August 19, 2016
CapitalPress.com
5
Washington Farm Bureau
rips Puget Sound plan
Federal report
understates
farmland loss
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Don Jenkins/Capital Press File
Containers are stacked Jan. 28 at the Port of Tacoma.
Chinese Zika rules
threaten farm exports
Containers must
be quarantined,
treated for
mosquitoes
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Chinese
regulations
aimed at stopping the Zika
virus from entering its bor-
ders threaten to impede U.S.
agricultural exports.
The U.S. was recently
added to a list of countries
covered by Chinese rules
that require shipping con-
tainers to be quarantined
and treated for mosquitoes,
which transmit the birth de-
fect-causing virus.
“It is going to be bur-
densome. It’s going to add
a lot of cost and burden to
U.S. exports,” said Abigail
Struxness, program manag-
er of the Agriculture Trans-
portation Coalition.
Last year, total U.S. ag-
ricultural exports to China
topped $20 billion.
At this point, it appears
that Chinese customs offi-
cials are offering to fumi-
gate incoming containers
for a fee, or accept certifi-
cates stating that contain-
ers were fumigated prior to
shipping, Struxness said.
It’s unclear whether the
regulations will apply to re-
frigerated cargo, which of-
ten travels at temperatures
low enough to kill the in-
sects, she said.
Agricultural exporters
are also unsure which fumi-
gation methods are required
by the Chinese, or which
U.S. agency is responsible
for the certification, she
said.
The Agriculture Trans-
portation Coalition is still
trying to assess the added
costs and delays resulting
from the rules, as well as
Don Jenkins/Capital Press File
Dockworkers unload containers from the OOCL Rotterdam, a
Hong Kong-registered vessel.
how they will impact U.S.
competitiveness, Struxness
said.
Agricultural shippers are
concerned about how fu-
migation will affect food-
grade commodities and
organic crops, she said.
“That’s another thing we
need to figure out.”
According to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention, the
only state to experience lo-
cally transmitted cases of
Zika through mosquitoes is
Florida. Locally transmitted
cases of Zika have also oc-
curred in the U.S. territories
of Puerto Rico, American
Samoa and the U.S. Virgin
Islands.
The USDA Animal and
Plant Health Inspection
Service has issued a notice
stating agency officials are
discussing the regulations
and acceptable documenta-
tion with their counterparts
in China.
The notice states that
Zika is a human health issue,
not a phytosanitary prob-
lem, which means APHIS
officials cannot validate
mosquito treatments on phy-
tosanitary certificates.
USDA’s position is trou-
bling for John Szczepanski,
director of the U.S. Forage
Export Council, because it
will likely delay a compre-
hensive U.S. response to the
Chinese Zika regulations.
“The people who could
help us are saying mosqui-
toes aren’t under their juris-
diction,” he said.
The notice put out by
APHIS would indicate that
USDA’s Foreign Agricul-
tural Service is the appro-
priate agency to deal with
the problem — except that
it doesn’t employ any en-
tomologists, Szczepanski
said. “It adds to the frustra-
tion of agricultural export-
ers.”
China is an export mar-
ket for alfalfa grown in
Oregon, Washington, Ida-
ho and California, he
said.
The risk is that without
uniformity, agricultural ex-
porters will come up with
their own individual treat-
ment methods and certifi-
cations, adding to the con-
fusion, he said. “Exporters
want to do the right thing,
but they don’t know exactly
what to do.”
The Washington Farm Bu-
reau has broadly criticized
a state and federal plan to
breach dikes and inundate
hundreds of acres of farmland
in Whatcom and Skagit coun-
ties to create ish habitat.
The Farm Bureau says
a report by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers under-
states the loss of farmland in
Skagit County and underval-
ues agriculture in both coun-
ties.
“Our opposition rests on
the principle that preserving
farmable ground should be
the single greatest priority
of our state and our nation,”
the organization’s director of
government relations, Tom
Davis, said in written com-
ments submitted Aug. 12.
The Corps and the Wash-
ington Department of Fish
and Wildlife have been work-
ing for more than a decade on
a plan to roll back “ecological
degradation” in Puget Sound.
The Corps and WDFW
propose to convert into ish
habitat 1,807 acres in What-
com County, 256 acres in
Skagit County and 38 acres in
Jefferson County.
Collectively known as the
Puget Sound Nearshore Eco-
system Restoration Projects,
the three would cost an esti-
mated $452 million. Funding
has not been approved by
12-month waiver
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3 Years @ 0%
cluded only 5 acres used for
agriculture.
A Corps spokeswoman
said the report should have
qualiied that the land includ-
ed only 5 acres of “prime
farmland,” while other land
would be prime farmland if
drained or irrigated.
Washington State De-
partment of Agriculture land
surveys show that almost the
entire area is being used to
grow vegetables, berries, hay
or other crops.
“It’s all farms,” said Allen
Rozema, executive director
of Skagitonians to Preserve
Farmland. “We know it’s
more than 5 acres.”
The Corps reported that
the acres lost in Whatcom and
Skagit counties would be only
a fraction of the region’s agri-
cultural land.
Davis said the Corps’ anal-
ysis was too simplistic and
failed to consider how the
farmland its into the area’s
agricultural economy.
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Congress or the Legislature.
The projects in Whatcom
and Skagit counties rely heav-
ily on inundating farmland to
return land to pre-settlement
conditions. The Corps’ report
calls the loss of farmland min-
imal and necessary.
The Farm Bureau notes
that residential and industrial
areas are never targeted for
restoration — only farmland,
the supply of which is inite.
“Maintaining the ability
to grow the food that sustains
our nation should not be taken
lightly, and yet time after time
the primary focus for salmon
recovery projects is prime
farmland,” Davis wrote.
In its report, the Corps
stated the loss of 800 acres
of “prime farmland” in the
Nooksack River Delta in
Whatcom County would be
economically “minor and in-
signiicant.”
The Corps reported that
the project along the North
Fork of the Skagit River in-
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WE S P E CIA LIZE IN B U LK B AG S!
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Water lows over farmland Aug. 1 in Skagit County, the day the
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife breached a Skagit
River dike to create ish habitat. WDFW and the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers propose converting more farmland in the county into
ish habitat. The Washington Farm Bureau opposes the plan.
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