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June 10, 2016 CapitalPress.com 3 ODA won’t conduct on-farm food safety inspections By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press The Oregon Department of Agriculture has decided against seeking federal funds to conduct on-farm food safety inspections. The agency will instead wait to see what role the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will play in on-farm enforce- ment of the Food Safety Mod- ernization Act. ODA doesn’t have the au- thority to perform on-farm in- spections, though it’s consid- ering asking state lawmakers for that power in 2017, said Stephanie Page, the agency’s food safety director. “We need to have a con- versation with the Legislature before we commit to a grant application to do that work,” said Page. Farmers are giving the agency “diverse feedback” about whether they’d prefer for ODA to conduct inspec- tions, rather than FDA, she said. While some farmers would feel more comfortable with ODA, it’s not clear that the agency’s involvement would preclude FDA from doing its own inspections. For example, FDA concur- rently inspects food manufac- turers even though ODA also inspects these facilities. For that reason, some farm- ers wonder whether there’s any purpose in ODA conduct- ing on-farm inspections, Page said. “It’s not a done deal we will do inspections. We need to continue to have those con- versations with the industry,” she said. The Oregon Board of Agriculture has affirmed the agency’s decision not to purse inspection funding, vot- ing unanimously at its June 8 meeting in John Day, Ore., to wait until more information is available. While Oregon is only one of a handful of states not to seek FDA funds for on-farm inspections, the agency is ask- ing for about $3.5 million over five years to educate farmers about FSMA. “I think we need more time to do some more outreach,” said Katy Coba, ODA’s direc- tor. To obtain those funds, ODA must commit to developing a database of farms for the FDA. If farmers were required to submit information to the database, that would become a public record, which makes some growers uncomfortable, Coba said. The agency has decided not to pursue a mandatory data- base and will instead seek vol- untary submissions. The FDA is unlikely to ob- ject to the voluntary inventory idea, since the agency recog- nizes “all states are struggling with how to do that,” said Page. If the ODA wins grant ap- proval for education and out- reach, it plans to create three new staff positions located in major produce-growing areas of the state, she said. The FSMA rules for farm- ers only apply to fruits and vegetables that are consumed raw. If the ODA changes its mind about on-farm inspec- tions, it can apply for that grant in a separate application next spring, Page said. “That’s a small price to pay to have more time to talk to our stakeholders,” she said. Mexico drops temporary tariffs against U.S. apples By DAN WHEAT Capital Press WENATCHEE, Wash. — Mexico has ended its tempo- rary tariffs on U.S. apples after determining that imports from Washington’s 2013 crop did not damage that nation’s industry. It’s good news for Wash- ington growers since Mexico is their No. 1 export market and becomes even more important with larger crops, said Todd Fry- hover, president of the Wash- ington Apple Commission in Wenatchee. Mexico normally buys 10 million, 40-pound boxes of Washington apples or more per season and bought a record 15.5 million in the 2014-2015 sales season. More than 11 million boxes, valued at $230 million, were sold to Mexico in the 2013-2014 season that was in- vestigated. As of May 31 this season, 6.5 million boxes have been sold compared to 10.4 million a year ago. That’s a drop of 37 percent. However, Rebecca Lyons, Apple Commission export mar- keting director, has said a 12 percent reduction in the value of the peso versus the dollar, a smaller 2015 Washington apple crop and higher prices have all contributed more to the decline Dan Wheat/Capital Press Eleodoro Rameriz, foreground, packs a tray of Fuji apples into a 40-pound box at Washington Fruit & Produce Co.’s new packing plant in Yakima, Wash., in December. The company is one of a few apple packers in the state that enjoyed no tariffs on their sales to Mexico this season. Mexico has now ended its temporary tariffs. in exports to Mexico than the tariffs. That’s true, Fryhover said, while noting removal of the tariff levels the playing field among shippers since some had a 20 percent tariff and some had none. Fred Scarlett, manager of Northwest Fruit Exporters in Yakima, said industry efforts to fully comply with all requests for information from the Mexico Ministry of Economia “proved there was no injury to Chihua- hua growers by our exports.” NFE is a nonprofit corpo- ration managing export proce- dures of apples and cherries. The Mexico government opened an investigation in De- cember 2014 at the request of the Regional Fruit Producers Association (UNIFRUT) of the state of Chihuahua. UNIFRUT alleged U.S. shippers, mostly from Washington, sold apples in Mexico in 2013 at less than fair value, damaging Chihuahua growers. Reward offered in stock dog poisoning case By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press PARMA, Idaho — A $5,000 reward has been of- fered for information that leads to the conviction of the person responsible for poison- ing 14 stock dogs near Parma since early April. A local veterinarian who examined the dogs, which are used to guard and shepherd sheep and goats, said they were intentionally poisoned with large amounts of strych- nine. Twelve of them have died. The reward is being of- fered by the Humane Society of the United States, which contacted the dogs’ owner, Sean Ellis/Capital Press Casey Echevarria, after the Ramrod, an Anatolian shepherding dog, guards sheep in southwestern Idaho May 16. Ramrod is Capital Press broke this story owned by Casey Echevarria, who has had 14 of his stock dogs poisoned near Parma in southwestern June 1. Idaho since early April. HSUS State Director Lisa Kauffman said the reward is the bad. These guard dogs are double the standard amount more valuable to us farmers the group offers in animal cru- and ranchers than the public knows.” elty cases. Strychnine, which is used HSUS usually stays out of issues involving agriculture to kill rodents, is a restricted — the stock dogs are consid- use pesticide and people have ered ag animals under Idaho to obtain a license from the law — but the large number Idaho State Department of Ag- of dogs poisoned and the use riculture before using it in bait, of strychnine made it a par- said George Robinson, admin- ticularly heinous crime in istrator of ISDA’s Agriculture Resources Division. HSUS’ view, Kauffman said. To obtain the license, a “We need to publicize this and keep this going,” she said. person needs to pass an exam. “Hopefully, somebody is go- There are about 3,000 such licenses statewide, Robinson ing to turn this person in.” Joe Decker, public infor- said. Dr. Brent Varriale, a veter- mation officer for the Canyon County Sheriff’s Department, inarian who examined several said the department is in the of Echevarria’s poisoned dogs, early stages of investigating said strychnine is a horrible the poisonings and isn’t re- way to die because it paralyzes a dog and causes it to suffocate leasing any information yet. Echevarria said his phone to death. He said the strychnine bait has been ringing off the hook since the story broke and he was mixed with raw ground has already done several TV meat to encourage the dogs to eat as much as they did and the interviews. He said he has used the large amount of bait he found resulting media interest to in the dogs’ stomachs, coupled educate people about how with the large amount of dogs important stock dogs are to affected, convinces him they were intentionally poisoned. farmers and ranchers. The incidents bothered him “It needed to come out,” he said. “The public outcry such that he froze stomach is going to stop (whoever is content samples from the dogs responsible) and there is go- and contacted the sheriff’s de- ing to be good coming out of partment. NFE said that was unlikely because 2013 was a profitable year, giving shippers little incen- tive to sell into Mexico at low prices. More than 40 Washington apple packers responded to a Ministry of Economia ques- tionnaire by the Feb. 13, 2015, deadline and 12 were chosen for further review to determine if they would be assessed a duty. On Jan. 7, 2016, Economia imposed temporary tariffs rang- ing from 2.44 to 20.82 percent on some Washington exporters while it continued its investi- gation. Economia said there was “sufficient evidence” that U.S. apples had been sold into Mexico at discriminatory prices damaging Mexican producers, a USDA report stated. Washington Fruit & Pro- duce, Yakima; Monson Fruit Co., Selah; and CPC Interna- tional Apple Co., Tieton, were all allowed by the Mexican gov- ernment to keep shipping into Mexico at no tariff. On March 17, attorneys for several Washington fruit companies, and Cass Gebbers, co-owner of Gebbers Farms in Brewster, spoke at an Economia public hearing on the case in Mexico City. On June 7, Economia re- leased a final determination in the case saying U.S. sales did not damage Mexico’s industry, ending its investigation and re- voking the tariffs as of June 8. The U.S. is the primary sup- plier of imported apples in Mex- ico, with Washington account- ing for about 90 percent of those shipments. Bob & Marjorie Littler ESTATE AUCTION Friday, June 17, 2016, 10am MST 13350 Burgundy Pl., Caldwell, ID INCREDIBLE SELECTION OF ANTIQUE FURNITURE, GLASSWARE, TUMBLE UPS, COLLECTIBLES & PRIMITIVES! 90+ GUN COLLECTION! COINS! AND SO MUCH MORE! 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