July 29, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
Oregon farmer challenging order to conine hogs
Regulators require
facility to correct
water problems
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A pig breeder is challeng-
ing the Oregon Department of
Agriculture’s order to build
a coninement facility for his
hogs, arguing it would hurt
their health.
Luther Clevenger and his
wife, Julie, raise Glouces-
tershire Old Spots pigs and
other livestock on their 15-
acre property near Aumsville,
Ore., which has experienced
water drainage problems
during heavy winter rains.
ODA inspected the opera-
tion repeatedly this year after
receiving several complaints
that Clevenger’s 200 pigs
were “creating a huge mess
and affecting the property val-
ues of all the adjacent proper-
ty owners” and that water was
lowing onto neighbors’ lots.
The agency ultimately
concluded that Clevenger’s
farm was violating water
quality standards and or-
dered a multi-pronged “plan
of correction,” requiring him
to construct a “swine con-
inement facility” to prevent
pollutant discharges to the
“surface water of Oregon,”
according to ODA.
Currently, the pigs are
raised on pasture but have ac-
cess to portable shelters.
The plan also requires Cle-
venger to store manure and
wastewater from the facili-
ty so that none is discharged
into waterways, apply manure
to the soil at agronomic rates
and maintain grassed ilter
strips, among other measures.
Clevenger recently iled
a petition in Marion County
Circuit Court asking for the
“plan of correction” to be
overturned, arguing he hasn’t
polluted state waters.
Water had collected on a
neighbor’s property during
winter, but that’s because the
previous property owner illed
a natural drain to expand his
lawn. Clevenger said.
While he’s not opposed to
reducing his number of pigs
or working with the Marion
County Soil & Water Con-
servation District to improve
drainage issues, Clevenger
said the coninement facility
isn’t feasible for his rare hogs.
“This breed can’t be con-
ined. They don’t work in
coninement,” he said.
When Clevenger has con-
ined the pigs in the past, even
for relatively short periods of
time, they’ve lost weight and
some have even died, he said.
“If you have them out on
pasture, they do ine,” he said.
People who buy from Cle-
venger generally raise the
hogs organically or without
antibiotics, and sell the meat
through a “Community Sup-
ported Agriculture” model or
other specialty markets, and
they “prize pastured pigs,”
according to his petition.
Clevenger has invested
substantial amount of mon-
ey in acquiring Gloucester-
shire Old Spots pigs from
“all available genetic lines,”
which has involved lying
them from other locations and
importing frozen semen from
Ireland, the petition said.
Bruce Pokarney, commu-
nications director for ODA,
said the agency can’t discuss
the litigation but could “talk
about all the details once the
issue is settled.”
Oregon House speaker supports efforts
to help Malheur County economy
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
ONTARIO, Ore. — Or-
egon House Speaker Tina
Kotek says she supports ef-
forts to help Malheur County’s
economy, including improving
the transportation infrastruc-
ture to reduce the cost of ship-
ping agricultural products.
The Portland Democrat vis-
ited the Eastern Oregon coun-
ty last month at the invitation
of Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontar-
io, and agricultural industry
leaders concerned about the
impact the state’s new mini-
mum wage law will have on
farmers and others here.
A three-tiered plan passed
this year will hike the mini-
mum wage in rural areas to
$12.50 an hour over six years.
Malheur County’s farming in-
dustry competes with Idaho,
which borders Oregon and has
a $7.25 minimum wage.
Oregon’s rural minimum
wage increased 25 cents on
July 1 to $9.50 an hour. It will
reach $12.50 on July 1, 2022,
and then increase annually,
based on the consumer price
index for all urban consumers.
It will be pegged $2.25 below
the Portland Metro minimum
wage.
In an email statement,
Kotek told Capital Press she
now has “a deeper understand-
ing of the economic challeng-
es of sharing a border with a
fast-growing part of Idaho.
It’s clear that a variety of fac-
tors impact the ag industry in
both states, including but by
no means limited to, the min-
imum wage.”
Kotek said she supports
ideas loated by Bentz that
could help improve Malheur
Photo courtesy of USDA
A photo released by the USDA shows the product label on pork
recalled by Kapowsin Meats of Graham, Wash. Whole hogs
produced by the slaughterhouse between June 13 and July 15
may be contaminated with salmonella.
Western Washington
slaughterhouse recalls hogs
USDA links pork to sicknesses, salmonella
By DON JENKINS
Portland Tribune
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek says she might be supportive of plans to boost the economy of
Malheur County. Farmers and others in the county say the state’s higher minimum wage will put them
at a disadvantage to neighboring Idaho.
County’s economy.
That includes creating a
special economic zone and
bringing a freight transpor-
tation hub to the area, which
she said “would cut the time
and cost for growers who are
exporting onions and other ag-
ricultural products.”
Special tax credits for the
area and creating a “Micro
Irrigation Center” at the Ore-
gon State University are oth-
er ideas the speaker supports,
Bentz said.
The backbone of the effort
to help the county’s econo-
my is to improve transporta-
tion infrastructure and reduce
freight costs, Bentz said. “We
have to have a lower-cost way
of getting (our) products to the
market.”
Bentz and local ag lead-
ers were hoping to convince
Kotek and other legislators to
reduce Malheur County’s min-
imum wage below the $12.50
rate in the plan passed this
year.
That appears unlikely,
Bentz said.
Kotek said she is “commit-
ted to upholding Oregon’s new
minimum wage law ... while
also respecting regional eco-
nomic needs and giving local
businesses time to plan.”
News that Malheur Coun-
ty’s minimum wage like-
ly won’t be reduced below
$12.50 an hour came as bad
news to the ag industry.
“That’s a blow,” said Nys-
sa farmer Paul Skeen. “They
can’t see that we have a prob-
lem?”
Owyhee Produce General
Manager Shay Myers said he’s
glad legislators are working on
a larger effort to improve the
county’s economy.
Capital Press
A Western Washington
slaughterhouse has recalled
11,658 pounds of whole
roaster hogs that may be con-
taminated with salmonella,
the U.S. Department of Agri-
culture said July 21.
Kapowsin Meats of Gra-
ham, Wash., produced the
hogs between June 13 and
July 15 and shipped them to
individuals, retail stores and
institutions in Washington,
according to the USDA’s
Food Safety and Inspection
Service.
It’s highly probable that
pork from Kapowsin has
sickened at least three peo-
ple, whose illnesses were
reported between July 5
and July 7, according to the
USDA notice.
The
slaughterhouse’s
owner, John Anderson, was
not immediately available for
comment.
Kapowsin
recalled
But onion packers and the
local ag industry will still face
ierce pressure from compet-
itors on the Idaho side, who
will have much lower labor
costs, he said.
He said reducing freight
costs would beneit businesses
on both sides of the border and
the disparity in the two areas’
minimum wages will likely
cause some Oregon businesses
to move to Idaho, automate or
both.
His company has already
looked at land acquisition op-
tions in Idaho.
“It’s not going to change
the competitive environment
that we as packers of onions
are operating in,” Myers said
of the economic improvement
efforts. “That doesn’t help me
in any way compete with my
competitors in the state of Ida-
ho.”
523,380 pounds of whole
hogs in August 2015 after the
meat was linked to at least 32
cases of salmonella poison-
ing.
Earlier in the same month,
the slaughterhouse recalled
116,000 pounds of pork
products.
The Seattle Times report-
ed that Kapowsin reopened
June 13 after the USDA de-
termined the slaughterhouse
had improved its sanitary
procedures. Efforts to reach a
USDA spokeswoman about
the slaughterhouse’s status
were unsuccessful.
In a USDA notice, the de-
partment advised consumers
who purchased the hogs to
throw the pork away or re-
turn it to where it was pur-
chased. The recalled prod-
ucts are marked with “EST.
1628M” inside the USDA
stamp of inspection.
The USDA warned that
roasting a pig is a complex
undertaking with numerous
foot-handling risks.
Portland students will attend rural school to learn about ag
Burnt River School’s in-
vitation to Portland students
paid off, and the rural Eastern
Oregon school will host up to
eight urban kids when class-
es begin next fall, and eight
more in the spring,
“It’s happening,” Super-
intendent Lorrie Andrews
said. The district is arranging
places for the students to stay
while in school.
The school, which had a
total of 34 students in 2015-
16, offers the Burnt River In-
tegrated Agriculture/Science
Research Ranch program, or
BRIARR, a dip into the ag
and natural resource issues
common to the area. The
K-12 public charter school is
in Unity, Ore., about 50 miles
east of John Day.
Students will learn about
animal production science,
sustainable rangeland science
and forest restoration studies,
and do water quality moni-
toring with the Powder Basin
Watershed Council.
The invitation to Portland
students was intended to help
bridge the urban-rural divide,
but it could help the dis-
trict inancially, as well. The
state provides districts about
$7,100 per student, and that
funding follows the student
during their time in the rural
district.
Portland Public Schools
sent an email to its high school
families last spring, telling
them of the opportunity, and
Andrews received about two
dozen email queries within a
couple days.
After clearing interviews
and securing placement with
host families, eight girls will
attend the school fall semes-
ter, and eight boys will attend
in spring.
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