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CapitalPress.com
June 8, 2018
ODA weighs seeking $10 million budget increase
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
HOOD RIVER, Ore. —
Oregon’s farm regulators are
contemplating a request to
increase their budget by ap-
proximately $10 million in the
2019-2021 budget cycle.
That amount would rep-
resent a roughly 8.5 percent
boost over the Oregon Depart-
ment of Agriculture’s current
budget of $117 million in the
2017-2019 biennium.
The money would pay for
19 full-time equivalent posi-
tions in ODA’s natural resourc-
es, food safety and market ac-
cess policy areas, as well as its
administration.
The $10 million figure is
tentative and will be refined
over the summer, said Lauren
Henderson, the ODA’s assis-
tant director, during a June 6
meeting in Hood River of the
Oregon Board of Agriculture,
which advises the agency.
About $1.5 million would
be invested in ODA’s infor-
mation technology systems,
including improvements to se-
curity, he said.
“We’re struggling to keep
up with the threats we get ev-
ery day,” Henderson said.
More than $1 million
would go to replacing labora-
tory equipment in ODA’s food
safety program, which “gets
used a lot and wears out,” he
said.
An unspecified amount
of money for cannabis test-
ing would be derived from
the state’s cannabis tax funds,
which are “oversubscribed,”
he said.
Another major expenditure
would be $1.7 million for three
full-time positions in the “stra-
tegic implementation area”
program for agricultural water
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
The Oregon Board of Agriculture meets June 6 in Hood River. The
Oregon Department of Agriculture, which is advised by the board,
may ask for an increase of $10 million to its budget in the 2019-
2021 biennium.
quality, which seeks to reduce
farm-related runoff and other-
wise improve water quality in
specific watersheds each year.
About $375,000 would
be dedicated to establishing a
position that would coordinate
international marketing of Or-
egon farm goods.
In the short and medium
terms, Japan will continue to
be a major export destination,
said Alexis Taylor, ODA’s di-
rector, who is soon leading a
trade mission to that country.
However, Japan’s popula-
tion is aging — likely corre-
sponding with declining food
demand — which means Or-
egon should seek new oppor-
tunities in China and Southeast
Asia, she said.
Another $250,000 would
go to promotion and branding
activities beyond the “staff and
rent” expenses that consume
most of the ODA’s market ac-
cess funds, Henderson said.
In the policy arena, ODA
is considering asking for new
tools that would help the agen-
cy recoup food safety inspec-
tion fees, said Lisa Hanson, the
agency’s deputy director.
About 600 entities consis-
tently fail to pay inspection
fees, which translates into
about $135,000 in missing
food safety funds, she said.
The problem mostly per-
tains to retail outlets, such
as small grocery and conve-
nience stores, Hanson said.
The ODA continues to in-
spect these facilities to protect
public safety but is currently
limited to issuing civil penal-
ties, which are often also ig-
nored, Hanson said.
Exactly what new tools the
agency may need will be dis-
cussed before next year’s leg-
islative session, she said.
The agency is also contem-
plating “strategic fee increas-
es” in its programs for food
safety, confined animal feed-
ing operations and weights
and measures, she said.
“We’re still working on the
numbers,” Hanson said, add-
ing that specifics will depend
on how much is available in
the general fund budget. “It
will be in flux throughout the
process.”
Drought declared in fourth Oregon county
Lake County
latest to receive
emergency
declaration
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Drought continues to
spread across vast portions
of southern and eastern Or-
egon, with Lake County the
latest to receive an emer-
gency declaration from Gov.
Kate Brown.
“Forecasts are predicting
severe drought and wild-
fire conditions for much of
Oregon,” Brown said in a
statement. “The conditions
in Lake County are already
concerning, and I’m direct-
ing state agencies to priori-
tize assistance in the area to
help minimize the impacts
drought conditions could
have on the local economy.”
Drought has also been
declared in Klamath, Grant
and Harney counties. Rac-
quel Rancier, a spokeswom-
an for the Oregon Water
Resources Department, said
no other applications are
currently pending.
The Lake County Board
of Commissioners request-
Associated Press File
The Oregon governor has issued a drought declaration in a fourth
county.
ed drought relief in March,
citing below average pre-
cipitation and inconsis-
tent water storage, ranging
from 51 percent of normal
at Cottonwood Reservoir
to 114 percent of normal at
Drews Reservoir.
Approximately 45,000
acres of irrigated farmland
were expected to run out of
stored water between April
and May, and 147,000 out-
lying acres were also expect-
ed to run out of water around
the same time, according to
the county’s drought resolu-
tion.
“Many longtime Lake
County farmers and ranchers
have commented that they
have not seen water condi-
tions this severe since 2015,”
the county resolution states.
As of May 30, snow-
pack has entirely melted in
the Lake County and Goose
Lake basins. The U.S.
Drought Monitor shows
nearly all of southern and
eastern Oregon in some
stage of drought, from ab-
normally dry to severe con-
ditions.
The National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration’s Climate Prediction
Center also forecasts Ore-
gon will be hotter and dri-
er than normal for the next
three months, exacerbating
drought statewide.
“The Lake County Board
of Commissioners deter-
mines that extraordinary
measures must be taken to
alleviate suffering of people
and livestock and to protect
or mitigate economic loss,
and to be responsive to the
threat of wildfires,” the res-
olution continues.
The governor’s drought
declaration gives water
managers some increased
flexibility to assist pro-
ducers on the ground, such
as emergency water use
permits, water exchanges,
substitutions and in-stream
leases.
PNW pear growers look to ‘good, full crop’
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
PORTLAND — Pacific Northwest
pear growers anticipate an average crop
this year of 18.8 million, 44-pound boxes
after lighter crops four years in a row.
Growers produced a record 21.69 mil-
lion boxes of pears in 2013 but every year
since then the yield has been much lighter.
Hot weather causing fruit drop and con-
tributing to decay called cork is at least
partially responsible for the lighter crops.
The 18,855,900-box estimate is just
58,345 boxes less than the five-year aver-
age of 18,914,245 boxes. It is 18 percent
bigger than the 2017 crop, which will soon
finish sales at close to 15.9 million boxes.
“I like that this looks like a good, full
crop. Not record by any means, there should
be plenty of promotable fruit for export and
domestic markets if this forecast holds,”
said Kevin Moffitt, president of The Pear
Bureau Northwest in Portland.
That can be a big if. A 17.6-million-box
crop was forecast a year ago. It grew to an
18.3-million-box forecast on Aug. 22 but
has dropped 13 percent since then.
That’s a much larger shrink than most
years, Moffitt said. Beside an increase in
cork, about 150,000 boxes of pears were
lost in an October fire at Underwood Fruit
in Bingen, Wash., near Hood River, Ore.
The Pear Bureau is the Northwest’s
fresh pear industry promotional arm and
gave the forecast on May 31, the second
day of its annual meeting in Portland.
The forecast will be updated in mid-Au-
gust. Right now, the breakdown by growing
district is: Wenatchee, 8.6 million boxes;
Hood River, 7 million; Yakima, 2.4 million;
and Medford, 751,200 boxes.
The top volumes by variety will be: 9.3
million boxes of d’ Anjou, up 10 percent
from 2017; 4.5 million of Green Bartlett,
up 24 percent; 3.1 million of Bosc, up 42
percent; 1 million of Red d’Anjou, up 7 per-
cent; and 309,100 boxes of Starkrimson, up
20 percent.
The percentage jump in Bosc is large
because it was short last year, Moffitt said.
Organic pears are expected to total 1.6
million boxes, up from 1.2 million last year.
“There’s been more and more transi-
tion. It takes three years to transition from
conventional to organic. Demand has been
growing and our supply is behind demand,”
Moffitt said.
Harvest is forecast to start with Starkrim-
son in Hood River on Aug. 3 and will finish
in late September or early October in higher
elevations of Hood River and Leavenworth
at the upper end of the Wenatchee Valley.
The Pear Bureau renewed grower as-
sessments at 38.5 cents per box for pro-
motions and 3.3 cents for Pear Bureau
administration and funding the Northwest
Horticultural Council. It increased research
assessments from 3.1 to 4.5 cents per box.
The preliminary domestic and foreign
promotions budget will be about $6.9 mil-
lion, up $500,000 from the preliminary
spending plan approved a year ago. Of that,
$5.7 million is for domestic promotions and
$1.2 million for export promotions. Some
$2.8 million from the USDA Market Ac-
cess Program is expected to bring export
promotions up to $4 million and the total
budget up to $9.8 million.
The 2017 crop was 94.45 percent
shipped as of June 1 versus 93.78 percent
of the crop shipped a year ago. About
883,000 boxes remained to be sold versus
1.1 million a year ago.
Port of Seattle
The container ship Benjamin Franklin calls at the Port of Seattle. Ag-
riculture groups are worried that the Trump administration’s decision
to increase tariffs on some commodities such as steel and aluminum
will result in higher tariffs for their crops and products overseas.
Concerns over U.S.
tariffs continue to grow
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The Trump administration
says it’s hitting Mexico, Can-
ada and the EU with tariffs on
steel and aluminum, just days
after it decided to move ahead
with tariffs on $50 billion
worth of imports from China.
Those countries had re-
ceived temporary exemptions
from the 25 percent tariff on
imported steel and 10 percent
tariff on imported aluminum
implemented in March. They
contend the tariffs are unjus-
tified protectionist measures
and promise to respond in
kind, leaving U.S. agriculture
to fear retaliation.
The concern for agricul-
ture is the consequences of
the administration’s “back-
and-forth tariff regime,” Dave
Salmonsen, senior director
of congressional relations for
American Farm Bureau Fed-
eration, said.
“We’re never happy when
we have retaliation on U.S.
exports,” he said.
While Canada has not re-
leased details of its response,
Mexican officials released a
statement saying retaliatory
tariffs will be placed on U.S.
pork, sausages, cheeses, ap-
ples, grapes, blueberries and
food preparations.
EU officials have released
a 10-page list of U.S. products
to target, including sweet corn,
rice, kidney beans, cranberries,
orange juice, whiskey and to-
bacco.
Lost exports will go down
the chain to impact prices to
farmers, Salmonsen said.
Hopefully, the U.S. and
those countries can come to
agreements to avoid retaliatory
tariffs, he said.
National Pork Producers
Council said the industry has
already suffered considerable
losses in the trade dispute
with China and the steel and
aluminum tariffs significantly
heighten producers’ concerns.
Mexico is the largest export
market for U.S. pork — $1.5
billion in 2017 — and it is al-
ready threatening to retaliate
against U.S. pork. Canada is
the fourth-largest market, with
$792 million in sales last year,
NPPC stated.
“The market disruption
caused by export market un-
certainty comes at a time when
U.S. pork is expanding pro-
duction to record levels,” Jim
Heimerl, NPPC president, said
in a statement to the press.
Pork exports accounted for
more than $53 of the average
$149 value of a hog last year
and support 110,000 U.S. jobs.
It’s one of the nation’s most
competitive export products
and favorably impacts U.S.
trade imbalance, he said.
“We call for an end to these
trade disputes…,” he said.
National Corn Growers As-
sociation is urging policymak-
ers to strengthen cooperation
with U.S. trading partners and
stay at the negotiating table.
“Imposing tariffs has
the potential to undermine
positive relationships with
our closest allies and erode
long-standing market access,”
Kevin Skunes, NCGA presi-
dent, said in a statement.
With a 52 percent drop in
net farm income over the last
five years and depressed com-
modity prices, this is not the
time to face such a burden, he
said.
“This uncertainty impacts
every step of the agriculture
economy, from securing fi-
nancing to marketing,” he
said.
Washington dairies present ‘biggest issue’ at CAFO appeal
Capital Press
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late addition by the Washing-
ton Department of Ecology last
year to manure-storage rules
blindsided dairies and threatens
to bankrupt some, an industry
official told an appeals board
Tuesday.
The rule increases the dis-
tance that manure in lagoons
LEGAL
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By DON JENKINS
must be from groundwater, by
several feet in some cases.
As a result, many lagoons,
particularly in Western Wash-
ington, are out of line with Ecol-
ogy’s standards, testified Dan
Wood, executive director of the
Washington State Dairy Feder-
ation.
“Our experience is that when
agencies, such as Ecology, label
something as ‘deficient,’ that’s
not the end of the conversation,”
Wood said. “I think this is prob-
ably the biggest issue in this ap-
peal.”
Ecology’s new rules for con-
fined animal feeding operations
particularly affect the state’s 230
dairies with 200 or more cows.
The dairy federation and Wash-
ington Farm Bureau are appeal-
ing aspects of the rules to the Pol-
lution Control Hearings Board.
The board is simultaneously
hearing complaints from envi-
ronmental groups that the rules
are too lax to protect surface
water and groundwater. The
hearing, expected to wrap up
this week, is likely to be a step
toward further court challenges.
Ecology’s standard for sep-
arating stored manure from
groundwater departs from Nat-
ural Resources Conservation
Service standards.
NRCS calls for at least 2 feet
between the top of clay lagoon
liners and groundwater. In the
final rules, Ecology set the min-
imum separation from the bot-
tom of the liner.
Wood said that bringing a la-
goon into compliance could cost
hundreds of thousands of dollars
and that he’s heard from dairy-
men who say that could drive
them out of business. “This is a
major cost concern for a lot of
producers,” he said.
Ecology had not included
the requirement in preliminary
written proposals, or mentioned
it in meetings, Wood said.
The federation didn’t have
a chance to comment, and its
officials didn’t pick up on the
departure from NRCS standards
until farmers brought it to their
attention, Wood said.
“Our first reaction was they
(farmers) were misreading it,”
he said. “We looked. Yes, in-
deed, it was there.”
Also Tuesday, Washington
State University animal science
professor Joe Harrison testified
that testing groundwater at dair-
ies was not needed, disputing
a chief complaint by environ-
mental groups that Ecology was
negligent in not requiring moni-
toring wells.
Harrison, a longtime adviser
to the dairy industry, said stan-
dard manure-handling practices,
checked by fall soil tests, safe-
guard water,
“Those collectively, as a
suite of practices, are protective
of groundwater,” Harrison said.
Harrison acknowledged un-
der cross-examination by envi-
ronmental attorney Charlie Teb-
butt that testing groundwater was
the only way to be absolutely
sure it isn’t polluted.