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CapitalPress.com 13 Friday, February 14, 2020 Truffles: Ice cream and cheese are also popular Valentine’s foods Continued from Page 1 In the mooood for love “Cow milk’s role in Valen- tine’s Day is absolutely huge,” said Monica LaBelle, spokes- person for the National Dairy Council. In 2018, according to a dairy economist, about 3.1 bil- lion pounds of milk went into making confections, enough to fill 562 Olympic-sized swimming pools. “Candy, confections and baked goods for holiday cele- brations like Valentine’s Day,” said Matt Herrick, vice presi- dent of the International Dairy Foods Association, are “part of the fabric of America.” When Milton Hershey invented the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar in 1900, he built his operation in the heart of Pennsylvania dairy country. Ice cream and cheese are also popular Valentine’s foods. LaBelle of the National Dairy Council said heart-shaped piz- zas trend in February, and demand is growing for artisan cheeses. “Folks in the artisanal cheese industry have been pre- dicting 2020 might be a record year for sales,” said LaBelle. National Peanut Board A peanut farmer with a peanut plant in Camilla, Ga. Nuts about you Oregon’s Willamette Val- ley produces 99% of the nation’s hazelnuts, many of which go into candy and other treats, according to Oregon State University. Even big- ger are the peanut and almond industries. “Peanuts and chocolate are a match made in heaven,” said Lauren Williams, spokesper- son for the National Peanut Board. Snickers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and M&Ms are the most popular peanut can- dies, said Williams. Every day, 99 tons of peanuts go into 15 million Snickers bars. The bar was named after its found- ing family’s favorite horse. “I was raised on a farm,” drawled Andy Bell, a Georgia peanut farmer. “We’ve always grown peanuts. I plant a seed, watch it sprout, irrigate; I love the process.” Almonds also earn their time in the limelight Feb. 14. In 1976, Don Cameron, a biology graduate with no farming background, applied for his dream job at a wild- life refuge. He didn’t get an interview. “I thought, ‘I’ll get into ag,’” Cameron recalls. And he did. Forty-four years later, Cameron is the vice president of Terranova Ranch in Cali- fornia’s San Joaquin Valley. One of Cameron’s major crops is almonds, hard-shelled stone fruits related to plums; the ranch produced 2.7 mil- lion pounds in 2019. “The demand for almonds has been phenomenal,” said Cameron. California’s 1.24 mil- lion acres of almond trees churn out 80% of the world’s almonds. Almond growers have close ties with chocolatiers, said Darren Rigg, sales man- ager at Minturn Nut Company in Le Grande, Calif. “It’s cool how global this is,” said Rigg. “Every coun- try has a different relation- ship with almonds. They’re popular in every country’s holiday season, and Valen- tine’s is huge. To think we supply it here in California is remarkable.” Bee my honey The almond industry is braided with another strand of Terranova Ranch Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press Don Cameron, vice president of California-based Ter- ranova Ranch, holds almonds. Stephanie Rodas, who works at Euphoria Chocolate Company in Eugene, Ore., hand dips truffles. agriculture—honeybees. On Feb. 5, John Jacob, a beekeeper at Old Sol Apiaries, was on the road toting crates of bees from Rogue River, Ore., to California almond country. “I love working the sea- sons,” said Jacob. “It’s appeal- ing to my biology background and my nature-loving side. I get to call the outdoors my office, and the scene changes every three months.” In February, pollination season for almond orchards, more than 50% of U.S. bee- hives are transported to Cal- ifornia. Without bees, Jacob said, trees produce 90% less almonds, so producers are willing to pay beekeepers $200 per hive for pollination. And honey itself is a Valen- tine’s Day treat. paired with wine. Say you’ll be wine Kristy Leissle A tree with ripe cocoa pods in the Ivory Coast. cane sugar, citing their con- cern that most sugar beets are genetically modified organ- isms, or GMOs, that allow farmers to control weeds using less labor. White gold America is Candyland. High fructose corn syrup, made from milled corn, is a major sweetener. As con- sumers have become more health-conscious, USDA data show the industry has shrunk 40% since the 2000s. But the same data show refined sugar deliveries have increased 5%. Ranking sixth in global production—after sugar behemoths like Brazil, India and China—the U.S. makes about 9 million tons of “white gold” annually, accord- ing to the USDA, or 55 pounds per American. Sugar doesn’t just come from cane fields in the South. According to the USDA, the sugar beet, a root vegeta- ble related to chard, produces 55% of the domestic supply. Most sugar beets are grown in Idaho, North Dakota and Minnesota, but Oregon State University says the Willamette Valley is the nation’s only sig- nificant production source of sugar beet seed. Vegans often prefer sweet- ener from sugar beets because it is processed without using bone char—charred animal bones, a practice common in producing cane sugar. Other consumers, accord- ing to Oregon State, prefer Berry sweet Floods, cold snaps, plun- dering hail storms—growing winter strawberries isn’t easy, farmers say. But buyers must have their berries. “Chocolate-covered ber- ries, strawberry shortcake, just stem strawberries like candy on a stick. Valentine’s Day is a hugely important day for us,” said third-generation farmer A.G. Kawamura, founding member of Gem-Pack Ber- ries and former secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. His farms are in California and Mexico. For the holiday, Kawamura estimates, he sells hundreds of thousands of trays, each containing 4 to 8 pounds of strawberries. During Valentine’s Day 2017, according to the Nielsen Company, a market research firm, fresh strawberry sales generated more than $52 million. “The weather some- times doesn’t cooperate, and it’s not a hardy fruit,” said Kawamura. “Sometimes one hail storm makes me lose everything I could’ve har- vested for 20-something days. Farming is not easy.” Valentine’s fruit is often “There’s always an uptake in wine sales during the holi- days,” said Gladys Horiuchi, spokesperson for the Wine Institute. Valentine’s Day is a top-selling moment for U.S. winemakers, according to the Nielsen Company, a mar- ket research firm. Feb. 14 is the sixth biggest individual sale day for wine in the year. In 2017, the industry gener- ated $630 million during the holiday. Red wine remains a favor- ite, followed by rosé, spar- kling rosé and white. Restaurant dining also impacts farmers’ profits and creates ripples in the Valen- tine’s economy. According to the online reservation site OpenTable, more than 30% of consumers celebrate Feb. 14 by dining out with loved ones, increas- ing sales of food and wine. Landing on a chocolate bar “I have loved chocolate for as long as I have memory as a human being,” said Kristy Leissle, a Ph.D. who follows the cocoa and chocolate indus- tries. “I reached a point when I realized it was bizarre that I knew almost nothing about this food. It sparked my curi- osity; I wanted to understand where it comes from.” It was evening in Ghana, Leissle’s home, in one of the world’s largest cocoa-produc- ing regions. Most consumers eat choco- late without thinking about the farmers behind it, said Leissle. “It’s an industrial prod- uct. Those beans pass through many, many machines,” she said. “There’s nothing about a chocolate bar that suggests farming. I think the fact that cocoa grows on a tree as a fruit is often a revelation to people.” Some cocoa farmers are wealthy, but the majority, Leissle said, “struggle to live on tiny margins.” Many West African farms, said Leissle, often have no running water, no electricity, no paved roads. Cocoa has a dubious labor history. According to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, 2 million children do hazardous cocoa work. The worst forms involve slavery, trafficking and debt bondage. But most child laborers, Leissle said, are working on their family’s land. Seventy percent also attend school. In fact, she said, cocoa earnings have made school, even college or trade school, possible for many who other- wise could not afford it. Leissle said cocoa has advanced growers’ profits and the economy. “Farmers are not fools,” said Leissle. “They think, ‘There’s huge demand, so I’m going to plant this crop.’ And it’s improved many of their lives.” But Feb. 14 isn’t just about food. National Retail Feder- ation records show in 2019, flowers constituted 53% of purchases. A rose from any other place At 5 a.m. the week of Val- entine’s Day, workers at the Portland Flower Market, an Oregon wholesaler, were unloading shipments. The room flowed with rivers of color. February is peak season for the flower industry. At the market, Scott Isensee, a manager at Frank Adams Wholesale Florist, said during Valentine’s week he sells 3 million flowers. Isensee mainly works with local growers, but most roses come from South America. “We wish we could have Valentine’s Day in July,” said Isensee. Americans give each other about 200 million roses every Valentine’s Day. Most grow in the savanna outside Bogota, Colombia, a plateau fanning out from the Andean foothills. Here, roses are summoned from the soil by a great hot sun hugging the Equator. Harvested flowers are chilled to sleep in an attempt to outwit death, then shipped in cargo jets—10,000 boxes per plane, say airport offi- cials—to be sold in the U.S. The story begins in 1967, when an American horticul- ture student, David Cheever, wrote a paper that identified Colombia as an ideal place to grow flowers. In 1970, Cheever turned his disserta- tion into a business, planting an operation in Bogota. Oth- ers followed. Before the rose trade, gov- ernment reports show Colom- bia was wracked by poverty, guerrilla warfare and cocaine cartels. To disrupt cocaine traf- ficking, the U.S. government suspended import duties on Colombian flowers in 1991. It was a boon for Colombia, but sales of U.S. roses dropped 95%. Hillsboro, Ore., grower Sandra Laubenthal of Peter- kort Roses said she remem- bers the change. Her farm continued growing roses year- round until the cost of heat- ing greenhouses was too high to compete. Now, her biggest Valentine’s sellers are lilies and tulips. Colombians don’t even celebrate Valentine’s Day, but the foreign holiday makes up 20% of flower growers’ annual revenue. In the month prior to Feb. 14, according to Abel Serrano, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Assistant Port Director at the Miami Airport, 60 to 70 cargo jets per day, each carry- ing more than a million flow- ers, land at Miami’s airport. There, Serrano said, 24 hours a day, agricultural experts process 720 million stems, checking for exotic pests or diseases that could harm American agriculture and the environment. The flowers are X-rayed for contraband. Then, spe- cialists wielding magnifying glasses shake flowers upside- down over white paper. The flowers must be kept cold and unbruised. “It’s very demanding,” said Serrano. “Very physical.” Miami’s port intercepts 16,000 pests per year. “We’re trying to protect agriculture and free trade,” said Serrano. “There’s a lot of stress because many people rely on us.” In 2019, when the govern- ment shut down for 35 days, Miami’s agents continued working. “Last winter was tough,” said Serrano. “Our people were not getting paid but still showing up for work. I think a lot of them take pride in what they do.” From Miami’s airport, the flowers are loaded in refriger- ated trucks and shipped across the U.S. After passing through many miles and hands, the roses are given as sym- bols of love, often alongside chocolates. A world in a bite Valentine’s Day had nearly arrived. In a Euphoria Choc- olate Company retail store, owner Bonnie Glass was pre- paring to open the shop. Glass flicked on the lights. The walls were stacked with red gift boxes. Inside display cases, rows of truffles waited for eager buyers who might never know how far their truf- fles had traveled, how many had labored to make them. But Glass knew: there’s a world inside a bite of each chocolate. Water: Under Oregon water law, water rights must be developed or owner risks losing them Continued from Page 1 However, instances when OWRD does grant such permits also spur legal conflicts when other people oppose the develop- ment of additional water rights. “These are more and more challenging as we have limita- tions on new water being avail- able,” Byler said. Extensions that allow per- mit holders more time to develop their water rights — for example, by installing irrigation systems — were the second-most frequent cause of conflicts, with 34 cases. Under Oregon water law, water rights must be developed or the owner risks losing them. The goal is to prevent peo- ple from obtaining water rights for speculative purposes with- out actually using the water and OWRD has scrutinized exten- sion requests more closely in recent years. Disputes most often arise when the agency denies such extensions. Water distribution and regu- lation comprised the third larg- est category of disputes, with 22 cases. These conflicts involved such issues as junior water users being “regulated off” by senior water rights holders. Other categories of disputes include water rights transfers, cancellations of water rights, well construction problems and miscellaneous issues. The Klamath basin is partic- ularly prone to water conflicts for several inter-related reasons, said Byler. Irrigators have objected to orders to stop using wells that have been found by OWRD to interfere with surface water rights, for example. Also, the agency com- pleted its adjudication of Klam- ath water rights in 2013, which determined the seniority of water rights and established that tribes held the oldest “time immemo- rial” rights. The determination allowed for tribes to request that junior users be “regulated off,” but the entire adjudication must still be approved by a state court. “Part of the reason (for con- flicts) is folks are not used to being regulated,” Byler said. “Part of the reason is the adjudi- cation is not completed and folks will fight until the adjudication is done.” However, Byler pointed out that OWRD took roughly 20,000 to 30,000 enforcement actions in the time period examined in the report, which should put the 165 disputed cases in context. “I will tell you that com- pliance with our regulations is the norm around the state,” he said. “It’s less than 1 percent of our actions that leads to these disputes.” Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File A recent report to Oregon lawmakers outlines liti- gation over water regulation.