CALIFORNIA TO STRENGTHEN ASIAN CITRUS PSYLLID QUARANTINE
FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2016
VOLUME 89, NUMBER 20
Page 7
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
Farm group launches campaign to counter What’s Upstream
EPA: No comment until
internal review fi nished
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A Washington farm group plans
to counter the What’s Upstream
anti-agriculture campaign with a
social media blitz of its own, Save
Family Farming director Gerald
Baron said May 9.
“We’ll use Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube — all the channels neces-
sary to reach younger urban voters,
who we think are key,” he said. “We
think, defi nitely, damage has been
done, and we need to correct that.”
Save Family Farming was
formed this year primarily to defend
dairies in northwestern Washington
Courtesy of Save Family Farming
A new video from Save Family Farming, an agriculture advocacy group in Wash-
ington, seeks to counter the media campaign What’s Upstream by portraying
producers as conscientious stewards of the land.
and before the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency’s support for What’s
Upstream was widely known.
What’s Upstream was funded
by EPA grants allocated to restore
Puget Sound fi sheries, but its theme
was a general call to restrict agricul-
ture.
Baron said the campaign has gal-
vanized producers in Eastern and
Western Washington to push back
against claims that farmers and
ranchers are unregulated polluters
of waterways.
“This is getting attention state-
wide because it affects all farm-
ers,” he said. “It’s important to
get the message out that farms are
very heavily regulated, but more
than that, those regulations are
effective.”
With EPA grants, the Swinomish
Indian tribe, based in north Puget
Sound, hired a Seattle public rela-
tions and lobbying fi rm, Strategies
360, and collaborated with environ-
mental groups on What’s Upstream.
The campaign’s push for manda-
tory 100-foot buffers between farm
fi elds and streams failed to win the
Washington Legislature’s attention.
But Baron said he’s concerned that
the ongoing campaign will mold vot-
er attitudes.
He noted that a Strategies 360
memo to the tribe described public
opinion on water-quality issues as
“malleable.”
“So many decisions are really
driven by the perception political
leaders have about where the pub-
lic is,” Baron said. “We’re certainly
very concerned about the impression
that’s been left with urban voters
who don’t have much exposure to
farms and don’t know what farmers
are doing to protect water and fi sh.”
The counter-campaign, called
Thank Family Farmers, will be fi -
nanced by farmers, food processors
and agriculture-related businesses,
but not producer-funded commodity
commissions to avoid the perception
of public funding, Baron said.
Turn to UPSTREAM, Page 12
and Wildlife Service
AGRICULTURE
65,000 acres
designated
Oregon
spotted frog
‘critical
habitat’
SLIPS OFF POLITICAL RADAR
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
More than 65,000 acres
have been designated “critical
habitat” for the Oregon spot-
ted frog, a threatened species
at the center of a lawsuit over
irrigation.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service says the critical habi-
tat designation in Oregon and
Washington, which includes
20 miles of river, provides a
“road map” to guide conser-
vation efforts for the frog.
While the federal govern-
ment claims the designation
won’t have regulatory impacts
on private property, attorneys
for natural resource industries
say critical habitat does pose a
concern for landowners.
Actions that adversely af-
fect or slow the recovery of
critical habitat are considered
unlawful “take” that’s prohib-
ited by the Endangered Spe-
cies Act, said Karen Budd-
Falen, a natural resource
attorney in Wyoming.
“If I’m a private landown-
er, I’m going to be a little ner-
vous,” she said.
Several
environmental
groups are already suing the
federal government over the
impact that irrigation reser-
voirs in Oregon’s Deschutes
Basin allegedly have on the
frog.
Turn to FROG, Page 12
www.donaldjtrump.com
Republican presiden-
tial candidate Donald
Trump.
go.berniesanders.com
Democratic presiden-
tial candidate Bernie
Sanders.
hillaryclinton.com
Democratic
presidential
candidate
Hillary Clinton.
While some observers say agriculture deserves more attention,
others say it’s a good thing presidential candidates are
distracted by other issues
I
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
DAHO FALLS, Idaho — In a crowded gymnasium
at Skyline High School, Democratic presidential
hopeful Bernie Sanders espoused his many posi-
tions for more than an hour on a long list of issues.
“We’re doing something pretty radical in Amer-
ican politics. We’re telling the truth!” the Vermont sena-
tor shouted over the cheers of raucous supporters during
the mid-March stop. “We can’t go forward as a nation
unless we honestly discuss the real problems we face.”
In a hoarse voice, he ticked off a list of his issues:
Campaign fi nance, deteriorating infrastructure, glob-
al warming, health care, crime, education, clean water,
Wall Street recklessness and other topics.
One notable exception was agriculture. In the middle of
Idaho farm country — and near the epicenter of the state’s po-
tato industry — farming was not on the candidate’s agenda.
Sanders is not alone.
The other remaining candidates for chief executive,
Democrat Hillary Clinton, a former senator and secre-
tary of state, and Republican businessman Donald Trump
have also given agriculture short shrift in their speeches
during the long campaign.
Political operatives see 2016 as the continuation of
a decades-long slide in which agriculture’s infl uence in
presidential politics has been fading.
Turn to ELECTION, Page 12
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent running for president as a Democrat, delivers
a March 18 speech in Idaho Falls. Sanders touched on a host of issues during the speech but
said nothing about agriculture.
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