EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
Friday, June 26, 2020
Volume 93, Number 26
CapitalPress.com
$2.00
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Jeff Wong, owner of CS Fishery in Garibaldi, Ore., stops to rest on his small fishing boat.
COMEBACK TRAIL
How a farm-to-table restaurant network is recovering from COVID-19
But as Oregon reopens, data show restaurant
visits are increasing.
Experts say the industry may never again look
the same. But along Oregon’s north coast, pro-
ducers and restaurant owners say they hope a pro-
gram that boosted their sales before the pandemic
will help them get back on their feet: an initiative
called the North Coast Food Trail.
By SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN
Capital Press
G
ARIBALDI, Ore. — On a sleepy
June morning in Garibaldi, a fishing
village on Tillamook Bay, fisherman
Jeff Wong was preparing to take his
small boat on the water.
“Hey, Grasshopper! Hi, Jimmy!” he called,
waving to crabbers.
He swapped local gossip and talk about
sea conditions as he readied the boat. Seagulls
screeched. Sunlight glittered on blue-green water.
The air smelled of fish and brine.
Wong, owner of CS Fishery, appeared calm.
But he, along with other producers — dairy farm-
ers, growers and ranchers — had been hit hard by
COVID-19’s impact on the restaurant industry.
Pre-pandemic, Wong said he supplied 25
restaurants with seafood. Now, he supplies three.
According to the National Restaurant Associa-
tion, March through May, the sector lost 8 million
jobs. The association predicts that nationwide, the
industry will lose $240 billion in sales by the end
Beating a trail
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Seafood stew, made primarily from locally
sourced seafood and vegetables, at the Schoo-
ner Restaurant & Lounge in Netarts, Ore.
of 2020: $7,609 per second. At least 3% of U.S.
restaurants have closed permanently.
“It feels like every other day we hear a restau-
rant we knew and loved is closing,” said Laura
Morgan, owner of The Big Foody, an Ore-
gon-based food tourism company.
A “food trail” is a route intended to promote
food-related recreational travel. The idea is to get
restaurants to buy from local producers and then
use that as a draw for tourists to enjoy the bounty.
The North Coast Food Trail was pioneered in
2018 by Nan Devlin, executive director of the
tourism organization Visit Tillamook Coast.
The self-guided “trail” is promoted through
maps, brochures and website campaigns.
“When urbanites look at the maps, they see all
these dots. For every little dot on the map, there’s
this whole story,” said Wong, the fisherman.
See Network, Page 10
Ag groups to Trump: Stay the course on phase one China deal
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
U.S. farm groups have
sent President Donald J.
Trump a letter supporting
his administration’s contin-
ued work on the first phase
of its trade deal with China.
The June 16 letter was
signed by 192 groups repre-
senting “all parts of the food
chain and rural economics,”
including the American Farm
Bureau Federation, National
Association
of
Wheat
Growers, U.S. Wheat Asso-
ciates and the Washington
Potato Commission.
“The focus of what’s
being asked is to stay the
course,” said Matt Har-
ris, director of govern-
ment affairs for the potato
commission.
Under Trump and U.S.
Trade Representative Rob-
ert Lighthizer’s leadership,
the letter states, the Phase
One Trade Agreement rep-
resents “historic outcomes”
to address technical bar-
riers to trade and commits
China to “significant” pur-
chases of U.S. agricultural
products.
The trade deal will be
assessed at the end of the
year to determine whether
targets were met, said Dave
Salmonsen, senior director
of congressional relations
at the Farm Bureau.
“We want to make sure
they are staying in touch
with their counterparts in
President Donald J.
Trump and Xi Jinping,
president of the People’s
Republic of China, June
29, 2019, at the G20
Japan Summit in Osaka,
Japan. U.S. farm groups
are urging Trump to
follow through on phase
one of the trade deal in
which China promised
to buy $80 billion in U.S.
agricultural products
over two years.
See China, Page 10
White House
Klamath takings case won’t be heard by U.S. Supreme Court
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A lawsuit filed by Klamath Basin
farmers seeking compensation for a
federal irrigation shutdown won’t
be heard by the U.S. Supreme
Court, ending nearly two decades
of litigation.
To protect endangered sucker
fish, the U.S. Bureau of Reclama-
tion stopped water deliveries to
irrigators in the Klamath Project
along the Oregon-California bor-
der in 2001, prompting the farmers
to accuse the federal government
of taking their water rights without
just compensation.
Contractual and jurisdictional
matters took decades to unwind in
federal court, along with a detour
to the Oregon Supreme Court to
answer questions about state water
law.
U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided against reviewing a lawsuit filed
by irrigators who claimed the federal government took their water
rights without just compensation during a 2001 shutdown.
Last year, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Federal Cir-
cuit ultimately dismissed the law-
suit because the water rights held
by several tribes were senior to
those of the farmers, justifying the
federal government’s irrigation
curtailment.
On June 22, the nation’s highest
court denied a petition by affected
irrigators to review the appellate
court’s ruling, letting that dismissal
decision stand.
The irrigators had urged the
Supreme Court to take the case,
arguing the earlier ruling would
“upend a century of western water
law” because the appeals court con-
cluded the tribes had senior water
rights even though that hadn’t
been adjudicated in state court as
required.
“The Federal Circuit’s decision
upsets the security, flexibility, and
finality provided by western state
general stream adjudications, and
threatens to wreak havoc in the
future,” the irrigators’ petition said.
In its opinion, the Federal Cir-
cuit determined the Bureau of Rec-
lamation could legitimately halt
water deliveries to comply with
See Klamath, Page 10