May 19, 2017
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Dairy/Livestock
R-CALF White House petition drive falls short What’s Upstream followed
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
R-CALF USA’s efforts
to gather 100,000 signatures
to petition the White House
to ban beef from Brazil until
country of origin labeling is
reinstated came up short.
The petition, which ended
May 13, received 2,015 sig-
natures.
“I do not have an answer
for that,” said Bill Bullard,
CEO of R-CALF in Billings,
Mont. “We tried to create
awareness for the petition
over social media, and there
just was not the response we
had expected.”
R-CALF cited concerns
over Brazilian beef. Investi-
gators there say health inspec-
tors were bribed to overlook
expired meat and chemicals
and other products that were
added to improve its appear-
ance and smell.
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press File
R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard says
his organization’s petition
to ban beef from Brazil until
country of origin labeling is
reinstated fell short.
A spokesman for rival
National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association told the Capital
Press when the petition was
first announced in April that
a blanket ban was “purely po-
litical” and had no scientific
basis, and that U.S. inspectors
would prevent the question-
able beef from entering the
food supply.
A Facebook discussion
in January explaining cattle
industry issues with conser-
vative talk show host Tomi
Lahren, formerly of The
Blaze TV, led R-CALF to an-
ticipate bigger numbers. That
discussion received hundreds
of thousands of views, Bull-
ard said.
“The reality is that there is
very little we can do in agri-
culture that attracts that kind
of attention,” he said. “It’s
very difficult to get the pub-
lic enthused and interested
in issues affecting the cattle
industry, but we keep trying
and we’ll continue to keep
trying.”
If a topic conducive to a
petition format presented it-
self, Bullard is game to try
again.
“Petitions, letters, letters
to the editor and the videos
we’ve done are all means by
which we attempt to com-
municate to the public about
the importance of the issues
we’re working on,” he said.
The petition was part of
R-CALF’s continuing cam-
paign to restore country-of-or-
igin labeling, Bullard said.
Bullard and R-CALF sub-
mitted a nine-page fact sheet
and white paper about rein-
stating COOL to Peter Na-
varro, director of the White
House National Trade Coun-
cil. R-CALF has not received
a reply, Bullard said.
“We certainly did not have
all of our eggs in the petition
basket,” he said. “This was
simply one part of an overall
strategy to convince the new
administration it is extremely
important that U.S. cattle pro-
ducers be able to distinguish
their product in the market-
place.”
R-CALF has 5,000 mem-
bers in 43 states, Bullard said.
USDA reignites debate over organic livestock, poultry rule
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Citing significant policy and
legal issues warranting further
review, USDA is delaying for
six months the effective date
of the Organic Livestock and
Poultry Practices final rule, re-
igniting a debate over what it
should include.
The rule was set to take ef-
fect May 19 after the original
March 20 effective date was
extended by an executive order
that froze pending regulations
for 60 days to allow review by
the Trump administration.
The rule amends the organic
livestock and poultry produc-
tion requirements by adding
new provisions for avian living
conditions and livestock han-
dling and transport for slaugh-
ter.
It also expands and clarifies
requirements for livestock care
and production practices and
mammalian living conditions.
USDA’s Agricultural Mar-
keting Service, which admin-
isters the National Organic
Program, is now extending the
effective date to Nov. 14 and
asking the public for comment
on whether to let rule become
effective, suspend it indefinite-
ly, delay it or withdraw it.
The move frustrates the Or-
ganic Trade Association, which
contends the rule — more than
a decade in the making — is
widely supported by consum-
ers and organic producers and
certifiers.
“An additional six-month
delay is unnecessary, and in fact
kicks the can down the road
once again in typical Washing-
ton fashion. This is a blatant
Stephen Ausmus/ARS
The new organic rule for poultry and livestock has been delayed
again, reopening a debate among industry groups.
example of the D.C. machine
evading a transparent public
process,” OTA said in a state-
ment to Capital Press.
“We are frustrated that a fi-
nal rule having gone through
such extensive public and in-
dustry feedback and official
scrutiny is now being stopped.
It is just plain wrong,” OTA
stated.
The organization calls the
rule a critical, comprehensive
and well-thought-out regulation
and said killing it will damage
the vibrant U.S. organic sector
and rural communities.
Conventional livestock and
poultry groups, however, wel-
come the delay and object to
the rule on many fronts.
National Pork Producers
Council is pleased the admin-
istration has further delayed the
rule, said Dave Warner, NPPC
director of communications.
“We will submit comments,
urging USDA to scrap this
ill-advised, costly and large-
ly unworkable regulation,
which is not science-based and
would present real challenges
to protecting animal and public
health,” he said.
NPPC’s list of objections —
shared by many livestock and
poultry groups — begins with
the contention that animal-han-
dling practices are not a defining
characteristic of organic agricul-
ture and are not germane to the
National Organic Program as
authorized by Congress.
Consumer misconception
— the supposed reason USDA
proposed the rule — about the
intent of the program and the
meaning of its label is not a
valid rationale for expanding it
to encompass animal welfare,
Warner said.
In addition, the proposed
livestock practices will be cost-
ly, if even practicable, to imple-
ment for current organic pro-
ducers and serve as a barrier to
new producers entering organic
production, without making the
resulting products substantively
more organic, he said.
“Animal welfare is com-
plex and dynamic; decisions
about animal care need to be
science-based and carefully
considered by each producer,”
he said.
And the proposed rule pres-
ents significant challenges to the
maintenance and promotion of
public and animal health.
For example, people can get
trichinellosis — a serious illness
— by eating raw or undercooked
meat from animals infected by
the trichinae parasite, which has
been largely eliminated from the
U.S. commercial swine herd.
The rule would require ac-
cess to the outdoors, and out-
door production — specifically
allowing pigs to forage and root
in soil — is the major route of
introduction for the trichinae
parasite to pigs, he said.
“Increased cases of trichinae
in organic pork would lead to
consumer trust problems for all
pork products and to distrust of
U.S. pork from foreign trading
partners, in addition to public
health ramifications,” he said.
EPA’s counsel on lobbying
Farm group leader:
Loophole created
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
What’s Upstream delib-
erately avoided advocating
specific legislation while lob-
bying for mandatory 100-foot
buffers between farms and
water in Washington, in keep-
ing with legal counsel from
the Environmental Protection
Agency, according to newly
available EPA records.
The records, released in
response to a Freedom of In-
formation Act request, docu-
ment for the first time that the
campaign’s lead organizer,
the Swinomish Indian tribe,
consciously made only a gen-
eral call for buffers in a let-
ter-writing campaign to state
legislators in 2016.
The tactic paid off this year
as federal and state watchdog
agencies this year absolved
the EPA-funded campaign of
wrongdoing, concluding in
separate investigations that
the appeal to lawmakers was
too vague to be considered
lobbying, even though the
self-stated goal of the media
and letter-writing blitz was to
influence the votes of legisla-
tors.
In an email to colleagues
shortly before the 2016 leg-
islative session, EPA Puget
Sound grants coordinator
Lisa Chang referred to a form
letter that could be sent to
lawmakers from the What’s
Upstream website. The letter
urged lawmakers to consider
requiring buffers.
Chang, who repeatedly
raised concerns about the
campaign’s accuracy and
tone, stated that the EPA’s
Office of Regional Counsel
had advised that “the con-
cern with this feature would
be if the letter advocated
for/against a specific piece
of legislation, ballot mea-
sure, initiative, etc.”
Federal law bars lobby-
ing with federal funds, but
the EPA’s Office of Inspector
General reported this month
that the $432,955 spent on
What’s Upstream was al-
lowed because the campaign
did not cite specific legisla-
tion.
Gerald Baron, director of
Save Family Farming, which
filed the FOIA request, said
Monday that the EPA’s re-
gional counsel “created a
loophole” that the inspector
general accepted.
“What if the tables were
turned? What if the EPA was
supporting a group that want-
ed to repeal Washington en-
vironmental laws?” he asked.
“Would the people who de-
fend the EPA choose to de-
fend them? We have to look
at the principle and not the
specific issue.”
Efforts to reach the EPA
and Swinomish tribe Monday
were unsuccessful.
The EPA has been peri-
odically releasing batches of
records related to What’s Up-
stream in response to FOIA
requests. The Swinomish, a
north Puget Sound tribe, ob-
tained an EPA grant through
the Northwest Indian Fish-
eries Commission. The tribe
hired Seattle lobbying firm
Strategies 360 and recruit-
ed several environmental
groups to help promote the
campaign.
Farm groups and some
federal lawmakers viewed
the advocacy campaign as
a federally funded smear
against agriculture. Two sen-
ators requested the inspector
general’s audit last spring.
Several months before
that, the EPA heard grum-
bling about the What’s
Upstream website, which
used stock photos taken
outside the state to buttress
the claim that farmers are
unregulated polluters of
water.
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Butter skyrockets to 17-month high
By LEE MIELKE
For the Capital Press
S
pot butter rocketed to
$2.2625 per pound Fri-
day, up 15 1/2-cents on
the week and 22 1/2-cents
above a year ago, with 24
cars sold last week.
The precious gold jumped
5 3/4-cents Monday and pole
vaulted 11 cents Tuesday,
to $2.43, highest spot price
since Dec. 9, 2015.
Ice cream producers have
yet to pull down the cream
supply, as weather has been
cool and wet in the Central
U.S. Retail butter sales were
reportedly slower.
Dairy
Markets
Lee Mielke
Western butter makers re-
port demand is steady. Some
predict a slight increase in
exports the next few months,
hopeful that will keep in-
ventories in check as butter
stocks are heavy and grow-
ing.
Cash Grade A nonfat dry
milk finished Friday at 86
1/4-cents per pound, up 1
3/4-cents on the week and 4
3/4-cents above a year ago.
Monday saw the powder gain
2 cents and hold there Tues-
day at 88 1/4-cents, the high-
est price since Feb. 15, 2017.
CME cheese prices also
shot higher last week, then
pulled back some, but are
climbing again. cheddar
blocks hit $1.65 per pound
Thursday but closed Friday at
$1.6350, up 3 1/2-cents on the
week, after jumping 12 cents
the previous week, and were
35 1/2-cents above a year
ago.
The barrels closed at
$1.53, up 8 cents on the week
and 21 cents above a year
ago. Thirteen cars of block
and 25 of barrel were sold
last week at the CME.
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Mollie Hulse
La Grande, OR
Cliff Schoeningh
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541-524-7667
Christina Smith
Pendleton, OR
John Ngo
Hermiston, OR
Todd Wood
College Place, WA
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541-289-4480
509-525-9860
Tyler Fenn
College Place, WA
Darrin Eberhardt
Clarkston, WA
John Gass
The Dalles, OR
509-525-9860
509-758-6878
541-296-0779
ISDA dairy chief retires, will lead Milk Producers of Idaho
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Marv Patten, longtime
dairy bureau chief at the Idaho
State Department of Agricul-
ture, is retiring this month and
will head the Milk Producers
of Idaho starting next month.
Just shy of 40 years with
the department, Patten said he
decided to retire when a “new
opportunity came along,” add-
ing it would be inappropriate
to discuss his next move while
he is still on the job with the
agency.
The board of directors for
Milk Producers of Idaho has
announced that Patten will be
the organization’s new execu-
tive director, effective June 1.
In a post for Food Produc-
ers of Idaho, the MPI board
stated: “Many of us have ap-
preciated and relied on Marv’s
wise counsel over the years as
he has worked to help us com-
ply with the growing regulato-
ry requirements our industry
faces. … The MPI Board has
every expectation that having
Marv squarely on our team
will benefit dairy producers
enormously.”
Patten said he submitted his
notice of retirement on May 5
and his last day is May 19.
ISDA Deputy Director Bri-
an Oakey confirmed that notice
of retirement, saying the agen-
cy will provide a statement on
Patten’s career later today.
Patten said he began his
tenure at the agency in 1977
as a compliance officer for
several programs. He moved
to the position of dairy inspec-
tor in 1982 and the following
year became dairy program
supervisor. In 1984, he was
named chief of the dairy bu-
reau.
“I am going to miss a hella-
cious number of people, great
camaraderie, great staff. Staff
makes or breaks you, and
I’ve been so blessed to have
some great, great people,” he
said.
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