August 24, 2018
Landowners can
refile complaint
against neighbors
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Capital Press
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
A racketeering lawsuit over
marijuana production has
been dismissed but the Ore-
gon landowners will be able to
refile an amended complaint
against their neighbors.
expenses for firearms, fenc-
ing, gates, and security cam-
eras.”
Such costs arise from
an alleged personal injury
that’s not covered by RICO
“because those losses are
derivative of their emotional
distress and not a property
interest recognized under
Oregon law,” McShane said.
The reduction in the
plaintiffs’ property values is
speculative, since they ha-
ven’t shown any attempt to
“rent, sell or otherwise mon-
etize their property inter-
ests,” rendering the alleged
harm “abstract” and uncom-
pensable under RICO, he
said.
However, the judge will
allow the landowners to
amend their complaint to
make such a claim “in good
faith” and he agreed that the
marijuana operation was a
plausible cause of any al-
leged reduction in property
value.
“If plaintiffs cannot sue
to vindicate the federal drug
laws and recover for any
compensable injuries, it is
difficult to imagine a person
who could,” McShane said.
Capital Press was unable
to reach the plaintiffs’ at-
torney, Rachel McCart, for
comment.
Alex Tinker, attorney for
the defendants, called the
ruling “a very well reasoned
opinion” that recognized the
facts don’t allow for a RICO
case to move forward in the
9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals.
Faced with an indus-
try-wide labor shortage, Dia-
mond Fruit Growers in Hood
River, Ore., is turning to
cameras to sort shipments of
fresh pears, a job previously
reserved for the trained eye of
humans.
The 105-year-old farmers’
cooperative recently installed
a new optical sorting line —
the first of its kind, specially
designed for pears — which
is now up and running just
in time for this year’s harvest
across the Hood River Valley.
Optical sorters are wide-
ly used in food processing,
though the technology has
been slow to adapt to pears.
Most sorters roll the fruit
along a conveyor past camer-
as, but unlike apples and cher-
ries, pears are not perfectly
round and cannot roll as easily
without scuffing.
This system, engineered
by the Italian company
Unitec, instead flips the pears
gently and automatically from
one side onto the other, min-
imizing damage while still
allowing cameras to capture
the entire fruit. A software
program then sorts pears into
large 1,100-pound bins based
on their size and grade.
David Garcia, president
and CEO of Diamond Fruit
Growers, said the $7.5 million
machine will replace two out-
George Plaven/Capital Press
David Garcia, president of Diamond Fruit Growers in Hood River,
Ore., shows a new optic sorting line designed specifically for pears,
installed at the co-op’s processing facility earlier this year.
dated sorting lines at the main
plant in Odell, and in nearby
Parkdale. Angelo Benedetti,
CEO of Unitec, was on hand
to cut the ribbon July 16, and
after weeks of testing, the line
began sorting freshly picked
pears on Aug. 10.
“So far, it’s doing what we
hoped it to do,” Garcia said.
Labor was a major factor
in the switch, Garcia said,
as the co-op struggled to fill
shifts amid a declining work-
force.
“Often, we were only able
to run two of our three pack-
ing lines consistently,” he
said.
Not only was labor tight,
but Garcia said the old sorting
lines had been converted from
handling potatoes, and were
rough on pears. He estimat-
ed 4-5 percent shrinkage, or
lost product, damaged by the
equipment.
Diamond Fruit Growers is
one of the largest shippers of
fresh pears in North America,
with 2 million boxes annually,
but between labor concerns
and shrinkage, Garcia said they
knew they needed to be proac-
tive or risk losing volume.
“That wasn’t going to be
an option for us,” he said.
Garcia said they reached
out to two companies in Eu-
rope, including Unitec in Italy
and Greefa, a manufactur-
er based in the Netherlands.
Greefa had created an apple
line modified for pears, while
Unitec wanted to build an en-
tirely new system, from start
to finish.
In the end, Garcia said they
agreed it was time for pears to
have a line of their own.
“We saw the future, and
we said, ‘Let’s make the in-
vestment,’” he said.
It took Unitec three years
to design, and the line was
finally shipped to Oregon in
April. Assembly is nearly fin-
ished, though Garcia said they
are still working out the last
few bugs.
The massive 18-lane siz-
er whirs to life in an instant,
carrying bright green Bartlett
pears along an automated
conveyor and loading 100
bins per hour. What used to
take 70-75 employees to fill a
shift now takes just 15, shift-
ing more workers to where
they are needed on the pack-
ing lines.
“Labor will continue to be
a stress for agriculture,” he
said. “We will need to contin-
ue to invest in technology that
will enable us to handle our
volumes with less people. Be-
cause they are just not going
to be there.”
Diamond Fruit Growers
represents 85 pear and cher-
ry growers in the Hood Riv-
er Valley, farming more than
6,000 acres.
Garcia said he is getting
calls every day from members
curious to know when the new
line is ready.
Organic farms scramble to replace certifier
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The discontinuation of
Stellar organic certification
due to compliance problems
with USDA has some farmers
scrambling to find a replace-
ment certifier to maintain
their organic status.
Stellar Certification Ser-
vices began certifying organic
farms about 16 years ago and
most recently served as the
certifier for about 200 farms
in 29 states, according to
USDA records.
The company shared a
certification staff with Deme-
ter USA of Philomath, Ore.,
which certifies farms as “bio-
dynamic” — an ecological-
ly-oriented system of alterna-
tive agriculture.
Stellar shut down certi-
fication services at the end
of July, which means that its
clients have until Sept. 30 to
find a new certifier, who will
then review their organic sys-
tem plans and conduct inspec-
tions.
A year ago, Stellar brought
in two auditors to review its
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operations, identifying prob-
lems the company had since
sought to correct, said Eliza-
beth Candelario, president of
Demeter USA.
One of the company’s cli-
ents filed a complaint with
“false and misleading” allega-
tions to USDA’s National Or-
ganic Program, which Stellar
denied, she said.
Nonetheless, the compa-
ny did disclose that “quality
systems” related to policies,
procedures and recordkeeping
were out of compliance with
USDA standards, Candelario
said. For example, the compa-
ny hadn’t maintained proper
confidentiality of certain re-
cords.
The USDA sent notice
that it planned to suspend or
revoke Stellar’s status as an
organic certifier, which con-
vinced the company to surren-
der its accreditation and stop
operating, she said.
Stellar is sorry for the in-
convenience to its clients and
has sought to make the tran-
sition easier by connecting
them with other certifiers, she
said.
Farmers who used Stel-
lar were able to obtain two
certifications — organic and
biodynamic — for the price
of one, but the downside was
that Demeter USA was ef-
fectively in competition with
organic certifiers, Candelario
said.
With Stellar no longer op-
erating, Demeter USA plans to
work with four to five organ-
ic certifiers who can provide
a “dual inspection,” she said.
“Now that we’re not compet-
ing with them, it’s going to be
a lot easier to have those col-
laborative partnerships.”
Re-applying for new or-
ganic certification took “a
lot of work” shortly before
harvest is to begin at Cooper
Mountain Vineyards, a winery
in Beaverton, Ore., said Gilles
de Domingo, its winemaker.
“It was a mess,” he said.
Dropping organic certifi-
cation wasn’t an option be-
cause the company wants to
support the organic cause and
because it already has labels
printed identifying the wine
as organic, de Domingo said.
Oakhill Organics, a farm
near McMinnville, Ore., was
certified by Stellar but is now
leaning toward allowing its
organic certification to expire
until next year.
Submitting a new organ-
ic system plan and getting a
new inspection doesn’t seem
worthwhile just to maintain
organic status for the final
two months of the growing
season, said Casey Kulla, the
farm’s owner.
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34-3/102
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
A federal judge has dis-
missed a racketeering law-
suit filed by Oregon land-
owners against neighbors
who allegedly produce mar-
ijuana but the plaintiffs can
refile their complaint.
Last year, several peo-
ple filed a lawsuit accusing
neighboring property own-
ers near Lebanon, Ore., of
growing marijuana in viola-
tion of the Racketeer Influ-
ence and Corrupt Organiza-
tion Act.
U.S. District Judge Mi-
chael McShane has now
ruled that the injuries al-
leged by the plaintiffs, in-
cluding unpleasant noises,
foul odors and reduced
property values, aren’t the
kind that can be compensat-
ed under RICO.
The 10 plaintiffs — Rob-
ert Ainsworth and Tami
Ainsworth, Karl and Lu-
cinda Frink, Gordon and
Elaine Griswold, John and
Linda Lindsey and Wil-
liam and Suzanne Whitak-
er — claimed they’d been
adversely affected by a
“persistent stench,” traffic,
greenhouse fans and guard
dogs.
According to the com-
plaint, because marijuana
remains illegal under federal
law regardless of its legal-
ization in Oregon, RICO
has been violated by the
defendants: Mark Owenby,
Michelle Page, Jenny Silvei-
ra, Howard Brown, William
Templeton, Elisha Temple-
ton and Bryan Philp.
Whether or not the mar-
ijuana is still grown at the
site is a point of dispute —
the defendants say it’s hasn’t
operated since October 2017
while plaintiffs claim it’s
still functional.
Though the judge found
that the plaintiffs have con-
stitutional standing to file
the lawsuit, he has decided
that diminished “use and
enjoyment” doesn’t qualify
as an “injury to property”
under RICO, even consid-
ering their “out-of-pocket
Oregon co-op launches first
optical sorting line for pears
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PURSUANT TO ORS
CHAPTER 98
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be held at 10:00am by
B.C TOWING INC
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2017 NISSAN VERSA 4DR
VIN = 3N1CN7AP1HL807292
Amount due on lien $5,540.00
Reputed owner(s)
JERRY WAYNE MONTGOMERY JR
SANTANDER CONSUMER USA
34-2-3/999
Marijuana racketeering
case dismissed for now
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