August 18, 2017
CapitalPress.com
3
‘It’s been a good run:’ OSU ag dean looks to retirement
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Dan Arp, whose belief that
“food is the handshake be-
tween urban and rural” was
reflected during his tenure as
dean of Oregon State Univer-
sity’s College of Agricultural
Sciences, will retire next June.
Oregon State announced
the move in an Aug. 10 news
release. Arp was appointed
dean in 2012 after his pre-
decessor, the colorful Sonny
Ramaswamy, was picked by
President Obama to head the
USDA’s National Institute
of Food and Agriculture in
Washington, D.C.
Under Arp’s direction,
OSU continued broadening its
agricultural offerings beyond
conventional crop and live-
stock production. Students
have a Fermentation Science
program at their disposal, and
can learn how to make beer,
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press File
Dan Arp, dean of OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences, speaks
at the dedication of the college’s restored Strand Hall. He has
announced his plans to retire next summer.
wine, cheese, yogurt and oth-
er kinds of food. A Center for
Small Farms and Community
Food Systems within OSU Ex-
tension reaches producers and
processors who might have
been overlooked before.
The Oregon Wine Research
Institute is a partnership be-
tween OSU and the state’s
celebrated industry. OSU’s
Food Innovation Center in
Portland is a rare ag exper-
iment station in an urban
setting. College of ag enroll-
ment is at a record of about
2,600 students, and OSU’s
agriculture and forestry pro-
grams were rated 13th best
among world universities.
During Arp’s time, Or-
egon’s economy recovered
and the Legislature provided
funding for 25 new positions.
Fundraising and private gifts
brought in $40 million.
Ramaswamy said his suc-
cessor brought a sense of
“scholarly enterprise” to the
College of Ag. “At the end of
the day, you’ve got to have top
notch science to help agricul-
ture,” he said.
To top it off, Arp also was
the beneficiary of a $25 mil-
lion restoration of Strand Hall,
home of OSU’s ag program
for the past century. The work,
planned and funded before he
was named dean, nonetheless
returned the 115,000-square-
foot building to its place as a
campus centerpiece.
“It’s been a good run,” Arp
said.
He said he’s proud of his
Berry farm defends response to worker’s illness
Fired pickers
had walked out
work and the timing of re-
tirement feels right. Looking
back, he hopes his OSU col-
leagues and the state’s pro-
ducers and other stakeholders
will remember him as a good
collaborator, someone they
enjoyed working with.
Arp said OSU has devel-
oped a broad “soil to shelf”
approach in its agricultural
programs.
“That’s something I’ve
continued to try to foster,” he
said. “We are an incredibly di-
verse college, and part of that
is a reflection of the diversi-
ty of food, ag and natural re-
sources in the state.”
He praised the ag college’s
faculty and researchers, say-
ing they understand the im-
portance of engaging the pub-
lic in what they do.
“These folks would be
stars at any university,” Arp
said.
“The students, too,” he
said. “They’re really quite
amazing. They are passionate
about what they do; they’re
here for all the right reasons.”
Arp started at OSU in a
botany and plant pathology
position in 1990 and later
headed the department and
was named a “distinguished
professor.” In 2008 he was
named dean of the Universi-
ty Honors College, and four
years later returned to the
College of Agriculture.
SAGE Fact #144
To boost development in the region, Congress
authorized a massive Umatilla River irrigation
project in December 1905. The Boardman area
finally received irrigation water with the completion
of the West Extension Main Canal in 1916.
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A Western Washington
blueberry farm Aug. 11 of-
fered its version of events sur-
rounding the death of a work-
er from Mexico and the firing
of more than 70 other foreign
workers who walked off the
job in protest.
Sarbanand Farms’ chief
administrative officer, Cliff
Woolley, said the worker,
Honesto Silva Ibarra, was
immediately taken from the
Whatcom County farm by
ambulance to the nearest
hospital when management
learned Aug. 2 he was sick.
Silva died four days later in a
Seattle hospital.
Woolley said there was
“no truth” to reports that Sil-
va was ordered back to work.
Woolley said ambulance and
hospital records, not yet pub-
licly available, will confirm
the farm’s account.
“Over time, the facts I’ve
told you will be verified,” he
said in an interview with the
Capital Press.
Silva was flown to Harbor-
view Medical Center on Aug.
4 and died two days later of
what King County officials
have called natural causes.
The farm says it learned
from Silva’s nephew, who
also worked on the farm, that
Silva was diabetic.
Silva’s death has led to
an investigation by the state
Department of Labor and In-
dustries and claims by farm-
worker advocates that he was
mistreated. Some 65 workers
on H-2A visas walked off the
job the day after Silva was
taken away for treatment.
The workers were an-
gry that Silva hadn’t gotten
Courtesy of Community to Community
Farmworkers who walked out and were then fired from a Western Washington blueberry farm march
in protest in Whatcom County. A farm executive says there’s no truth to claims a worker who died was
mistreated and that medical records eventually will confirm the farm’s version of events.
treatment sooner, said Edgar
Franks, an organizer with
Community to Community, a
farmworker advocacy group.
“They were upset it had to
reach that level,” he said. “We
want to make sure the truth
gets out there.”
The dismissed workers,
now numbering more than 70,
were camping Aug. 11 on a
supporter’s lawn near Sumas
and about a mile from the
600-acre farm, which is owned
by a California farm family.
Woolley said the compa-
ny will pay for the workers
to go home. Franks said the
workers are conferring with
lawyers and concerned about
their ability to find work again
in the U.S.
“They feel that by speak-
ing out for Honesto and call-
ing attention to the situation,
they’re going to be blacklist-
ed.” he said.
Labor and Industries
spokesman Tim Church said
that the agency has met with
farm managers and started to
interview workers.
The agency will investi-
gate whether workplace con-
ditions contributed to Silva’s
death. The investigation could
take up to six months, Church
said.
Also, the department will
conduct a separate investiga-
tion into whether the farm was
complying with employment
standards related to such mat-
ters as meals, rest breaks and
pay statements, Church said.
He said the agency re-
ceived information from sev-
eral sources, prompting the in-
vestigation unrelated to Silva’s
death.
“We follow Facebook,
and there were posts on Face-
book,” Church said. “We want
to get to the bottom of it.”
Woolley said he was con-
fident state investigators will
find working conditions at the
farm are good.
“I don’t feel there is real
merit to those complaints, and
if there were we would look
into it,” he said.
According to Sarbanand
Farms, Silva, who was report-
edly 28 years old, was brought
into the office around lunch-
time Aug. 2.
Farm management learned
from the nephew, who is about
the same age as his uncle, that
Silva was diabetic. A farm
manager immediately called
911, according to Sarbanand.
Woolley said Silva had
worked 3 1/2 hours that morn-
ing.
He said the company pulls
workers in from the field if
temperatures are judged too
hot, though the company has
no definite cut-off temperature.
The high temperature that day
at the farm was 90 degrees, ac-
cording to the company.
33-3#6
Biotech company studies GMO clover
Field trial linked to
forage digestibility
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Courtesy of Forest & Kim Starr
A biotech company is
conducting a field study of
genetically engineered white
clover to find ways of im-
proving forage digestibility
for livestock.
Forage Genetics, which is
best known for alfalfa that’s
genetically modified to with-
stand glyphosate herbicides,
began field testing the trans-
genic clover in Wisconsin this
year under a USDA permit
that expires in 2020.
The clover contains a
gene that’s important for the
company’s efforts to engi-
neer “condensed tannins”
into alfalfa forage, said Ste-
phen Temple, the company’s
biotechnology director, in an
email.
Incorporating condensed
tannins into forage crops
would improve “protein use
efficiency” while reducing
“nitrogen loss to the environ-
ment” and providing “bloat
safe grazing options,” Temple
said.
The field trial involves
growing a “small number”
of white clover plants in an
Forage Genetics, a biotech
developer, is conducting a field
test of genetically modified
white clover.
“isolation cage” to prevent
cross-pollination, he said.
It’s too early to determine
whether the gene from the
biotech white clover variety
will be transferred to alfalfa,
as the research and develop-
ment program may last a de-
cade or longer, Temple said.
“A lot of testing and ana-
lytical work will need to be
completed successfully before
decisions are made on how
best to deploy the technolo-
gy,” he said.
Condensed tannins bind
to proteins, preventing them
from being digested too
quickly and improving the
cow’s protein absorption, said
John Grabber, a dairy forage
researcher with USDA’s Agri-
cultural Research Service.
However, if the cow in-
gests too many condensed
tannins, the binding mecha-
nism will actually impede di-
gestion of protein, he said.
“We don’t want to protect
it too much so the protein
goes right through the cow
and comes out the other end,”
Grabber said.
While one study has
shown that birdsfoot trefoil —
a plant that naturally contains
condensed tannins — boosts
milk production, other studies
haven’t found this correlation,
he said.
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