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WASHINGTON: VET STUDENTS GET HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE AT LAMBING SCHOOL FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2016 VOLUME 89, NUMBER 12 Feds divvying up Willamette Valley dam water By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Turn to WATER, Page 12 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM $2.00 FOODIE FOOTHOLD U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces 2017 deadline to allocate water Federal regulators are again delving into the pro- cess of dividing up roughly 1.6 million acre-feet of wa- ter stored behind 13 dams in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Those dams perform fl ood control during the rainy winter months but also hold water during the spring and summer that’s designated for joint use by irrigators, municipalities, industries, recreationists and fi sh. Exactly how much wa- ter is allocated for each use is currently undefi ned, but the T.S. Army Corps of Engineers — which oper- ates the dams — is under an internal deadline to ra- tion it out by mid-2017. The agency recent- ly restarted the earliest “scoping” phase of the allocation process, which involves collecting infor- mation from the public on water needs. Future irrigation de- mands calculated by the Oregon Water Resources Department and Oregon Department of Agriculture will be considered by the Corps. The process of allocat- ing the water was previous- ly undertaken in the 1990s but was postponed by a “bi- ological opinion” that ana- lyzed the impact of dams on several fi sh protected under the Endangered Spe- cies Act, said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bu- reau. “It halted the process while they did that work,” she said. Tnder a biological opinion completed in 2008, the amount of wa- ter slated for irrigation is capped at 95,000 acre- feet, but the Oregon Farm Bureau and other irrigator groups hope to increase agriculture’s share under the Army Corps’ allocation process. Currently, irrigators in the Willamette Valley have contracted with the federal government to use 74,000 acre-feet of the water avail- able. Page 4 In a city serious about food, OSU innovation center is at home P By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press ORTLAND — An agricultural experiment station might seem an unlikely resident of this city’s upscale Pearl District, which has gone from gritty warehouses and railyards to gain a self-described “worldwide repu- tation for urban renaissance.” But Oregon State Tniversity’s Food Innovation Center has been perched along Naito Parkway since 2000. And in hindsight, the decision to open the FIC in what became arguably the foodie capital of the T.S. seems an inspired choice. “Lucky, maybe,” laughs Thayne Dutson, who was dean of OST’s College of Agricultural Sciences at the time. Nonetheless, the FIC was OSU’s fi rst foothold in Portland, where OST and the Tniversity of Oregon increasingly scrap for attention, money and students. The FIC may have been the fi rst agricultural exper- iment station — still its technical designation — to open in an urban area. It marked a major and con- tinuing collaboration with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which leases space in the FIC for its marketing, trade and laboratory services. Staff at the FIC help Northwest food entrepre- neurs with product development, manufacturing, safety, packaging, labeling, shelf-life and more. Its sensory science specialist can measure consum- er acceptance of new products, and another re- searcher is working on the use of radio frequen- cy identifi cation technology (RFID) to track products as they move from processor to plate. Clients range from hundreds of small entrepreneurs learning how to take their idea to market, to giant, un- named food corporations that pay to test products with sophisticated Portland consum- ers. Turn to FOODIE, Page 12 Eric Mortenson/Capital Press Sarah Masoni, product development manager at the Food Innovation Cen- ter, checks ingredients assembled for test batches of a granola bar. Annual budget: $900,000 from OSU, $550,000 from client fees, grants and lease payments. Employees: 10, increasing to 11 this fall. Oregon Dept. of Agriculture leases roughly half the building, staffed with 11 marketing and 18 laboratory services personnel. Mission: Provide startup food entrepreneurs and corporate clients help with product development, marketing, packaging, shelf-life, recipe formulation, consumer acceptance and food safety. Location: 1207 N.W. Naito Parkway, Portland, Ore. Website: fic.oregonstate.edu USDA won’t regulate biotech wheat variety Cultivar modifi ed to ‘knock out’ mildew- susceptible gene By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press A wheat variety rendered mil- dew-resistant through the targeted “knockout” of a gene can be commer- cialized without clearing TSDA regu- latory hurdles for biotech crops. The agency’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has found that the cultivar doesn’t fall under its jurisdiction for regulating genetically engineered crops, which is limited to possible plant pests and pathogens. While the wheat was developed with genetic elements from dis- ease-causing bacteria, they aren’t Capital Press fi le Wheat is shown in this fi le photo. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has found that a new mildew re- sistant wheat cultivar doesn’t fall under its jurisdiction for regulating genetically engineered crops. contained in the crop and thus it’s not subject to TSDA’s deregulatory process, which includes environ- mental analysis and public comment, according to APHIS. Most biotech crops commonly grown in the T.S. have undergone de- regulation, and in some cases, lawsuits over the adequacy of this process have delayed their commercialization. Calyxt, a subsidiary of the biophar- maceutical company Cellectis, devel- oped “MLO_KO” wheat with genetic sequences from bacteria and corn that remove a gene that suppresses the plant’s defenses against powdery mil- dew. The wheat’s DNA is repaired during natural cellular processes and no foreign genetic material remains. “It does not change the wheat’s basic biology or produce a plant that would directly feed on, infect, parasit- ize, or contaminate plants, or adverse- ly affect other organisms that are ben- efi cial to plants,” Calyxt said in a letter to APHIS. The gene eliminated by Calyxt is involved in the plant’s biological pro- cesses but the mildew fungus also re- lies on it to “trick” and penetrate the wheat crop, said Luc Mathis, the com- pany’s CEO. Even without the gene, the wheat’s biology remains unaffected due to other genes that perform duplicative roles, he said. “When you remove this function, the plant behaves normally.” Though the TSDA has decided the wheat cultivar can be commercialized, Mathis said he doesn’t expect the crop to be sold to farmers until 2022. Calyxt must first conduct trials to ensure the trait is reliable in the field while simultaneously incorporating the mildew resistance into geograph- ically suitable wheat varieties, he said. Turn to WHEAT, Page 12 12-4/#5