CapitalPress.com 13
Friday, December 28, 2018
Bioengineered food rules draw criticism
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
While farm groups are
pleased with USDA’s new
disclosure standard for bio-
engineered foods, others are
not.
Some public interest and
environmental
advocacy
groups contend the standard
is deceptive and doesn’t go
far enough to identify genet-
ically modified foods and
inform consumers.
They take issue with the
term “bioengineered,” the
permitted methods of dis-
closure and the omission
of foods they say should
be labeled as genetically
modified.
“This deceptive rule will
keep people in the dark
about what they’re eating
and feeding their families,”
Wenonah Hauter, director of
Food & Water Watch, said
in a statement.
“It is meant to con-
fuse consumers, not inform
them. This deception is a
tool being utilized to maxi-
mize corporate profits, plain
and simple, she said.
The use of “bioengi-
neered,” rather than GMOs,
is a deceptive strategy
because consumers don’t
know what that means. In
addition, the use of digi-
tal codes and other technol-
ogy makes GMO disclosure
more difficult for consum-
ers, and the definitions of
what triggers labeling are
far too limited, she said.
Options for disclosure
include text, symbol, elec-
tronic or digital link, text
message and a phone num-
ber or web address where
consumers can access
information.
Lisa Rathke/Associated Press File
In this 2016 photo, a disclosure statement is displayed
on a package of Peanut M&M’s candy in Montpelier,
Vt., saying they are “Partially produced with genetic
engineering.” A lawsuit between Vermont and grocery
manufacturers was dropped because the state law was
pre-empted by a new federal label law that has sparked
a new debate among critics.
The standard does not
apply to foods such as meat,
milk and eggs derived from
animals fed forage or grain
developed through bio-
technology. It also does
not apply to highly refined
products such as sugar or oil
derived from biotech crops.
The
Environmental
Working Group said the dis-
closure rule fails to meet
the intent of Congress to
create a mandatory disclo-
sure standard that includes
all genetically engineered
foods and to use terms con-
sumers understand.
It also fails to address
the needs of consumers
who don’t have expensive
phones or who live in rural
places with poor cell ser-
vice, EWG said.
“The Trump administra-
tion has yet again put the
interests of pesticide and
biotech companies ahead
of the interests of ordinary
Americans,” Scott Faber,
EWG senior vice president
of government affairs, said
in a statement.
In addition to using the
unfamiliar “bioengineered”
term, allowing the use of
barcodes that require a
smartphone and a reliable
broadband connection and
exempting refined products,
the threshold for the unin-
Stennes succeeds Collins at Chelan Fruit
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
CHELAN, Wash. —
Mark Stennes, a fourth-gen-
eration Methow Valley
grower, has been appointed
interim chief executive offi-
cer of Chelan Fruit Cooper-
ative, effective Jan. 1.
Stennes, 37, succeeds
Reggie Collins, who has
been CEO since 2004. Col-
lins will take
an advisory
role with the
co-op
and
Chelan Fresh
Marketing
on business
and strategic
Mark
opportunities.
Stennes
Stennes
joined Chelan Fruit as
assistant general manager
on April 2017 and became
a member of the Washing-
ton Apple Commission in
May of 2017. His identical
twin brother, Kevin, joined
Chelan Fresh Marketing in
2013 and is organic sales
manager.
Their father, Keith
Stennes, operates the 400-
acre family orchard in
Methow that was started
by his grandfather, Brita-
nus Stennes, in 1903. Keith
and his wife, Deb, and their
sons, their wives and chil-
dren all live on the family
orchard.
Mark Stennes holds
an undergraduate degree
in
horticulture
from
Wenatchee Valley College,
Dan Wheat/Capital Press File
Workers sort Gala apples at Chelan Fruit Cooperative, Chelan, Wash. Mark Stennes
is the co-op’s new interim CEO.
a bachelor’s in business
administration from Cen-
tral Washington University
and a master’s in business
administration from Boise
State University.
He managed the fam-
ily orchard before working
for Chelan Fruit. Stennes
Orchards has been a mem-
ber of the co-op since the
1920s, when Britanus
founded Methow Pateros
Growers.
Chelan Fruit is a
270-member grower-owned
cooperative in Chelan.
Each year, it packs about
7 million boxes of apples
and pears and 1.5 million
boxes of cherries. The fruit
is sold by Chelan Fresh.
Chelan Fruit employs about
800 people year-round
and 1,100 to 1,200 during
cherry harvest.
Chelan Fruit was formed
by the merger of Trout-Blue
Chelan and the Brewster
cooperative MAGI in 2004.
The merger was one of the
first projects Reggie Collins
led as CEO. Collins also
was instrumental in the cre-
ation of Chelan Fresh Mar-
keting as the sales desk for
Chelan Fruit and Gebbers
Farms.
More recently, Collins
oversaw the $85 million
rebuild of Chelan Fruit’s
main apple packing plant,
which was destroyed by
wildfire in 2015.
“The board appreciates
the tremendous progress
the co-op has made under
Reggie’s leadership and we
look forward to building
on this progress with Mark
as our interim CEO,” said
Marrian Peebles, Chelan
Fruit board chairman.
The board has a strong
focus on succession plan-
ning and Stennes’ selection
enables a “seamless transi-
tion” in leadership, Peebles
said.
Stennes has “demon-
strated exceptional leader-
ship” and has the “vision
and values” to lead Chelan
Fruit into the future, said
Dave Robison, Chelan Fruit
board vice chairman.
Stennes said he looks
forward to driving perfor-
mance for growers, employ-
ees and customers. He said
he wants Chelan Fruit to be
“a haven and the best option
for independent growers.”
“The Washington tree
fruit industry is changing
rapidly but there is a great
future ahead for growers of
all sizes who change with a
changing world,” Stennes
said.
Efficiency, marketing could hold key to successful 2019
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Farmers and ranch-
ers can expect higher input
costs and more market and
price uncertainty in 2019,
but the year could offer
some profit opportunities
for well-prepared produc-
ers, speakers said Dec. 13 at
a University of Idaho agri-
cultural outlook seminar in
Caldwell.
Ashlee Westerhold, UI
extension area economist
based in Twin Falls, said
producers next year can
expect higher interest rates,
and increased costs for
chemicals, fertilizer, fuel
and labor.
On the labor side,
Westerhold
expects costs
to increase
by about 4
percent
in
trucking, 3
percent
in
general labor
Ashlee
Westerhold
and 2 per-
cent among
equipment operators in 2019.
Seed, power and cus-
tom-farming costs should
go largely unchanged, she
said. But all input costs
should be determined pre-
cisely and tracked because
they influence the price
the producer is willing to
accept.
“Minimize your costs
to maximize your returns,”
Westerhold said.
Efficiency gains in
many crop sectors have
helped producers stay prof-
itable or reduce losses
amid mixed prices, speak-
ers said. Onions, a major
crop in southwestern Idaho
and southeastern Oregon,
exemplify the trend toward
higher yields per acre.
Gina Greenway, visiting
assistant professor of busi-
ness and accounting at the
College of Idaho in Cald-
well, cautioned onion grow-
ers against “chasing onions
as a cash crop.”
“Prices are down this
year compared to last
because of a near-perfect
growing season that pro-
duced high yields,” she
said.
Improved
technology
and irrigation practices
have boosted yields. “We
are getting better and bet-
ter at what we do, but it
hurts us because there is too
much supply on the mar-
ket,” Greenway said.
Lately, a 1 percent-
age-point increase in supply
drops the price by 2.3 to 2.8
percent, she said.
Prices could rise from
2018 to 2019 on lower sup-
plies, if only because this
year’s growing conditions
were “idyllic,” Greenway
said.
Demand is strong. U.S.
per-capita consumption of
onions more than doubled
since 1970, she said.
“We need to keep
reminding people that great
onions come from Idaho
and eastern Oregon,” Gre-
enway said. State-of-or-
igin labels, such as those
the Idaho potato industry
has used successfully, could
help.
Onion growers can main-
tain or increase profitability
by knowing their breakeven
price, fine-tuning their mar-
keting plans, and managing
pests and irrigation needs as
efficiently as possible, she
said.
Wheat could be a 2019
profit opportunity if pro-
ducers manage costs, hit
protein targets and focus
their marketing strategies,
said Jon Hogge, UI exten-
sion educator in Rexburg.
After ‘very busy summer,’ WDFW says conflict likely every year
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
SPOKANE — The cattle graz-
ing season was a “very difficult
year for everybody,” a Washing-
ton Department of Fish and Wild-
life official says.
“Having three consecutive
years with wolf-livestock conflict
in the same area of the Kettles,
that’s not good for wolves, cows or
people,” said Donny Martorello,
who heads the agency’s wolf man-
agement efforts.
Ranchers, rural communi-
ties, environmental groups and
the department were among
those
impacted,
Martorello
said.
The department is looking for
ways it can reduce the likelihood
of conflict, particularly in “high-
risk” landscapes, he said.
This year, the department con-
ducted more than 70 livestock dep-
redation investigations, said Can-
dace Bennett, the department’s
wildlife conflict specialist in north-
east Washington.
The investigations were for
wolf, cougar, coyote, one bear
and two unknown causes, Bennett
said. The number of depredations
caused by wolves and cougars
were about equal, she estimated.
She estimated there were more
livestock injuries this year than
deaths. The Old Profanity Terri-
tory wolfpack caused more inju-
ries, the Togo wolfpack had about
the same number of each and the
Smackout pack had the most live-
stock deaths.
There were three depredations
by the Grouse Flats pack.
That number of predator inves-
tigations was higher than usual for
the department, Bennett said. Cou-
gar depredations began early and
wolf depredations, which usually
start around August, extended into
November.
Bennett expects some depreda-
tions to continue throughout the
winter.
Martorello said it was a “very
busy summer,” with ongoing dep-
redations in several packs, depart-
ment decisions to kill problem
wolves in three different packs and
the added requirement of an eight-
hour public notice to give envi-
ronmental groups time to seek a
restraining order, the result of a
court decision.
Martorello pointed to the work-
load to prepare documentation.
“Unfortunately, reality is that
preparation takes away from our
time for wolf conservation and
management ... at all levels in the
agency,” he said. “We understand
where we’re at, we also under-
stand we want to keep our priority
also on the things on the ground to
move forward.”
Advisory group member Samee
Charriere, a rancher in Clark-
ston, asked the group to consider
ways to increase the efficiency of
livestock depredation investiga-
tions, for both ranchers and the
department.
tended presence of geneti-
cally engineered ingredients
is far too high, the Center
for Food Safety contends.
At 5 percent, that thresh-
old is more than five times
the European Union’s 0.9
percent standard. The major-
ity of genetically engineered
foods would not be labeled
as a result of the exemption
for highly refined products
and the 5 percent threshold,
CFS said.
“The USDA has betrayed
the public trust by denying
Americans the right to know
how their food is produced,”
Andrew Kimball, CFS exec-
utive director said.
“Instead of providing
clarity and transparency,
they have created large-
scale confusion and uncer-
tainty for consumers, food
producers and retailers,” he
said.
Groundwater
users eye
East Snake
Plain
settlement
legislation
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Idaho Ground Water
Appropriators Inc. plans to
ask the 2019 Idaho Legisla-
ture for additional authority
to help it comply with a set-
tlement agreement covering
the East Snake Plain Aqui-
fer that lies beneath much
of the state’s south-central
and southeastern regions.
Groundwater users in
mid-2015 reached a settle-
ment with a
coalition of
surface-wa-
ter
users
over
aqui-
fer usage and
related issues.
IGWA Execu-
Lynn
tive Director
Tominaga
Lynn Tomi-
naga said his
group has been working
with the Idaho Department
of Water Resources on pro-
posed legislation address-
ing non-compliance among
a minority of customers, or
patrons, of the groundwater
districts.
Districts
determined,
based on patrons’ water-
right priorities, the extent
to which each patron must
reduce usage to comply
with the ESPA settlement
agreement. Patrons also
can satisfy their share of
required water-usage reduc-
tions by no longer irrigating
some areas.
“There is nothing now in
code that allows a ground
water district to require
a reduction in usage of a
patron’s water right,” Tom-
inaga said. “The only tool
the ground water districts
have is to assess them the
cost to make up for the
reduction.”
Although the vast major-
ity of districts’ water users
comply — 90 to 95 percent,
he estimated — “by not
complying with the mitiga-
tion plan, it places a burden
on other patrons in the dis-
trict to pick up that slack, or
amount of reduction.”
Groundwater districts,
after collecting the assess-
ments, buy stored or nat-
ural-flow water and return
it to the aquifer. Tominaga
said this has worked so
far, and allowed districts
to meet settlement terms,
because southern Idaho
has had mostly good water
years since the agreement
was reached.
“There will come a time
when we go into a drought
period and there is no water
to recharge,” he said.
Tominaga said IGWA’s
planned legislation would
allow a groundwater dis-
trict to ask patrons to
reduce their water usage
based on their proportion-
ate share of water owed to
meet the terms of the settle-
ment. If a patron does not,
the district could inform the
state Department of Water
Resources.