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Friday, March 8, 2019 CapitalPress.com 11 Don Jenkins/Capital Press National Famers Union President Roger Johnson, left, talks with Washington State Department of Agriculture Director Derek Sandison at the union’s national convention March 3 in Bellevue, Wash. Union: ‘We cannot trade our way out of this problem’ the North American Free Trade Agreement with Can- ada and Mexico, campaign pledges fulfilled by Presi- dent Donald Trump. The Farmers Union also agrees with the Trump administration about chal- lenging China’s business practices, even though China has retaliated with tariffs on U.S agricultural products. “It sounds really sort of tacky to say that China lies and cheats and steals, but, in fact, those have all been proven over and over and over again,” Johnson said. The Farm Bureau, at its national convention this year, gave Trump a boister- ous welcome, but passed a resolution favoring negotia- tions over tariffs to resolve trade disputes. But while warm to Trump’s policies, Johnson criticized the president’s approach. “I, for the life of me, don’t understand how it is that someone who is the world’s greatest negotia- tor thinks that it’s in our best interest to first deeply offend everyone you want to talk to and get them to agree with you,” Johnson said. The applause started before he finished the sentence. Johnson continued: “Our reputation is in tatters, and I think our standing in the world has been significantly reduced as a result of what has happened in this arena in the last couple of years.” After the speech, Johnson Continued from Page 1 $77.6 billion this year and stay fairly flat for 10 years. In the same report, the agency projected that farm- ers will generally become more productive. Farmers are expected to get more milk from their cows, har- vest more bushels of wheat per acre and cultivate more pounds of rice per acre. Production incentive Farmers Union Presi- dent Roger Johnson said that when prices are low, farmers grow more to compensate. When prices are high, they grow more to profit. “Their incentive is always to pro- duce more,” he said. The Agricultural Adjust- ment Act of 1933 was the first major price-support and acreage-reduction program, according to a USDA his- tory of farm policy. Farm net income in 1932 was less than one-third of what it had been in 1929. The act sought to restore farmers’ purchas- ing power to the levels of 1909-14, a period of rela- tively stable prosperity. The 1996 Farm Bill changed U.S. agricultural policy. It reduced govern- ment intervention and rein- forced free-market prin- ciples. It was informally known to supporters as the Freedom to Farm Bill and to critics as the Freedom to Fail Bill. Johnson, who was elected North Dakota agriculture commissioner that year, said subsequent farm bills have not offered incentives Don Jenkins/Capital Press Michael Stumo, head of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, speaks at the national convention of the National Farmers Union March 3 in Bellevue, Wash. Stumo says farmers are overproducing and advocates volume controls and price supports. to reduce production. The 2018 Farm Bill has a safety net for farmers, but “it’s not as robust as it needs to be, in my judgment,” he said. The solution, Johnson said, is pay farmers to take land out of production and increase payments if prices fall below levels fixed by the government. “We cannot trade our way out of this problem, which is why we need pol- icies that address oversup- ply,” Johnson said. “Every Bill: ‘This is quite a draconian piece of legislation’ Continued from Page 1 The precautionary approach means, according to the bill, that a “lack of full scientific certainty” could not be a reason “for post- poning measures to prevent environmental degradation.” “The language in the bill is so broad and encompass- ing it can go anywhere,” Washington Farm Bureau director of government rela- tions Tom Davis said. “I can’t believe they aren’t going to go after pesticide use and farm practices.” In her email, Saldana said the bill was “about bring- ing agencies together that have jurisdiction in envi- ronment and health along with impacted community stakeholders ... to determine how best (to) apply the new cumulative impacts data tool to result in more effi- cient and coordinated out- reach, policy implementa- tion, and investments.” Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Whatcom County, said the bill “tracks very closely the new green manifesto out of Washington, D.C.” “This is quite a draconian piece of legislation,” he said. “You’re allowing unelected officials appointed by the governor to set fundamental policy.” Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights lobby- ist Cindy Alia said the bill would sidestep the state’s Administrative Proce- dure Act, which provides for public participation in agency decisions. The bill would create special consid- eration for a certain class of citizens, as yet unidentified, she said. “We are certainly for the environment and health, but are against this approach,” she said. other industry has the ability to shut down a plant.” Winter, the Minnesota farmer, agreed. He cultivates 250 acres. With prices low, it’s hard to make a living, he said. And if small farms go under, so will small towns, he said. “You end up with communities with nobody in their schools.” Minnesota dairy farmer James Kanne said farm pol- icy should be redirected to keep people on the land. “It’s not about how much commodities we can pro- duce. It should be about how many farmers we can pro- duce,” he said. Skepticism remains In contrast to the Farm Bureau, the National Farm- ers Union has been skepti- cal about trade deals, some- times hostile. The Farmers Union advocated with- drawing from the Trans-Pa- cific Partnership that included 12 Pacific Rim nations and renegotiating affirmed the Farmers Union agrees with Trump’s trade goals, though he added, “It’s not always clear what he’s up to.” Major Washington crops such as apples, cherries and wheat report losing sales because of tariffs. “There’s a lot of short- term collateral damage that has to be dealt with,” said Washington State Depart- ment of Agriculture Direc- tor Derek Sandison, who attended the Farmers Union convention Sunday. Stumo says Trump is winning on trade. He calls Robert Lighthizer the best trade representative that U.S. has ever had and that Trump’s “pro-growth tar- iffs” are restoring America’s manufacturing base. And so far, they have not driven inflation, he said. “If I were king, I would not have done the same tweets as our president did, but in other ways I would do some of the same thing,” he said. Soybeans, by far Ameri- ca’s top agricultural export, have taken a hit in China. But Stumo observed that the tariffs have caused only a slight decline in overall farm exports. The USDA in Febru- ary projected that by the end of the federal fiscal year, Sept. 30, the U.S. will have exported farm goods worth $141.5 billion, a 1.3% decline from 2018, but up 1% from 2017 and up 9% from 2016, the last full year before Trump took office. Wolf: As of 2017, Oregon had at least 124 wolves Continued from Page 1 “With that wolf pack, killing has become habit- ual,” Nelson said. “They’re going to keep doing that.” ODFW spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said that, if wolves are delisted, the Oregon wolf plan would apply statewide. West- ern Oregon would begin in Phase I of management rules, which requires four confirmed attacks on live- stock within a six-month period before the agency will even consider killing wolves from an offending pack. Eastern Oregon is cur- rently in Phase III of the plan, which requires just two confirmed attacks over any given time period. And Den- nehy is quick to add that, just because those qualifica- tions are met, does not mean lethal take is automatic. “There are other consid- erations,” Dennehy said. “Non-lethal (deterrents) must be in effect, but not working, for any lethal con- trol authorization.” At last count, Oregon had Courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service OR-7 trots past a trail camera carrying what a wildlife biologist said is an elk leg in the Southern Oregon Cascades. a minimum of 124 wolves at the end of 2017. The 2018 ODFW annual wolf report and population estimate will not be available until April, Dennehy said. ODFW is also in the pro- cess of updating its wolf plan, which is now four years past due. A draft plan will be released sometime this month, Dennehy said, though the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has not yet scheduled a public hearing and final vote on the changes. In Washington, the state has 22 wolf packs, mostly concentrated in the north- east corner of the state. Scott Nielsen, president of the Stevens County Cattlemen’s Association, said cattlemen are pleased to see a potential delisting at the federal level, but issues still remain with how the Washington Depart- ment of Fish and Wildlife handles wolf attacks and investigations. “This has been really hard on the ranchers,” he said. “I am highly critical of WDFW I’ve watched what they’ve done and how they’ve done it, and I feel betrayed by them.” Meanwhile, environ- mental groups slammed the Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal to delist wolves, describing it as premature. “Given that gray wolves in the Lower 48 states occupy such a small percent- age of their historical habi- tat, it is almost laughable for the Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice to determine that they are successfully recovered,” said John Mellgren, an attor- ney with the Western Envi- ronmental Law Center. “On its face, this appears to be politically motivated,” Mellgren said. “We look for- ward to reviewing the draft delisting rule, and look for- ward to taking the Fish and Wildlife Service to court should its proposal not be based on what the science tells us.” Collette Adkins, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said delisting would essentially be a death sentence for gray wolves across the country. “The Trump administra- tion is dead set on appeasing special interests that want to kill wolves,” Adkins said. “We’re working hard to stop them.”