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CapitalPress.com
September 30, 2016
U.S. organic production value up 13 percent Oregon Tilth helps fund OSU
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
A new National Agricul-
tural Statistics Service survey
found that the nation’s 12,818
certiied organic farms sold
$6.2 billion in organic prod-
ucts in 2015, up 13 percent
from the previous year.
Leading the way was Cal-
ifornia, whose $2.4 billion in
sales last year was up $205
million from 2014 and ac-
counted for nearly 39 percent
of the national total.
Washington was second in
the nation with $626 million
in sales in 2015, while Oregon
was fourth with $269 million.
Organic sales in those states
increased from $515 million
and $237 million, respective-
ly, two years ago, according
to NASS.
Pennsylvania was third in
organic sales at $332 million.
Idaho registered $85 mil-
lion in organic sales in 2015,
up 29 percent from $66 mil-
lion the previous year, the
agency’s annual surveys
showed.
“Certainly the growth is
driven by consumer pressure
for organic” products, said
Kelly Damewood, policy
director for the Santa Cruz-
based California Certiied
Organic Farmers, an organic
certiication organization.
Consumers seek organic
products to make their diets
healthier and to beneit the en-
LEGAL
PUBLIC NOTICE
The Soil and Water
Conservation
Commission
(SWCC) will hold its regular
quarterly meeting on Thursday,
October 20, 2016, from 8:30 a.m.
to 12:30 p.m. The meeting will
be held at the Monarch Hotel &
Conference Center, 2566 SE 93rd
Avenue,
Portland/Clackamas
97015. The meeting agenda
covers SWCC reports, advisor
reports, Soil and Water
Conservation District programs
and funding, Agriculture Water
Quality Management Program
updates, and other agenda
items.
The Oregon Department of
Agriculture complies with the
Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA). If you need special
accommodations to participate
in this meeting, please contact
Sandi Hiatt at (503) 986-4704, at
least 72 hours prior to the
meeting.
40-1/#4
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Margaret Jensen, co-owner of Good Work Organic Farm in Round
Mountain, Calif., weighs a watermelon for a customer at a farmers’
market Sept. 24 in Redding, Calif. Organic production in Califor-
nia continues to grow and accounts for nearly 39 percent of U.S.
organic production, according to a national survey.
vironment, as organic growers
can use only approved materi-
als and are required to main-
tain soil health and account
for biodiversity, Damewood
said.
“It’s really a whole system
approach that has so many
beneits,” she said, adding
that organic farms set “the
gold standard for a holistic
approach to food production.”
When buying organic
foods from local producers,
people get a sense that they’re
LEGAL
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reserves the right to refuse
any and all bids
helping their own commu-
nities, said Margaret Jensen,
co-owner of Good Work Or-
ganic Farm in Round Moun-
tain, Calif.
“There’s a general sense
that organic is healthi-
er,” Jensen said, “and the
greater availability of or-
ganic is making it a more
normal, easier choice for
people.”
Milk topped all organic
sales at $1.2 billion. It was
followed by organic eggs
at $732 million. Combined,
they represented 31 percent
of all organic sales, according
to NASS. Egg sales were up
74.5 percent over the previous
year.
Other top sellers were or-
ganic broiler chickens ($420
million), apples ($302 mil-
lion) and lettuce ($262 mil-
lion).
The selection of certiied
organic products sold by U.S.
farms last year was diverse,
with livestock and poultry
products leading the way
with $1.9 billion in sales, ac-
cording to NASS. In all, $1.4
billion in vegetables and $1.2
billion in fruits, tree nuts and
berries were sold by organ-
ic producers nationwide last
year, the survey found.
The total U.S. livestock
and crop production in 2015
was $379.2 billion, according
to NASS. Organic production
represented 1.6 percent of
that.
The organic industry
shows a potential to keep
growing, as existing produc-
ers are transitioning 151,000
acres nationally to organic
production, the agency report-
ed.
Oregon and Washington
saw growth in the value of
their organic goods despite
declines in organic acre-
age. Washington went from
73,841 certiied acres in 2014
to 71,781 last year, while Ore-
gon saw a drop from 204,186
acres to 175,675 over the
same period, according to
NASS.
organic Extension position
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
In a move that highlights
the growing inluence of or-
ganic agriculture in the state,
the Oregon nonproit that is-
sues USDA certiication will
help fund an organic Exten-
sion program at Oregon State
University.
In academic circles, at least,
the decision is signiicant.
Oregon Tilth will provide
$100,000 over four years to
a new organic program with-
in OSU’s Center for Small
Farms & Community Food
Systems. The contribution
matches OSU’s support for
the program. A Dutch compa-
ny, Vitalis Organic Seeds, also
plans to provide inancial sup-
port. Details of the company’s
involvement were not immedi-
ately available.
Oregon State professors say
multiple campus researchers
are involved in organic crop
trials or other projects, but the
work is largely the result of
individual professors pursuing
their own interests. Conferring
program status on organic work
will bring all that research un-
der the same umbrella, said
Garry Stephenson, director of
OSU’s small farms center.
“It also a recognition that
some kinds of research need
to be more specialized,” Ste-
phenson said. “We have a lot
of disciplines that are produc-
tion-system neutral, but when
it comes to other areas we need
people who are more special-
ized in what are called biolog-
ical approaches.”
Oregon Tilth Executive Di-
rector Chris Schreiner said the
non-proit’s investment in the
OSU program is a statement
about the rising impact of or-
ganic agriculture.
“I think it absolutely is,”
Schreiner said. “We wanted
to send a message to the OSU
administration that the organic
sector wants and values an or-
ganic Extension program.”
The investment means Or-
egon Tilth “puts some skin in
the game,” he said, and it may
encourage involvement by
for-proit businesses such as
Vitalis.
The investment is recogni-
tion by organic producers that
“land-grant universities, and
Extension programs and Ex-
tension agents are really seen
as a credible, valued source of
expertise,” Schreiner said.
With demand for organic
products outstripping supply,
Oregon Tilth and other organi-
zations are focused on helping
more farmers transition to or-
ganic production and recognize
the importance of a partnership
with a land-grant university, he
said.
Oregon Tilth, which has
been around since 1979 and
like OSU is based on Corvallis,
has been informally involved
and has provided funding to
the university since 2009. The
group certiies organic pro-
ducers for the USDA.
Attorney fees denied in Josephine County GMO lawsuit
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Supporters
of a prohibition against genetically en-
gineered crops in Oregon’s Josephine
County won’t have to pay the attorney
fees of farmers who defeated the ordi-
nance.
Josephine County Circuit Judge Pat
Wolke has held that such an award isn’t
warranted in this case.
Voters approved Josephine County’s
ban in 2014, but earlier this year, Wolke
struck it down at the urging of Robert
and Shelley Ann White, who wanted to
grow biotech sugar beets.
The couple then sought to recover
$29,200 from an organic company, Sis-
kiyou Seeds, and a nonproit, Orego-
nians for Safe Farms and Families, that
had intervened to defend the ordinance.
The intervenors had relied on several
arguments that lacked an “objectively
reasonable basis” and thus should com-
pensate the Whites for dragging out the
legal proceedings, said John DiLorenzo,
the plaintiffs’ attorney.
“All we want is compensation for
time that we had to waste,” he said
during oral arguments in August.
For example, the intervenor’s attor-
neys claimed that a state law pre-empt-
ing local governments from regulating
genetically modiied organisms, or
GMOs, was unconstitutional, DiLoren-
zo said.
However, they cited no legal prece-
dent from Oregon to support this theo-
ry, and instead pointed to case law from
Ohio, he said.
Attorneys for the intervenors said the
issue of local GMO bans is a novel legal
issue in Oregon and they should not be
punished for presenting good faith de-
fenses of the ordinance.
Wolke ultimately sided with the in-
tervenors, noting that attorneys rou-
tinely counter lawsuits with multiple
defense theories that may not end up
proving plausible.
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