January 5, 2018
CapitalPress.com
5
Marijuana grower smells chance to gain farm status
Hearings board to
take a look at issue
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
An appeals panel will tour
a Western Washington farm
in January to help it decide
whether smells from harvest-
ing marijuana should be treat-
ed with the same leniency as
odors from raising livestock
and other agricultural activi-
ties.
Green Freedom owner Jus-
tin Wildhaber, appealing fines
issued by a clean-air agency,
said Friday that he hopes his
case will set a precedent and
move marijuana farmers clos-
er to being regulated like oth-
er producers.
“Hopefully, it will be a big
win for the industry,” he said.
Five years after Wash-
ington legalized recreational
marijuana, cannabis growers
operate under different rules
than other farmers. Wild-
haber’s appeal to the Pollution
Control Hearings Board poses
the question whether marijua-
na should be exempted from
the state’s Clean Air Act as an
agricultural activity,
Washington State Department of Agriculture
Marijuana grows in a greenhouse in Washington. A marijuana grower there argues his farm is an
agricultural activity and should be exempt from the state’s Clean Air Act.
The exemption gives limit-
ed protection to farms, ranch-
es and feedlots from being
fined for odors and dust. The
hearings board took up the
issue of whether marijuana
farms qualify for the exemp-
tion in 2017. In that case,
however, the board found the
farm was too small, less than
5 acres, to meet the definition
of “agricultural land.”
The three-member hear-
ings board will tour Wild-
Research shows how organic
blueberries can compete
Raised beds,
weed mat and low
nitrogen key
for growers
ter managers may take note,
he said. “It opens another can
of worms.”
He also said marijuana
odors should not be equated
with other farm smells. “It’s
not like anything else,” he
said. “There’s something in
marijuana that can affect your
nervous system.”
According to hearings
board records, a neighbor has
made dozens of complaints
about smells from Green
Freedom. The air agency has
conducted many investiga-
tions. Twice, on harvest days,
inspectors sniffed and gave
the odor a “2” on a scale of
0-4. A “2” means the smell
was “distinct and recogniz-
able.” A “4” means the smell
caused a physical reaction.
The air agency argues
growing marijuana can’t be
considered an agricultural
activity because it is still cov-
ered by the state’s controlled
substances act and is not taxed
like an agricultural product.
The agency also claims that
Green Freedom’s greenhous-
es and other farm operations
cover only 3.2 acres, falling
short of the 5-acre threshold.
Wildhaber says the farm cov-
ers 5.7 acres.
Price outlook for U.S. dairy
Item
Q3 ’17
Q4 ’17*
Nonfat dry milk
AA butter
Block cheddar
Whey powder
$0.88
2.60
1.67
0.43
0.79
2.34
1.73
0.37
Class III milk
Class IV milk
$16.34
16.37
17.02
14.51
Dollars per pound
Q1 ’18*
Q2 ’18*
0.68
2.04
1.54
0.27
0.71
2.09
1.57
0.28
Q3 ’18*
Q4 ’18*
0.74
2.27
1.63
0.33
0.77
2.36
1.78
0.45
15.34
13.81
17.44
14.44
Dollars per hundredweight
Sources: USDA; Rabobank
By GEORGE PLAVEN
13.99
12.34
*Estimated or forecast
14.35
12.79
Capital Press graphic
Global dairy surplus weighs on prices
Capital Press
Organic blueberry grow-
ers can improve their bottom
line by planting in raised
beds, using a plastic weed
mat for mulching and lower
rates of fertilizer, according
to research from Oregon
State University.
Bernadine Strik, OSU
berry crops professor, led a
10-year study to determine
best management practic-
es for organic blueberries,
which was recently published
in the journal HortScience.
More than half of all or-
ganic blueberries grown in
the U.S. come from Oregon
and Washington, Strik said.
The Oregon Blueberry Com-
mission initially funded her
project in 2006, looking for
additional support in organic
production.
“The market is very
strong for organic fruit spe-
cifically from the Pacific
Northwest,” Strik said. “We
have such a good climate for
growing organic blueber-
ries.”
At the time, just 2 percent
of the region’s blueberries
were certified organic. The
total now is as high as 20
percent, making the North-
west the largest producer of
organic blueberries in the
world.
“I don’t see that chang-
ing,” Strik said. “I think
that’s a real advantage to our
region.”
haber’s farm in Elma on Jan.
18. The board will then head
to Tumwater for a two-day
hearing on whether Green
Freedom should have been
fined $1,000 twice by the
Olympic Region Clean Air
Agency. Investigators report-
ed smelling marijuana on a
neighbor’s property on two
occasions.
Lara Kaminsky, executive
director of The Cannabis Alli-
ance, an advocacy group, said
the case could be a landmark.
Odors are often an opening for
local governments to regulate
marijuana farms over other is-
sues such as light pollution or
traffic, she said.
“We need to get clear di-
rection from the state on this
issue,” she said. “It is legal.
It’s a legal crop. It should
have the same rules and regu-
lations as other crops,”
The House Agriculture
Committee advanced during
the 2017 session a bill that
would have added marijua-
na to Washington’s right-to-
farm law. The law shields
agriculture from nuisance
complaints.
The legislation didn’t
come up for a vote by the full
House. If it had, Rep. Tom
Dent, R-Moses Lake, would
have proposed an amendment
to exclude Eastern Washing-
ton from the bill.
Dent said Friday that he
opposes classifying marijuana
as a farm product. Federal wa-
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
OSU
Bernadine Strik, Oregon State University Extension berry spe-
cialist, inspects organic blueberries in a test plot at OSU’s North
Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, Ore.
Strik conducted her study
at the university’s North
Willamette Research and
Extension Center in Auro-
ra, planting two varieties of
blueberries — Duke, an ear-
ly season berry, and Liber-
ty, which ripens later in the
year.
Strik also had the 1-acre
field certified by Oregon
Tilth, ensuring she would
face the same challenges as
organic growers with record
keeping and inspection.
“This was my first cer-
tified organic study,” Strik
said. “And it’s still the only
certified organic blueberry re-
search trial in the world.”
Over the course of a de-
cade, Strik found that Liberty
blueberries yielded 22 percent
higher in raised beds versus
flat ground, which has proven
to be a no-brainer move for or-
ganic and conventional grow-
ers alike.
As for weed control, Strik
looked at a few different op-
tions for organic growers, in-
cluding sawdust mulch, yard
debris topped with sawdust
and a black plastic weed mat.
Though it did carry some
drawbacks, such as increased
soil temperature and field
mice, the mat proved to be the
lowest cost option. Sawdust
mulch cost nearly twice as
much, Strik said, and the saw-
dust and yard debris combina-
tion cost almost three times as
much.
“The higher cost was be-
cause there were more weeds
that needed to be pulled,” Strik
said.
Finally, the study looked at
organic fertilizers, which can
cost 10 to 20 times as much
as conventional products. Str-
ik applied both a feather meal
and liquid fish at rates ranging
from 25 to 65 pounds per acre
on the low end, and 50 to 125
pounds per acre on the high
end.
Liberty berries showed lit-
tle difference between the low
and high rates of fertilizer,
Strik said, indicating a huge
cost savings to organic grow-
ers. Duke berries, meanwhile,
fared best with higher levels of
cheaper feather meal, and were
especially sensitive to liquid
fish. Strik suspects that has to
do with higher levels of potas-
sium.
Milk producers have a
tough road ahead in 2018, as
global exportable surpluses
of dairy products continue
to expand.
Milk prices are expect-
ed to fall below break-even
and not recover until late
in 2018, Rabobank analysts
said in their latest Dairy
Quarterly report.
The analysts forecast
Class III milk prices in the
U.S. to drop about $3 per
hundredweight to $13.99 in
the first quarter of the year.
Class IV prices are fore-
cast at $12.34 per hundred-
weight.
Growth in global milk
supply accelerated in the
third quarter of 2017, in-
creasing 2.2 percent year
over year, and began to take
a toll on commodity prices
— including butterfat pric-
es, which had been defying
gravity.
“Exportable supply fun-
damentals will keep pressure
on prices through Q2 2018,
leading to further downward
pressure on the dairy com-
plex,” the analysts stated.
Combining production in
the fourth quarter of 2017
and first quarter of 2018,
the global market will con-
front a wave of exportable
surplus that is equivalent to
3.2 billion liters (3.3 million
metric tons) of milk above
year-earlier levels, the ana-
lyst said.
The first signs of weaker
milk prices have emerged in
a number of export regions
and pressure will build,
squeezing farmers’ margins,
the analysts reported.
“Buoyant dairy demand,
particularly for cheese and
butterfat, in the northern
hemisphere has been a fea-
ture on dairy markets in
recent times. However, de-
mand growth is starting to
moderate following a period
of robust growth,” the ana-
lysts stated.
On the bright side, im-
port purchasing in China,
Southeast Asia and parts of
North Africa is forecast to
remain active through 2018,
and cheese imports in Japan
and China are providing
support for cheese markets.
Whey prices, howev-
er, continue to be weighed
down by strong production
and growing stocks. And the
possibility of intervention
stocks of skim milk pow-
der in the European Union
entering the animal-feed
market could add to that
pressure.
In the U.S., there was a
modest slowdown in milk
production in September
and October, but production
year to date to December
was 1.5 percent higher than
a year earlier.
“Looking forward, con-
tinuing global supply pres-
sure will trickle down to
U.S. farmgate prices, put-
ting downward pressure on
margins — seeing many fall
back below break-even,” the
analysts said.
As a result, the analysts
are forecasting a noticeable
slowdown in U.S. supply
growth in 2018, with in-
creases hovering around
1.2 percent higher year over
year in 2018.
Growth in domestic de-
mand in the U.S. is expected
to moderate in 2018 after
two years of exceptional
growth, resulting in sizable
volumes of potential ex-
ports.
One thing to keep an eye
on is the North American
Free Trade Agreement ne-
gotiations, with two more
rounds scheduled for early
in the year, the analysts said.
“Risk of a U.S. exit from
NAFTA has increased after
five rounds of ‘modernizing’
the agreement have failed
to advance amendments to
the existing agreement. If
NAFTA fails, market im-
pacts could severely upset
U.S. and global dairy pric-
es,” the analysts said.
1-4/HOU