January 6, 2017
CapitalPress.com
3
Lobbying firm Grain reps, state officials meet with USDA on falling number
now downplays
• Possible adjustments in
Industry gatherings
protocol to the current test
role in What’s planned to discuss
and equipment.
• Genomic research in
wheat
cultivar development.
Upstream
controversial test
• Potential other test
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
By MATTHEW WEAVER
A $655,000 campaign
funded by the Environmen-
tal Protection Agency to im-
pose mandatory buffers be-
tween farms and waterways
generated 51 form letters to
Washington state lawmakers,
according to a lobbying firm
executive.
Strategies 360 Vice Presi-
dent of Communications Jeff
Reading told the state Public
Disclosure Commission that
even if more letters had been
sent, they would not amount
to lobbying because they
didn’t advocate for a specific
bill.
The letters sent through
the What’s Upstream website
were merely meant to make
legislators “more aware of the
issue.”
“Therefore there was noth-
ing to report to the PDC,” he
wrote.
The email sent Dec. 29 to
the PDC responded to a com-
plaint by Save Family Farm-
ing that What’s Upstream
failed to register as a political
organization.
The Swinomish Indian
tribe used an EPA grant for
Puget Sound restoration to
hire Strategies 360. Over five
years, the firm, tribe and envi-
ronmental groups developed
a media campaign accusing
farmers of being unregulated
water polluters. The EPA’s
Office of Inspector General is
looking into whether the cam-
paign violated federal laws
against using public funds to
lobby.
In earlier responses to the
PDC, the tribe and EPA assert-
ed the state agency has no ju-
risdiction over them.
Reading called the com-
plaint “frivolous and retalia-
tory.”
The What’s Upstream web-
site included a “take action”
link urging lawmakers to con-
sider mandatory 100-foot buf-
fers. Environmental groups
told supporters the letter was
timed to influence the 2016
Legislature.
“They were very specif-
ic about the legislation they
wanted to pass requiring man-
datory buffers,” Save Family
Farming director Gerald Bar-
on said Wednesday. “Is that
not a specific change in state
law?”
The PDC can issue fines
of up to $10,000. It also can
refer cases to the state Attor-
ney General’s Office to seek
stiffer penalties. The PDC has
not announced whether it will
take enforcement action. Save
Family Farming was formed
to push back against What’s
Upstream.
Strategies 360 describes it-
self on its website as a “leader
in grass-roots advocacy in the
West and beyond.”
The firm once held up
What’s Upstream as a “case
study” to attract other clients.
According to Strategies 360, it
created advertising that drove
more than 13,000 visitors to
the What’s Upstream website
in three months.
In his response to the PDC,
Reading downplayed Strat-
egies 360’s role, comparing
it to a newspaper that runs a
guest editorial urging readers
to contact legislators.
“S360 merely provided
a platform — in this case, a
website — for the public to
learn about an environmental
issue, …” he wrote.
Reading told the PDC that
the firm polled voters in 2012
and 2014 to gauge public sup-
port for a statewide initiative
to mandate buffers. He said
the polls did not lead to an im-
itative.
Previously released EPA
records show that the polls
found that voters held farm-
ers in high regard. To in-
crease support for more
restrictions on agriculture,
the public would have to be
persuaded water quality is ac-
tually a “growing and danger-
ous problem,” according to a
post-survey report by Strate-
gies 3 60.
The tribe subsequently re-
ported to the EPA that Strat-
egies 360 was developing a
“more refined outreach pro-
gram.”
Representatives from the
Pacific Northwest wheat in-
dustry and Washington State
Department of Agriculture
recently met with USDA
officials to discuss ways to
deal with falling number
quality problems.
“We felt the discussions
went very well and that it
was extremely helpful to
have the wheat industry join
our agency in those meet-
ings,” said Hector Castro,
communications director for
WSDA.
WSDA Director Der-
ek Sandison and represen-
tatives of the Washington
Grain Commission, Oregon
Wheat Commission, Idaho
Grain Producers Association
and Washington Association
of Wheat Growers met in
Washington, D.C., with sev-
eral “high-level” represen-
tatives from USDA Agricul-
tural Research Service and
Grain Inspection, Packers
and Stockyards Administra-
tion.
“We explained the chal-
lenges of falling number this
Capital Press
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press File
Washington Grain Commission CEO Glen Squires talks about falling number test problems with U.S.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Sept. 2 in Colfax. Squires and other Pacific Northwest wheat
industry representatives recently met with federal officials in Washington, D.C., to discuss ways to
address the problems.
year, and the need to move
forward on several fronts,”
Washington Grain Commis-
sion CEO Glen Squires said.
“It was a good meeting and
well-received.”
Those fronts include:
• A quicker test at the
grain elevator level to assist
with segregating wheat with
low falling number from the
rest of the crop.
equipment from other com-
panies.
Discussions included the
need for increased funding at
the federal level, Squires said.
WSDA expects further
meetings with some of the
same federal agencies in Feb-
ruary, Castro said.
The USDA ARS unit in
Pullman, Wash., is organizing
a regional meeting in Febru-
ary to discuss current and po-
tential research and existing
expertise in each state. The
falling number committee
from the three commissions
will meet in early January,
Squires said.
The PNW states, WSDA
and ARS will stay in touch,
Squires said.
Grain elevators use the
Hagberg-Perten falling num-
ber test to measure starch
damage due to sprouting.
A low falling number indi-
cates a high level of alpha
amylase, an enzyme that de-
grades starch and diminishes
the quality of wheat products.
Discounts for low falling
numbers vary depending on
the elevator, according to the
Washington Grain Commis-
sion.
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