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November 16, 2018 Foreign guestworker advertising rule may change By DAN WHEAT Capital Press Employers hiring H-2A-vi- sa agricultural and H-2B-visa non-agricultural foreign guest- workers would be required to advertise for domestic work- ers online instead of through print media, according to a rule change proposed by the U.S. Department of Labor on Nov. 8. Currently, employers seek- ing DOL certification to hire H-2A or H-2B workers must publish two print advertise- ments for domestic workers in a newspaper of general circu- lation in the area of intended employment. Lack of response can be cited as need for for- eign workers, but employers must hire any able, willing and qualified domestic workers for those positions during the first half of an H-2A contract. Under the proposed rule change, employers would no longer be required to advertise in print media but would be required to post openings with state workforce agencies, the Chicago National Processing Center and then on a website of their choosing for 14 con- secutive days. The website must be widely used and ap- propriate for use by domestic workers who are likely to ap- ply for the jobs. The proposed change does not alter a requirement for em- ployers to contact, in writing, prior-year domestic workers who completed the season, Employers may wish to com- ment on that during a 30-day comment period that ends Dec. 10, said Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the Na- tional Council of Agricultural Employers, in Washington, D.C. “This is great news and a good start to needed reform for the H-2A visa. NCAE’s advocacy early in the Trump administration has begun to bear fruit,” Marsh said. He said he looks forward to more proposed rule changes from the administration to im- prove H-2A. U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., representing a dis- trict with many tree fruit growers using H-2A work- ers, said modern recruitment practices are long overdue and that it will ease the burden on small farms dealing with scarce labor. Marsh said it will save farmers millions of dollars in print advertising. Farmers could still advertise in print but it would not be required, he said. “Although a grower may spend more than $5,000 on the required print media advertis- ing, it is rare that a potential domestic worker reads the paper and applies for an open position,” he said. The farm labor association WAFLA, in Olympia, provid- ed 15,771 H-2A workers in the West in 2018, 13,848 in Wash- ington. The proposed rule change could save WAFLA and its member growers well over $100,000 per year depending on the cost of online advertis- ing, said Dan Fazio, WAFLA director. “WAFLA member employ- ers spend more than $250,000 every year for print ads and in 10 years of doing this we’ve never had one person respond to an ad,” Fazio said. That’s because, he said, ads are in English language publications because virtually no Spanish publications have Sunday editions. “You have to advertise in publications that have Sun- day editions and in areas that have agricultural workers. You have to advertise in your state and in three surrounding states,” Fazio said. “We support this but there are much bigger H-2A issues, principal among them is wag- es. We really need to bring wages down,” he said. Rule changes can take two years to approve and imple- ment. This change could be approved in the 2019 fiscal year given the 30-day com- ment period, Marsh said. CapitalPress.com USDA rejects biotech blue chrysanthemum request Agency determines the cut flowers could be propagated Idaho water supply outlook Select reservoir storage totals are lower than those of a year ago. Capacity (Thousands of acre-feet) Storage as of Nov. 1 Total capacity basin-wide Upper Snake River Basin 2,469.2 or 119%* 2018 4,577.9 3,475.7 or 167%* 2017 4,577.9 Southside Snake River Basins 2018 1,448.4/95%* 2017 By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI 2,464.7 1,649.7/109%* 2,464.7 Capital Press Chrysanthemums geneti- cally engineered to produce blue flowers cannot be freely imported into the U.S. and traded as non-regulated crops under a new USDA decision. Most requests for non-reg- ulated status for genetically altered crops in recent years have met with approval from the agency’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, so the recent rejection of Sunto- ry Flowers Limited’s appli- cation to import cut flowers is rare. Unlike many of the crops determined not to fall under regulations for genetic en- gineering, the blue chrysan- themums were “clearly reg- ulated articles as they were engineered using plant pest sequences,” said Rick Coker, public affairs specialist with APHIS. Crops that are gene-edit- ed to remove or alter genes without inserting foreign DNA from plant pests don’t come under USDA’s biotech authority. The agency has allowed for the importation of two genetically engineered cut flowers and one fruit under its jurisdiction — baby’s breath, roses and pineapples — because the possibility for propagation in the U.S. was remote, Coker said. “Put another way, the data suggest that if you were to take all four of these and throw them on top of a com- post pile, the only one ca- pable of propagation is the chrysanthemum,” he said in an email. While the chrysanthe- mums in question would be sold as cut flowers, the plant is also a common nursery 5 West Central Basins 2018 1,034/ 99%* 2,047 2017 2,047 *Percent of average annual capacity. Averages based on 1981-2010 reference period. Source: USDA NRCS 1,304/125%* Alan Kenaga/Capital Press El Nino could challenge irrigators next year National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Japan Blue chrysanthemums were developed by Japan’s National Agri- culture and Food Research Organization in cooperation with the Suntory company’s Global Innovation Center. The USDA recently decided that genetically engineered blue chrysanthemums cannot be freely imported and moved within the U.S. as cut flowers. crop in the U.S., with about $200 million in sales of pot- ted chrysanthemums a year, according to USDA data. Coker said the timing of Suntory’s inquiry was “un- fortunate” because APHIS is currently considering revised rules for biotechnology un- der which the blue chrysan- themums “almost certainly would not be regulated.” Suntory, which is based in Japan, is still deliberating on the USDA’s response, in- cluding its offer to consider additional information that could alleviate the agency’s concerns, said Cory Sanchez, the company’s representative in the U.S. “They did leave the door open for us,” he said. It would still technically be possible to import the cut blue chrysanthemum flowers into the U.S. as regulated bio- tech articles, but this would require filing a 180-day no- tice before every shipment, he said. State governments could also impose their own condi- tions on the cut flower ship- ments, complicating their transport, Sanchez said. “That would be really dif- ficult to do,” he said. “It’s not even worth doing business that way.” The Center for Food Safety, which has criticized USDA’s biotech regulations, wonders whether the agen- cy’s approach to the chrysan- themums was influenced by genetically engineered petu- nias, which were imported into the U.S. last year without federal permission. The agency may have re- alized that flowers with nov- el colors are “irresistible” to many enthusiasts, who could then sell pirated versions of the cultivars while violating intellectual property laws, said Marti Crouch, consult- ing scientist for the group. In reality, genetically en- gineered baby’s breath, roses and pineapples were also at risk of propagation, she said. “In all those cases, an enter- prising horticulturist could propagate the plant.” More runoff needed to ensure adequate supplies By BRAD CARLSON Capital Press Idaho reservoirs will need more runoff in 2019 than they did this year for irrigation water supplies to be adequate. The goal is within reach but could be challenged by warmer- and drier-than-normal condi- tions expected for winter and spring. “We will need more runoff this year to have ad- equate supply for the 2019 season,” said Ron Abramov- ich, water supply special- ist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Boise. He spoke at the Idaho Water Supply Outlook conference in Boise Nov. 8. A year ago, water car- ried over in reservoirs from the 2017 irrigation season, thanks to the heavy preced- ing winter, was plentiful and “made for easier planting decisions.” Minimal runoff was needed to ensure ade- quate irrigation supplies. The Boise River Basin in 2019 will need 64 percent of average runoff to have a marginally adequate supply for irrigation, Abramovich said. A year earlier, the ba- sin needed 51 percent. Wa- ter stored in the basin’s three reservoirs is at 101 percent of the long-term average compared to 136 percent a year ago. Water volume in Owyhee Reservoir in southeastern Oregon is 84 percent of av- erage compared to 159 per- cent a year ago. Runoff this year was about 34 percent of average. The Owyhee River Basin in 2019 will need 44 percent of average runoff to have a marginally adequate supply for irrigation, he said. The Upper Snake River Basin in southeast Idaho and Wyoming in 2019 will need runoff that’s 69 percent of average to produce adequate water supplies for irrigation, Abramovich said. Runoff was 127 percent of average this past year. Current res- ervoir levels are 124 percent of normal. The snow line usually is about 500 feet higher during El Nino years, he said. Troy Lindquist, senior hydrologist with the Nation- al Weather Service in Boise, said a majority of models predict an El Nino to develop over the last quarter of 2018. 46-3/103
