14 CapitalPress.com
September 8, 2017
‘So far, so good’ on Oregon
organic farm’s weed control plan
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Azure Farms, the organ-
ic operation that was at the
center of a weed control ar-
gument in Sherman County,
Ore., this spring, is respond-
ing quickly to complaints and
generally living up to its side
of an agreement with county
officials, Commissioner Tom
McCoy said.
“So far, so good,” McCoy
said in an email update. “I ex-
plained that I considered the
weed agreement like a farm
lease — not so important as a
legal document, but important
as a written statement of what
each party should expect of
the other.”
Neighboring wheat farm-
ers, especially those who
grow certified seed, have
complained for years about
weeds blowing onto their
ground from Azure Farms,
which as an organic operation
would not use conventional
chemical herbicides to deal
with the problem. County
officials said they would ask
the Oregon Department of
Agriculture to quarantine the
farm’s production and warned
they would spray herbicide
and bill the 1,922-acre farm
for the work if the weeds
weren’t controlled.
Azure Farms and its par-
ent company, Azure Standard,
of Dufur, Ore., appealed to
supporters on social media.
County officials were flooded
with anguished, angry tele-
phone calls and nearly 60,000
emails from around the coun-
try and even internationally.
The issue came to a head
at a county court meeting in
May, held at the local high
school gym because the crowd
was so large. Brothers David
and Nathan Stelzer, who head
the farm and product distri-
bution company, apologized
for the social media response.
They ultimately agreed to keep
weeds in check using methods
that won’t cause them to lose
organic certification.
McCoy said the county has
received several complaints
about noxious weeds flower-
ing at Azure Farms and being
close to producing seeds.
“When we contacted the
Stelzers, they responded
quickly — usually by mow-
ing down the weeds,” McCoy
said by email. “They have al-
ways seemed to accept their
responsibility to keep noxious
weed seeds from blowing into
their neighbor’s fields.”
Farm advocacy program
offers laughs, education
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
FILER, Idaho — Minutes
before the show, it looked like
the “Thank A Farmer lady”
wouldn’t have an audience.
But kids of all ages — from
infants to great grandparents
— quickly filled the chairs
and floor in the Ag Pavilion
at the Twin Falls County Fair,
and the show was off to an en-
ergetic start.
Joyce Rice, founder and
presenter of the Thank A
Farmer Magic Show, hails
from a sixth-generation fam-
ily farm in Iowa and is pas-
sionate about spreading an ap-
preciation for farmers. For the
past 12 years, she’s traveled
all over the country perform-
ing a magic act that incorpo-
rates agricultural education.
Instead of abracadabra, the
magic words “Thank a farm-
er” are enthusiastically chant-
ed by the audience.
She promised the show
would give the audience
“fun farm facts to fool your
family, friends and other fine
folks,” and it delivered, even
impressing people who had
farmed for 50 years.
For instance, most didn’t
know that a dollar bill is made
from cotton and flax, which is
why it can be laundered.
Another fact folks found
surprising is that all four parts
of a baseball — the stearic
acid that stabilizes the rub-
ber core and the cotton string,
wool and cowhide surround-
ing it — are made from agri-
cultural products.
The audience laughed and
hooted at her antics and mag-
ic tricks but also learned the
importance of farmers and
ranchers, who provide food,
clothing and housing material
— in addition to money and
baseballs.
“Farmers are the root
of our economy,” she said,
talking about all the jobs and
businesses agriculture creates.
She wore crazy hats and
used agricultural products in
her magic tricks and juggling,
imparting fun facts about ag-
riculture along the way.
The heart of the advocacy
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Jeff Mingay of Iron Tree Solutions in Williams, Calif., checks the
hydraulic hoses on a tomato harvester. The processing tomato
crop is even smaller than anticipated, according to a USDA report.
Smaller tomato harvest
may bring short-term
pain to growers
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
Joyce Rice performs a magic trick for the audience during the Thank A Farmer show at the Twin Falls
County Fair on Sept. 1.
Online
For more information, vis-
it thankafarmer.org
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
Youngsters and adults enjoy the Thank A Farmer Magic Show at
the Twin Falls County Fair on Sept. 1.
program is education and rais-
ing awareness, but “everyone
learns best when they’re hav-
ing fun. You can get smart and
have fun at the same time,”
she said.
A half-hour program can’t
do all that much education,
but it can foster appreciation
and awareness, she said.
The Thank A Farmer
program — which includes
educational materials and
speaking and consulting
services — was created by
Rice’s daughter, Rhonda
Ross Swanson, in response
to farm kids being bullied by
town kids.
There are agricultural ed-
ucation programs for high
school students, but no one
was doing children’s educa-
tion,” she said.
The younger children are,
the better they learn. Once
they become aware of some-
thing, they notice it all the
time, and once they develop a
good feeling about agriculture
and farmers, they never lose
it, she said.
After the show, Viola Mul-
vaney, 7, of Buhl said she
learned “farmers help us.”
She also learned how to
make a cornstalk out of news-
paper and that baseballs are
made out of “farm stuff.”
Lynsie Nebecker, 11, of
Twin Falls said she liked the
magic tricks and how Rice in-
volved the audience. She also
learned that money is made
out of cotton and baseballs are
made with cowhide.
And she can’t wait to tell
her mother she’s “pretty as a
pig” when she puts on lipstick
before church, because (the
glycerin in) lipstick comes
from pigs.
SACRAMENTO — Pro-
cessing tomato growers in
California are bringing in
an even smaller crop than
they anticipated, which
could mean long-term gain
but short-term pain in terms
of prices.
Contracted production
is forecast at 11.5 million
tons, or 50 tons per acre,
according to the Nation-
al Agricultural Statistics
Service. That’s 8 percent
below the 2018 crop and
2.5 percent below the May
forecast.
And farms could have
difficulty even meeting the
revised estimate, said Bruce
Rominger, a Winters, Calif.,
grower and board chairman
of the California Tomato
Growers Association.
“I think that report is still
too optimistic,” Rominger
said. “It’s going to be small-
er than that.”
The industry was already
girding for its lowest con-
tracted production since
2006 as it tries to pare down
stockpiles of canned to-
matoes still in warehouses
after record production in
2014 and 2015.
Planted acreage this
season was expected to be
235,000, the lowest since
1988 and a 10 percent de-
crease from 2016, NASS
reported.
Prices to growers have
fallen from $80 per ton in
2015 to $70.50 per ton this
year, Rominger said.
A shorter crop could lead
to higher prices as carryover
supplies dwindle, but prices
for this season were set in
Idaho farm
alleges improper
installation
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
U.S. wheat organizations
are urging the Trump ad-
ministration not to withdraw
from the U.S.-Korea Free
Trade Agreement, or KO-
RUS.
President Donald Trump
reportedly threatened to
withdraw from the trade pact
last weekend.
“We believe it would be
irresponsible to unilaterally
walk away from this or any
other trade agreement,” said
Mike Miller, chairman of
U.S. Wheat Associates and a
Ritzville, Wash., wheat farm-
er, in a joint press release is-
sued by U.S. Wheat and Na-
tional Association of Wheat
Growers. “Withdrawing rais-
es the specter of retaliation
against agricultural exports
and creates unnecessary un-
certainty in the market.”
Any disruption gives Aus-
tralia, Canada and Russia an
opening to move in and take
business away from the rela-
Problems with the installa-
tion of an aquaponic green-
house have led an Idaho
farm to file a lawsuit against
its equipment supplier.
Aquaponic greenhous-
es aim to provide an inte-
grated system of raising
crops and fish, but Garden
Creek Farms said the sys-
tem it bought from Nelson
& Pade, an aquaponics firm,
had multiple problems.
Nelson & Pade and its
contractors, which are also
defendants in the lawsuit,
were paid to design and
build the farm’s aquaponic
greenhouse in 2013, accord-
ing to the complaint.
A boiler and related
components used to heat
the
greenhouse
“were
non-functioning or other-
wise did not conform with
industry standards,” requir-
ing modifications that took
several weeks, the plaintiff
claims.
Capital Press File
U.S. Wheat Associates Chairman Mike Miller has joined other
industry leaders in urging the Trump administration not to withdraw
from the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. South Korea is the
third-largest importer of U.S. wheat.
tionships U.S. wheat farmers
have built in South Korea for
more than 60 years, at a time
when growers are struggling
to remain profitable, Miller
said.
advance and won’t change.
Even with the May estimate,
growers would have needed
higher yields this summer
to do more than break even,
Rominger has said.
“It’s too early to tell how
short the crop will be,” he
said. “We do have quite a
bit of inventory left over.
It will certainly help to get
rid of the heavy burden of
inventory.”
Spring rains delayed
planting for many growers,
then several heat waves this
summer shrank yields. The
heat has caused the harvest
in the Central Valley to be
erratic, interrupting the
smooth flow of tomatoes to
the canneries, according to
NASS.
California leads the
world in processing toma-
to production and accounts
for about 94 percent of the
processing tomato acreage
in the U.S., according to
the USDA’s Economic Re-
search Service.
Aquaponic problems
lead to lawsuit
Trump urged not to withdraw from S. Korea trade agreement
“KORUS, like the North
American
Free
Trade
Agreement, has been very
good for American agricul-
ture,” he said in the release.
Miller is also chairman
of the Washington Grain
Commission.
KORUS reinforces the
administration’s goal of
selling more agricultur-
al products overseas, said
David Schemm, president
of NAWG and a Sharon
Springs, Kan., farmer.
“We support finding
ways to improve any agree-
ment, but let’s do that in
a reasoned and respectful
way, with input from all
stakeholders so U.S. wheat
farmers can gain greater
access to world markets,”
Schemm said in the press
release.
South Korea was the
third-largest volume im-
porter of U.S. wheat in the
2016-2017 marketing year.
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
This summer’s processing
tomato crop is even smaller
than anticipated, according to a
USDA report.
Capital Press
The greenhouse then ex-
perienced cooling problems
that drove temperatures
inside it as high as 136 de-
grees Fahrenheit, with the
necessary
improvements
costing $19,000, the com-
plaint said.
Nelson & Pade also ad-
vised the farm to remove a
filter against pathogens, re-
sulting in an infestation that
forced the farm to “decom-
mission and sterilize the
greenhouse and start over,”
according to the lawsuit.
Heat exchangers recom-
mended by the defendant
also broke due to freezing,
leading to further cost-
ly repairs, the complaint
said.
The lawsuit claims Nel-
son & Pade violated a con-
tract and warranty, among
other accusations, and seeks
damages and attorney fees
in an unspecified amount
above $10,000.
Capital Press was un-
able to reach an attorney
representing the defendant,
but the company has filed
an answer denying it was
the source of the problems,
which were caused by the
negligence or other faulty
conduct of the farm.