12 CapitalPress.com
June 9, 2017
The two Joes’ connections span generations
JOE from Page 1
Area in
detail
Leadership roles
95
IDAHO
Several differences
Not everything about the
two Joes is exactly the same.
Genesee Joe begins wheat
harvest around July 20 south
of Lewiston and harvests near
Genesee around Aug. 9.
Potlatch Joe begins his
harvest around Aug. 1.
“We farm in completely
different environments, in
terms of soil type particular-
ly,” Potlatch Joe said.
“We have wheat in com-
mon, but our rotational crops
Wash.
Potlatch,
Idaho
Moscow
270
8
Wash.
195
12
Idaho
Pullman
95
N
Genesee,
Idaho
5 miles
12
193
Clarkston
Lewiston
95
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
them were making plans to go
on a motorcycle ride.”
Another Joe
on both the commission and
grain producers association’s
boards for seven months in
2014. Only when Genesee Joe
became available to join the
commission did Potlatch Joe
feel comfortable resigning.
“I was confi dent he was
going to carry on a whole lot
of the things that were import-
ant to me, and to the indus-
try,” Potlatch Joe said. “And
he’s done that.”
The minister of the church
Potlatch Joe attended while
growing up was also named
Joe Anderson.
“That really got confus-
ing,” Potlatch Joe said. “Be-
tween seventh and eighth
grade, I’d gone to 4-H camp
and met this girl. We were
corresponding with love let-
ters back and forth, and the
preacher got one of them. So
having a name the same can
be pluses and minuses.”
Did the preacher say any-
thing?
“Oh yeah,” Potlatch Joe
said. “I never did live that
down.”
Industry leaders
Looking ahead
Both Joes possess a wealth
of knowledge, said Blaine Ja-
cobson, executive director of
the wheat commission.
“The wheat industry is
made more robust by having
both of them involved in lead-
ership positions in the state,”
Jacobson said.
Potlatch Joe brings “great
perspective,” Jacobson said.
“He knows things that
have been tried, he knows
things that have been success-
ful, yet at the same time, he’s
not locked into tradition,”
Jacobson said. “He’s an in-
novator in bringing new tech-
nologies into wheat, and so
the entire Pacifi c Northwest
benefi ts because of his end-
less curiosity.”
Genesee Joe brings opti-
mism and positivity, Jacobson
said.
“I’ve never seen anybody
be able to click with a custom-
er the way Genesee Joe does.
He’s got a knack for building
a rapport with visiting trade
teams (or) out making a vis-
it at their place of business,”
Jacobson said. “I visited one
customer with him and within
15 or 20 minutes, the two of
Some of Potlatch Joe’s
winter wheat looks good,
while some got way too much
moisture. He was unable
to plant “a fair amount” of
spring wheat, due to 7 inches
of rain that fell in March.
He doesn’t expect his winter
wheat to yield anywhere near
as much as last year’s crop.
Genesee Joe’s wheat bene-
fi ted from recent sunshine and
warm weather. He predicts his
yields will vary.
“Some fi elds will be above
average, and then some suf-
fered from excess moisture,”
he said. “They’ll struggle to
hit average.”
Genesee Joe and his new
bride recently moved to a
house near Lewiston, but he
and his brother will continue
to farm their land near Gen-
esee. He expects to still be
known as “Genesee Joe.”
Both Joes speak highly
of the connections they’ve
forged.
“Teams that are successful
like each other,” Potlatch Joe
said.
“That respect morphs into
friendships,” Genesee Joe
said.
Photos by Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
“Genesee Joe” Anderson and “Potlatch Joe” Anderson share a moment outside a Moscow, Idaho, coffee shop on April 18.
Occasional mistakes
Once in a while, one Joe
will get an email intended for
the other Joe. And Potlatch
Joe once accidentally can-
celed a hotel reservation made
by Genesee Joe.
“I got ready to check in
and they had me down for
two rooms,” he said. “I hadn’t
thought about it and I said,
‘There must be a mistake
there.’” On a previous occa-
sion, the commission made a
reservation for him, and he’d
made a reservation for him-
self. So he canceled the “ex-
tra” room.
When
Genesee
Joe
checked in later, he didn’t
have a room, but the hotel
accommodated him, Potlatch
Joe said.
He’s since begun to regis-
ter at hotel meetings as “Pot-
latch Joe.”
“It turns out hotel clerks
have a hard time believing
two people are going to check
in with the same name on the
same date,” Genesee Joe said.
6
Idaho
27
iver
Snak e R
Uncanny is the word. Pot-
latch Joe is president of the
Idaho Grain Producers Asso-
ciation and used to be on the
Idaho Wheat Commission.
Genesee Joe is on the
wheat commission and used
to be on the grain producers
association executive board.
Potlatch Joe has been a
member of the grain pro-
ducers association as long as
he’s farmed and joined the
executive board in 2014. He
joined the wheat commission
in 2002, recommended for the
position by Genesee Joe.
Genesee Joe joined the
grain producers association in
1999 and held executive posi-
tions in 2009-2013. He joined
the commission in 2014,
replacing Potlatch Joe, and
served as chairman in 2016.
The Joes have never served
on the same board at the same
time but both have served as
the wheat commission’s liai-
son to the association.
Does having the same
name ever cause a problem?
“Oh, a couple of times,”
Genesee Joe said.
Genesee Joe loads boxes onto a
truck at his farm in Genesee, Idaho.
have been a little different,”
Genesee Joe said. He plants
chickpeas and spring wheat,
while Potlatch Joe tends to
plant more grass.
Potlatch Joe has been mar-
ried to his wife, Pam, for 54
years.
Genesee Joe and his wife,
Leslie, were married on Feb.
18.
Genesee Joe enjoys riding
motorcycles and river rafting.
He and Leslie also like to tool
around in a recreational vehi-
cle and go hiking.
Potlatch Joe and Pam go
dancing, although not as often
as they used to. Pam is on the
board of directors of Clearwa-
ter Power Co., and he tries to
go with her when she travels.
The Joes went to a dance
hall during the 2017 Com-
modity Classic in San Anto-
nio, Texas, as part of a small
group.
“It was fun,” Genesee Joe
said. “(Potlatch Joe is) kinda
modest, but he’s probably still
likely to be the best dancer
you’d see out on the fl oor.”
Potlatch Joe does maintenance May 19 at his farm in
Potlatch, Idaho.
When Genesee Joe and
Leslie were married, Potlatch
Joe and Pam attended their
wedding reception.
But the two farmers most-
ly see each other at industry
meetings.
“The wheat business
brings us together many times
over the winter,” Genesee Joe
said.
“We fi nd ourselves at the
same places quite a lot,” Pot-
latch Joe agreed.
Family roots
Despite the names, there’s
no relation between the two
Joes.
Potlatch Joe is of Scottish
descent, while Genesee Joe is
of Norwegian ancestry.
But their connection still
spans generations.
Genesee Joe’s father,
Andy, was one of Potlatch
Joe’s mentors. Before he even
started farming, Potlatch Joe
toured Andy Anderson’s farm
and hog-feeding operation as
part of a university soils class.
“And by the way, my dad
was (called) Andy as well,”
Potlatch Joe said.
Also, Potlatch Joe’s grand-
son now works for a fertilizer
company in Potlatch. Before
that, he worked for the same
company in Genesee, where
he and Genesee Joe got to
know each other.
Genesee Joe on Potlatch
Joe: “We all have examples,
or mentors, that helped form
us, and I’d be proud to say
that Potlatch Joe is one of my
mentors,” Genesee Joe said.
In particular, he said he’s
learned about the political and
research processes from Pot-
latch Joe.
“Those are two things that
I listen real closely to when
he’s speaking,” he said.
Potlatch Joe on Genesee
Joe: Potlatch Joe wasn’t ready
to leave the wheat commis-
sion, and says he likely never
would have.
“I thoroughly enjoyed it,”
he said. “It was a real oppor-
tunity to make some differ-
ences.”
He served concurrently
An immediate application of carbon tariffs is unlikely
CARBON from Page 1
Such tariffs would have
be calculated with “method-
ological consistency” across
all trading partners, otherwise
they’d be subject to WTO dis-
pute and retaliation proce-
dures, Suppan said.
“You couldn’t apply it to
just one country,” unless it’s
part of a specifi c trade agree-
ment, he said. “It would have
to be done across the board.”
Suppan said he doesn’t
know of any carbon tariffs
being applied on nations in
the past, and it’s especially
tough to envision in regard to
the U.S., given its tremendous
leverage in global trade.
“I think it’s pretty unlikely
there would be any kind of re-
lated carbon tariff in the near
future,” he said.
Mexico and Canada are
major oil suppliers to the U.S.,
so it’s hard to imagine they’d
want to jeopardize those ex-
ports by imposing a carbon
tariff, said Desmond O’Ro-
urke, an agricultural economist
specializing in world fruit mar-
keting.
China is also heavily depen-
dent on exports to the U.S., he
said. “The potential retaliation
against China could be enor-
mous.”
As for the European Union,
much of the recent moral out-
rage over the U.S. leaving the
Paris accord may just be “hot
air” that wouldn’t justify trade
sanctions, O’Rourke said.
“It’s a multidimensional in-
ternational bargaining issue,”
he said.
While an immediate ap-
plication of carbon tariffs is
unlikely, walking away from
the deal “will complicate fu-
ture trade negotiations for the
Trump administration,” said
Ben Lilliston, IATP’s climate
policy director, said in an email.
The WTO and the United
Nations are anticipating that
existing trade rules will in-
creasingly confl ict with climate
policy under the accord, he
said.
“By removing itself from
the Paris Agreement, the U.S.
will have less standing as
these discussions move for-
ward,” Lilliston said.
‘We have no idea where the end
product is going to end up’
HEMP from Page 1
Five other applications
to grow or process hemp
are pending, WSDA hemp
coordinator Emily Febles
said.
Palmer’s planting of hemp
June 6, next to a fi eld of corn,
highlighted a daylong work-
shop on growing and process-
ing hemp. The farm’s crops
include corn, peas, bluegrass
seed, hay and buckwheat.
Palmer said that he hopes
hemp can became another
crop to put in rotation. “With
commodity prices down,” he
said, “most crops that we’re
growing are not very profi t-
able.”
He said that he expects to
harvest waist- to chest-high
hemp by the end of Septem-
ber.
What will happen then re-
mains unclear. Hemp seeds
can be eaten raw or used as an
ingredient. The fi ber can be
used for a variety of products,
including textiles and build-
ing materials. WSDA rules
require that hemp grown in
Washington be processed in
state.
Processing the fi ber will
take more capital investment
than harvesting the hemp as a
grain, Sharp said.
“We have no idea where
the end product is going to
end up,” he said. “Until some-
one writes us a check, the risk
is still there.”
While the market is un-
certain, the planting was a
celebratory event. Sharp de-
scribed the emotional ups and
downs of just getting seeds to
put in the ground.
Because fertile hemp seeds
are a federally controlled sub-
stance, WSDA had to obtain
permission from the Drug
Enforcement Administration
to import seeds from Canada.
There were some snags at the
border, Sharp said. “One piece
of paper out of order, and the
seed doesn’t come across the
line.”
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Grant County farmer Shane Palmer, left, and Cory Sharp of HempLogic prepare to plant hemp June
6 near Moses Lake in Central Washington. Palmer is the fi rst Washington grower to plant the newly
lawful crop.