September 21, 2018
CapitalPress.com
13
Ag labor bill sits in wings
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
Port of Seattle
Farm groups say more tariffs will hurt them as the trade war
continues.
Trade concerns deepen
with additional tariffs
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
President
Donald
Trump’s escalation of trade
tensions with China is un-
welcome news in farm
country, where producers
are already feeling the neg-
ative impacts of his first
round of tariffs on U.S. trad-
ing partners.
On Monday, Trump an-
nounced additional tariffs on
$200 billion of imports from
the Asian nation, upping the
ante on the 25 percent tariff
on $50 billion of Chinese
goods implemented in June.
Those tariffs drew retal-
iatory tariffs on $60 billion
of U.S. goods, primarily
targeting U.S. agricultural
exports.
The new 10 percent tar-
iff goes into effect Sept. 24
and will increase to 25 per-
cent on Jan. 1. In addition,
Trump said he will add tar-
iffs on $267 billion of Chi-
nese goods if China again
retaliates.
Groups representing ag-
riculture in support of free
trade were quick to issue
statements in response.
National Farmers Union
said it has consistently
expressed concern about
Trump’s “imprudent and an-
tagonistic” approach to trade
negotiations and the need
for long-term solutions.
“China has unquestion-
ably engaged in unfair and
manipulative trade behavior
for many years,” Rob Lar-
ew, NFU vice president of
public policy and communi-
cations, said.
NFU agrees with Pres-
ident Trump’s effort to
address these actions but
strongly disagrees with his
go-it-alone approach, he
said.
“We believe he would be
more successful in achiev-
ing fundamental reforms in
China’s trading tactics by
leading the rest of the world
in a united front,” he said.
The
administration’s
current strategy has created
serious and potentially irre-
vocable problems for Amer-
ican farmers and ranchers.
The loss of export markets
and severely depressed
commodity prices cost
wheat, soy, and corn grow-
ers $13 billion in June alone,
he said.
“Yesterday’s announce-
ment to escalate tensions
further will undoubtedly
cost them billions more in
the years to come,” he said.
Americans for Farm-
ers and Families said while
several of Trump’s policies
have benefited the U.S.,
additional tariffs increase
existing uncertainties across
rural communities.
“As trade tensions esca-
late, and our ability to sell
our goods to major markets
diminishes, we’re having
to make long-term business
decisions that could affect
our farms for generations,”
Casey Guernsey, a sev-
enth-generation farmer and
AFF spokesman, said.
Many family farmers
are canceling new projects,
selling their equipment and
livestock, and even thinking
about closing their opera-
tions entirely, he said.
“With farm income down
more than 50 percent over
the past five years, what we
need now more than ever is
the ability to sell our home-
grown products around the
globe,” he said.
Farmers for Free Trade
said while trade issues need
to be addressed, tariffs ar-
en’t the answer.
This escalation will con-
tinue to squeeze American
businesses with higher input
costs and American farmers
with decreasing commodi-
ty values, Jonathan Gold, a
spokesman for FFT’s Tariffs
Hurt the Heartland initia-
tive, said.
“Our goal is to get the ad-
ministration to end the trade
war and return to creating
opportunity through trade
for American businesses,
farmers and workers,” he
said.
Treasured Sunrise Acres
dairy goes goat-only
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Treasured Sunrise Acres,
since late April a solely goat-
sourced dairy after selling its
Jersey cows, is growing its
revenue — from milk and
from a non-GMO feed grain
venture.
The Parma, Idaho, busi-
ness sells goat milk and its
own formulation of feed.
Milk and feed segments con-
tinue to grow strongly, large-
ly on consumers’ increased
interest in healthy foods,
owner Debra Jantzi said.
“The grain business was
started last year, in the sum-
mer, and after we sold the
cows, we had time to devote
to it,” she said. “So it started
really expanding.”
The feed mix is con-
sumed by the goats on-site
or sold to small-scale owners
of animals and chickens, and
to breeders. The business is
building a larger grain mixer.
Annual revenue from
goat milk increased each
year since the business was
certified to sell raw milk in
2010, Jantzi said. “And we
are seeing a huge expansion
in goat-milk demand.”
More consumers buy
goat’s milk for health reasons
lately, including some who
are allergic to cow’s milk,
she said. “It is a very broad
customer base that buys goat
milk in Idaho.”
Jantzi and her nine chil-
dren founded Treasured Sun-
rise Acres. Expansion has
been a consistent theme.
Before they sold about
eight Jersey milking cows
and seven replacement heif-
ers earlier this year, they
were raising additional re-
placement goats. Recently
they have been grazing 158
goats. In mid-September,
with kidding in full swing —
the business sells some of its
baby goats — headcount was
around 170.
Treasured Sunrise has
plenty of room to expand
the goat herd and will do so
as demand warrants, Jantzi
said. The business offers raw
and pasteurized goat milk.
The Jantzis started the
business on a leased Fruit-
land site of six acres but soon
moved to 53 irrigated acres
off U.S. 95 in Parma. There,
they increased the barn’s
square footage by around
50 percent, adding milk pro-
cessing and storage areas as
well as an office. Outside,
they added pasture, fencing
and other improvements.
Jantzi took out two USDA
Farm Service Agency loans,
one for the property purchase
and the other for improve-
ments. Financing totaled
$300,000.
An agricultural labor
bill that divided agricultural
groups and failed to get a vote
in the U.S. House in July, may
not receive a vote before the
end of the year.
The Ag and Legal Work-
force Act, HR 6417, would
replace the H-2A-visa guest-
worker program with a less
costly H-2C program but
would impose mandatory
E-verify (electronic verifica-
tion of employment eligibil-
ity) and require illegal immi-
grants currently in the U.S. to
leave the country, get H-2C
visas and come back in on the
visa.
“The House is in recess
this week, back next week
and the bill is not on the cal-
endar for a vote next week,”
said Michael Marsh, president
and CEO of National Council
for Agricultural Employers in
Washington, D.C. The council
is neutral on the bill and seek-
ing to improve it.
House leadership will de-
termine if there are enough
votes to pass the bill in the
few weeks of lame duck ses-
sion after the Nov. 6 congres-
sional election, Marsh said.
Proponents hoped to have 180
sponsors by Labor Day and
have 110, he said. There’s no
companion bill in the Senate,
the bill needs 60 votes to pass
the Senate and “my guess is
that it’s probably a non-start-
er” there because it contains
mandatory E-verify and no
fix for DACA (Deferred Ac-
tion for Childhood Arrivals),
Capital Press File
Farmworkers harvest wine grapes in a vineyard near Caldwell, Idaho. A U.S. House bill to address
farm labor shortages remains in doubt after failing to get a vote in July.
Marsh said.
In July, Western Grow-
ers Association, Irvine, Ca-
lif., and the California Farm
Bureau Federation lobbied
strongly against HR 6417,
saying E-verify could dev-
astate California’s ag labor
workforce without better tran-
sition to legal status for the 50
to 70 percent of illegal immi-
grant workers. California has
more ag workers than any oth-
er state and the most labor-in-
tensive crops.
Since July, NCAE, U.S.
Apple Association, National
Council of Farmer Coopera-
tives, Western Growers and
CFBF have been working with
House Judiciary Committee
staff to improve the bill, Marsh
said.
Discussions continue to find
a better transition to legal status
and reduce or eliminate a cap
on the number of H-2C work-
ers allowed, he said.
Progress has been made
with two studies pegging the
number of farmworkers in the
U.S. at 2.5 million to 2.7 mil-
lion, he said. That helps identi-
fy the scope of the problem and
the need for a transition to legal
status that doesn’t threaten the
workforce, he said.
“We are not currently work-
ing to improve the bill. We
have made numerous attempts
to improve the bill throughout
the process, without success,”
said Cory Lunde, Western
Growers spokesman. “We
don’t foresee a scenario where
the bill moves anytime soon.”
Dave
Kranz,
CFBF
spokesman, said the feder-
ation continues to talk with
California members of Con-
gress and the Judiciary Com-
mittee on improvements but
hasn’t seen much regarding
workforce transition to legal
status. There might be an at-
tempt to vote on the bill after
the election, he said.
The American Farm Bu-
reau Federation, the Wash-
ington farm labor association
WAFLA and more than 200
agricultural groups support
the bill.
$1M donation goes to new WSU pollinator center
Two alumni have donated
$1 million toward Washington
State University’s goal of es-
tablishing a pollinator center.
Ken and Sue Christianson’s
donation will help build the
WSU Honey Bee and Polli-
nator Research Facility on the
campus in Pullman.
“A large proportion of seed
crops rely on bees for polli-
nation,” retired seed grower
Ken Christianson stated in a
press release. “The WSU bee
program really resonated with
both my wife and I because the
work they do is so essential to
the future of agriculture.”
The university is rais-
ing $15 million for the
15,330-square-foot facility, in-
cluding demonstration gardens
and a rain garden. Visitors will
be able to watch WSU bees
and researchers working.
“It’s really gratifying that
the Christiansons see and un-
derstand the pioneering work
that we are conducting,” WSU
entomology professor Steve
Sheppard, head of the WSU
bee program, said. “When we
are able to build this facility,
we will greatly increase our
capacity to conduct research
WSU
Washington State University President Kirk Schulz, retired seed growers Ken and Sue Christian-
son and College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences Dean André-Denis Wright
celebrate the Christiansons’ $1 million donation toward establishing a pollinator research center at a
recent football game.
on honeybees and other polli-
nators at WSU.”
“The world’s food supply
is in grave danger without a
healthy pollinator popula-
tion and we need the center
to help save bees around
the world,” André-Denis
Wright, dean of WSU’s Col-
lege of Agricultural, Hu-
man and Natural Resource
Sciences, said. “Once con-
structed, this state-of-the-art
facility will enable WSU’s
excellent pollinator research
program to be on the lead-
ing edge of innovation and
discovery in a field of study
that affected everybody
around the globe.”
The Christiansons are WSU
alumni. He has an agronomy
degree and she has a food sci-
ence degree.
Hazelnut industry aims to inspire culinary uses
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Representatives of food
manufacturers and food ser-
vice companies recently at-
tended a tour of Oregon’s
hazelnut industry intended to
inspire new culinary uses for
the crop.
The Sept. 13 tour was or-
ganized by the Oregon Ha-
zelnut Marketing Board and
included stops at a hazelnut
orchard and a processing
plant, followed by a hazelnut
cooking session at Oregon
State University’s Food Inno-
vation Center in Portland.
The ultimate goal is to
have consumers encounter
more hazelnuts in new con-
texts, hopefully driving con-
sumption of the staple Ore-
gon crop, whose production
is expected rise significantly
in coming years, said Patrick
Gabrish, vice president of
sales and marketing for the
Hazelnut Growers of Oregon
cooperative.
“If you enjoy the product
in one format, you’re more
likely to enjoy it in more for-
mats,” Gabrish said.
Oregon is the country’s top
hazelnut producer, with about
70,000 acres of orchards in
the ground and thousands
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Naomi Inman, left, public relations director for the Northwest
Hazelnut Co., joins other participants in cooking with hazelnuts
at Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center in Portland.
Food manufacturers and food service companies recently toured
Oregon’s hazelnut industry, including an orchard and processing
plant.
more planted each year. Much
of that acreage isn’t yet of
bearing age, which means the
industry is anticipating tre-
mendous growth.
China, which has tradi-
tionally consumed roughly
60 percent of Oregon’s crop,
can’t absorb all the new pro-
duction and so the industry
needs to create a stable do-
mestic market, Gabrish said.
With so many of Oregon’s
hazelnuts going overseas, the
industry hasn’t had the oppor-
tunity to familiarize U.S. con-
sumers with new uses for the
crop as it will in the next few
years, he said.
Fortunately, modern chefs
and food makers aren’t as
constrained by what distrib-
utors provide as they were
in years past — they come
from a generation that’s ac-
customed to doing its own
research and tracking down
ingredients, Gabrish said.
Part of the solution will
fall to processors, who must
provide hazelnut ingredients
in packages that are well suit-
ed to individual companies,
he said. For example, restau-
rants won’t want the indus-
trial-scale pails of hazelnut
butter that manufacturers use.
Consumers often see ha-
zelnuts in confectionery
goods, but one new product
developed by the Northwest
Hazelnut Co. takes the crop in
a different direction.
The processor teamed up
with Esotico, an artisan food
company in Silverton, Ore., to
create a hazelnut pasta based
on Italian recipes.
Esotico has sold the pasta
at farmers’ markets and it’s
attracting new customers,
which will hopefully inspire
others to find innovative uses
for hazelnuts, said Naomi In-
man, public relations director
for the Northwest Hazelnut
Co.
Aside from imparting a
unique flavor, the hazelnuts
boost the pasta’s protein con-
tent to 11 grams per serving,
she said.
“We’re hoping other man-
ufacturers — especially large
ones — catch on to savory
uses for hazelnuts,” Inman
said.