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Friday, December 11, 2020
Volume 93, Number 50
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EPA proposes limits on chlorpyrifos
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Environmental Protection
Agency will consider new restric-
tions on the pesticide chlorpyrifos,
including limiting its use to about
a dozen crops, according to a new
review.
Final decisions aren’t due until
at least 2022, and the EPA indi-
cated it may opt for less restrictive
measures. The pesticide’s future
use may depend on resolving its
affect on the brains of infants and
unborn children.
EPA said the science is unset-
tled. If the agency chooses its
most-cautious approach, registered
uses for chlorpyrifos could be
reduced from more than 50 crops
to select, “high-benefit” crops.
Apples, alfalfa, strawberries,
and spring and winter wheat are on
the list, as are tart cherries, aspar-
agus, citrus, cotton peaches, soy-
beans and sugar beets.
“It’s a good place to be if you
need that material,” said the North-
west Horticultural Council’s David
Epstein, vice president for scien-
tific affairs. “You still have 50 that
fall into the other category.”
The EPA on Monday opened
a 60-day comment period on its
“proposed interim registration
review decision.” The document
presents ways the EPA may reduce
exposure to chlorpyrifos, includ-
ing to pesticide handlers.
The EPA said residential expo-
sure to chlorpyrifos was “negligi-
ble.” The only approved home use
is for roach bait in child-resistant
packages. Exposure to chlorpy-
rifos in drinking water in highly
localized areas is a concern, though
assessing the exposure is difficult,
according to the agency.
Washington Friends of Farms
and Forests executive director
Heather Hansen criticized the EPA
for relying on models that she
said overstates actual exposure in
drinking water.
“Take that out, you’re left with
See EPA, Page 11
BETTING ON BIDEN
Agriculture looks
for trade stability
150.0
U.S. ag exports
144.4
(in billions of dollars)
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
F
139.5
138.2
136.6
134.7
our years ago, farmers and ranchers
The Trump administration has distributed
were optimistic that incoming Pres-
$23 billion in direct payments to farmers and
ident Donald Trump would bring
ranchers to offset lost trade with China, but
added prosperity to farm country
producers have consistently said they want
through new and better trade
“trade not aid.”
agreements.
“First and foremost, farmers
Now, they’re counting on Presi-
need stability, predictability,” said
dent-elect Joe Biden to undo the insta-
Brian Kuehl, co-executive director
bility and damage caused by Trump’s
of Farmers for Free Trade, a non-
profit that promotes export opportu-
trade wars.
nities for U.S. agriculture.
While some in agriculture agreed
That’s been missing for four
with Trump’s hard line on trade policy,
years, he said, adding that instead,
particularly in regard to China, others
farmers have endured trade wars
warned of the toll it would take on an
Brian Kuehl
that start with an online “tweet,” with
already struggling farm economy. U.S.
no warning of what’s to come, followed by
farm exports decreased from a peak of $150
retaliation, driving down markets and com-
billion in 2014 to $136.6 billion last year.
modity prices.
Low prices for some commodities have
“So we need certainty and predictability,
driven farm debt to a record high, and the
that would be point number one,” Kuehl said.
number of farm bankruptcies in 2019 was the
highest since 2010 amid the fallout from the
See Trade, Page 11
global recession.
133.1
2013
2014
2015
2016 2017
2018
Source: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
2019
Capital Press graphic
U.S. net farm income
123.7
(in billions of dollars)
92.2
81.3
81.6
83.7
75.1
62.3
2013 2014
2015
2016
Source: USDA Economic Research Service
2017
2018
2019
Capital Press graphic
Doing the right thing: Marty Myers helped
pioneer sustainable agriculture in Oregon
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Marty Myers
BOARDMAN, Ore. — It didn’t
take long for Marty Myers to sell
Greg Harris and Jeff Wendler on
his vision for regenerative, sustain-
able agriculture at Threemile Canyon
Farms.
Harris remembers interview-
ing for an agronomy position at
the farm in 2000, and was capti-
vated by Myers’ warm enthusiasm.
Twenty years later, Harris remains
at Threemile Canyon as the direc-
tor of farming operations, overseeing
39,500 acres of cropland.
“Listening to Marty, he just had
a way about him,” Harris said. “You
knew right then you wanted to be a
part of it, and he was the guy you
wanted to do it with.”
Myers, who served as general
manager of Threemile Canyon Farms
since it opened in 1998 and helped
grow the enterprise into one of the
largest dairies in the U.S., died Dec.
1 at his home of natural causes. He
was 68.
Similar to Harris, Wendler — now
the farm’s director of livestock oper-
ations — met Myers for the first time
when he interviewed for a job at the
dairy. After just 20 minutes, Wend-
ler said he knew this was where he
wanted to work.
“I canceled all the other inter-
views I had,” Wendler said. “He was
proud of this place. But he always
wanted to do the right thing.”
For Myers, doing the right thing
meant caring for the people, animals
and being good stewards of the land.
He pioneered the closed-loop system
at Threemile Canyon, an award-win-
ning model that recycles dairy waste
on-site as much as possible.
Closed-loop system
It all starts with the cows.
Threemile Canyon has about 35,000
milking cows and close to 70,000
cattle in total. All that manure has
to have someplace to go, so Myers
innovated to come up with several
solutions.
First, manure is used as nitro-
gen-rich fertilizer for the thousands
See Myers, Page 11