FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 2017
VOLUME 90, NUMBER 9
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
T AKING R OOT
Marijuana growers consider themselves farmers, even if their
‘fi elds’ are warehouses and their crops are still against federal law
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
S
ALEM — Danny Grimm
shares many of the con-
cerns familiar to produc-
ers throughout the Pacifi c
Northwest and Northern California.
Start with federal regulatory over-
reach, because the recent, undefi ned
rumblings out of the Trump adminis-
tration about “greater enforcement”
are enough to give anyone pause.
Throw in questions about water
quality and nutrient inputs, plus a
complicated infrastructure of pumps,
water lines and electrical controls
that Grimm and his employees must
maintain. And don’t forget pests. Like
many producers he’d rather not use
chemical insecticides, and so far he’s
protecting his crop with battalions of
predator mites, ladybugs and benefi -
cial nematodes.
“Once you’re having problems, if
you don’t know how to fi x it, bugs
will eat you alive,” Grimm said.
The biggest issue is market uncer-
tainty. Farmers are always looking for
the next big thing, and a lot of people
are jumping in to meet the demand.
But what looks like a gold rush now
could go south if over-supply drops
the price.
Grimm said scaling up production
will be the biggest challenge for small
producers.
“It goes like any other industry,” he
said. “There will be people who fail
and people who make it — people
who are able to scale up and keep the
quality.”
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Vendor Jenny Argie, left, of
Brooklyn, rubs pain relieving
medical cannabis lotion on Brian
Bergmann’s hand during the
recent Cannabis Collaborative
Conference in Portland. The lotion
is infused with non-psychoactive
CBD oil, or cannabidiol, extracted
from pot plants.
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Uplifted Farm owner
Danny Grimm won a
pair of blue ribbons
at the Oregon State
Fair for the cannabis
he grows in a Salem
industrial area. The
state’s growers
consider themselves
farmers and a new
sector of agriculture,
and the state agrees.
Turn to POT, Page 12
Washington commission confi rms
What’s Upstream stayed within state law
Specific policy, but no specific bill
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — The Wash-
ington Public Commission
ruled Feb. 23 that What’s Up-
stream organizers did not en-
gage in unreported lobbying
of state lawmakers, clearing
the advocacy campaign fund-
ed by the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency of one allega-
tion of wrongdoing.
The three-member citizens
panel adopted the staff’s con-
clusion that the push to ban
farming within 100 feet of
water fell short of lobbying.
The commission voted to take
no enforcement action, a rec-
ommendation that will go to
the state attorney general’s
offi ce for review.
PDC Executive Director
Evelyn Fielding Lopez said
“reasonable minds” could dif-
fer on the fi nding, especially
since What’s Upstream pro-
vided supporters with form
letters encouraging lawmak-
ers to impose mandatory buf-
fers.
A PDC investigator said
he couldn’t determine wheth-
er a website link to the letter
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington Public Disclosure
Commission Executive Director
Evelyn Fielding Lopez talks to
the commission at a meeting
Feb. 23 in Olympia.
alone cost more than $1,400,
the threshold for triggering re-
porting requirements.
A bigger point for the PDC
staff was that the letter and
other elements of the cam-
paign didn’t mention a specif-
ic bill.
Lopez said there wasn’t
an “actual nugget of legisla-
tion” advocated by What’s
Turn to UPSTREAM,
Page 12
If agents show
up, they need a
warrant, farm
employers told
By DAN WHEAT
Dan Fazio
Paula McKay
Darrin Kenoyer
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — Sev-
eral agricultural employ-
ers, while understanding of
the Trump administration’s
arrests of criminal illegal
immigrants, said at a labor
conference that it’s causing
apprehension among work-
ers.
Conference organizers
also shared tips on what
owners and managers should
do if Immigration and Cus-
toms Enforcement agents ar-
rive at a farm or other work-
place.
Paula McKay, manag-
Additional ICE coverage on Page 3
er and principal owner of
Mar-Jon Labor, a large labor
contractor in Othello, Wash.,
said workers are worried be-
cause of what they see on
television. She said employ-
ers are not overly worried
because it’s nothing new and
that ICE arrests of criminal
illegal immigrants have been
going on a long time under
previous administrations.
“What’s new is the media
is making a big deal of it and
Trump is more blunt,” said
McCay, who is Hispanic.
She was among a couple
hundred employers at the
annual labor conference of
WAFLA, formerly the Wash-
ington Farm Labor Associa-
tion, at the Yakima Conven-
tion Center on Feb. 23.
“I don’t have a problem
rounding up criminals, and
most people don’t,” she said.
Turn to ICE, Page 12
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By DON JENKINS
ICE arrests of criminal illegal
immigrants spark concerns