June 10, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
Quinoa investigated for PCN control
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Jeremiah Clark looks over quinoa plants he’s raising to produce his own varieties fit for Eastern Idaho
conditions June 2 within the new quinoa processing facility he’s making in Idaho Falls. Clark has
continued increasing his quinoa production this season.
E. Idaho expanding
quinoa production
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
IDAHO FALLS — A local
businessman who made East-
ern Idaho the nation’s top qui-
noa growing region in 2015
is increasing his production
of the nutritious, gluten-free
crop this season.
Jeremiah Clark, who con-
tracted with local growers for
just under 400 quinoa acres
last season, has about 600
acres under contract this sea-
son. He’s also added two new
growers and now works with
10 farmers spanning from
Driggs to American Falls.
“Last year, we were shoot-
ing for 1,000 pounds per acre,
which we thought would be
pretty good with the prices,”
Clark said. “It seemed every-
body came in between 1,100
and 1,400 pounds.”
Clark had hoped to in-
crease his operation’s scope
to between 2,000 and 3,000
quinoa acres this season, but
prices have dropped sharply
recently, dipping well below
his prior $1-per-pound con-
tract rate.
He’s poised to open a qui-
noa cleaning, color sorting
and processing facility in Ida-
ho Falls within the next two
months. Clark has worked
with another packing facility
to process his quinoa thus far
and is still running last sea-
son’s supply. His new facility
will be capable of processing
1,000 pounds per hour, suffi-
cient to handle his entire crop
in a month, and of packaging
quinoa in smaller bags.
Clark said a couple of
large flour mills have con-
tracted for a couple of hun-
dred acres of the current qui-
noa crop, for use in breakfast
cereal production, wanting an
“American-sourced quinoa
they can depend on year in
and year out.”
He’s also raising his first
150 acres of quinoa for the
organic market and has inter-
est from a West Coast organic
flour producer.
“There are no herbicides
or pesticides labeled for qui-
noa anyway,” Clark said. “I
figured we’re 90 percent of
the way (to organic) anyway.”
Clark plans to apply for
a patent this fall on the first
variety he’s developed in his
own greenhouse for Eastern
Idaho’s conditions, called
Kailey.
Firth farmer David Mundt
is raising 5 acres of Kailey
for seed this season. Mundt
was intrigued by quinoa when
he saw fields during his mis-
sion to Peru with the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
“For me, it’s an opportuni-
ty to diversify,” Mundt said.
“Further in the future, diver-
sification is going to be key to
our industry.”
Clark also has a second
variety in development, called
Eli, capable of producing a
crop within 90 days. It yields
denser heads with larger seeds
on shorter stalks, preventing
the plants from tipping.
University of Idaho is con-
ducting trials this season into
quinoa fertilizer application
and seeding methods.
Soda Springs grower Larry
Simmons has hedged his bet
with quinoa, planting 30 acres
simultaneously with alfalfa. If
all goes well, he said he’ll har-
vest the quinoa, which grows
taller than alfalfa, but he still
has the hay as a backup.
FIRTH, Idaho — One of
Eastern Idaho’s newest and
most promising specialty
crops may also provide an-
other tool for growers in the
region looking to suppress a
quarantined pest, pale cyst
nematode.
For the past few years, the
region’s growers have slowly
increased their planted acre-
age of quinoa, an ancient,
gluten-free crop native to Peru
valued for its high nutritional
content.
Ten local quinoa growers
are raising about 600 acres of
the crop, but those numbers
could rise markedly if a Uni-
versity of Idaho trial conduct-
ed at the Idaho Potato Com-
mission’s behest demonstrates
quinoa can help control PCN,
as research in South America
has demonstrated.
Idaho’s PCN species, dis-
covered in 2006, is known to
exist in the U.S. only within
a 7.5-mile radius encompass-
ing prime potato production
acres in Bingham and Bonne-
ville counties. USDA is treat-
ing 2,897 infested acres, and
the program includes another
7,032 acres governed by spe-
cial testing and sanitation re-
quirements due to associations
with infested fields.
The program abandoned the
use of its most effective treat-
ment, methyl bromide, in May
2014 due to concerns about it
carrying over into subsequent
crops. The program has been
moving toward planting litchi
tomato as a so-called trap crop,
which stimulates hatching of
cysts in the absence of a via-
ble host, but the plant presents
special challenges due to its
current status as a weed.
“(Quinoa) would be a cash
crop rather than growing litchi
tomato,” said Brian Searle,
president of Idaho Farm Bu-
12-month waiver
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Pat Kole, vice president of legal and government affairs for the
Idaho Potato Commission, inspects a quinoa field in Firth, Idaho.
At Kole’s request, the University of Idaho is conducting a trial to
determine the potential use of quinoa as a tool in Idaho’s pale cyst
nematode eradication program.
reau Federation and a regu-
lated grower who serves on
a PCN advisory committee.
“Not only would it be a pay-
ment, but litchi tomato is on
the invasive species list. Litchi
tomato, I think, is falling off
the list of options real fast.”
On the morning of June 2,
Pat Kole, IPC’s vice president
of legal and government af-
fairs, evaluated a small quinoa
field in Firth, on ground that
was recently deregulated from
the PCN associated fields list.
Kole said UI has planted
quinoa varieties in a green-
house, along with PCN eggs.
Results of the trial should
be available within a month,
he said. Furthermore, Inga
Zasada, a nematologist with
the USDA’s Agricultural Re-
search Service in Corvallis,
Ore., confirmed plans to test
several plant species, includ-
ing quinoa, against PCN at
the request of Louise-Marie
Dandurand, director of UI’s
pale cyst nematode project.
Zasada knows of a single pa-
per from Bolivia highlight-
ing quinoa’s effectiveness in
3 Years @ 0%
controlling PCN.
Kole explained he thought
of testing quinoa after hearing
a speech in Boise by Jeremi-
ah Clark, an Idaho Falls busi-
nessman who has bred quinoa
varieties for the region and is
marketing the growers’ pro-
duction. Kole said PCN, like
quinoa, is a native of Peru. A
quick literature check con-
firmed to Kole that quinoa may
emit a natural nematicide.
“I got a hold of some re-
searchers at UI. They agreed
they would take some seed
from Jeremiah,” Kole said,
adding the addition of quinoa
into the PCN program could
also give Clark’s business a
major boost. “They could have
a crop that helps them both fi-
nancially and in terms of deal-
ing with the nematode issue.”
Clark said prices paid for
quinoa are down, but he sees
great long-term demand.
“As long as we can com-
pete with Peru, there’s a 200
to 300 million pound market
for it every year,” Clark said,
adding quinoa could also be
chopped for forage.
5 Years @ 0.9%
OAC
TRACTORS
TRACTORS
TRACTORS
Farm regulators drop ‘stop work’ authority proposal
Capital Press
JOHN DAY, Ore. — The
Oregon Department of Ag-
riculture has dropped a pro-
posal to give the agency “stop
work” authority over food
processors and pesticide ap-
plicators.
Earlier this year, ODA was
considering asking the leg-
islature for a new regulatory
tool to prohibit companies
from using equipment or tak-
ing actions that are potentially
hazardous.
These “stop work” orders
would be more specific than
the agency’s current author-
ity to suspend or revoke the
licenses of regulated compa-
nies.
After “combing through”
existing enforcement laws
for state agencies, however,
the agency decided to first try
using tools that are already on
the books, said Lisa Hanson,
ODA’s deputy director.
“We feel like we have ad-
equate authority there after
a lot of work rethinking the
statutes,” she said during a
June 7 meeting of the Oregon
Board of Agriculture in John
Day, Ore.
It will likely be possible to
compel companies to “cease
and desist” hazardous activ-
ities with statutory tools that
ODA has not used in the past,
said Katy Coba, the agency’s
director.
“If we exhaust those and
they don’t work, we can come
back and look at new statutory
authority,” Coba said.
While the “stop work” idea
was scrapped, ODA has also
decided against seeking fed-
eral funds to conduct on-farm
food safety inspections.
The agency will instead
wait to see what role the U.S.
Food and Drug Administra-
tion will play in on-farm en-
forcement of the Food Safety
Modernization Act, the law
that Congress passed in 2011
and is just now going into ef-
fect through new regulations.
Apart from refining “leg-
islative concepts” regarding
agricultural policy, the ODA
is also currently examining
possible funding requests for
next year’s legislative session.
State agencies are expect-
ed to face a budget shortfall
in the 2017-2019 biennium
due to increased costs related
to Oregon’s Public Employee
Retirement System.
However, state govern-
ment may obtain several bil-
lion dollars in revenue if vot-
ers approve a ballot initiative
raising corporate taxes this
year.
The ODA is conservatively
planning for budget cuts if the
initiative fails, but the agency
has also undertaken a parallel
process to identify “asks” if it
passes, said Coba.
“It’s kind of a strange bud-
get prep for us,” she said.
The agency will have
more specific budget plans
ready to submit to Oregon
Gov. Kate Brown in Septem-
ber, she said.
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