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