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6 CapitalPress.com Editorials are written by or approved by members of the Capital Press Editorial Board. November 16, 2018 All other commentary pieces are the opinions of the authors but not necessarily this newspaper. Opinion Editorial Board Editor & Publisher Managing Editor Joe Beach Carl Sampson opinions@capitalpress.com Online: www.capitalpress.com/opinion O ur V iew House Ag Committee will be in good hands A s Democrats are poised to take over the House of Representatives in January, farmers and ranchers can breathe a little easier knowing that the House Ag Committee is in steady hands. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., is the ranking minority member of the committee and is presumed to be its chairman come January. He began serving on the committee in 2005. He served as chairman when Democrats last held control of the House from 2007 through 2010. He grew up on a farm in Minnesota and worked as an accountant before he began serving in Congress in 1991. Peterson represents a relatively conservative district covering most of the western half of Minnesota. It’s largely a rural district that has voted for the Republican in the last five presidential elections. It’s home to wheat, sugar beet, dairy and livestock operations. Peterson is said by many media outlets to be the most conservative Democrat in the House. While that’s a relative comparison, his past voting record supports the claim. Peterson has supported a Constitutional amendment to protect the flag. He supports gun rights, earning an A-plus Courtesy House Ag Committee Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn. rating and an endorsement in last week’s election from the National Rifle Association. But more important to agriculture, Peterson is against excessive environmental regulations because they hurt farmers. As an example, he has supported legislation to take the grey wolf off the Endangered Species List. He opposed the expansion of the definition of “waters of the United States by the EPA and the Corps of Engineers. “The EPA, unfortunately, does not seem to understand how their proposed regulations would actually impact farmers and ranchers,” he said in 2015. “While the intent of the interpretive rule was to provide some clarity, it only creates more confusion and red tape.” Peterson is a proponent for providing farmers with a strong safety net. He supports elimination of the federal estate tax and tort reform. Over the years we’ve been impressed by his work in moving previous farm bills through Congress. He wants to get the next bill passed even before the Democrats take over in January. He’s a known quantity and seems to be aligned with farmers on nearly every important ag issue. We’ve not seen Peterson act as a partisan in his work on the committee. We don’t think either party could find a better member of Congress to be in charge of the committee. U.S. ag remains strong despite natural disasters O ur V iew Last week’s election underscores urban-rural divide M By ROBERT GIBLIN American Farm Bureau E.J. Harris/EO Media Group A voter drops off a ballot in the drop box at the Umatilla County Courthouse in Pendleton, Ore., on Nov. 6. T he urban-rural divide is not just a “divide.” It is a widening chasm, one whose fissures were underscored by this month’s election results. Large cities and suburbs supported Democrats. Rural areas went Republican. The results were that Democrats took over the U.S. House and Republicans expanded control of the Senate. Those results were backed up by research. Based on a survey of more than 115,000 voters and 20,000 non-voters, The Associated Press reported, “Nationally, urban and suburban voters preferred Democratic over Republican candidates, while voters in small towns and rural places favored Republicans.” There were exceptions, of course. However, the same split generally held true in Oregon, where the geographically largest part of the state was on the losing side of the governor’s race and high-profile ballot measures concerning immigration and abortion. Democrats also gained supermajorities in the Legislature, in part by ousting suburban Republicans. In Washington state, urban areas ensured passage of statewide ballot measures that restricted firearms and enabled more criminal prosecutions of police officers who used deadly force. Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell was overwhelming re-elected by Western Washington and Eastern Washington’s Whitman County. But with the exception of King and Jefferson counties, the state’s voters overwhelmingly defeated a proposed carbon fee, which should give the Oregon Legislature pause as it considers a state carbon cap-and-invest program. In Oregon, Republican Knute Buehler prevailed in 29 of Oregon’s 36 counties but lost by a substantial margin to incumbent Democratic Gov. Kate Brown. In several rural counties, Brown didn’t crack 20 percent of the vote. What does this mean for the rural Northwest? For politicians, they must be wary of treating statewide vote totals as mandates. If they assume otherwise, they will increase the urban-rural chasm. For residents, they figure out how better to convey their story to urbanites: That they live in rural America out of choice, not because they are economic or geographic victims of circumstances. That they value the land and water because they interact with natural resources every day. That although they hold fewer degrees in higher education, according to state and national data, those statistics are irrelevant as far as rural residents’ intelligence, ingenuity and aptitude for solving problems. And that without the daily toil of rural Americans, urbanites would not have the food, electricity, water and natural resources they take for granted. This challenge is not new. Rural Americans have been telling their story for generations. But the 2018 election results give increased urgency. ost farmers are skilled at manag- ing risks, but some risks, such as weather and natural disasters, are com- pletely out of their control. As American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said on many occa- sions in 2018, this was in many ways a “perfect storm of perfect storms” for U.S. agriculture. Rare combina- tions of events compound- ed the natural disasters that hit the agricultural and food system. But farmers are demonstrating resil- ience and doing their best to weather the storms. Hurricane Michael was one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever hit the Florida panhandle. As Mi- chael tracked northeast from the Gulf of Mexico, it dealt a double slap to Georgia, the Virginias, Alabama and the Carolinas, which are just beginning to fully assess the damage and recover from Hurricane Florence. In North Carolina alone, initial estimates for crop damage, livestock losses and other damage to the state’s agricultural industry from Hurricane Florence are expected to be more than $1.1 billion. Crop losses were especially significant because the storm hit near harvest, damaging or ruin- ing cotton, tobacco, peanuts, sweet potatoes and other crops. Farmers took extraor- dinary measures to protect animals and move them out of harm’s way, which helped limit losses to only about one-half of 1 percent of the state’s 9 million hogs and 853 million chickens and turkeys. While hurricanes cur- rently occupy center stage, other natural disasters have affected agriculture throughout the country. The May eruption of Mount Kilauea, in Hawaii, created sulfur dioxide and acid rain that affected fruits, vegetables and flowering plants. Lava covered papaya and orchid plantations and parts of some farms were buried in 20 feet of volca- nic rock. Farmers lost their homes and workers were displaced. Wildfires in California and the Pacific Northwest dealt wide-ranging and long-term damage. In Cal- ifornia, the Range Fire be- came the largest wildfire in the state’s history and, along with the River Fire and several others, burned tens of thousands of acres of livestock rangeland, crops used for livestock feed and forests. The fires burned or singed orchards and vineyards, affecting pears, grapes, walnuts and oth- er crops. California’s wine industry is still recovering Guest comment Robert Giblin American Farm Bureau from the 2017 Napa Valley fire. In August, the Grass Valley Fire in north-central Washington was controlled in only a day, but was the largest in state history and consumed up to 10,000 acres per hour. It destroyed rangeland, homes, barns and other ranch infrastructure, including about 300 miles of fencing. On horseback, ranchers scrambled to move cattle to safety as flames burned around them. It will be one to two years before cattle can graze the land again. This fall, corn and soy- bean harvest started ahead of schedule in the Corn Belt, with the potential for record yields, and hopes that bumper crops would offset low prices. Then, rain started falling in Septem- ber and, in many parts of the upper Midwest, it never stopped. September rainfall has exceeded normal year- ly totals, causing flooding or field conditions that are delaying harvests in south- eastern Minnesota, north- eastern Iowa, Wisconsin, and northern Illinois and In- diana. Unrelenting waves of storms with high winds and downpours are causing corn stalks to bend over and are creating conditions for rot, mold and other diseases. Fortunately, numerous organizations are helping farmers cope with the myr- iad of natural disasters oc- curring in 2018 and recent years. The USDA recently launched a disaster recovery tool through its www.farm- ers.gov website. USDA also partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other organiza- tions to create the Disaster Recovery Resource Center website at www.usda.gov/ topics/disaster, which pro- vides a searchable source of information about di- saster-related resources. USDA Farm Service Agen- cy also offers safety net programs to help farmers recover. State governments, state Farm Bureaus and other organizations also are marshaling resources. Natural disasters occur every year, but the conflu- ence of events that occurred in 2018 is rare. Though it will take a lot of time, work and money, most of those affected will recover. There are signs that legislators will take these disaster im- pacts into account, as they should, whether the topic is risk management or policies regarding forests and range- lands. Robert Giblin writes, speaks and consults about agricultural and food.
