FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 2016
VOLUME 89, NUMBER 32
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
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FEELING THE CRUNCH
RUSSIAN IMPORT BAN WREAKS HAVOC ON WORLD APPLE MARKET
Producers scramble for
alternative buyers
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
R
ussian President Vladimir Putin’s de-
cision to slap a two-year embargo on
the importation of apples and other
fresh fruits and vegetables from the
European Union and the U.S. is
still reverberating through global markets.
Putin announced the ban Aug. 7, 2014, in re-
taliation for Western economic sanctions against
Russia for its seizure of Crimea and aggression
in Ukraine. On June 29, he extended the embar-
go through next year.
Before the embargo, Russia was the world’s lead-
ing importer of fresh apples. Now its apple purchases
— from growers in
non-embargoed na-
tions — have plummet-
ed by nearly half.
Within the apple in-
dustry, the embargo has
wreaked havoc on exports
and created an oversupply
Dan Wheat/Capital Press of apples worldwide that’s
Workers thin Gala apples July 14
pressuring growers, packers
at a Zirkle Fruit Co.’s orchard near and marketers, particularly
Rock Island, Wash.
in Eastern Europe.
“It’s like a little wart on our fi nger, one more thing to
deal with. But for Poland it’s a dagger in the heart,” said
Desmond O’Rourke, owner of the consulting fi rm Belrose
Inc. in Pullman, Wash. He’s a retired Washington State
University agricultural economist with 40-plus years of
experience tracking the world apple industry.
Illustration by
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Turn to APPLES, Page 12
“It took us 10 years of pain to reduce our industry from the Asian crisis. Grower-by-grower and packer-by-packer
decisions. Europe and Poland will go through the same painful process.”
Desmond O’Rourke, owner of Belrose Inc.
Japan, S. Korea suspend U.S. wheat until new test in place
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Japan and South Korea
will defer new purchases of
U.S. wheat until they can im-
plement a new test for geneti-
cally engineered wheat, a U.S.
Wheat Associates spokesman
says.
Twenty-two genetically
engineered wheat plants were
found in a fallow Washing-
ton state fi eld. The discov-
ery is under investigation by
the USDA Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service.
Japan’s Ministry of Agri-
culture, Forestry and Fisher-
ies deferred new purchases
of Western white wheat — a
blend of soft white wheat
and subclass club wheat pro-
duced in the Pacifi c North-
west for customers in Japan
and Taiwan — until the new
test could be put into place.
It should take two to three
weeks for Japan to implement
the test, according to U.S.
Wheat.
The South Korean gov-
ernment is holding any U.S.
wheat from mills until it can
implement the new test.
With the test materials
already in the country, the
South Korean government is
expected to start testing U.S.
wheat as soon as this week,
half of August and are expect-
ed to be unloaded and distrib-
uted under normal conditions.
There have been no addi-
tional restrictions or requests
for testing from other coun-
tries, Mercer said.
Different variety
AP Photo/James A. Finley, File
The entrance to the Monsanto Co. headquarters in St. Louis is
seen in a fi le photo. Twenty-two plants of a variety of genetically
modifi ed wheat developed by the company have been found in a
fallow fi eld in Washington state.
said Steve Mercer, vice pres-
ident of communications for
U.S. Wheat Associates.
The next ships carrying
U.S. wheat will arrive in
South Korea in the second
APHIS announced the dis-
covery of the genetically en-
gineered wheat plants on July
29. The wheat was developed
by the Monsanto Co. and
called MON 71700. It was
evaluated in a limited num-
ber of fi eld trials in the Pacifi c
Northwest from 1998 to 2001
but never commercialized, ac-
cording to Monsanto.
“Any answer to how these
plants got into a fallow fi eld
would be speculative at this
point,” said Charla Lord,
spokesperson for Monsanto.
“The USDA requested Mon-
santo’s technical support in
this matter and we will con-
tinue to help them as needed.”
MON 71700 contains the
same inserted DNA as MON
71800, which was found in an
Eastern Oregon fi eld in the spring
of 2013. An APHIS investigation
was unable to pinpoint the source
of that wheat. The DNA is in a
different genomic position, ac-
cording to Monsanto.
Turn to WHEAT, Page 12
Publicity sank What’s Upstream plan to tap social media
Organizers planned petition to regulate farmers
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A Seattle lobbying fi rm was
poised to tap social media to rally
grass-roots support for new re-
strictions on Washington farmers
when the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency pulled back its sup-
port of the advocacy campaign,
according to newly released EPA
records.
The records, obtained through
a Freedom of Information Act re-
quest, also disclose that the EPA
purportedly spent $655,529 over
fi ve years on What’s Upstream, a
bid by the Swinomish Indian tribe
and several environmental groups
to impose mandatory 100-foot
buffers between farm fi elds and
waterways.
The EPA disowned the cam-
paign in April after some federal
lawmakers condemned its tone
and purpose.
Most of the EPA money went
to Strategies 360, which was
hired by the tribe with a feder-
al grant originally awarded to
the Northwest Indian Fisheries
Commission.
The firm crafted a media
campaign beginning in 2011.
In late March, it recommended
Courtesy of Save Family Farming
posting a petition on change.org
to obtain contact information of This billboard, since removed, near Bellingham, Wash.,
people likely to support manda- was part of the What’s Upstream campaign funded by the
Environmental Protection Agency. News stories about
tory buffers.
its involvement in the campaign caused the EPA to nix a
Turn to UPSTREAM, Page 12 plan to tap social media to further its objectives.
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