Friday, November 1, 2019
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Submitted photo
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.,
says he will retire at
the end of the current
Congress. He is the only
Republican member of
the Oregon congressional
delegation.
coli in dry bulb onions from
local irrigation water supplies.
“I knew (Walden) would
be on our side in almost
everything we had to do,”
Skeen said. “He was quick to
do whatever we needed. That
doesn’t always happen.”
Blake Rowe, CEO of
the Oregon Wheat Growers
League and Oregon Wheat
Commission, said Walden has
been a staunch advocate for
the industry on trade issues.
Most of the state’s 763,000
wheat acres are grown in
Walden’s district, and more
than 85% of the crop is
exported.
Walden was also there,
along with the entire Ore-
gon congressional delega-
tion, to help wheat growers in
Wasco and Sherman counties
recover from a series of wild-
fires in 2018 that burned tens
of thousands of acres of crop-
land, Rowe said. They urged
the USDA to approve both
emergency grazing for cattle-
men, as well as allow wheat
farmers to plant cover crops
without affecting their crop
insurance.
“He was always somebody
we could sit down and work
with across a whole broad
range of issues,” Rowe said
of Walden. “We’ll miss him.”
Gail Greenman, direc-
tor of national affairs for
the Oregon Farm Bureau,
described
Walden
as
approachable and accessible,
with a good understanding of
the state’s agricultural diver-
sity — from dryland wheat
and cattle to irrigated fruits
and vegetables.
Over the years, Greenman
said the Farm Bureau worked
closely with Walden on
much-needed reforms to the
H-2A guestworker program,
which allows farms to bring
in workers from outside the
country on temporary visas,
as well as tax, trade and nat-
ural resources management at
the federal level.
“The time and dedication
that he’s not only given to us
as farmers and ranchers, but
all Oregonians, is truly appre-
ciated and will be very much
missed,” Greenman said.
“We’re so thankful for the
years that he gave us.”
Penalized crop duster appeals
to Washington Supreme Court
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A Washington crop duster is
appealing a fine and suspension to the
state Supreme Court, arguing there was
insufficient evidence to conclude he
sprayed 66 farmworkers with a pesti-
cide in 2014.
Lenard Beierle of Ag Air Flying
Service in Toppenish received a nine-
day suspension and was fined $550
for the high-profile incident in Grant
County.
His attorney, Timothy Coleman,
said Tuesday that Beierle did noth-
ing wrong and that the Department of
Agriculture relied on speculation to
hold him responsible. Coleman said
he hoped the case would raise the bar
for finding applicators guilty of pesti-
cide drift.
“I think the Supreme Court should
hear the case because it is in the pub-
lic interest,” Coleman said. “I think this
potentially has some pretty far-reach-
ing implications.”
Beierle released a mix of chemi-
cals, including lambda-cyhalothrin,
Beierle argued there was little wind
— 1 to 2 mph — and that the pesticide
he was releasing didn’t have a strong
odor. He and the agriculture depart-
ment introduced conflicting expert tes-
timony on whether the pesticide could
have reached the workers.
A Grant County judge upheld the
department’s position, as did the Court
of Appeals. The three-judge appeals
panel ruled the department had built a
strong case against Beierle.
“We believe WSDA properly
enforced pesticide regulations in this
case and the courts have affirmed that
view,” a department spokesman said
Tuesday.
Coleman said the department
penalized Beierle without determin-
ing whether enough lambda-cyhalo-
thrin could have reached the work-
ers to make them sick. Beierle did
everything technically correct, includ-
ing checking the wind, Coleman
said.
In court filings, the agriculture
department takes the position that
there’s no excuse for off-target chem-
ical applications.
Ag economist sees disruptors on horizon
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The decade ahead will
be one of transition for agri-
culture, and producers need
to be prepared, according to
David Kohl, a well-known
agricultural economist and
professor emeritus with Vir-
ginia Tech.
He thinks there’ll be
more change in agriculture
in the next 10 years than
there has been in the last
70 years, he said during a
webinar hosted by North-
west Farm Credit Services.
Those changes will
be driven by accelerating
technology and domestic
and international consum-
ers. They’ll affect produc-
tion, markets, finances and
risk management and bring
extreme economic and
financial volatility, he said.
There will be more
opportunity for success or
failure, depending on mind-
set, compared with the past,
he said.
“Business IQ is going to
be critical for success,” he
said.
International trade, polit-
ical uncertainty, weather
and climate change, shifts
in
consumer
demand
and structural changes in
the industry will all fuel
volatility.
“Being in touch and
being in the moment is
going to be critical,” he
said.
The last three or four
years have seen a decou-
pling of globalization. Trade
wars and tariffs have bro-
ken down trust, and there
seems to be a worldwide
movement of companies
taking care of themselves.
That’s caused disruptions in
supply chains, manufactur-
ing and agriculture, he said.
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over an 114-acre potato field Aug. 27,
2014, 2 miles east of Mattawa. Slightly
more than a half-mile away, workers
in an apple orchard reported seeing the
airplane, smelling a strong odor and
immediately getting sick.
Workers said they had scratchy eyes
and noses, trouble breathing and were
nauseous and dizzy. Some were treated
at a medical clinic.
Beierle landed and was accused of
spraying the workers. He called the
agriculture department and asked it to
investigate, according to court records.
The department’s investigator inter-
viewed workers, and detected lamb-
da-cyhlothrin in the orchard, on work-
ers’ clothes and a truck’s windshield.
He found no other application of that
pesticide within a mile that month.
The department originally sus-
pended Beierle for 90 days and fined
him the maximum, $7,500. On appeal,
an administrative judge cut the suspen-
sion and fine. Beierle continued to fight
the violation, however.
“My client has always taken the
position that this is wrong,” Coleman
said.
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Capital Press File
Economist Dave Kohl says agriculture is facing a
decade of transition.
Getting the U.S.-Mex-
ico-Canada
Agreement
passed in the next couple of
months is critical, as Cana-
da’s Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau is up for re-elec-
tion and there are concerns
over government spending
in Mexico, he said.
Kohl said failure to pass
USMCA would be disas-
trous to the U.S. and North
American economies.
He said pulling out of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership
was a mistake and allowed
China to come in with its
Belt and Road Initiative
with the ultimate goal of
being the world economic
and military leader.
In addition to trade
uncertainty, there is polit-
ical uncertainty through-
out the world and a syn-
chronized global economic
slowdown, he said.
As for the U.S. econ-
omy, he sees storm clouds
on the horizon and is keep-
ing an eye on top economic
indicators.
“I could definitely see a
recession setting up in the
second half of next year
going into 2021,” he said.
Since the 1970s, reces-
sions have lasted an aver-
age of seven months, he
said.
“This one might not
be deep, but it could be
extended,” he said.
Kohl said farm real estate
values haven’t collapsed
because baby boomer farm-
ers have built up assets and
have strong balance sheets
and because interest rates
have been low.
But farm real estate is
local, and it’s a mixed bag
across the country,” he said.
But he is expecting
more volatility on farm bal-
ance sheets and said lend-
ers’ appetites for provid-
ing operating loans will be
something to watch.
The next decade will
bring a fork in the road
for producers. It’ll be a
low-margin era in agri-
culture, and producers
should focus on fiduciary
fundamentals.
“Knowing your numbers
is going to be critical,” he
said.
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Greg Walden
announces he will
not seek re-election
Longtime U.S. Rep. Greg
Walden, Oregon’s only
Republican member of Con-
gress, announced Monday he
will retire at the end of his
11th term in 2021.
In a video statement,
Walden, 62, said that while
he was confident he could
win re-election again in 2020,
“I also know that for me, the
time has come to pursue new
challenges and opportunities.
“So, I will not seek
re-election to the U.S. House
of Representatives,” Walden
said, “nor election to any
other office, but instead I will
close the public service chap-
ter of my life, thankful for
the friends I’ve made and the
successful work we’ve done
together.”
Walden was first elected
in 1998 to represent Oregon’s
2nd Congressional District,
encompassing largely rural
and agricultural areas of Cen-
tral and Eastern Oregon. At
69,491 square miles, the dis-
trict covers about 70% of the
state’s total area, but includes
just 18% of its total popula-
tion with 770,403 people.
Having grown up on a
cherry orchard in The Dalles,
Walden said rural Oregon
values “run deeply in my
veins.” He pointed to efforts
to improve forest health,
lower the risk of large wild-
fires and expand rural broad-
band internet to some of
Oregon’s most isolated
communities as issues he’s
championed.
Walden is the former
chairman, and now top
Republican, in the House
Energy and Commerce Com-
mittee. He also served in the
Oregon House of Represen-
tatives from 1989 to 1995
and state Senate from 1995
to 1997.
“At the end of this term,
I will have devoted 30 years
to the important calling of
public service,” he said, “of
helping bring people together
to solve problems and leave
our communities, our beau-
tiful state and our great
nation better off for the next
generation.”
Walden said he is opti-
mistic that a path exists for
Republicans to recapture a
majority in the U.S. House.
State Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-On-
tario, has already announced
he will run for Walden’s con-
gressional seat. Former state
senator and gubernatorial
candidate Knute Buehler, of
Bend, has also said he is con-
sidering a run.
Members of Oregon’s
farming and ranching indus-
tries were quick to praise
Walden upon hearing news of
his retirement.
Jerome Rosa, executive
director of the Oregon Cat-
tlemen’s Association, said
Walden has been a go-to
resource in Washington, D.C.,
for issues ranging from public
lands grazing to international
trade.
“He’s been excellent to
work with at all times,” Rosa
said. “Whenever we are back
in D.C., he always makes time
to meet with us and discuss
issues with us personally.”
Apart from ranching,
Rosa said Walden supports
all facets of life in rural Ore-
gon, where some cattlemen
live and work 40 miles from
the nearest paved road — let
alone the nearest town.
“Greg understands the
issues in Jordan Valley just
as well as he understands the
issues in Portland,” Rosa said.
“He represents Eastern Ore-
gon, and Eastern Oregon is
the heart of our organization.”
Paul Skeen, president of
the Malheur County Onion
Growers Association, said
Walden has been instrumen-
tal to the needs of the region’s
agriculture. For example,
Skeen said Walden helped
in 2013 to fight back against
proposed water quality stan-
dards under the Food Safety
Modernization Act that pro-
ducers worried they could not
meet.
Research by the Oregon
State University Malheur
Experiment Station in Ontario
showed there was no risk of E.
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