May 13, 2016
CapitalPress.com
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Idaho
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Idaho Supreme Court candidates tout ag experience
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — The four candi-
dates running for an open seat
on the Idaho Supreme Court all
tout their strong backgrounds
in agricultural issues.
The election to replace re-
tiring Chief Justice Jim Jones
will be May 17.
Two of the candidates —
Twin Falls attorney Robyn
Brody and Idaho Deputy At-
torney General and Natural
Resources Division Chief
Clive Strong — have played
roles in some of the state’s
landmark water decisions.
Attorney Curt McKenzie,
a Republican state legislator
from Nampa, has the endorse-
ment of Idaho Farm Bureau
Federation for a voting re-
cord the organization consid-
ers strong on private property
rights. The only sitting judge
of the group, Idaho Court of
Appeals Judge Sergio Gutier-
rez, has been an advocate of
farm worker rights.
Though candidates are lim-
Photo submitted
From left to right, Idaho Supreme Court candidates Clive Strong,
Curt McKenzie, Robyn Brody, Sergio Gutierrez and moderator
Mark Johnson participate in an April 19 panel discussion at the
University of Idaho Law School building in Boise.
ited in discussing issues in de-
tail that could potentially come
before the Supreme Court,
both Brody and Strong spoke
on their backgrounds before
the Committee of Nine — a
powerful group of state water
managers.
From a water perspective,
Idaho Ground Water Appropri-
ators Inc. Executive Director
Lynn Tominaga believes the
election is vital for farmers and
the future of the state’s econ-
omy.
“You need somebody who
understands that water is a lim-
ited resource and needs to be
managed,” Tominaga said.
He noted that Jones au-
thored the majority opinion
on a recent 3-2 ruling in the
Rangen Inc. water call, which
reafirmed the validity of using
a so-called trim line to conine
water calls only to areas where
a signiicant amount of water
stands to reach a senior user
from curtailment of a junior
user. The minority opinion em-
phasized the importance of the
Idaho water law provision “irst
in time, irst in right.”
For the past ive years, Bro-
dy has represented Rangen, a
Hagerman trout farm that pre-
vailed in its call against junior
well users, arguing their con-
sumption contributed to de-
clines of Rangen’s spring.
“I completely understand
the importance of water to
Southern Idaho and what it
means to our community and
state,” Brody said.
Brody, who obtained her
law degree from the University
of Denver, has litigated sever-
al agricultural cases. Her irst
case before the Idaho Supreme
Court was a water case involv-
ing two trout farms.
Strong has worked in the
Attorney General’s Ofice for
33 years and helped water users
reach the monumental Swan
Falls Agreement in 1984, es-
tablishing minimum lows for
Idaho Power hydroelectric pro-
duction and setting the stage
for the Snake River Basin Ad-
judication. Strong also helped
members of the Surface Water
Coalition reach a settlement last
summer with IGWA to stabilize
the aquifer, and his campaign
has been endorsed by both
IGWA attorney Randy Budge
and the coalition’s attorney,
John Simpson.
“My career has been trying
to ind settlements that resolve
some of these complex prob-
lems,” Strong said.
Steve Howser, general man-
ager of Aberdeen-Springield
Canal Co., has also endorsed
Strong, believing the state
needs a water law expert who
has “pretty much been involved
in every major water decision”
to replace Jones.
McKenzie said he’s aided
farmers in the Legislature by
carrying various bills, including
one requiring state agencies to
carefully analyze how regula-
tions may detract from the eco-
nomic value of private property.
McKenzie, whose law degree
is from Georgetown Universi-
ty, has support from Treasure
Valley canal companies. Idaho
Farm Bureau spokesman Russ
Hendricks said his organiza-
tion was comfortable endorsing
McKenzie based on his voting
record.
“He’s been a strong support-
er of private property rights,
the Second Amendment, the
Priority Doctrine for state water
rights and the state maintaining
sovereignty of Idaho water,”
Hendricks said.
Gutierrez initially planned
to be a bilingual teacher but
pursued a career in the law
based on his experiences work-
ing with farm laborers through
an Idaho Legal Aid Services
program.
He obtained a law degree
from University of Califor-
nia, believing he could better
help farm workers access their
rights, and returned to work as
a staff attorney for Legal Aid’s
farm worker division.
“It was a turning point in
my life,” Gutierrez said.
As a judge, Gutierrez said
he’s aimed to help youths and
families.
Parma research station gets new Kuna FFA helps thousands of
state-of-the-art cold storage unit children learn about farming
By SEAN ELLIS
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Capital Press
PARMA, Idaho — Re-
searchers at the University
of Idaho’s Parma experiment
station now have access to a
state-of-the-art cold storage
facility.
The $500,000 facility,
which recently became oper-
ational, will greatly increase
the research capacity of scien-
tists here, university oficials
said.
“It allows us to do more
and better research on the im-
pacts storage has on fruits and
vegetables,” said entomolo-
gist Jim Barbour, superinten-
dent of the Parma station. “It
opens up a whole new world
for us here.”
Researchers at the Par-
ma station study vegetables
commonly grown in the area
such as onions and potatoes
and fruit crops such as apples,
peaches and grapes.
The station’s old cold stor-
age facility had limited space
and it was decrepit and con-
stantly breaking down, said
fruit researcher Essie Fallahi,
who heads the university’s
pomology program.
“This increases our capaci-
ty in a huge way. It’s extreme-
ly exciting,” he said. “This
is something that has been
strongly welcomed by fruit
growers and potato and onion
growers.”
The new facility is 5,000
square feet and has 12 walk-in
units that are environmentally
controlled. The operator can
control temperature and hu-
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Fruit researcher Essie Fallahi stands inside a new cold storage fa-
cility at the University of Idaho’s Parma experiment station on May
3. Fallahi said the 5,000-square-foot facility will greatly enhance
research efforts.
midity as well as carbon diox-
ide and sulfur dioxide, which
can prolong the storage life of
certain crops.
Before, crops studied at
the station had to be stored
together, which could affect
or even invalidate the results
of some storage trials, Fallahi
said.
As an example of how the
new facility will help, Falla-
hi pointed to a federal grant
that will enable him to study
the effects that storage has on
peaches.
“The immediate question
from growers is, ‘How long
can I store them?’” he said.
“In the past, I didn’t have
the capacity to store them
and test them for bruising to
see how long. Now I can do
that.”
Commercial fruit grower
Jerry Henggeler, who worked
on behalf of the local fruit
industry to help convince uni-
versity leaders to build the
facility, said it will greatly en-
hance the station’s ability to
study the effects of long-term
storage on fruits and vegeta-
bles.
He said the fruit industry
works closely with Fallahi
and adopts a lot of the re-
search results his program
develops.
“This will be a great as-
set to the program out there,
and when it’s an asset to the
program, it’s an asset for the
industry,” he said. “I’m very
excited.”
The Legislature this year
approved Gov. Butch Otter’s
budget request to provide
$26,000 to cover the facility’s
operating costs.
A grand opening for the fa-
cility will be June 2.
KUNA, Idaho — About
4,000 irst- and second-grad-
ers from throughout the
Treasure Valley received a
hands-on farming experience
May 2-5 during Kuna High
School’s annual agricultural
expo.
The school’s FFA students
organize the event and guide
the children through a series
of farm-related experiences,
teaching them simple facts
about farming.
“We try to educate them
about what the agricultural
industry does and give them
an idea of what true pro-
duction agriculture is,” said
event co-chairman Eric Ball,
an FFA student. “We want
them to have a good expe-
rience with farming while
they’re at that impressionable
age.”
The kids get to see a wide
variety of farm animals, in-
cluding longhorn steers,
dairy calves, horses, cow-calf
pairs, baby chickens, sheep,
pigs, goats, ish and bunnies.
They also watch videos
and view displays that ex-
plain agriculture at a simple
level and highlight its impor-
tance to Idaho and the nation.
They get to climb aboard
large pieces of new farm
equipment that local dealers
loan the expo for four days.
Those companies also donate
the tractors that pull the stu-
dents around on a hay ride
and local farmers provide the
trailers.
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Elementary school students from southwestern Idaho learn about
a swather and other farm equipment May 4 during Kuna High
School’s annual agricultural expo. The school’s FFA students
organize and run the four-day event, which teaches irst- and
second-graders the basics about farming.
“We get a lot of industry
support for this event,” said
Shawn Dygert, who teaches
ag education classes at Kuna
High School. “All it takes is
a phone call and there is no
hesitation.”
Kuna is surrounded by
farm land but many of the
youngsters are from other
parts of the valley that aren’t,
said ag expo co-chair and
FFA student Makayla Berhe-
im.
“A lot of these kids are
from subdivisions or cities,
so they never experience this
before and have no idea about
agriculture,” she said. “We
want to help them ... have a
good knowledge of agricul-
ture and know the good sides
of it and how it impacts our
whole world.”
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Dygert said the event is a
valuable experience for FFA
students as well.
“These high school kids
have to learn agriculture well
enough to teach these little
kids,” he said. “It takes ev-
erything we talk about do-
ing in the classroom and it
forces them to actually do
it.”
He said the expo brings
out the best in some students.
“Some of the students
that have been possibly a
little less than motivated in
the classroom, they get in
this environment and they
become really good at these
different activities,” he said.
“It provides a way for them
to show talents they may not
otherwise have a chance to
show.”
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503-931-9232
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