INNOVATIONS & TECHNOLOGY SPECIAL SECTION | INSIDE
EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
CapitalPress.com
Friday, July 24, 2020
Volume 93, Number 30
$2.00
How the pandemic is transforming the nation’s
hunger relief system – for better and for worse
THE HUNGER
By SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN
Capital Press
H
alf an hour before hunger relief vol-
unteers opened a mobile food distri-
bution site at Chemeketa Commu-
nity College in Salem, Ore., dozens
of cars had already lined up to wait.
At 4 p.m., Marion Polk Food Share volunteers
started loading boxes into trunks. It was a hot July
afternoon. Muscles and faces shone with sweat.
Within 20 minutes, volunteers put nearly 180
boxes — 4,500 pounds of farm-fresh food — into
people’s cars. They still had an hour and forty min-
utes to go.
According to Feeding America, more than
54 million people in the U.S. are facing hun-
ger during the pandemic: more than at the peak
of the Great Recession, and staggering closer to
the Great Depression, when historians estimate 60
million Americans went hungry.
As of June, according to a new analysis by the
Brookings Institution based on Census Bureau
data, 1-in-6 children lack a reliable source of
affordable food. Some states have it worse; Idaho
Foodbank told the Capital Press 1-in-4 children is
likely not getting enough to eat.
Farmers, processors, food banks and govern-
ments are working to fill the gap. But experts
say COVID-19 has “upended” how hunger relief
See Hunger, Page 9
Second Harvest
A line of cars waits at a Washington state food bank during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Rick Gaupo, CEO and president
of Marion Polk Food Share.
A worker fills and moves boxes at
Marion Polk Food Share.
A volunteer talks to a driver at
a food distribution site.
Oregon cherry growers weather rains, COVID-19 during harvest
Most of state’s crop comes from Wasco County orchards
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
THE DALLES, Ore. — This
year’s cherry harvest began with a
double dose of uncertainty at Polehn
Farms in the Columbia River Gorge.
First, rain fell just a few days
before picking started June 10, rais-
ing concerns over fruit cracking due
to excessive water uptake.
Then, with the coronavirus pan-
demic spreading, the farm did not
hear right away from its usual crews
of migrant field workers.
Despite the challenges, Oregon
cherry growers say they remain opti-
mistic as harvest winds down. Solid
prices have helped offset smaller
pack-out of some varieties for fresh
markets and higher costs to comply
with COVID-19 worker protections.
Polehn Farms
grows about 430
acres of cher-
ries near The
Dalles, Ore., and
operates a pack-
ing house. The
Mid-Columbia
region has more
than 82% of Ore-
gon’s 14,884 total cherry acreage,
split mostly between Wasco and
Hood River counties.
Jeanette Gryder, human resources
and accounts manager at Polehn
Farms, said they typically receive
calls from workers to reserve cabins
at the farm in April and May, but this
year the calls came later than usual.
When they finally did, they were
able to hire crews within the first 3-4
days after the camps opened June 5,
she said.
“People were wanting to work,
and willing to do what needed to be
done to work,” Gryder said.
That led to the industry’s next
challenge — how to safely house
hundreds of workers living and
sleeping in the camps during the
eight-week harvest while stopping
the spread of COVID-19.
The state’s Occupational Safety
and Health Administration issued
temporary rules in April requir-
ing labor-intensive farms to pro-
vide more portable restrooms, hand
See Cherries, Page 9
Small tractor sales surge during pandemic
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Sales of small farm
machinery are benefiting
from increased home-and-
yard spending during the
coronavirus outbreak, but the
pandemic’s impact on larger
equipment is uneven.
The 102,000 new tractors
under 40 horsepower sold
during the first half of 2020
is about 13% higher than a
year ago, according to the
Association of Equipment
Manufacturers.
The trend has only seemed
to pick up steam recently, with
AEM reporting that unit sales
in the smallest tractor cate-
gory surged 37% last month
Courtesy Kubota
Sales of small tractors have surged during COVID-19
shutdowns while the impact on other size categories of
farm machinery has been uneven.
compared to a year ago.
“Anything that has to do
with home improvement or
making your home more
enjoyable — all those busi-
nesses seem to be doing well,”
said Curt Blades, senior vice
president of agricultural ser-
vices for AEM.
Dealers of building mate-
rials, garden equipment
and supplies saw their sales
increase about 10% during the
first half of 2020, according to
the U.S. Census Bureau.
The solid market for small
tractors is especially remark-
able because this category had
already seen healthy sales for
several years, Blades said.
These smallest tractors
are usually bought by hobby
farmers and large prop-
erty owners, while the 40-
to 100-horsepower tractors
more commonly used for
farm chores, livestock and
light tillage in commercial
agriculture, he said.
“For the most part, that’s
someone who’s deriving
income from the farm or sig-
nificant income from the
farm,” Blades said.
Sales of new tractors in the
40-100 horsepower category
rose 6.6% during the first
half of 2020 and 27.5% last
month, which is likely due to
the need to replace machinery
rather than optimism about
the agricultural market out-
look, he said.
Despite the uncertainty
caused by the coronavi-
rus and tensions over biofu-
els and trade, farmers real-
ize they’re in business for
the long haul and likely have
pent-up demand for mid-
sized replacement equipment,
Blades said.
See Sales, Page 9