February 12, 2016
Child care system to be
studied for farmworkers
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — Grow-
ers of labor-intensive crops
and farmworkers could greatly
beneit by some sort of system
providing child care for chil-
dren of workers, organizations
that have been studying the is-
sue say.
It could keep growers out
of legal trouble, meet work-
ers’ need for child care and the
cost wouldn’t have to be borne
solely by employers, they say.
The Washington Grow-
ers League, which represents
growers on labor and worker
safety and health issues, last
year teamed up with the Na-
tional Farm Medicine Center
in Marshield, Wis., and the
Migrant Clinicians Network in
Austin, Texas, to survey grow-
ers on barriers and motivators
on providing child care.
Mike Gempler, executive
director of the league, could
not be reached for comment,
but Barbara Lee, senior re-
search scientist at the Nation-
al Farm Medicine Center and
director of its National Chil-
dren’s Center for Rural and
Agricultural Health and Safe-
ty, said Gempler got the center
interested in the issue.
“He said a lot of women
want to work but can’t because
they can’t ind child care,” Lee
said.
The cost and limited hours
child care is available are bar-
riers to employers providing it
but a Florida program works
well without growers or work-
ers paying daily fees, Lee said.
Redlands Christian Migrant
Association in Homestead,
Fla., has been providing child
care to workers for 50 years
and has grown to serve 6,733
children in 21 counties. It is
done with federal Head Start
money, state dollars and dona-
tions from growers and other
private parties.
Lawmaker
warns about
topping carbon
cap with tax
5
CapitalPress.com
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
A young girl, likely underage, picks apples in an orchard in 2014.
She was helping her father pick. Children sometimes end up in
orchards for lack of child care which can get growers in trouble with
child labor laws.
“Three years ago, there was
a half-million-dollar gift from
a major avocado grower who
loves the program,” Lee said.
“No other state has a program
this big or well-organized.”
Donations, fundraising and
non-governmental grants ex-
ceeded $1.7 million in 2015,
according to RCMA’s annual
report.
The Washington Growers
League interviewed manage-
ment and held focus groups
with workers at a Central
Washington cherry orchard
and a Western Washington ber-
ry farm. Forty-two employers
responded to an online survey.
Of the employers, 73 per-
cent said they thought child
care would result in having
workers available to work
more hours, 68 percent said it
would result in more workers,
57 percent said it would mean
a more stable workforce, 57
percent said it would mean less
concern about child safety and
30 percent said it would de-
crease jeopardy of child labor
occurring.
Sixty-three percent of the
employers said children are
never brought to worksites,
21 percent said it rarely hap-
pens, 9 percent said it happens
sometimes and 7 percent said
it occurs frequently.
Federal law prohibits chil-
dren under 12 from working,
with narrow exceptions.
A Mesa, Wash., grower
paid a $16,000 ine last August
to free his apples for sale after
the U.S. Department of La-
bor placed a hold on the fruit,
saying it found two children
working in his orchard. The
grower said the children, ap-
parently brought by a worker
for lack of child care, were not
working but that he had to ad-
mit they were to get his apples
freed.
Lee said another 71 em-
ployers were surveyed at a
labor conference in Las Vegas
and more at a meeting in Mon-
terey, Calif. Of the 71, most
produce tree fruit, nuts, ber-
ries and grapes. Fifty-six per-
cent said children never come
to worksites, 40 percent said
companies should pay more
attention to child care and 53
percent said business associ-
ates and customers would be
pleased if employers support-
ed child care for workers.
Oregon ag department schedules
meetings on gypsy moth spraying
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
The Oregon Department
of Agriculture proposes to
spray 8,674 acres in North
Portland this spring to head
off a potential infestation of
destructive gypsy moths.
Aerial sprayings tend to
cause public scrutiny and
worry, however, even when it
involves a biological insecti-
cide that’s been successfully
used against gypsy moths
for more than 30 years. For
that reason, the department is
hosting a pair of meetings to
explain the project.
The irst is Wednesday,
Feb. 17, from 6:30 p.m. to
8:30 p.m. at James John El-
ementary School, 7439 N.
Charleston Ave., Portland.
The second is Saturday, Feb.
20, from 9 a.m. to noon at the
same place.
Gypsy moths are voracious
eaters and multiply rapidly.
Unchecked, they could kill
trees and or heavily damage
Paciic Northwest forests and
crops such as Christmas trees.
Agencies monitor their pres-
ence with traps and spray from
time to time to control them.
Two Asian gypsy moths
were found in North Portland
traps this past summer and
another was found across the
Columbia River in Washing-
ton. Asian gypsy moths are
more mobile than the Europe-
an variety sometimes trapped
in the Northwest.
The area proposed for
spraying includes Hayden
Island, St. Johns, and Forest
Park in Portland. ODA pro-
poses three aerial applications
in late April and early May,
using Bacillus thuringien-
sis var. kurstaki, commonly
known as Btk.
An environmental assess-
ment of the project will be
available Feb. 12 from the
USDA’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service.
It can be seen at www.aphis.
usda.gov/planthealth/ea/. A
comment period ends March
14. Comments should be di-
rected to Christopher.Dee-
gan@aphis.usda.gov or gyp-
symoth@oda.state.or.us.
Asian gypsy moth
Adult male
Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org
Binomial name: Lymantria dispar
asiatica
Appearance: Adult males have
grayish-brown wings with darker
bands and a wingspan of 1 1/2
inches. Adult females are white
and much larger with a wingspan
of 3 1/2 inches.
Diet: More than 600 species of
trees and shrubs, including larch,
oak, poplar, alder, willow and
some evergreens.
Life cycle: Four stages; egg,
larva, pupa and moth. Eggs are
laid between June-September and
remain dormant through winter to
hatch the following spring.
Origin: Far East countries such
as China, Russia and Japan.
First observed in N. America:
1991 near Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada.
Source: USDA APHIS
Capital Press graphic
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John Deere Dealers
See one of these dealers for a demonstration
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — A carbon
cap as ordered by Gov. Jay
Inslee and a carbon tax as pro-
posed by an initiative would
be a chilling combination for
Washington’s business cli-
mate, the chairman of the Sen-
ate Energy and Environment
Committee said Tuesday.
Sen. Doug Ericksen,
R-Ferndale, presided over a
two-hour public hearing on
Initiative 732, whose support-
ers collected enough signa-
tures to push the tax proposal
to the top of carbon-reduction
ideas swirling in Washington.
Lawmakers must either adopt
the initiative or put it to a
statewide vote in November.
By then, the state Depart-
ment of Ecology may have
inalized a carbon cap or-
dered up by Inslee. DOE has
proposed capping and rolling
back greenhouse gas emis-
sions from 70 oil reineries,
fuel importers and manufac-
turers, including a fertilizer
maker in Kennewick and two
food processors in Othello.
The Legislature last year
rejected a plan by Inslee to
combine a cap and tax in one
regulatory scheme.
“I’ve spoken with many
companies both large and
small who have indicated that
if you have a carbon cap rule
out of the Governor’s Ofice
and Initiative 732 passing in
November, you could have
major negative impacts in
their ability to make capital
investments,” Ericksen said.
I-732 has little visible sup-
port from Republicans, Demo-
crats, business groups or envi-
ronmental organizations.
Carbon
Washington’s
founder, University of Wash-
ington economist Yoram Bau-
man, said the group, which
collected the signatures, will
put together a campaign if
lawmakers don’t approve
I-732.
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