December 9, 2016
CapitalPress.com
17
Apples fit millennials’ values, Wal-Mart rep says
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
Millennials are the largest part
of the workforce now, so if
stores want to sell fruit — or
anything else — that segment
needs to be considered, says
Mike Hulett, senior merchant
over orchard items for Wal-
Mart stores.
Speaking at the Washing-
ton Tree Fruit Association
annual meeting in Wenatchee
on Dec. 5., Hulett showed a
millennial song parody on
consumers more aware
YouTube to help the
of how food is made
audience understand
and it all adds up to
their carefree attitude.
trust,” Hulett said.
Millennials are Amer-
Millennials are for
icans born between
savvy spending but
1981 and 2000.
they value experience
It drew laughs and
Mike Hulett
in their purchasing, he
while Hulett called it
“hilarious,” he said millenni- said. They see a responsibility
als drive consumer trends, are in making a positive impact
into experience, are fair-mind- on their community reflected
ed and have their own con- through the food they buy, he
said.
sumer values that apples fit.
“Global issues matter less
“When the recession hit,
it impacted consumer trust. and local issues matter more
It changed the way people in their minds,” he said.
In the foodie culture where
spend their money. It made
food is an experience, new
apples should do well because
millennials show their status
by what they do, Hulett said.
They like to try new things
and share it on social media,
so if your apple has consistent
crisp quality they will share
that, and if it doesn’t they will
“tell it in even a more prolific
way,” he said.
Some 70 percent of the ap-
ples Wal-Mart stores buy are
Red Delicious followed by
Granny Smith, Fuji and Gala,
Hulett said.
“We are the largest buyer
of Reds, but we are purpose-
ly taking that down,” he said.
“Reds are doing better from
SmartFresh (natural storage
enhancer) but still not meet-
ing the taste experience.”
Honeycrisp meets the
taste test, Gala is falling off
and club varieties such as
Opal, Envy, Ambrosia are
where consumers are headed,
he said. Washington’s new
Cosmic Crisp apple should
do well, he said.
Millennials also factor
time, health and nutrition,
food safety and authenticity
in purchasing, he said.
Labeling and packaging
are a great way of communi-
cating, he said. Information
about fruit can be shared on
the outside of stand-up bags
that doesn’t get transmitted in
bulk bin displays, he said.
“Fresh food is the bull’s-
eye,” Hulett said. “Nothing
relates more than fresh and
organic and local.”
Wal-Mart stores aim to
keep meat, produce and deli
items fresh because fresh is
what 87 percent of customers
are looking for, he said.
Washington dilutes
fine for spilling
vinegar into river
Capital Press
File photo
Two marbled murrelets are seen. Environmentalist groups want an injunction to stop logging on roughly 50 acres of private property that
was once part of Oregon’s Elliott State Forest that they say threaten the endangered bird.
Fleischmann’s Vinegar
Co. slashed its fine for spill-
ing concentrated vinegar
into a Washington river by
installing more energy-ef-
ficient lights at its Sumner
plant, the state Department
of Ecology announced Tues-
day.
Ecology reduced to
$2,000 from $10,000 the pen-
alty for releasing 10,000 gal-
lons March 4 into the White
River in Pierce County.
Fleischmann’s spent at
least $8,000 on energy-sav-
ing measures and will cut
its annual electricity con-
sumption by 10,525 kilo-
watt-hours per year, accord-
ing to Ecology.
The spill was caused by
a faulty valve. The river was
high at the time of the spill,
minimizing damage, accord-
ing to Ecology.
Fleischmann’s was fined
$24,000 in 2014 by Ecolo-
gy. The company was fined
$4,000 for spilling con-
centrated vinegar into the
ground and $19,000 for vi-
olations found in follow-up
inspections.
Groups seek order to stop logging
on former Oregon state forestland
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Environmentalist groups
want an injunction to stop
logging on roughly 50 acres
of private property that was
once part of Oregon’s Elliott
State Forest.
Three nonprofits — Cas-
cadia Wildlands, Center for
Biological Diversity and
Audubon Society of Portland
— have asked U.S. District
Judge Ann Aiken to prohibit
tree harvest on the parcel due
to hazards to the threatened
marbled murrelet.
Logging plans were pre-
viously abandoned in the
area because Oregon realized
it would cause Endangered
Species Act violations, but a
355-acre parcel was bought
in 2014 by Roseburg Forest
Products Co. and its Scott
Timber subsidiary for nearly
$800,000, according to plain-
tiffs.
The
environmentalists
claim that harvesting a 50-
acre site, known as the Ben-
son Snake Unit, within that
parcel will unlawfully de-
stroy the habitat of marbled
murrelets, which occupy old
growth trees in the tract.
“The defendants are pro-
posing to do exactly what
the state thought it couldn’t,”
said Dan Kruse, attorney for
the environmentalists, during
oral arguments on Nov. 22 in
Eugene, Ore.
An injunction is warrant-
ed because the plaintiffs are
likely to prevail in the law-
suit and logging would irrep-
arably harm the species, he
said.
In contrast, there’s noth-
ing to show that the trees
would be any less valuable
if harvesting is delayed by a
year or two, Kruse said.
Roseburg Forest Products
counters that an internation-
ally recognized environmen-
tal consulting firm chose a
site that’s not occupied by the
threatened bird.
“They hired independent
experts to determine where
the birds might be in the stand
and how they’re using the
stand,” said Dominic Carollo,
attorney for the timber com-
pany.
The company will also
conduct logging during the
autumn and winter, when
marbled murrelets are out at
sea, in an area that’s not con-
sidered critical habitat for the
species, the defendants claim.
The case laid out by the
plaintiffs doesn’t demonstrate
that logging will cause actual
“take” of marbled murrelets
under ESA, Carollo said.
“At best they’ve proven
it’s hypothetical or possible
... which isn’t sufficient,” he
said. “They don’t have the
facts or the evidence to show
there will be death or injury to
the marbled murrelet.
Kruse argued that “take”
isn’t limited to destruction of
nesting areas used by the spe-
cies.
Under ESA, “take” also
occurs when logging disrupts
other behaviors necessary to
the bird’s life cycle, such as
courtship, he said.
Similarly, it can harm peo-
ple if you bulldoze their living
or kitchen while sparing the
bed in which they sleep, he
said.
Science has shown mar-
bled murrelets need large
blocks of habitat to survive,
Kruse said.
“Fragmentation has sig-
nificant impacts on marbled
murrelets,” he said.
Biggest fertilizer distribution plant opening planned
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho —
Officials at Valley Agronom-
ics expect to open what will
be the state’s largest fertilizer
distribution plant before the
month’s end.
Sid Jensen, the project
manager, said construction
of the estimated $10 million
facility is on schedule and on
budget. It’s on 12 reclaimed
acres within a federal Super-
fund site where FMC Corp.
ran the world’s largest elemen-
tal phosphate plant until 2001.
Jensen hopes to start mov-
ing dry fertilizer into the fa-
cility during the third week of
December, and to spend the
next three months filling the
plant to capacity.
Valley Agronomics is a
partnership between Valley
Wide Co-op — a regional
agronomy cooperative based
in Rupert, Idaho — and
WinField Solutions, a Land
O’Lakes company. Jensen said
the company has been pleased
by customer interest in the new
facility, as well as the many
new cooperative members it’s
already attracted.
“We’ve got brisk demand,
and we have several million
in prepaid business on the
books,” Jensen said.
The dry storage building
has space for 26,000 tons of
dry fertilizer, and the tank
farm, scheduled to open in
John O’Connell/Capital Press
A ramp is excavated accessing the new Valley Agronomics facility
near Pocatello, Idaho. The plant is scheduled to open this month.
March, has capacity for 2 mil-
lion gallons of liquid fertilizer.
Jensen said the company
chose the site largely because
it can accommodate unit
trains — entire trains of cars
hauling a single commodity,
sent from a common origin to
the same destination without
being reassembled en route.
Jensen said the freight sav-
ings — $25 to $30 per ton on
a large unit train — will be
passed on to customers. The
greatest advantage, he said, is
that the plant should maintain
an adequate supply of fertil-
izer, avoiding potential short-
ages when rail cars are also
needed to ship grain.
A shop and an office-ware-
house will be constructed in
the second phase, which Jen-
sen said could start in 2017.
Jensen said fertilizer will
be shipped directly from the
plant to farms. He said orders
in the American Falls and Po-
catello areas have been filled
out of Idaho Falls and Han-
sen. Pocatello will now sup-
ply Valley’s Preston and Idaho
Falls facilities, which lack rail
access.
Fertilizer prices are tied
to petroleum and have been
down lately, Jensen said.
The company, which also
runs convenience stores and
has petroleum and feed divi-
sions, is within the top 20 of
the CropLife 100 rankings of
agricultural retailers.
“We started 12 years ago
with barely making a profit
to $300 million in sales now,”
Jensen said.
FMC consultant Paul Yo-
chum said FMC is nearing the
end of the second year of a
three-year cleanup at the site,
which will require a total $60
million investment. In the first
year, FMC graded the prop-
erty and built ponds to catch
surface runoff.
FMC is now finishing 36-
inch caps over the former pro-
duction area, and 14-inch caps
over shale. The third phase
will entail pumping ground-
water from the shallow aqui-
fer and removing arsenic.
Kent Rudeen, chairman of
Power County Development
Authority, said remediation
was recently completed for
a 73-acre parcel at the site,
which is now available for
industrial
redevelopment.
Rudeen said marketing of the
rest of the grounds has moved
slowly.
“FMC is looking at hiring
a Realtor to seek out interest
in the property,” Rudeen said.
Courtesy of University of Idaho
Brent Olmstead speaks at the College of Agricultural and Life
Sciences Ag Days Dinner awards ceremony in 2014.
Olmstead named Idaho
ag college assistant dean
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Milk Produc-
ers of Idaho Executive Di-
rector Brent Olmstead will
join the leadership team at
the University of Idaho’s
College of Agricultural and
Life Sciences.
Olmstead was named the
college’s assistant dean for
government and external re-
lations and will replace Rich
Garber, who retired from
CALS this year.
He will work closely
with the agricultural indus-
try and will continue to work
out of his current office in
Boise, which is in the same
building that houses leaders
of several of Idaho’s farm
commodity groups, includ-
ing wheat, barley, beans,
wine and milk.
Olmstead, who was born
and raised on a cattle ranch
near Twin Falls, is also a
member of Food Producers
of Idaho and the state coor-
dinator for the Idaho Busi-
ness Coalition for Immigra-
tion Reform.
News of his selection
was welcomed by the state’s
farm industry.
He has been responsible
for starting several organi-
zations and efforts to bet-
ter agriculture and natural
resource groups in Idaho,
said Rick Waitley, executive
director of Association Man-
agement Group, which rep-
resents 40 ag organizations.
He said Olmstead, who
has 25 years of experience
in public and governmental
relations, “has been respect-
ed as a lobbyist over the
years and has a strong work-
ing knowledge of the public
policy process.”
Olmstead served eight
years as vice president of
the Idaho Association of
Commerce and Industry and
handled that group’s agricul-
tural, natural resources and
environmental issues.
“Brent Olmstead brings
a wealth of knowledge and
experience to the position
with CALS,” Waitley said in
an email. “Brent has the full
support of industry stake-
holders and we are all look-
ing forward to working with
him in his new role....”
When Olmstead begins
his new job later this month,
he will work with farm in-
dustry leaders as well as the
state’s agribusiness commu-
nity and other stakeholders.
“It’s an exciting time to
be involved in agriculture
and with the College of
Agricultural and Life Sci-
ences,” he said in a news re-
lease. “The future for CALS
is unlimited and I am look-
ing forward to working with
all segments of Idaho’s agri-
cultural community.”
With ther addition of Ol-
mstead, the college is close
to completing its administra-
tive leadership team.
CALS Dean Michael
Parrella began in February,
Barbary Petty was named
UI’s Extension director in
May and Mark McGuire
in November took over as
director of the Idaho Ag-
ricultural Experiment Sta-
tion, which oversees UI’s
research efforts.
The associate dean of ac-
ademic programs at CALS
is retiring in June and the
person named to fill that po-
sition will complete the col-
lege’s academic leadership
team.
Parrella said he was
thrilled with Olmstead’s se-
lection.
“CALS is moving for-
ward aggressively with
many programs and projects
that will enhance our state-
wide teaching, research and
extension mission,” he said
in a news release. “Brent is
an ideal person to front these
initiatives to the legislature,
commissions, allied indus-
tries and stakeholders in
Idaho.”