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6 CapitalPress.com Friday, August 21, 2020 Editorials are written by or approved by members of the Capital Press Editorial Board. All other commentary pieces are the opinions of the authors but not necessarily this newspaper. Opinion Editor & Publisher Managing Editor Joe Beach Carl Sampson opinions@capitalpress.com | CapitalPress.com/opinion Our View Got milk? An oldie but goodie is back W e were happy to hear that the dairy industry has revived the iconic “Got Milk?” advertising campaign. The original campaign was started by the California Milk Processor Board. The national campaign was operated by the Milk Processor Edu- cation Program. After a six-year hia- tus, MilkPEP is bringing the campaign back in light of increased sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Not to return to the past,” Milk- PEP said, “but to bring forward this iconic tagline and product in a refreshed world where milk is undoubtedly essential and top of mind among consumers....” Color us nostalgic for what now seems like a simpler time. In 1993, according to the California Milk Processor Board, a television ad depicted a history buff who couldn’t enunciate the answer to a trivia ques- tion because he had just eaten a pea- nut butter sand- wich and had no milk to wash it down. It was the first “Got Milk?” advertisement. In 1994, print ads started: glossy images of celebrities sporting milk mustaches. Through the original campaign’s end in 2014 there were 350 print ads and 70 television commercials. They fea- tured a who’s who of celebrities from Hollywood, music, sports and popular culture, including Jennifer Anniston, Harrison Ford, Brett Favre, Kermit the Frog, Serena and Venus Williams, Kristi Yamaguchi, Rihanna and Mar- tha Stewart. The ads and slogan were so popular they were widely cop- ied and parodied throughout the popular culture. Why did it work? “There was something so perfectly hip about it,” Edward Wasserman, the dean of UC-Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, told Fast Com- pany on the campaign’s 25th anni- versary in 2018. “They start with a Our View We can’t afford to shortchange students A s legislators across the nation grapple with preneurs, business owners, farmers, ranchers ... the list revenue shortfalls caused by the shutdown and goes on. curtailment of businesses in their states, we And it produces good citizens, who know more would like to issue a plea. than the bare minimums about physics, chem- Please, do not balance state budgets on istry, biology, history, language and the the back of education. Other programs many facets of our great civilization. can be trimmed or cut entirely and If we relegate the current gen- wouldn’t be missed, but education eration to online classes and rob is the key to our future. them of the richness of a full A strong state economy is slate of in-person classes, our the product of a strong K-12, economy will suffer. Some community college, technical students may well thrive with school and university system. some online classes, but oth- While legislators may ers will tune out and eventu- shrug and say they can’t ally drop out. afford to fully fund education, Some classes may lend we will argue that they can’t them selves to an online for- afford not to. mat.Others, not so much. Try During this pandemic, gov- learning to weld, raise live- ernors and other political lead- stock or repair a tractor online. ers have urged people to stay Try to discuss the mysteries of home and to shut down the busi- ancient worlds or the inner work- nesses that pay local, state and fed- ings of DNA on Zoom. eral taxes. What they apparently for- Good luck. got or ignored was the damage their We appreciate that online classes actions would inflict on their states. have offered a last-minute substitute Nationwide, 33 million people were University of Idaho for real school and college work. thrown out of work — more than half of A student performs research. But now that many parts of the the adult population. That is temporary. nation have curbed the spread of The number of unemployed will shrink COVID, the time has come to consider allowing stu- as COVID-19 continues to subside. dents to return — and to make sure the high schools, Congress has also promised to help the states get back community colleges and universities are adequately on more solid fiscal footing. funded to carry out the classwork and research that are In the meantime, we urge all of our elected represen- essential to a 21st century economy. tatives not to do permanent damage by shortchanging All students in all schools deserve the best possible education to solve a temporary problem. education, not just for their sake but for the sake of the Whether kindergarten or graduate level research, edu- cation is an economic driver. Education produces entre- economy. And it will require more than Zoom. The Columbia-Snake River EIS meets Judgment Day olumbia-Snake River Irrigators Associa- tion representatives are quick to affirm the central point of your Aug. 14 edito- rial, “Breaching Snake Dams Still Not a Good Option:” the court-ordered, Columbia River System Operations (CRSO) Environmental Impact State- ment (EIS) will not cease lit- igation on the dam breaching question. Across the page from your editorial, our media release ad stated the same, but CSRIA representatives acknowledged that key legal/technical issues imbibed by the EIS will spring- board the dam breaching ques- tion back before U.S. District (OR) Judge Michael Simon. We give the EIS high marks in dealing with the hydro power impacts and fish anal- yses, as the Bonneville Power Administration staff and the NOAA Fisheries’ Ph.D.s do this type of technical evalu- ations practically on a daily basis. The same cannot be said for how the irrigation and nav- C GUEST VIEW Darryll Olsen igation sectors were prepared, and how the overall EIS study structure led to both techni- cal and legal problems, soon to be flogged in Judge Simon’s Court. Your OpEd unintention- ally carried forward inaccu- rate irrigation impact num- bers from the EIS, where the USBR Denver Technical Cen- ter refused to account for the total irrigated acres affected by dam breaching — most notably ignoring the changed river shoreline and silt/debris impacts below the Ice Harbor Dam tailrace, along the shal- low-water Upper McNary Pool area (the total impact would affect about 91,000 acres, not 47,000 acres). They also used the wrong economic metric for market value — tax assess- ments are not market value transactions. The navigation analysis retains a fundamen- tal flaw, purposefully excluding the main rail route alternative between Lewiston-Lyons Ferry and the Columbia River (grain) ports. This analysis will have to be redone by others. Even as an ESA litigation defendant-intervenor, CSRIA had to prod the EIS technical managers to make some much needed pre-draft changes; but this effort did not override the EIS managers’ zealousness for a “Joe Biden, hide-in-the-base- ment” approach to presenting the EIS alternatives and avoid- ing technical review commit- tees (that had been successfully employed in the past). Technical issues aside, the CRSO agencies did the EIS process no favors by limiting the Lower Snake River hydro system alternatives or by mak- ing no effort to include within the EIS a “regional alter- native,” now nonchalantly referred to as being a task for “the next step.” The above EIS omissions and idiosyncrasies mean that scrutiny before Judge Simon’s Court is rapidly approach- ing — and the region is emo- tionally and rationally ill-pre- pared for Judgment Day. Alas, if only the agency staff, scien- tists, planners, fish advocates, and elected representatives had more time to go through another regional process, we could find redemption. Right? It will take a more deliber- ate action plan to avoid being cast into the legal infernal. A small, but thoughtful, stake- holder coalition could address the EIS frailties and com- pose a plan adopting a near- term implementation protocol. There has been enough time, enough technical informa- tion, enough legal review, and enough debate dancing. Purga- tory need not be followed by Hell. Darryll Olsen, Ph.D., is a board representative of the Columbia-Snake River Irriga- tors Association. product with no personality, which, if anything, was forced upon generations of children, which very few adults drank or would admit to drinking, whose health benefits are questionable, whose environmental impact is dubi- ous, and they turned it into something that had a kind of panache. They had a concession of unlikely subjects and had them pose in a way that most people would have deemed a self-parody or ludicrous. And yet, it worked.” It still works. When ag talks directly to consumers with a clever, compelling message, consumers listen. That work never ends. We can only hope that we’ll again see dancing raisins. OSU deserves support to produce next generation of farmers A s an Oregon dairy farmer, I’ve seen struggles from the pandemic and stress on food supply firsthand. When the pandemic hit, consumers and farmers were anxious about food security, especially when supply chains were interrupted, but people also became more aware of where their food was coming from and how vital local farms are. As we all know, you cannot remove food from the household budget. It is more evi- dent than ever GUEST that agricul- ture in Oregon is VIEW essential. How- Sara ever, policy- Coleman makers face dire pressure to rec- tify a state bud- get in the wake of COVID-19. Some proposals suggest reducing Oregon Department of Agri- culture funding by as much as 8.5% and a loss in funding for Oregon State University (OSU) efforts that support agriculture research, exten- sion and education. Like dozens of Organic Valley dairy farm- ers in our state, I continue doing what I always do during the pandemic. I spend a lot of time on the farm managing pasture and caring for calves that will be milk cows in a couple of years. There is a science to organic dairy farm- ing and efficient pasturing of livestock to get optimal production. Our state produces a diverse bounty of crops and livestock products. Much of it is pro- cessed and purchased right here in Oregon, and some is destined for other markets, gener- ating income for families and rural communi- ties. Oregon agriculture is an economic engine, and as we look to what strategic investments our state will make, agriculture must be part of that answer. According to the Organic Trade Associa- tion, organic agriculture provided $350 million to farmers last year, and 92% of Oregon house- holds purchased organic products. The state is home to nearly 900 businesses that contribute to the organic sector. It was encouraging the Oregon Legislature and governor dedicated dollars to establish two faculty positions at OSU to accelerate organic research and education in 2019. These posi- tions will arm farmers with knowledge so they can be more productive and better at managing farms. It is an investment that will help lever- age federal research funding and set Oregon on a path to further our national leadership in organic farming. As a young farmer, just two years out of college, I want to see our dairy industry grow, create jobs, offer consumers choices, and help feed the nation. Investments in public research in agriculture can make for more productive farms and are essential to our state’s future. It ensures food security and lays the foundation for economic vitality. State leaders should avoid pausing or step- ping back on agricultural research and educa- tion. This would not be the case of one step forward and two steps back but more like a fumble that might cost the game. Our land-grant university taught me so much, and I brought that knowledge home to become a fifth-generation family farmer. To recruit and teach the next generation of Oregon farmers, we must continue investing in agricul- tural research and education. Sara Coleman farms with her family in St. Paul, Ore. Their farm, Sar-Ben Farms, belongs to the Organic Valley cooperative, which includes over 1,800 farmers nationwide. In 2016, she was the Oregon Dairy Princess Ambassador, and in 2018 graduated from Ore- gon State University with a degree in agricul- ture business management.
