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November 16, 2018 CapitalPress.com 7 Panel: Consider water access, soil health before leasing By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press SPOKANE — When it comes to leasing farmland, experienced farmers say it’s important that the ground meet as many of their needs as possible. Several farmers spoke during a panel about helping farmers and landowners con- nect at the Tilth Alliance con- ference Nov. 10 in Spokane. Some of the top items they consider are access to water, housing availability/proximi- ty, soil, cropping history and market access. “Water access is a tough one,” said Julie Kintzi, an Enumclaw, Wash. farmer. “Land may not have water rights any more, may not have a well, it may just be city Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Farmers Chandler Briggs, of College Place, Wash.; Julie Kintzi of Enumclaw, Wash.; Jim Baird of Ephrata, Wash., and Amy Moreno-Sills of Puyallup, Wash., talk about connecting farmers looking for ground with landowners Nov. 10 during the Tilth Alliance conference in Spokane. water, (but) the question still needs to be asked.” “Soil is working on a long game, and we’re only here for a short time,” said College Place, Wash., farmer Chan- dler Briggs. “My approach has been, don’t mess with soil Tilth keynote speaker emphasizes diversity for farming’s future By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press SPOKANE — Farmers from different backgrounds must work together to bolster support for future generations, a California grain farmer says. Mai Nguyen gave the key- note speech, titled “Regener- ating Diversity,” during the Tilth Alliance’s conference Nov. 10 in Spokane. Nguyen, a Sonoma County grain farmer, is the Califor- nia organizer of the Nation- al Young Farmers Coalition and co-owner-operator of the Sonoma Grain Collaborative. She works to find cooperative ways for growers to increase seed, access markets or obtain financial credit. “These are important times to remember farmers have been doing a great deal of work and that it’s often been overlooked,” she said. She’d like to see farmers move from viewing one an- other as competitors to being colleagues, working to identi- fy common problems and find solutions together. Such relationships are important when rural popu- lations are becoming more isolated, and 1 percent of Matthew Weaver/Capital Press California grain farmer Mai Nguyen delivers the keynote address at the Tilth Alliance’s annual convention in Spokane. Americans are farmers, Nguy- en said. Six percent of that 1 percent are younger than 35. “We really need to stick to- gether to be America’s farm- ing future,” she said. Nguyen said the coalition engages politicians to take agriculture more seriously and show that the American food system has been built by a diversity of people across a diversity of landscapes. Nguyen spoke of her expe- rience working with others to ensure that California farmers have better access to land and resources. The Farmer Equity Act, passed in 2017, creates a state definition for and pro- vides assistance to socially disadvantaged farmers. Nguyen said President Donald Trump’s budget pro- poses eliminating federal grants that offer assistance. Nguyen said the equity act is “the very first California civil rights agricultural bill to ever exist.” The act creates a new exec- utive position in the Califor- nia Department of Agriculture to support the effort. Nguyen said she was disappointed when the person selected for the position, slated to repre- sent farmers of color across the state, was a white woman. During a recent party to celebrate the passage of the act, Nguyen spoke with a young boy, who told her he had been ashamed of what his parents did, but now thinks he would like to be a farmer. “If we’re going to raise that 6 percent to maybe even 7 percent, we need to do that work of sharing that seed, cre- ating cooperatives, localizing and celebrating,” she said. that isn’t good.” “Find out what your non-negotiables are first,” said Amy Moreno-Sills, Puy- allup, Wash., farmer and PCC Farmland Trust farm to farmer coordinator. She needed water rights and a Pierce County lo- cation. Moreno-Sills is in the pro- cess of improving soil fertility on the leased ground. “We couldn’t get a radish to bulb at all — it’s like the easiest thing ever — so we went into quite a bit of person- al debt that first year because once you get all the crops in the ground and realize noth- ing’s going to grow, you’re already in it,” she said. “In the off-season, we’ve been ap- plying as much compost and dairy manure that our pocket- books will allow us to buy.” Briggs works on leased ground. His leases are up ev- ery two years. “I have been a farmer seeking land, and I still am a farmer seeking land to own,” he said. Briggs said he keeps his equipment as mobile as possi- ble, the better to move on to a new location. Jim Baird of Ephrata, Wash., renews a three-year lease each year. If the land- owner or farmer decides to end the lease, they still have two more years before the agreement ends, he said. Good communication be- tween landowner and farmer is critical, the panelists said. They recommend determin- ing early which payments, improvements or repairs be- long to the landowner and to the farmer. “You’ve got to move into the uncomfortable now, so it’s not way more uncomfortable later,” Briggs said. Kintzi recommends a for- mal agreement for both the farmers and landowner’s pro- tection. Kintzi is also the coordi- nator for FarmLink, which is launching an improved, simplified website in the next month to connect farmers seeking land with landown- ers. She estimates the search ratio is eight farmers for one piece of land. “There are just a lot more farmers looking for land,” she said. “It takes more effort, hand-holding and education to bring farmland owners onto this site to get them to post an ad.” Tariffs bring potato exports down By BRAD CARLSON Capital Press U.S. potato exports fell in the first quarter of the July 2018-June 2019 marketing year, dragged down by retal- iatory tariffs, Potatoes USA reported. The marketing group in a Nov. 12 news release said frozen-potato exports fell 6 percent in volume and 5 percent in value from the year-earlier period. U.S. ex- ports of dehydrated potatoes fell by 7 percent each in vol- ume and value. Fresh-potato exports dropped by 12 per- cent in volume and 10 per- cent in value. The declines reflect the impact of retaliatory tariffs from Mexico and China while competing products from the European Union contin- ue to reflect low prices from the 2017 crop, Potatoes USA said. The group said the U.S. industry hopes the roughly 18 percent shortfall in the Euro- pean crop this fall and result- ing higher prices will help to improve U.S. exports through the marketing year. Frozen-potato exports to Mexico face a 20 percent re- taliatory tariff in response to tariffs the U.S. placed on im- ports of steel and aluminum from that country. Potatoes USA said this led to a 21 per- cent decline in U.S. exports to Mexico in the quarter as Canada and the EU gained significant market share. To Japan, its largest market for frozen potatoes, U.S. exports dropped by 3 percent from a year ago as the EU continued to gain market share. U.S. frozen-potato exports were off in Malaysia and Thailand by 19 percent and 18 percent, respectively, but were 6.4 percent higher in China. Oregon Potato Commis- sion President and CEO Bill Brewer said Mexico’s tariff on frozen potatoes reduced demand for the U.S. product. A recent trade agreement among the U.S., Mexico and Canada appears to be a good replacement for the North American Free Trade Agree- ment, though there are still tariffs in place and related issues to resolve, he said. U.S. exports of dehydrat- ed potatoes in the quarter dropped by 29 percent to Japan, by 51 percent to Chi- na and by 62 percent to the Philippines, Potatoes USA said. China plans additional tariffs of 25 percent on U.S. dehydrated potatoes and 10 percent on frozen potatoes. Fresh-potato exports in the quarter were dragged by a 20 percent drop to top U.S. export market Canada — which created the over- all drop in exports despite increases of 39 percent to Mexico, 46 percent to Cen- tral America and 114 per- cent to South Korea, Pota- toes USA said. Significant declines of fresh exports to the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand also contributed to the overall reduction. Brewer participated in a trade mission to South Korea in early November. Oregon, Washington and Idaho have access to the South Korea market for fresh, table-stock potatoes starting with the 2018 crop year, he said. It’s an additional export market for the Pacific North- west, he said. 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