the hall of fame with Reid,”
said Mio, who farms in the
Fruitland, Idaho, area. “We
worked side by side for so
many years and I really appre-
ciated going into the hall of
fame with him.”
“I was really honored to be
considered for the hall and go-
ing in with Ron made it even
more special,” said Saito, who
farms in Nyssa, Ore.
Saito, who grew up on his
family’s farm, plans to retire
from farming this year.
CapitalPress.com
Pyle’s hiring
Feb. 1.
Pyle spent
35 years with
OFS before an-
nouncing her
retirement in
Paulette
2015. In No-
Pyle
vember,
she
was
named
the Oregon Aglink 2015
Ag Connection of the Year
Award and was feted at the
group’s annual Denim & Di-
amonds awards dinner and
auction.
In announcing Pyle’s
hiring, Gallatin President
Dan Lavey said her passion
for the people and places of
the rural Northwest is un-
matched.
“She is a relentless ad-
vocate for America’s natu-
ral resource communities.
Everyone wants Paulette on
their side,” Lavey said in a
prepared statement.
Pyle will divide her time
between Gallatin’s Oregon
and Idaho offices, the com-
pany said in a news release.
“My heart and love is
with farmers, ranchers, log-
gers, foresters, fishermen
and anyone who makes a liv-
ing from the land in the Pa-
cific Northwest,” Pyle said
in a prepared statement.
Affordable housing bills
encounter objections
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — With advocates
for the poor lamenting Ore-
gon’s “affordable housing cri-
sis,” lawmakers are considering
altering land use laws to allow
more home-building.
The proposals have encoun-
tered resistance from agricul-
ture and conservation groups,
which claim cities should focus
on building within existing “ur-
ban growth boundaries” rather
than expanding onto farmland.
Young and beginning farm-
ers face a problem similar to
that of urban residents who
can’t ind affordable housing,
as farmland ownership is often
inancially out of reach, said
Peter Kenagy, a farmer from
Benton County.
“We also have an affordable
farmland issue,” Kenagy said
during a Feb. 8 hearing on Sen-
ate Bill 1575.
Bill would expedite
UGB expansions
Among other provisions,
SB 1575 would “expedite”
the process of expanding ur-
ban growth boundaries to cre-
ate more affordable housing,
which critics say would create
communities without readily
accessible services and trans-
portation.
Meanwhile, people who live
in areas surrounded by farmland
are bothered by common farm-
ing practices, said Mary Anne
Nash, public policy counsel for
the Oregon Farm Bureau.
“We see a continued con-
lict between urban and rural
issues,” said Nash.
Mary Kyle McCurdy, poli-
cy director of the 1,000 Friends
of Oregon conservation group,
said directing affordable hous-
ing development to grow onto
farmland “does not work for
either side of the UGB.”
The costs of bringing water,
roads and other infrastructure
onto such rural properties costs
about $100,000 per housing
unit, so housing development
makes more sense on unde-
veloped land within cities, she
said.
“We’re picking on agri-
cultural land because there
are fewer people there and it’s
cheaper compared to urban
land,” McCurdy said.
Proponents of easing the
UGB expansion process argue
that restrictive land use rules
have contributed to the lack of
affordable housing around Or-
egon and must be part of the
solution.
Oregon’s land use statutes
have improved livability and
preserved agriculture but “they
have not come without costs,”
said Jon Chandler, CEO of the
Oregon Home Builders Associ-
ation.
The impact of SB 1575
would be complicated for home
builders. While the bill would
speed up the process of expand-
ing UGBs, it would also allow
cities to adopt a form of “inclu-
sionary zoning,” under which a
portion of housing units must
be priced to it the median in-
come of local families.
Home builders have tradi-
tionally opposed such zoning
as posing a threat to real estate
markets, and the practice is cur-
rently prohibited in Oregon.
Chandler said he’s willing
to have a “thoughtful conversa-
tion” about inclusionary zoning
in SB 1575. If the legislature
sets the right parameters for
such zoning, his group may not
object to the proposal and even
support it, he said.
Housing shortage
seen in Oregon
In testimony supporting
another proposal, House Bill
4079, Chandler said that Or-
egon should be generating
about 25,000 housing units a
year to keep up with population
growth.
In 2015, though, only about
15,000 units were built, and the
state has developed a backlog
of about 100,000 units in recent
years, he said.
Under HB 4079, the legis-
lature would allow two 50-acre
pilot projects in which the UGB
expansion process would be
expedited to accommodate af-
fordable housing — one locat-
ed in a community with fewer
than 30,000 residents, and the
other with more.
Oregon stops sales of Guardian Mite Spray after lab inds contamination
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
The Oregon Department of
Agriculture stopped sales of a
pesticide statewide Feb. 5, a
follow-up from the mid-Janu-
ary report that a private labo-
ratory testing cannabis found
an active ingredient that
wasn’t listed on the pesticide
label.
The lab, Oregon Growers
Analytical of Eugene, found
a commonly used insecticide,
abamectin, in Guardian Mite
Spray. Its label says its ac-
tive ingredients are cinnamon
oil and citric acid, and that it
is 100 percent natural, accord-
ing to the ag department.
The insecticide was found
on cannabis intended for
eventual use by medical mari-
juana patients.
In January, the ag depart-
ment took Guardian off the
list of products approved for
use on marijuana while it in-
vestigated. Washington and
Colorado, which like Oregon
have legalized marijuana, fol-
lowed suit. Oregon’s stop-sale
order, issued last week, is the
regulatory hammer.
The order means people
can’t sell, buy, use or distrib-
ute the Guardian pesticide
until the ag department and
fellow regulatory agencies
such as the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission and the
Oregon Health Authority take
a closer look. In Oregon, it’s
Online
http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/
proiles/extoxnet/24d-captan/
abamectin-ext.html
against the law to adulterate a
pesticide product, misbrand it
and make false or misleading
claims about it, according to
the ag department.
Vindication for lab
The stop-sales order is vin-
dication for Rodger Voelker,
Oregon Growers Analytical’s
lab director and a former
ODA chemist.
Sensing an economic op-
portunity as Oregon and other
states moved to legalize pot
for medical and recreational
use, Voelker and others joined
Executive Director Bethany
Sherman in founding the test-
ing lab in Eugene about 2 1/2
years ago.
Voelker said he began
inding abamectin in cannabis
samples in October 2015, and
again in November and De-
cember. Some growers went
ballistic when he told them,
and insisted the lab made a
mistake or introduced the
contamination itself.
“I was pulling my hair
out,” Voelker said. “Could we
be doing something wrong in
the lab?”
But the growers with prob-
lems had been using Guard-
ian. When he tested the prod-
uct directly, Voelker found
abamectin as an active ingre-
dient. “Sure enough,” he said.
Voelker said Eugene-ar-
ea pot growers have a strong
organic ethic, and want to
use natural products such as
Guardian claimed to be. It
seemed to work “amazingly
well,” he said.
Findings conirmed
He reported his indings
to the Department of Agricul-
ture, which seemed skeptical
at irst, but removed Guard-
ian from the list of approved
pesticides as it began its in-
vestigation. Two-and-a-half
weeks later, the department
conirmed Voelker’s indings
and issued the stop-sale order.
“They did a great job of
moving on it,” Voelker said.
“That is the government
working at record speed.”
Voelker said pesticide test-
ing is complicated, and state
employees understand the
potential liability involved.
“You’ve really got to get this
thing right.”
Guardian Mite Spray is
made by All In Enterprises,
Inc. of Machesney Park, Ill.
The company could not be
reached for comment, but a
man who identiied himself
as the owner spoke to The
Oregonian/Oregonlive.com
in mid-January. The news
outlet reported the man said
he wasn’t aware he had to list
all active ingredients on the
label.
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