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APPLE EXPORTS TO MIDDLE EAST PLUMMET PAGE 9 EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER Friday, December 21, 2018 Volume 91, Number 51 CapitalPress.com $2.00 Brad Carlson/Capital Press Farmers Cooperative Ditch Co. board Vice President Bill Hartman of Hartman Farms in Parma, Idaho, performs a pre-trip inspection before delivering agricultural equipment to other farms. Small cooperatives merge to create large companies that can serve large farms’ needs By BRAD CARLSON Capital Press ARMA, Idaho — Bill and John Hartman and their families have for years run a large farm outside Parma, Idaho, on their own. But the Hartmans are team players, too, as their participation in cooperatives indicates. “We belong to several,” Bill Hartman said. One benefi t? “Local decision-making,” he said. The Hartman brothers belong to the supply-and-ser- vice-focused Valley Wide Cooperative, Farmers Cooperative Ditch Co. — where Bill is vice president — and have been involved in an area onion-market- ing cooperative. John Hartman said Hartman Farms purchases fuel from Valley Wide, often in small amounts as day-to- day needs dictate, “just because it’s handy next to us.” For grain marketing, they recently started working with Pacifi c Northwest Farmers Cooperative in Gen- esee, Idaho. Trend refl ects ag Member-owned, profi t-sharing cooperatives are a welcome constant in the ever-changing agricultural industry. Though they are shrinking in number nation- wide and getting larger thanks to mergers, coopera- tives’ importance to farmers is increasing. See Co-ops, Page 12 Brad Carlson/Capital Press Valley Wide Cooperative CEO Dave Holtom, left, and Controller Derek Brewer at the regional offi ce in Nampa, Idaho. Bills would classify large Oregon dairies ‘industrial’ Oregon lawmakers will be considering two bills in the 2019 legislative session that would classify large dairies as “industrial,” causing them to lose “right to farm” protections. Aff ected dairies would lose ‘right to farm’ protections By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Large dairies would be classifi ed as industrial facilities and subject to new restrictions under two bills to be consid- ered by Oregon lawmakers next year. At a Dec. 12 work session, the Sen- ate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources voted 4-2 to intro- duce the two bills during next year’s Don Jenkins Capital Press fi le photo legislative session along with a bevy of other “legislative concepts.” Both pieces of legislation would apply to dairies with more than 2,500 cows, or 700 cows if they don’t have access to pasture. If they were reclassifi ed as indus- trial facilities, such dairies would be stripped of protections under Oregon’s “right to farm” law, which prohib- its local governments from imposing restrictions on farms. The statute also bans lawsuits alleging nuisance or tres- pass against farms. The two bills were prompted by the regulatory problems at Lost Valley Farm, a large dairy in Boardman that’s been cited for a multitude of waste- water violations since it began operat- ing last year, said Ivan Maluski, policy director for Friends of Family Farmers, a nonprofi t that supports strong dairy regulations. See Dairies, Page 12 2018 Farm Bill a breakthrough for hemp Lawmakers bullish on crop potential INSIDE: Hemp needs help from Washington lawmakers. PAGE 3 By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press Northwest hemp farm- ers scored a major vic- tory last week with the pas- sage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized the crop and defi ned it as an “agricultural commodity.” The legislation removes hemp from the list of feder- ally controlled substances, including products made with derivative extracts such as cannabinoid, or CBD, oil. Hemp is closely related to marijuana, but unlike pot it contains less than 0.3 per- cent of tetrahydrocannab- Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File Hemp grows in an Oregon fi eld. Congress has legalized the crop nationwide. inol, or THC, the psycho- active component that gets users high. CBD oils pro- mote a host of health ben- efi ts, from pain relief to preventing seizures and lowering anxiety. Hemp can also be used to make fi ber, plastic and a building mate- rial known as “hempcrete” — a mixture of hemp stalks and lime. Courtney Moran, a Port- land attorney and president of the Oregon Industrial Hemp Farmers Association, said the bill greatly clarifi es hemp’s legal status at the fed- eral level, allowing farmers to sign up for crop insurance, work with banks and do busi- ness across state lines. “It’s very exciting that Congress has realized the economic and agricultural potential for hemp,” Moran said. “It’s an incredible day for cannabis, and for all farmers worldwide.” Moran spent two years working with U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden’s offi ce on legisla- tion. The law also provides USDA oversight and fund- ing for hemp research, and allows states and tribes to become the primary regula- tors of hemp production. Oregon established its Industrial Hemp Pro- gram, overseen by the state Department of Agricul- ture, in 2016. By the end of the year, 70 growers and 53 handlers had registered with ODA. The program has since grown more than six- fold, with 582 growers and 212 handlers. Moran said she sees the industry growing sig- nifi cantly more under the Hemp Farming Act moving forward. “I think it’s an incredible impact,” she said. See Hemp, Page 12