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CapitalPress.com
March 3, 2017
USDA extends comment period for organic checkoff
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The USDA Agricultural
Marketing Service has ex-
tended to April 19 the com-
ment period on a proposed
organic checkoff to “ensure
that interested persons have
sufficient time to review and
comment on the proposal.”
The proposal was pub-
lished in the Federal Reg-
ister Jan. 18 with a 60-day
comment period to close on
March 20.
Developed by the Organ-
ic Trade Association, the
checkoff could provide more
than $30 million annually,
and 50 percent to 75 percent
would be earmarked for re-
search and related activities,
such as technical assistance
and dissemination of re-
search findings.
OTA says the checkoff
would help the burgeoning
organic industry meet de-
mand by supporting more
organic acreage and the suc-
cess of organic producers.
It would also help the
industry educate consumers
and increase market oppor-
tunity.
The No Organic Checkoff
Coalition, however, oppos-
es the checkoff, contending
as little as 12.6 percent of
checkoff funding could go to
research under the propos-
al and that promoting sales
now would only increase
imports and lower prices to
U.S. organic farmers.
In a press release on Fri-
day, OTA urged USDA to
avoid further delays once the
extended comment period
expires “in making this inno-
vative program a reality that
will help advance the grow-
ing organic sector and have
important and long-lasting
benefits for organic farmers,
businesses and consumers
alike.”
OTA noted the public
support of nearly 1,400 or-
ganic stakeholders and the
proposal’s
overwhelming
support, 10 to 1, thus far in
the comment period.
Capital Press did not im-
mediately hear back from
the Coalition on Friday, but
it earlier stated its petition
against the checkoff has
received nearly 1,900 sig-
natures from organic stake-
holders and support from 25
organic farming organization
representing more than 6,000
farmers.
For more information and
to comment, visit www.reg-
ulations.gov
Labor shortage, wage laws among top Feds: Chinese fertilizer
concerns for California produce growers dumping warrants
countervailing duties
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SALINAS, Calif. — Issues
related to labor are the top
concerns for produce growers
and handlers along Califor-
nia’s Central Coast in 2017,
according to a survey by the
Grower-Shipper Association.
The ongoing worker short-
age and wage and employ-
ment regulations were the
top two issues for growers in
the survey, which received
responses from more than
two-thirds of the trade organi-
zation’s nearly 400 members.
Specifi cally, producers are
concerned with immigration
reform, farmworker housing,
labor costs, wage and hour
compliance and legislation,
according to a news release.
Responses to the question-
naires guide the GSA’s board
in setting work priorities for
the coming year. The GSA
advocates for produce grow-
ers and shippers in Monterey,
Santa Cruz, San Benito and
Santa Clara counties — the
so-called salad bowl of the
nation.
“In California in particular,
agriculture is at a competitive
disadvantage because we are
subject to lots of laws and
regulations, more so than oth-
er states,” said James Bogart,
the Salinas-based GSA’s pres-
ident and general counsel. “It
makes it a challenge for farm-
ers to operate.”
Among other concerns
for growers were water, food
safety, crop protection and
pesticide use, health care
costs, workers’ compensa-
tion, land use issues, theft and
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
James Bogart, president and
general counsel of the Salinas,
Calif.-based Grower-Shipper
Association, stands outside the
organization’s headquarters.
Labor-related issues led grower
concerns in a GSA survey of
farms. The results were pub-
lished last week.
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Workers at Castroville, Calif.-based Ocean Mist Farms prepare
fresh spinach for shipping on Feb. 21. Labor costs were among
growers’ top concerns in a Grower-Shipper Association survey of
farms.
vandalism and the progress of
research and technology, ac-
cording to the survey.
While the GSA meets
with legislators and is “pretty
plugged in on bills,” Bogart
said, the group also special-
izes in labor and employ-
ment law. For example, when
workers in various industries
staged walkouts recently
to protest against President
Donald Trump’s immigration
policies, the GSA urged busi-
ness owners not to retaliate
because the walkouts are pro-
tected under both the Agricul-
tural Labor Relations Act and
National Labor Relations Act.
The survey comes as the
Almond Alliance of Califor-
nia and other farm groups are
trying to make previously en-
acted legislation a little more
palatable to growers. For in-
stance, the ag overtime law
passed last year eliminated an
exemption for overtime after
8 hours in a day for managers
and family members, which
exists in every other industry,
and eliminated exemptions
for ag irrigators and truck
drivers.
Under the legislation
by Assemblywoman Lore-
na Gonzalez, D-San Diego,
farmworkers will be paid for
overtime after eight hours in
a day and 40 hours in a week
rather than the 10-hour day
and 60-hour week for agricul-
ture that existed previously.
The new rules will take effect
in 2022 for most farms and
2025 for operations with 25 or
fewer employees.
A survey of Western Grow-
ers members last fall found
that many produce farmers
will try to contain their labor
costs by reducing California
production, shifting to less
labor-intensive crops and
through mechanization. A lit-
tle more than 80 percent of
farms will reduce hours for
farmworkers, who will lose
15 hours and $180 in income
a week on average, according
to that survey.
“I think what got lost in
that debate is, I wonder how
many people ... knew at the
time that California had the
only daily overtime for farm-
workers to begin with,” Bog-
art said.
Pesticide alert proposal stalls in Washington legislature
Drift happens, but
rarely, farmers say
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Legislation
to require farmers to alert
neighbors at least two hours
before spraying pesticides has
died for this year, though it’s
likely to resurface in the fu-
ture.
Farmworkers gathered in
a conference room Monday
on the Capitol Campus to talk
about their issues, including
the risk of being exposed to
drifting pesticides.
Ramon Torres, president of
the farmworker union Famili-
as Unidas por la Justica, said
he hopes lawmakers some-
day will require pre-spray
notifi cations. “It’s something
we should push for,” Torres
said in an interview, speaking
through a translator.
House Bill 1564 was
championed by Columbia
Legal Services, a nonprofi t
legal fi rm supported by char-
ities and public legal aide pro-
grams.
The bill also would have
required growers to submit
monthly reports on pesticide
use to the state Department of
Health or risk being fi ned up
to $7,500 per violation. The
mass of information would
help identify connections be-
tween pesticide use and farm-
worker illnesses, Columbia
attorney Joe Morrison said.
The measure received a
hearing, but failed to meet a
deadline to move from the
House Health Care Commit-
tee. No state agency asked
for the bill. The commit-
tee’s chairwoman, Rep. Ei-
leen Cody, D-Seattle, said
she wanted farm groups and
worker representatives to
agree on a policy.
“We’re going to keep
Ammonium sulfate
from China has
‘materially injured’
U.S. manufacturers
Ammonium
sulfate imports
from China
Annual volume and value
totals since 2013 ...
Volume (U.S. tons)
Value (U.S. dollars)
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Shipments of subsidized
ammonium sulfate fertilizer
from China have harmed U.S.
manufacturers and will be
subject to duties, according to
federal trade regulators.
The U.S. International
Trade Commission has de-
termined the U.S. industry is
“materially injured” by the
Chinese dumping of the fer-
tilizer, which the U.S. Depart-
ment of Commerce has found
to be sold at “less than fair
value.”
As a result, ammonium
sulfate from China will be
subject to countervailing du-
ties of more than 200 percent.
Federal trade authorities
began investigating imports
of ammonium sulfate from
China last year after a U.S.
company, PCI Nitrogen, com-
plained that the nation had in-
creased shipments of the fer-
tilizer to the U.S. by eightfold
between 2013 and 2015.
Chinese
manufacturers
controlled about 12 percent of
the U.S. market for ammoni-
um sulfate in 2015, up from
2 percent two years earlier,
which drove down domestic
prices by roughly 25 percent,
PCI Nitrogen claimed.
Ammonium sulfate is
largely a byproduct of steel
and nylon manufacturing,
which are favored by the
Chinese government with
reduced taxes and tariffs, as
well as preferential loan pro-
grams.
“Producers in China are
expanding capacity to pro-
duce ammonium sulfate
well beyond any forecasted
increase in global demand,”
according to PCI Nitrogen’s
petition. “Much of this new
capacity will be targeted at
$68.3 million
$60.2
million
$10.3
million
369,566
228,997
47,236
2013
2014
2015
... and annual average unit
value since 2013.
$263
$218
$185
(Dollars per U.S. ton)
2013
2014
2015
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission
Capital Press graphic
export markets and the U.S.
market, in particular.”
The fertilizer is a niche
nitrogren product in the
U.S., where it’s used by
farmers who also want to in-
crease sulfur levels in their
soil.
Prices for ammonium
sulfate had dropped in the
U.S. despite rising demand
for the fertilizer, likely due
to the glut of Chinese prod-
uct flowing into country,
according to a preliminary
finding by the U.S. ITC.
China exported roughly
$700 million worth of am-
monium sulfate in 2015, with
less than one-tenth getting
shipped to the U.S., where
the fertilizer is manufac-
tured in 11 states, the agency
found.
House memorial seeks fairness
on food safety standards
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Ramon Torres, president of farmworker union Familias Unidas por la Justica, speaks Feb. 27 on the
Capitol Campus in Olympia at a farm labor forum. The workers say they need additional safeguards
from pesticide drift. A bill that would have required farmers to alert adjacent property owners at least
two hours before spraying appears to be dead for this legislative session.
fi ghting until we get some-
thing that protects workers,”
Morrison said in an interview
Monday. “We’re not fi ghting
spraying. It’s just, tell your
neighbor.”
Farm lobbyists said com-
plying with the bill would
have been expensive and
handicap farmers reacting to
pests and diseases.
They said pesticide drift
incidents are rare, but an in-
evitable product of changing
winds and human error.
To make drifts even rarer,
lawmakers should give the
state Department of Agri-
culture more money to train
workers, said Washington
Potato and Onion Association
lobbyist Jim Jesernig, a for-
mer WSDA director.
“These people are very
good, very competent. How
do I know? I ran the depart-
ment of ag for nine years,” he
said.
In a recent report, Colum-
bia Legal Services asserts that
the number of pesticide drift
incidents is increasing.
The claim is based on state
Department of Health fi gures.
According to the department,
the number of events in which
humans were exposed to drift-
ing pesticides from agricultur-
al applications increased from
15 in 2012 to 24 in 2015.
Figures for 2016 are not yet
available.
WSDA investigates drift
incidents and fi nes agricul-
tural applicators who expose
people to pesticides. WSDA
issued 11 such fi nes in 2015,
fi ve in 2016 and two so far
this year, according to depart-
ment records.
Morrison and Torres said
many pesticide drift incidents
go unreported, a position stat-
ed in past health department
reports.
Jesernig estimated that
more than 500,000 agricul-
tural pesticide applications
take place in Washington each
year. Federal and state agen-
cies tightly regulate how the
chemicals are used, he said.
“Any indication that there
is not a regulatory system and
quality people in place pro-
tecting people is not true,” he
said.
Under HB 1564, adjacent
landowners alerted to up-
coming pesticide applications
would have been obligated
to warn anyone expected to
come onto their property.
The notifi cations would
have had to list the pesticides
and active ingredients, along
with other information about
the applicator and phone
numbers to report pesticide
exposure.
Torres leads the union rep-
resenting workers at Sakuma
Brothers Farms, a berry farm
in Skagit County. The union
and farm are negotiating a
contract for the upcoming
season.
BOISE — A Canyon
County farmer has introduced
a House Joint Memorial that
asks Congress to ensure for-
eign food products imported
into the U.S. meets the same
food safety standards that do-
mestic farmers and food pro-
cessors must meet.
“I don’t think that is asking
too much,” HJM1 author Sid
Freeman told members of the
Idaho House Agricultural Af-
fairs Committee, which vot-
ed unanimously to send the
memorial to the House fl oor,
where it is awaiting a vote.
Foreign food product im-
ports are required to meet the
same standards on paper, but
in reality no one is sure wheth-
er those requirements are actu-
ally being met, he said.
“The criteria is there” to
require foreign food imports
to meet the same standards, he
added. “But nobody can show
where that is actually being
done.”
“Information on docu-
ments is pretty easy to put
together,” Freeman told Cap-
ital Press later. “But it’s the
in-fi eld inspections that we
don’t know for a fact are be-
ing done.”
Freeman said U.S. farm-
ers and food companies are
required to pay for their own
audits and USDA inspections
to confi rm their products meet
U.S. standards.
The memorial asks that the
cost of any audits or inspec-
tions required to ensure that
foreign food imports meet the
same standards be “paid in
full by the foreign companies
themselves. ...”
If it is passed by the state
House and Senate and signed
by the governor, the memorial
will be sent to the U.S. House
of Representatives and Senate.
Members of Food Produc-
ers of Idaho, which represents
most of the state’s main agri-
cultural groups, voted to op-
pose the memorial.
Elizabeth Criner, who rep-
resents the Northwest Food
Processors Association, said,
“There were some inaccura-
cies that raised some concerns
and we’re working with pro-
ponents of the memorial to try
to get those corrected.”
FPI
President
Wyatt
Prescott, an Idaho Cattle As-
sociation lobbyist, said his
industry is concerned about
language in the bill that ad-
dresses the World Trade Orga-
nization’s 2015 ruling against
the U.S. Country of Origin La-
beling law. Congress repealed
the law after the WTO ruled it
violated trade agreements with
Canada and Mexico.