December 9, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
Farm lobbyists to track issues during 2017 Idaho Legislature
By SEAN ELLIS
IFBF governmental affairs
representatives recently asked
members to alert them of any
proposed rules they are con-
cerned about.
Voters in November ap-
proved an amendment to the
state constitution that solid-
ifies the legislature’s ability
to reject proposed rules and
protects that right against po-
tential court challenges.
“I think now that (the
amendment has) passed, leg-
islators will be emboldened to
take a finer tooth comb to re-
viewing the rules,” said IFBF
Director of Governmental Af-
fairs Russ Hendricks. “There
Capital Press
BOISE — When the 2017
Legislature convenes next
month, Idaho Farm Bureau
Federation officials will have
their radar focused on several
issues that could impact agri-
culture.
First, they will be looking
to stop any proposed rules that
could be harmful to the state’s
agricultural industry.
Legislators typically spend
the early part of each session
reviewing rules proposed by
state agencies and others.
Lawmakers can accept or
reject those temporary rules.
are lots of rules rejected and
it can be done. Let us know if
there are any rules you have
concerns about.”
Farm Bureau will also
fight any proposed changes
to Idaho’s dyed fuel program
if they are burdensome or un-
fairly target agriculture, said
Dennis Tanikuni, IFBF’s as-
sistant director of governmen-
tal affairs.
Dyed fuel is exempt from
state and federal fuel taxes and
used heavily by the agriculture,
construction, timber and min-
ing industries.
A bill that would have creat-
ed a dyed fuel enforcement pro-
gram in Idaho and allowed law
enforcement officers to inspect
vehicles for illegal use of the
fuel failed to pass in 2016 but is
expected to resurface in 2017.
“We’re willing to sit down
and talk about dyed fuel en-
forcement but it’s got to be
fair,” Tanikuni said.
Farm Bureau will also track
the development of a new East-
ern Snake Plain groundwater
management area created in
November by the Idaho De-
partment of Water Resources.
“We’re not sure what that’s
going to mean yet,” Hendricks
said. “We are going to keep
a close eye on ... how this
evolves.”
He encouraged members
to report any concerns about it
because Farm Bureau “wants
to make sure there is nothing
detrimental to agriculture.”
IFBF will also push a bill
that requires the legislature to
take affirmative action on any
minimum stream flows set by
IDWR, said Braden Jensen,
Farm Bureau’s energy and nat-
ural resource specialist.
Minimum flows set by the
department go before the leg-
islature but they go into effect
even if the body doesn’t take
affirmative action on them.
“We want the legislature to
say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” Jensen said.
IFBF will support a bill that
will amend Idaho’s field burn-
ing program but that legislation
will be challenged by environ-
mental groups, Jensen said.
The change, proposed by
the Idaho Department of En-
vironmental Quality, is meant
to avoid a large reduction in
the number of allowable burn
days for farmers due to a re-
cent tightening of the national
ozone standard.
“We can definitely ex-
pect that environmental
groups will be lobbying
against this proposal,” Jensen
said.
Appeals court tosses out Members of Congress push for more hops research
Calif. egg rule challenge
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
Capital Press
A federal appeals court
has upheld a lower court’s
dismissal of a lawsuit filed
by several state govern-
ments against California’s
rules for egg-laying chick-
ens.
The 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals has upheld
a decision by U.S. District
Judge Kimberly Mueller
that Missouri, Nebraska,
Oklahoma, Alabama, Ken-
tucky and Iowa lack stand-
ing to challenge the regula-
tions in court.
California voters ap-
proved a ballot initiative
in 2008 that prohibited egg
farmers in the state from
confining hens so they were
unable to lie down, stand up
and move about.
In 2010, California law-
makers extended those rules
to eggs produced in other
states but sold in California,
which prompted a lawsuit
by the governments of ma-
jor egg-producing states.
The state governments
claimed California’s law
unlawfully interfered with
interstate commerce and
was pre-empted by federal
law.
Mueller dismissed the
lawsuit because the state
governments didn’t have
an interest in the California
law apart from the interest
of private chicken growers
who could represent them-
selves in court.
The 9th Circuit has
agreed with that reasoning,
finding that negative effects
on egg producers are not of
the same scale as, for ex-
ample, a health hazard that
could affect large swathes
of a state’s population.
The impacts of Califor-
nia’s law on egg prices in
the other states are “remote”
and “speculative,” while
eggs are not of “central eco-
nomic significance” to con-
sumers, the court ruled.
Prices for eggs may rise
Capital Press File
Cartons of eggs are on display
at a California market. The 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
has tossed out an appeal of the
state’s chicken welfare law.
if farmers in Missouri, Ne-
braska, Oklahoma, Ala-
bama, Kentucky and Iowa
make significant changes to
their operations to comply
with the California law, the
ruling said.
On the other hand, if they
fail to comply with the law,
they would lose the Califor-
nia market — potentially
causing an internal over-
supply and lowering prices
to the benefit of consumers,
according to the 9th Circuit.
California’s law also
isn’t unlawfully discrimi-
natory because “California
egg farmers are subject to
the same rules as egg farm-
ers from all other states, in-
cluding California itself,”
the ruling said.
While upholding much
of Mueller’s ruling, the
9th Circuit did reverse the
judge’s decision to dismiss
the lawsuit with prejudice,
which meant it couldn’t be
refiled.
The plaintiff states could
allege new facts that would
show they have standing, so
the 9th Circuit found their
complaint should be dis-
missed without prejudice.
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Hops are harvested at Roy Farms near Moxee, Wash., in 2013. Members of Congress are asking the
USDA to fund more research on hops.
Commission in Moxee, Wash.
The increase is important
because would it means a
research scientist will be de-
voted full-time to hops rather
than sharing the time with an-
other crop, Brophy said.
“There’s huge demand for
new varieties and you can’t
really bring out new varieties
unless you have all the tech-
nical profile, like chemical
levels, ready that brewers are
looking for,” she said.
While several private hop
breeding programs exist, the
two largest-volume hop vari-
eties, Cascade and Centenni-
al, were developed by public
programs.
With growth of the craft
brewing industry, consumers
continue to demand new aro-
ma and flavors so develop-
ing new aroma hop varieties
is important, the members
of Congress wrote in their
letter.
The brewing industry gen-
erated more than $250 bil-
lion in economic activity in
2014, directly and indirectly
employing more than 1.75
million Americans, the letter
states.
“This activity is only sus-
tained through a healthy, sta-
ble hop market,” the members
wrote.
Hop growers face a vari-
ety of challenges, including
mites, mildew, blights and
other pests and development
of new varieties that are pest-
resistant and climate-tolerant
would help increase yields
and reduce pesticide use, they
said.
In 2015, Washington pro-
duced 75 percent of the U.S.
hop crop, followed by Oregon
and Idaho. The three states
produce about one-third of the
world supply. Michigan and
other states are also beginning
to grow hops.
“Developing new cli-
mate-tolerant varieties could
help expand commercial
production putting growers
closer to their customers and
reducing the threat that a di-
saster in the Pacific Northwest
would affect U.S. and global
supplies,” the members of
Congress wrote.
ROP-40-42-4/#17
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
More than 100 members
of Congress are asking the
USDA to increase hop-related
research to two full-time po-
sitions so that new pest-resis-
tant and climate-tolerant hop
varieties may be developed
faster.
Reps. Dan Newhouse,
R-Wash.; Peter DeFazio,
D-Ore.;
Erik
Paulsen,
R-Minn.; and Chellie Pin-
gree, D-Maine, led 100 other
members in a Dec. 1 letter to
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack
and Under Secretary Cathie
Woteki asking for the change.
It would involve a realloca-
tion of $200,000 to $300,000
in research funding and could
be done administratively, Ne-
whouse’s office said.
The Agricultural Research
Service within USDA current-
ly has one research scientist
for hop pathology in Corval-
lis, Ore., and .7 of a position
for genetic research on hops
in the Lower Yakima Valley.
The request is to make it a
full-time position.
“This is something we
started working on a little
while ago and it’s a process
to get it done. It’s nice to have
so many members of Con-
gress supporting this,” said
Jaki Brophy, spokeswoman
for Hop Growers of Ameri-
can and the Washington Hop
50-1/#7
Egg-producing
states lack standing
to challenge law
on hen housing
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ROP-50-4-1/#13
50-1/#4N