EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
Friday, January 29, 2021
Volume 94, Number 5
CapitalPress.com
$2.00
WHY DID THE
CHICKEN
CROSS THE
Courtesy of Aviagen
Chickens are the No. 1 live animal
traded worldwide.
WORLD?
Inside the global live animal transport industry
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Groups such as R-CALF USA,
Cattle Producers of Washington
and Stevens County Cattlemen’s
Association are urging the U.S.
International Trade Commis-
sion to recognize imports have
seriously harmed blueberry
growers.
Ranchers back
blueberry
growers in
trade claim
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
W
hen day-old chicks
cross the world, they
usually travel in
boxes packed inside
a Boeing or Airbus
wide-body jet. Tufts of yellow fluff
poke through air holes. Against the
roar of the cargo plane, there’s a
chorus of peeping.
In 2019, according to Renan
Zhuang, an economist at the USA
Poultry & Egg Export Council,
America exported 62 million chicks
and 79 million dozen hatching eggs
worldwide valued at $595 million.
Chicks were shipped to Can-
ada, Mexico, Indonesia, Guatemala,
Vietnam and elsewhere to serve as
breeding stock for the meat and egg
industries.
Nicolo Cinotti, secretary general
of the International Poultry Coun-
cil in Rome, said these breeders are
“essential” to ensuring an adequate
poultry supply in many regions of
the world.
Chickens are the largest cate-
gory of live animals traded glob-
ally, but overall trade in live ani-
mals is a colossal — and growing
— $21 billion industry. Accord-
ing to the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization, in 2017,
more than 1.9 billion live animals
were shipped worldwide, a 140%
increase from two decades ago.
But the industry is wrought with
conflicts and controversies, ranging
from disease restrictions and logis-
tical hurdles to calls for bans on
live animal transports deemed inhu-
mane. Some experts say the indus-
try isn’t going away, but it can and
should be made better.
Courtesy of Aviagen
Live chicks are put on an airplane.
Clayton Agri-Marketing Inc.
Swine are loaded for the flight to China in 2017.
Off to the races
The market for specialty race
horses is one of the fastest-growing,
most profitable sectors.
According to U.S. Livestock
Genetics Export Inc., a nonprofit
that matches international produc-
ers with U.S. breeders that offer
high-quality genetics, horse exports
Courtesy of Jeannette Beranger
U.S. Livestock Genetics Export Inc.
See Transport, Page 9
Specialty race horse genetics from the U.S. are in high
demand around the world.
Jeannette Beranger of
The Livestock Conservan-
cy says although rare and
heritage breeds make up
only a small portion of to-
tal imports and exports,
they are an important part
of the industry. Here, she
holds her Crevecoeur.
Some cattlemen are cheering on
blueberry farmers who are seeking
protection from foreign competi-
tors, countering the jeers from sec-
tors of U.S. agriculture that depend
on serene trade relations.
Almost two dozen organizations,
led by R-CALF USA, have sent a
letter urging the U.S. International
Trade Commission to recognize that
imported blueberries are seriously
harming U.S. growers.
R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard said
Monday the letter was inspired by
one sent in December by 31 farm
associations and companies warning
the commission to not start a trade
war over blueberries.
“We felt a need to counter that,”
Bullard said. “We respect and admire
the blueberry farmers for taking this
action, which is an action we may be
taking in the future.”
Blueberry farmers in Washing-
ton, Oregon, California and else-
where claim foreign blueberries
flood the U.S. market in the spring
and fall, suppressing what should
be profitable early and late harvest
prices.
U.S. companies that process or
grow foreign blueberries blame low
prices on U.S. farmers competing
with each other.
The Trump
administration
ordered the trade commission to
investigate whether imports are or
will seriously injure U.S. blueberry
farmers.
The commission is due to make a
determination by Feb. 11 and submit
a report to the Biden White House
on possible trade actions, such as tar-
iffs or quotas, by March 29.
Associations representing com-
modities that depend on oversea cus-
tomers — such as apples, wheat and
soybeans — argue that tariffs on for-
eign blueberries could lead to retali-
ation that hurts other sectors of U.S.
agriculture.
R-CALF’s opposing view was
signed by groups such as the Cat-
tle Producers of Washington and the
Stevens County Cattlemen’s Associ-
ation, whose members raise beef for
U.S. consumers.
The letter was also signed by
groups representing rural residents,
small farms and U.S. manufacturers,
including the Coalition for a Pros-
perous America.
Prosperous
America
CEO
Michael Stumo said the U.S.
See Blueberry, Page 9
Feds reassess Klamath Project operations
Agency finds no legal
right to curtail water
deliveries under ESA,
as in the past
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore.
— The U.S. Bureau of Rec-
lamation has no legal right to
curtail water deliveries con-
tracted for irrigators in the
Klamath Project to protect
endangered fish, according to
an analysis spearheaded by
outgoing Interior Secretary
David Bernhardt.
The findings, outlined in
a 41-page “reassessment”
of Klamath Project opera-
Holly Dillemuth/For the Capital Press
From left, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.; Bureau of Rec-
lamation Commissioner Brenda Burman; Secretary of
the Interior David Bernhardt; and U.S. Rep. Doug LaMal-
fa, R-Calif., talk July 9 with Klamath Falls-area farmers
about irrigation problems.
tions under the Endangered
Species Act, could prove
to be a game-changer for
basin farmers, said Paul
Simmons, executive direc-
tor of the Klamath Water
Users Association.
“When this is carried out
on the ground and incorpo-
rated into actual operations,
it should translate into a situ-
ation where the bureau is not
imposing the same severe
(water) shortages as it has
in the past under the ESA,”
Simmons said. “It is a pretty
basic, fundamental and I
think important change in
that way.”
2020 was a painful year
for the Klamath Project, as
irrigators saw their water
allotment reduced to less
than half of normal demand.
Bernhardt, the Interior
secretary under former Pres-
ident Donald Trump, visited
the basin in July to discuss
long-term water solutions
after more than 2,000 peo-
ple attended a tractor convoy
and rally, voicing farmers’
frustrations.
“He understood what the
issue was,” Simmons remem-
bers of the meeting. “I’ll say
that we had been pushing the
need for this kind of reevalu-
ation for a while.”
The bureau operates the
Klamath Project, which pro-
vides water for more than
200,000 acres of irrigated
farmland in Southern Oregon
and Northern California —
powering a $1.3 billion agri-
cultural economy in Klam-
ath, Siskiyou and Modoc
counties.
The ESA requires the
bureau to consult with the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice and National Marine
Fisheries Service to ensure
operations do not harm
endangered fish, namely
shortnose and Lost River
suckers in Upper Klamath
See Water, Page 9