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Capital Press Editorial Board.
Friday, August 30, 2019
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the opinions of the authors but
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Opinion
Editor & Publisher
Managing Editor
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com | CapitalPress.com/opinion
Our View
Japan trade deal is good news for agriculture
A
n announcement earlier this
week that the United States
and Japan have reached an
agreement in principle on trade was
good news to farmers and ranchers
in the Pacific Northwest.
U.S. officials say the deal will be
a major benefit for beef, pork, wheat,
dairy products, wine, ethanol and
other products.
“It’s a very big transaction, and
we’ve agreed in principle. It’s bil-
lions and billions of dollars. Tre-
mendous for the farmers,” President
Trump said in an appearance with
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan
during the G7 summit in France.
Once in place, the deal will help
correct a competitive disadvantage
that has hampered American farm-
ers since the U.S. pulled out of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership.
“We are very happy that this
agreement will end the growing com-
petitive cost advantage that Cana-
dian and Australian wheat imports
got under the Comprehensive and
Progressive Trans-Pacific Partner-
ship (CPTPP) agreement,” said U.S.
Wheat Associates (USW) Chairman
and Paulding, Ohio, farmer Doug
Goyings.
The United States is the top sup-
plier of agricultural commodities to
Japan. It buys $700 million worth of
U.S. wheat each year, 48% of its sup-
ply. U.S. exports account for 70% of
Japan’s corn purchases, 58% of its
hay, 63% of its soybeans, 52% of its
We’re learning
what it will take
Our View
I
Matuesz Perkowski/Capital Press
A lawsuit claims Tillamook County Creamery has falsely advertised the source of its milk.
Lawsuit against Tillamook
is without merit
W
e remember when we found out
that our favorite chocolate chip
cookies weren’t made by elves in
a hollow tree. Had we not been 8 at the time
we might have hired a lawyer and taken the
folks at Keebler to court for falsely suggest-
ing it was elven magic that made the cookies
and other snacks so good. Such a case would
have been thrown out of court.
But that lawsuit would have had more
merit than one filed last week against the Til-
lamook Creamery Association by the Ani-
mal Legal Defense Fund is even more with-
out merit.
The dairy cooperative is accused in the
lawsuit of unjustly enriching itself and vio-
lating Oregon trade practices law by touting
small family farms with pasture-raised cows
when most of its milk is sourced from the
“most industrialized dairy factory farm in the
country.”
About two-thirds of the creamery’s milk
comes from 32,000 dairy cows raised at
Threemile Canyon Farms’ facility in Board-
man, Ore., “where cows are continuously
confined, milked by robotic carousels, and
afflicted with painful udder infections,” the
lawsuit alleges.
The complaint claims that while the com-
pany advertises its dairy products as being
produced in Tillamook County with “small-
scale traditional farming methods,” it’s heav-
ily reliant on a distant “mega-dairy” that’s
large enough to be “visible from space.”
Tillamook is a farmer-owned cooperative.
The sale of cheese, butter and ice cream on a
national scale benefits those farmers.
Unlike Keebler, which specifically claimed
its products were made in a hollow tree by
tree nuts, 48% of its beef and 15% of
its dairy products.
Though there’s more work to do
before a deal is signed, this still rep-
resents a significant improvement in
trade relations. We hope it is a har-
binger of better things to come.
While in France, Trump said that
Chinese officials have signaled that
they would like to reach a trade deal
with the U.S. and de-escalate ongo-
ing disputes.
We can only hope.
elves, Tillamook has never claimed that all
its products are made in Tillamook or all the
milk is sourced from its members.
That Tillamook sources milk from
Threemile Canyon Farms and other large
dairies outside Tillamook County has never
been a secret. It has been reported widely for
nearly 20 years, not only in the Capital Press
but in other statewide media such as Oregon
Public Broadcasting and the Oregonian/Ore-
gonlive.com.
We’re not sure what “traditional farming
methods” consumers imagine are utilized by
co-op members who have appeared in Til-
lamook advertising. With the exception of
scale, many of their methods are similar to
those employed at Threemile Canyon.
Milking carousels — robotic or other-
wise — are common on the dairies of farm-
er-owners in Tillamook County. No commer-
cial-scale dairy milks by hand.
“Painful udder infections” occur on small
family farms too, even on organic dairies.
Beef cows get them, too. Dairy producers
take great care to prevent the infections and to
treat them once they appear.
In 2012 PETA sued the California Milk
Advisory Board claiming its popular “happy
cow” promotion was false advertising.
A judge threw that case out, ruling PETA
couldn’t back up its claims.
An Oregon judge should do the same with
this case.
(In the interest of full disclosure and to
avoid litigation, we admit to leading read-
ers on a bit. We thought Chips Ahoy were a
lot better than the Keebler cookies, but the
Nabisco advertising campaign didn’t fit our
narrative.)
TILLAMOOK HAS NEVER CLAIMED THAT ALL ITS PRODUCTS
ARE MADE IN TILLAMOOK OR ALL THE MILK
IS SOURCED FROM ITS MEMBERS.
t was 2015 when I had
a serious wake-up call.
Dairy farmers like me
were facing lawsuits filed
by Charlie Tebbutt. Sev-
eral said if they were sued
they’d just quit farming.
That shook me up
because I remembered a
logger at a Western Dairy
Conference speaking on
the “spotted owl” issue and
how much it cost the log-
ging industry. He told us,
“We thought we were pro-
tected by the courts.” But, he
said, it was the court of pub-
lic opinion that really mat-
tered. He warned us, with
the timber battle over, the
environmental non-prof-
its need a new target to raise
funds to keep them in busi-
ness. “Industrial agriculture”
was it.
That means me, and if
you are a family farmer, it
also means you.
In Western Washington,
like most urban areas along
the Pacific coast, our vot-
ers are decidedly “progres-
sive.” Our elected leaders
try to “out-left” each other
with policies and ideas that
are often harmful to our
farms and futures. Those
environmental groups these
voters respect are telling
them we are the bad guys,
we wear the “black hats” on
things like protecting water,
air quality, animals and
our own employees. Union
activists paint all farmers as
tyrants and cheats. Never
mind the facts, these bad
guy stories are necessary if
they are going to raise the
money to keep their jobs.
The media loves it.
Social media feeds on it.
“Black hat” stories sell
papers and get eyeballs
locked onto phone and tab-
let screens.
This is a new world to
most of us farmers. Face-
book is full of vegan and
animal rights bullies.
Reporters show up on our
farms looking only to cap-
ture us running and hid-
ing to make us look guilty.
A state senator from down-
town Seattle introduces a
bill that accuses farmers
of keeping slaves, and the
Democratic labor commit-
tee endorses it. Tribal lead-
ers line up with environ-
mental groups to make false
accusations about farm pol-
lution – and use taxpayer
dollars to promote it and
lobby for bad legislation.
The real trouble is, too
many voters are buying
this story. We see that not
only in wrong-headed laws
and regulations but in sur-
veys that show the trust that
the public and consumers
have always had in farm-
ers is rapidly going away.
There are a lot of farm asso-
ciations that do a good job
of informing legislators, but
if those elected leaders and
regulatory folks don’t think
we have the public and vot-
ers behind us, they’ll listen
to those seeking to add the
costs and bureaucratic bur-
dens that will eventually put
us out of business.
What I learned, starting
back with that 2015 meet-
GUEST
VIEW
Rich
Appel
ing, is that we can change
this picture. We started a
group in our farming area
called Whatcom Family
Farmers. We got berry farm-
ers, potato farmers, dairy
farmers and other farm types
to join together. That unity
was critically important as
we soon found. A local tribe
hired the anti-dairy law-
yer Charlie Tebbutt but they
were told: “You sue one
farmer, you sue us all. It led
to a partnership with the
tribe that has been positive
for all in the community –
except the lawyer.
We found by speaking out
loudly and using the power-
ful tools of social media and
websites, we could make
a difference – a big differ-
ence. A local environmen-
tal group aligned with the
lawyer has pulled back after
their false accusations were
exposed. Both red and blue
politicians seek out our sup-
port and views. Farmers
report a different attitude
among regulators. Activists
who gained major coverage
on TV and newspapers have
been shown to be dishonest.
No honest reporter wants to
knowingly publicize lies.
Partnering with farmers
across Washington state we
formed Save Family Farm-
ing with affiliates in East-
ern Washington and Skagit
County. Unity of farmers is
very hard to come by, but we
are convinced that our ability
to tell our story to the pub-
lic and be heard by those in
power depends on that unity.
And it depends on speak-
ing out loudly and boldly,
even if that makes some
uncomfortable.
I understand the discom-
fort and fear experienced
by some. I struggle with it
myself but now I know the
future of our farm and our
ability to pass it on to our
children demands this kind
of hard work. If you are
reading this you have a clear
choice: stand on the sidelines
and watch fellow farmers
be falsely attacked or unite
with us and defend. We are a
part of the farming commu-
nity, let’s stand up for those
within our community. Start
speaking out loud and clear
to those who will decide our
future: the voters living in
our cities.
Rich and Ann Appel and
family, along with Rich’s
brother and family, are own-
ers of Appel Farms, milking
about 700 cows and produc-
ing artisan cheese under the
Appel Farms Cheese brand
in Ferndale, Wash. Rich is
the president of Whatcom
Family Farmers and rep-
resents this group on the
Save Family Farming board.
He is the recipient of the
Vim Wright “Bridge Builder
Award” from the Washing-
ton Conservation Commis-
sion for his work in building
bridges to the environmental
community.