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12 CapitalPress.com April 6, 2018 ‘It’s not a good time. I think folks are being cautious’ TRADE from Page 1 Like the rest of the Northwest, the vast majority of Oregon wheat — between 85 and 90 percent — is exported, with 21 percent of export sales to Japan. That amounts to $60 million, at current prices from Port- land grain terminals. While the price of soft white wheat has rebounded modestly from its sub-$5 per bushel low last year, Japanese flour mills estimate higher tariffs on U.S. wheat could nega- tively impact market share by more than half, from 3 million metric tons to less than 1.4 million metric tons. And once that market share is gone, it can be difficult to recapture. Matt Wood, who farms several thousand acres of dryland wheat and cattle pasture near the small town of Helix, Ore., said farmers are wary of the unpredictability. But the eco- nomic consequences extend even further. “The community from where you draw business support is ever shrink- ing,” Wood said. “That’s a real con- cern.” Ripple effect What has happened in Helix — population 181 — is what continues to happen all over rural America, Wood said. Wood took over the lease on his family’s farm in 1993. Since then, he said the town has lost its grocery store and hardware store, and the post office was forced to cut back hours. The Helix Market & Pub nearly suf- fered the same fate until Wood and four others bought the place in 2006 Owner Anna Doherty, right, gives change to customer Chris Gibson at the Helix Market & Pub. just to keep it open — it was cheaper than paying their tabs, he quipped. The Watering Hole Consor- tainty, he said the co-op is experienc- said that, while he does not believe “How these things play out, you nev- tium, as they called themselves, has ing some lean years in product and U.S. wheat will ever truly lose the er can tell.” since passed the pub along to Anna equipment sales. whole Japanese market, the latest Job diversification In turn, the co-op — while still developments are “troubling,” and Doherty, who has kept it running. “The concern we all had was if profitable — has less money to sup- “disheartening.” Steve Chrisman, economic de- that place closes, it ain’t opening port community organizations like Blake Rowe, CEO of the Oregon velopment and airport manager for FFA or Little League Baseball. again,” Wood said. Wheat Growers League and Ore- the city of Pendleton, Ore., said the Helix has historically depended “It’s a ripple effect, for sure,” gon Wheat Commission, echoed the local job base has grown more di- on agriculture, yet Wood estimates Orem said. “It’s definitely a reflec- farmers’ sentiments. In addition to verse over the last couple of decades, that half his neighbors are no longer tion of what’s happening on the TPP, Rowe said the organization is which has helped insulate the com- farming. The return on investment is farms.” keeping a close eye on North Amer- munity against the impact of a single ican Free Trade Agreement negotia- business — namely agriculture. no better than 2 percent, he figures. Exports crucial tions, and possible retaliation against “If wheat’s not going to do well, So instead of having 10 people farm- ing 2,000 acres, he said two people Exports remain crucial to wheat U.S. agriculture based on new steel it’s not good for the city, but it are now farming 10,000 acres. growers to turn a profit. Umatilla and and aluminum import tariffs. doesn’t cripple it, either,” Chrisman That observation is backed up Morrow counties rank first and sec- “It’s not a good time,” Rowe said. said. by data from the USDA. A recent ond, respectively, in statewide pro- “I think folks are being cautious, not Chrisman pointed to Wildhorse report from the agency’s Economic duction as of the most recent 2012 knowing where this is going to end Resort & Casino, Keystone RV and Research Service shows that farm Census of Agriculture. Combined, up.” Interpath Laboratory as examples production has been trending toward they total roughly 395,000 wheat Dryland wheat is the still the of large employers outside the farm consolidation over the last three de- acres. major agricultural crop for many sector. Another recent development cades. By 2012, 36 percent of all With the U.S. out of the latest communities in the arid climate of that has him excited is the Pendleton cropland was on farms with at least TPP agreement, state and national Eastern Oregon. Without access to Unmanned Aerial Systems Range, 2,000 acres, up from 15 percent in wheat industry groups sent a let- irrigation water, there are not many which he said is beginning to add ter to Trade Representative Robert viable alternatives. 1987. full-time permanent jobs. Consolidation means fewer peo- Lighthizer, urging President Donald “I’m not really sure how commu- Companies such as Yamaha, A^3 ple to invest in the community, Trump to reconsider. nities will absorb those hits,” Rowe and defense contractors have flocked Wood said. “The president has promised to said. to the range, which has been the site “It’s just been a shift in the econ- negotiate great new deals,” the letter Bruce Sorte, community econ- of several high-profile drone launch- omy,” he said. reads. “American agriculture now omist for Oregon State University es including the Project Vahana air Eric Orem, a wheat farmer north counts on that promise and Amer- Extension in Eastern Oregon, said taxi and ArcticShark, which will be of Lexington, Ore., has seen some- ican wheat farmers — facing a ca- wheat isn’t the only commodity that used to gather sophisticated climate thing similar. Orem serves on the lamity they would be hard-pressed to may be affected. Fruit also depends data in the Arctic atmosphere over board of directors for Morrow Coun- overcome — now depend on it.” on exports, along with processed po- Alaska. ty Grain Growers, the local farmers’ Wood said the last thing the tatoes and onions. The range has brought anywhere cooperative. Between drought-stunt- wheat industry needs is to jeopardize “Those exports are just critical from 20 to 50 people into Pendle- ed yields and increasing trade uncer- any kind of international trade. Orem to the folks out there,” Sorte said. ton at all times during the last six E.J. Harris/EO Media Group months, Chrisman said, eating out in local restaurants and staying in local hotels. And Chrisman believes this is only the tip of the iceberg. “The potential for growth here is pretty exciting,” he said. “I think we’ve made huge strides in the last two years.” Pat Beard, who manages the Pendleton Convention Center, added summer tourism as another econom- ic driver for the city, with Pendleton Bike Week, Pendleton Whisky Mu- sic Fest and, of course, the world-fa- mous Pendleton Round-Up. Beard said he knows, living in a very agriculture-oriented area, the price of commodities will always af- fect the community. But as the econ- omy diversifies, it is not as devastat- ing a blow as it would have been 50 years ago. “While it’s challenging times, it’s part of the lifestyle,” Beard said. That lifestyle is what keeps farm- ers like Wood and Orem working through the tough times. “It’s what we do. It’s what we know,” Wood said. Orem said he is still optimistic for the future, and believes the bat- tle-tested wheat economy will ulti- mately prevail. “We’ve been through tough times before,” Orem said. “We’ll figure these trade deals out. It’s a bump in the road right now.” A male wolf went more than 100 miles into British Columbia before being killed WOLVES from Page 1 While Eastern Washington now has 13 breeding pairs, the North Cascades recov- ery zone lost one of its two breeding pairs from 2016. The state’s third recovery zone, the South Cascades, has no con- firmed wolves. “It (recovery) has taken a hit,” said Tim Coleman, ex- ecutive director of the Kettle Range Conservation Group in northeast Washington. Coleman said that he sus- pects wolves in northeast Washington will disperse south when the population thickens. The department has confirmed 28 wolf mortalities in the past two years, some of them breeding females. “That certainly has a significant im- pact,” Coleman said. The department killed three wolves last year to stop depre- dations on livestock, and the Colville tribe legally harvest- ed three wolves. Two wolves were killed by vehicles, two were lawfully shot while at- tacking livestock and four were killed under suspicious circumstances. According to the depart- ment, here’s where the nine dispersing wolves went: • Dirty Shirt pack: Three members left this pack in Stevens County. A male went more than 100 miles into Brit- Savanah Walker/Spokane Tribal Wildlife Program The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reports that nine collared wolves dispersed from packs in 2017. None moved in directions that furthered recovery goals. ish Columbia before being killed. The report does not say how the animal died. Efforts to reach the department for more information were unsuccess- ful. A female also went into British Columbia, but returned to the pack after eight days and traveling 300 miles. Another adult female went 30 miles north and established the ter- ritory of the new Leadpoint pack, also in Stevens County. • Smackout pack: A male traveled at least 1,700 miles from Stevens County before settling northwest of Yellow- stone National Park in south- west Montana. • Loup Loup pack: A fe- male went 542 miles into south-central British Colum- bia before her collar stopped working. The pack is one of three in the North Cascades recovery zone. • Profanity Peak pack: A female left the pack in June and went into southern Brit- ish Columbia and western Ferry County before being killed under suspicious cir- cumstances in November. The department says it’s investi- gating. • Goodman Meadows pack: Two males left the pack in November and crossed into northern Idaho. One was har- vested in March, and the other settled in northwest Idaho. • Huckleberry pack: A fe- male moved north within Ste- vens County to the Stranger pack. Calyxt’s high-fiber wheat is second gene-edited variety that USDA has cleared WHEAT from Page 1 “seed and grain production that would require both interstate move- ment and unconfined environmental release,” according to its letter to USDA. Aside from confirming the cul- tivar isn’t regulated as a plant pest, the USDA has also determined the gene “knockout” will not increase the weediness of wheat or jointed goatgrass, a related species. Calyxt’s high-fiber wheat is the second gene-edited variety of the crop that USDA has cleared for commercialization without the envi- ronmental review required for dereg- ulating transgenic crops. In 2016, the company’s powdery mildew-resistant wheat, also created through a gene knockout, was de- termined to be nonregulated by the agency. Gene-edited wheat hasn’t drawn a reaction from U.S. trading partners because the traits haven’t been wide- ly adopted in the wheat industry, said Steve Mercer, vice president of com- munications for U.S. Wheat Associ- ates, an export organization. “It has not come up because it’s not anywhere close to commercial- ization,” Mercer said. Commercializing a cultivar typ- ically requires lengthy trials and ramping up seed supplies, but Calyxt is a genetics developer that will like- ly license or sell its traits to a seed company or a public university, he said. It’s uncertain how foreign wheat buyers will react to gene-edited va- rieties, but U.S. Wheat Associates is supportive of the technology, he said. Unlike traditional genetic engi- neering, gene editing is less expen- sive and thus more available to public breeders, Mercer said. “It does not have to be the big tech providers.” The American Seed Trade Asso- ciation is hopeful that gene-edited crops will not encounter the same uneven patchwork of international rules as traditional GMOs, said Ber- nice Slutsky, the group’s senior vice president of domestic and interna- tional policy. Before any gene-edited crops come onto the market, the global seed industry is trying to develop consis- tent science- and risk-based policies for the technology across countries, Slutsky said. Because developers are work- ing within a plant’s own gene pool, there’s an interest in gene-editing research even in GMO-wary jurisdic- tions, such as Japan and Europe, she said. “There is a feeling they should not be treated as a GMO,” Slutsky said. However, critics of biotechnology doubt that consumers will embrace gene edited crops — particularly the health-conscious market segment to which high-fiber wheat is intended to appeal. Fiber is commonly extracted during the manufacturing of white flour, but it’s found in whole wheat, said Bill Freese, science policy ana- lyst for the Center for Food Safety. “Consumers can achieve the same effect — more naturally and safely — by consuming more whole and fewer refined-grain products,” he said in an email. Key information about the high-fi- ber wheat is redacted from Calyxt’s submission to USDA, whereas it would otherwise be shared with the public under the deregulatory pro- cess, Freese said. Without such information, there’s no way to evaluate whether the mod- ification may have unintended side effects, such as “novel carbohydrates that humans haven’t encountered be- fore,” he said.