6
CapitalPress.com
Editorials are written by or
approved by members of the
Capital Press Editorial Board.
Friday, January 15, 2021
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
We must stop this now
S
ince May we have watched ever
more stunning and audacious
acts of violence committed in
our great cities under the cover of
“mostly peaceful” protests.
Perhaps we became jaded after
more than three months of nightly riots
accentuated by vandalism, looting, and
attempts to burn public buildings and
immolate police officers.
The sight of an angry mob of our
fellow citizens busting into the U.S.
Capitol, disrupting the House and
Senate sessions and making a mock-
ery of one the highest institutions in
our republic is sickening and almost
beyond comprehension.
Almost. We have been building to
this for a very long time.
The politics of the past 20 years
have become increasingly divisive,
intolerant and personal. America has
been divided on all issues into com-
peting factions, each encouraged to
believe in the infallibility of its posi-
tion, to revile the position of oppo-
nents, and to doubt our foundational
institutions. The rule of law be damned.
How did we reach a place where
significant portions of the electorate
believe either Donald Trump stole the
election in 2016 or Joe Biden stole the
election in 2020? When did we lose
faith in each other?
Politicians, left and right, have
become expert at stoking the flames,
without regard to the potential damage.
Our elected officials — presidents,
members of Congress, governors, may-
ors — have used the harshest, most
inflammatory rhetoric against their
opponents. They whip these mobs into
a frenzy, send them out into the street
and act surprised when bad actors
embedded with legitimate protesters
turn ugly. They deplore the violence
while subtly suggesting that it was all
somehow justified.
We should expect more from our
elected officials, but the fault is in
ourselves.
We have become all too occupied
with the divisions, arranging ourselves
neatly in one camp or another. We have
listened only to those things that bol-
stered our world view. We allowed agi-
tators and activists to use our fear and
Oregon, the most
expensive place to farm
Our View
C
Essential food workers will
wait longer for vaccine
L
ast week Oregon Gov. Kate Brown
decided to push teachers and school
staff to the front of the COVID
vaccine line, shoving farmworkers, food
processors and others in the food supply
chain farther back.
Throughout the pandemic, Brown has
been abundantly cautious about send-
ing kids and teachers to school. The Ore-
gon Education Association, the union that
represents more than 44,000 teachers and
school staff members, has been adamant
that schools not be reopened until staff
safety could be ensured.
So, a strict state matrix for school
reopening made it difficult to get kids back
into the classroom.
The online classes offered by school dis-
tricts have largely been a disaster because
both teachers and students are ill-equipped
for this exercise. With the kids at home,
many parents have been unable to return to
their jobs, or, for those working remotely,
devote necessary time to their employment.
Shortly before Christmas, Brown
changed tack, allowing local school boards
to determine when it was safe to reopen.
So, to get them back in school, teachers
have been given vaccination priority. They
will be first of the so designated 1B “essen-
tial” workers to get the shot.
Meanwhile, a host of essential 1B work-
ers have been on the job throughout the
pandemic. Farmworkers, processors, ware-
house workers, truck drivers and grocery
clerks have faced the threat of the virus in
their workplaces with little more than hand
sanitizer and face masks.
They can wait a little longer. Teach-
ers and staff will roll up their sleeves next,
though it’s unclear if they can be vaccinated
in time to reopen schools before summer
break.
No one can argue that the kids don’t des-
perately need to be back in school. That the
teachers’ union is a large political donor
with lots of clout in Salem probably doesn’t
have anything to do with it.
All animals are equal. Some are more
equal than others.
READERS’ VIEW
Governor
should reopen
businesses, too
I feel compelled to commu-
nicate with Gov. Kate Brown
about the present situation in Ore-
gon and a major decision she has
recently made.
Yes, we all know she and I
have our differences, but I am
struggling to understand why she
has decided to open schools and
not businesses.
I have seen businesses bend
over backward to install safety
barriers and other measures and
comply with social distancing.
Businesses need to be open and
LETTERS POLICY
Write to us: Capital Press welcomes letters to the editor on issues of interest to
farmers, ranchers and the agribusiness community.
Letters policy: Please limit letters to 300 words and include your home address
and a daytime telephone number with your submission. Longer pieces, 500-750
words, may be considered as guest commentary pieces for use on the opinion
pages. Guest commentary submissions should also include a photograph of the
author.
Send letters via email to opinions@capitalpress.com. Emailed letters are preferred
and require less time to process, which could result in quicker publication. Letters
also may be sent to P.O. Box 2048, Salem, OR 97308.
employees need to go back to
work. Most people are being, and
will continue to be, very cautious
as long as this epidemic lasts.
Let’s give businesses the same
opportunity she is giving schools.
I challenge her to now end
anger as a means to their own ends.
We stopped talking with and lis-
tening to each other. We have slapped
vile labels on our neighbors and turned
them into irredeemable enemies. And,
when times are desperate, instinct dic-
tates we deal harshly with an enemy.
Each of us passes through history
so briefly that we often don’t appreci-
ate the trials endured by previous gen-
erations. America has a fiery history.
We’ve been here before.
Time and again our ancestors
learned that there are more things that
unite us than divide us; that we can
respectfully disagree; that if not friends,
we are not enemies; that the legitimacy
of an argument is not determined by
the force with which it is made; that we
can restore trust in our institutions; that
no mob rules.
We can pull ourselves from the
brink. We must stop this now.
the ban before people and private
businesses go bankrupt.
Most sincerely,
Liz VanLeeuwen
Linn County State
Representative 1981-1999
Halsey, Ore.
OVID-19 has brought dif-
ficult challenges for food
producers. It has also
brought a heightened realiza-
tion by the public of how essen-
tial food production is and how
important farmers and farmwork-
ers are. What I wish more people
realized is how burgeoning labor
and regulatory costs are driv-
ing Oregon family farmers out of
business.
Even before these challenging
times, underlying economic prob-
lems have been increasing, partic-
ularly for family farms in Oregon
that raise labor-intensive crops
like vegetables, fruit, wine grapes,
nursery stock, and dairy products.
On these farms, labor can cost
60% of total farm expenses. While
market forces impact producers in
most states about the same, gov-
ernment-imposed costs have made
Oregon the most expensive state
in the U.S. to farm in if you have
employees.
Farmworkers certainly deserve
a decent living wage for the hard
work they perform, and also
for the incredible contributions
they make to our vibrant, abun-
dant and sustainable food supply.
USDA determines the “regional
weighted average hourly rate for
crops and livestock” (prevailing
wage) annually. It found wages
paid in Oregon and Washing-
ton were the highest in the U.S.
for the last three years, pushed up
by our minimum wage. Oregon
wages at $15.83 for 2019 were
a full $2-per-hour more than the
U.S. average for farmworkers —
and even $4-per-hour more than
some states.
This prevailing wage is what
the Department of Labor uses
to set the wage rate or Adverse
Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) for
the agricultural guestworker pro-
gram for the next year. From 2010
to 2020, the AEWR increased
50% in Oregon, making $15.83
the starting wage for guestworkers
and the minimum wage for any
farmworkers working on a farm
with an H-2A guestworker pro-
gram. During the same period,
wage growth was only 25%
across the U.S. economy. Unfor-
tunately for farm employers, com-
modity prices are not increas-
ing to cover these enormous labor
costs.
Base wages are only part of
the cost of farm labor. Other Ore-
gon-mandated programs, such as
Paid Sick Leave, add additional
costs to our farms and are not paid
in most other states. Also because
of housing shortages and the high
cost of housing in Oregon, many
farmers are providing housing
rent free with utilities paid, which
equates to an employee benefit
(and employer cost) of up to $10
per hour.
Further undermining farm
profitability is the cost of regu-
latory compliance. Regulation is
important to ensure the safety of
employees, our food supply, and
our environment. But the contin-
ual onslaught of new and revised
GUEST
VIEW
Mike
McCarthy
regulations imposes such chal-
lenges that many are leaving
farming. Fifty mandated local,
state, federal and international
regulatory programs are required
for farmers. Many of these pro-
grams are unique to farming and
are not a burden on other busi-
nesses. Costs for a medium-sized
farm can be between $50,000 and
$100,000 per year for compliance
materials, supplies and particu-
larly a farmer’s time, much of that
unpaid. Even modest family farms
now need to hire HR, tax and reg-
ulatory professionals to keep up.
This hostile regulatory envi-
ronment hurts family farms in
Oregon. Oregon had the greatest
increase of all Western states in
farm bankruptcies in the last year.
Most Western states have higher
on-farm income than Oregon, and
Oregon’s individual farm income
is much less than the average for
U.S. farms. USDA data shows Net
Cash Income for Oregon farms
was less in 2019 than in 2015.
Further burdening farms, the state
legislature over this same period
imposed a tax on gross income in
Oregon.
Farmers can seldom, if ever,
push these additional costs up
the “food chain.” Some farms
can help profitability with direct
or niche marketing, but these
are small markets for only a few
farmers. Most Americans buy
food at supermarkets, so most
farms have to sell to those chains.
Just five supermarket chains buy
half of the U.S. produce; this
monopolistic market pushes down
the prices paid to farmers.
The low prices consumers pay
for food in the U.S. (just 9% of
disposable income, the lowest in
the world) create an imbalance for
farmers between what they pay
for labor, farm supplies, and reg-
ulatory compliance and what they
receive for food produced.
Every elected official in Ore-
gon says they love and support
family farms. But Oregon’s con-
stantly increasing burdens of new
taxes, government-imposed wage
rates and labor policies, and reg-
ulatory costs are pushing family
farms out of existence.
We want to keep farming, but
if our state government policies
continue to make us non-prof-
itable and non-competitive, we
are left with a sad choice. Leave
farming or leave Oregon.
Mike McCarthy is a first-gen-
eration farmer in Hood River
County, Ore., and has raised
apples, pears, cherries and cat-
tle for 40 years. He is a member
of the Oregon Farm Bureau State
Board and has a master’s degree
from Oregon State University
and a Ph.D. from Michigan State
University, both in agriculture.