16 CapitalPress.com
March 3, 2017
Appeals court rejects egg label lawsuit
Federal agencies
don’t have to
require labeling
of hen living
conditions, 9th
Circuit says
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Federal agencies don’t
have to require egg producers
to label cartons with production
practices, such as “eggs from
caged hens,” according a feder-
al appeals court.
Two animal rights groups
— Compassion Over Killing
and the Animal Legal Defense
Fund — and six consumers pe-
titioned the USDA, U.S. Food
and Drug Administration and
Federal Trade Commission to
write regulations requiring such
labels.
When those petitions were
rejected, the plaintiffs filed a
complaint against the federal
agencies for allegedly “arbi-
Courtesy U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Eggs produced by Great Valley Poultry and Metzer Farm near
Manteca and Gonzales, Calif. A federal appeals court has upheld a
ruling that says the federal government doesn’t have to require egg
producers to label cartons with production practices.
trarily and capriciously” deny-
ing the requests.
The plaintiffs argued that
egg cartons should be labeled
with actual living conditions
because too many consumers
are deceived by images and
words on packages alluding to
cage-free chickens even though
the hens are actually caged.
A federal judge in Califor-
nia dismissed the lawsuit and
a three-judge panel of the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
has now upheld that ruling.
The USDA’s Food Safety
and Inspection Service only
has jurisdiction over liquid
eggs and similar products, not
shell eggs, while the agency’s
Agricultural Marketing Service
lacks the authority to impose
such label requirements, the 9th
Circuit said.
The Federal Trade Commis-
sion, meanwhile, properly re-
jected the petition because the
plaintiffs failed to prove that
“unfair or deceptive” labels on
egg cartons are “prevalent,” the
ruling said.
“While plaintiffs submitted
isolated examples of potential-
ly misleading egg labels and
survey evidence concerning
consumer confusion over the
word ‘natural,’ plaintiffs have
not identified any evidence
submitted to the FTC tending
to indicate that such practices
were sufficiently widespread
to justify promulgating their
proposed regulations,” the 9th
Circuit said.
The FDA was likewise not
required to draw up such label-
ing rules because the agency
concluded there was “insuf-
ficient reliable scientific evi-
dence” that caged hens were
more likely to produce eggs of
lower nutritional value or that
were infected with salmonella,
the ruling said.
“The decision to take en-
forcement action against mis-
branded eggs on a case-by-case
basis, as opposed to promulgat-
ing regulations that would ap-
ply to all egg producers, is left
to the broad discretion of the
FDA,” the 9th Circuit said.
Idaho proposes fee to cover ag wildlife losses
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho —
The Idaho Department of Fish
and Game is mulling a new
fee on hunting, fishing and
trapping licenses, promising
half of the proceeds to address
rampant wildlife depredation
on farms and ranches.
The department has met
with sportsmen throughout
the state to gauge support
for the fee — $5 on resident
licenses and $10 for nonresi-
dents. The fee would be dis-
counted for seniors, disabled
veterans and sportsmen on
military furloughs.
“In a winter like this,
we’ve got depredation prob-
lems in spades, along with
the winter feeding we’re at-
tending to,” Mark Gamblin,
the department’s regional su-
pervisor for southeast Idaho,
told sportsmen during a Feb.
23 meeting in Pocatello. “If
we can do this, we can get a
thorny, chronic problem off
the table and focus on making
hunting and fishing and trap-
ping better.”
Gamblin explained the
fee is only conceptual at this
point, and the Fish and Game
Commission wanted public
input prior to its upcoming
meeting, when it will decide
whether to submit a formal
proposal to the state Legisla-
ture.
“I think we’ve had good,
positive response from both
the agricultural communi-
ty and sportsmen,” Gamblin
said.
The department proj-
ects the fee would generate
about $2 million per year.
Half would go toward sports-
men-access improvements,
such as boat docks. The re-
maining $1 million would be
divided between a depreda-
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Mark Gamblin, southeast Idaho regional supervisor with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, lis-
tens to a question from a sportsman about a proposed hunting, fishing and trapping license fee during
a Feb. 23 meeting in Pocatello. Half of the revenue would go toward helping farmers with wildlife
depredation.
tion claim fund and a depre-
dation prevention fund.
The new funds would be in
addition to the general fund-
ing the department already
allocates for depredation pre-
vention, which varies by year,
and the roughly $200,000
now generated annually from
a 75-cent fee on big game tag
sales.
Also, the department pro-
poses to raise its current cap
on collections for the depre-
dation account from $750,000
to $1.5 million. Upon reach-
ing the account cap, Gamblin
said excess fee funding would
be diverted toward depreda-
tion prevention.
Jason Beck, the landowner
and sportsmen coordinator for
the department’s southeast re-
gion, said the prevention fund
would cover materials to help
farmers install panels or fenc-
ing around haystacks, or take
other measures to keep wild-
life from eating or damaging
crops. The depredation claim
fund compensates farmers for
losses due to wildlife feeding
on their property, provided
that they allow “reasonable”
hunting access. Beck said the
department must more clearly
define reasonable access, but
landowners are expected to
grant some access to the gen-
eral public.
Beck believes welcoming
hunters is the most effective
way to address depredations,
and special depredation hunts
can be arranged outside hunt-
ing season.
Blackfoot area hay farm-
er Jerry Elliott, said this has
been the most challenging
winter for wildlife depreda-
tion since the late 1980s.
“At one point, we had 250
head of deer here and 40 head
of elk,” Elliott said. “I had
people out working at night
keeping them out.”
He plans to move his hay-
stacks about a mile and a half
closer to home next season
to minimize damage, and he
may approach Fish and Game
for help in fencing them.
A few of the sportsmen at
the Pocatello meeting balked
at the idea of spending tag
money to help farmers, sug-
gesting it could instead be
used to improve winter range.
Others said they’d prefer to
raise the money by increasing
out-of-state tags. Most, how-
ever, supported the concept.
“Everyone can afford $5,
and it’s not going to drive the
out-of-staters away at $10,”
said Joe Arave, a Blackfoot
hunter. “I think it’s a good
idea.”
California growers assess damage amid storms, flooding
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
CASTROVILLE,
Ca-
lif. — Farmers are still taking
stock of the damage from last
week’s heavy storms that flood-
ed fields, blew trees over and
caused havoc with the almond
blossom.
Standing water was still in
farm fields in the Sacramento
Valley a week after heavy rain
forced the evacuation of Max-
well, Calif., Colusa County ag-
ricultural officials said.
In the Salinas Valley, the ar-
tichoke and cauliflower fields
that weren’t under water after
nearly 3 inches of weekend
rainfall were so muddy that
workers couldn’t get to them.
The conditions slowed harvest
and caused delays in planting.
“We’ll have to throw away
all these artichokes, sure,” said
Joe Pezzini, president of the
Castroville-based Ocean Mist
Farms, as he looked at a flood-
ed field near the Central Coast
town. “We really need a few
days to dry out.”
In the San Joaquin Valley,
several dairy farms near the
Tuolumne and San Joaquin
rivers had to move their ani-
mals to higher ground as river
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
An artichoke field near Castroville, Calif., is flooded last week after
storms dumped nearly 3 inches of rain on the area. Artichoke, cau-
liflower and other fields in the Salinas Valley that weren’t flooded
were muddy and hard to get to.
levels rose, and other farmers
were nervously watching river
levels and preparing to move
animals out, the California
Farm Bureau Federation re-
ported.
With the wet winter
prompting dam operators to
send more water downstream,
state and federal workers joined
farmers with tractors to shore
up weak spots in nearly 1,600
miles of levees in the Central
Valley, The Associated Press
reported.
It could take several weeks
for growers to assess damage
from the storms, which com-
bined with already saturated
ground and high river levels
from reservoir releases to
cause widespread flooding.
The storms’ peak was
Feb. 17, when Santa Barbara
sopped up 4.16 inches of rain.
Elsewhere, 3.26 inches of rain
fell on Oxnard, 2.34 inches
were recorded in Red Bluff
and 1.72 inches were dumped
on Salinas, according to the
National Weather Service.
Two to 3 feet of new snow fell
on the northern Sierra Nevada
over the weekend, according to
the National Agricultural Sta-
tistics Service.
The storms came a week af-
ter growers in Butte, Yuba and
Sutter counties were among
the 188,000 people forced to
evacuate as the Oroville Dam’s
secondary spillway was in dan-
ger of failing. Crews later used
trucks and helicopters to move
large rocks and gravel to fill in
erosion on the emergency spill-
way.
A large portion of the East-
ern Sacramento Valley’s $1.5
billion agriculture industry is
directly in the path of flood
waters from Lake Oroville if
the dam or its spillway were
to fail.
Perhaps the biggest concern
from all the stormy weather is
with the almond blossom. Bees
don’t fly in the rain or strong
winds and prefer temperatures
higher than 55 degrees, so even
the clear but cool afternoons af-
ter the rain weren’t much help.
“While today is a beauti-
ful day and yesterday was a
beautiful day, it’s downright
chilly,” Butte County Farm
Bureau manager Colleen Cecil
said on Feb. 23, when the high
temperature was 52 degrees. “I
know that bees are pretty resil-
ient.”
John O’Connell/Capital Press File
Sugar beets are harvested in southeast Idaho on Oct. 27 for Amal-
gamated Sugar Co. The company has been raising funds toward a
campaign to change consumer perceptions about biotech crops.
Amalgamated raising
funds toward GMO
education campaign
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — Amalgamat-
ed Sugar Co. officials say
they’ve raised $16 million in
the span of a year toward a
possible campaign to improve
public perceptions about ge-
netically modified organisms.
Sugar beets are grown al-
most exclusively from GMO
seed engineered to resist gly-
phosate. The herbicide is ap-
plied to kill weeds but does
not damage the sugar beets.
Beet sugar industry leaders
say a few large food manufac-
turers have recently given in
to public pressure — resulting
from GMO opponents’ “mis-
information” campaigns —
and moved away from beet
sugar in favor of convention-
ally bred cane sugar, though
there’s no detectable differ-
ence in the finished product.
“Technology is a positive
thing for agriculture, and we
know intuitively when we
lose the license to use technol-
ogy, we are really losing the
license to exist in the future,”
said Duane Grant, chairman
of the cooperative that owns
Amalgamated, Snake River
Sugar Co.
Grant said Amalgamated
launched the fund drive after
hearing the findings of a mar-
ket research company it com-
missioned to conduct a series
of focus groups east of the
Mississippi River. The com-
pany’s report concluded an
“overwhelming” majority of
the public had negative opin-
ions about biotechnology, but
perceptions about GMOs im-
proved significantly after just
5 minutes of exposure to “fac-
tual, positive messages.”
Grant said players in the
U.S. beet sugar industry,
including
Amalgamated’s
growers, pledged a combined
$10 million toward the cam-
paign. Other interested enti-
ties — including cooperatives
that supply growers, banks in-
volved in agricultural lending
and dairy industry sources —
offered $6 million.
Grant said Amalgamated’s
board of directors initially set
out to raise $30 million per
year for a three-year cam-
paign. Having fallen short of
the goal, officials will soon
meet with contributors to de-
termine how to proceed.
Amalgamated President
and CEO John McCreedy be-
lieves biotechnology makes
farming more sustainable and
environmentally sound, mini-
mizing the use of inputs such
as fuel and pesticides.
“We’re going to move
forward and tell the story we
think is accurate, one way
or another,” said McCreedy,
who envisions a multi-year
campaign will be necessary to
meet the company’s goals.
Grant said customers
that once represented about
15 percent of Amalgamat-
ed’s sales have switched to
conventional cane sugar,
although new buyers have
picked up the slack.
Refined cane sugar cur-
rently gets about a nickel per
pound price premium over
refined beet sugar, following
consecutive years of record
beet production, said Jack
Roney, director of econom-
ics and policy analysis with
American Sugar Alliance. He
said the price of raw cane sug-
ar, at about 30 cents a pound,
is the same as finished beet
sugar — largely a result of
Mexico shipping more fin-
ished sugar than unrefined
cane sugar.
The good news, Roney
said, is beet sugar deliveries
were up 20 percent during the
quarter that ended in Decem-
ber, compared to the previous
year, which he attributes to re-
luctance among buyers to pay
such a premium for cane.
“We’re optimistic this cur-
rent imbalance on the mar-
ket will work itself out over
time,” Roney said.
WSDA readies hemp rules,
but needs federal approval
Spring plantings
depend on DEA
permit
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — The Wash-
ington State Department of
Agriculture has prepared
rules for licensing hemp
farmers, but growers who
want to plant this spring still
lack an essential input —
seeds.
WSDA hopes to someday
have an in-state supply of
certified hemp seeds. But for
now, seeds must be imported
from Canada and elsewhere.
Since hemp seeds are
federally controlled, WSDA
needs an import permit from
the Drug Enforcement Ad-
ministration.
The state applied for a
permit Aug. 23. Regional
DEA officials have inspected
where WSDA would secure
the seeds in Yakima and sent
a report to Washington, D.C.
DEA has not given the
state any indication when it
will make a decision, the head
of WSDA’s hemp program,
Emily Febles, said Wednes-
day.
“I’m very hopeful, but ob-
viously, it’s another agency.
It’s hard to say what it’s going
to do,” she said. “We’ve been
operating under the assump-
tion that everything will work
out.”
A regional DEA spokes-
woman referred questions to
the agency’s national head-
quarters in D.C. A spokesman
there said the agency doesn’t
disclose the status of applica-
tions to the DEA because of
privacy issues.
Several states have re-
ceived DEA permission to
import hemp seeds. Oregon
authorized hemp farming
without such a permit.
In contrast, Washington
has painstakingly followed
the 2014 Farm Bill, which
authorized state-supervised
hemp farming.
Washington
lawmakers
approved the hemp program
last year, but too late for 2016
plantings. Over the winter,
WSDA drew up plans for a
self-supporting program in
which hemp farmers would
buy a license and pay for field
inspections and laboratory
tests.
The rules could be in place
by May, but planting will de-
pend on whether the state has
a DEA permit.
Hemp advocate Joy Beck-
erman, who’s advised law-
makers on staying within
federal guidelines, said she’s
optimistic DEA will issue the
permit.