Friday, April 2, 2021
CapitalPress.com 7
Radicchio growers ponder vision for future organization
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Some growers can’t
raise enough radicchio for
their customers. An hour’s
drive away, others are still
explaining what it is.
Such are the circum-
stances growers of the purple
chicory face as they decide
what a Pacific Northwest
Radicchio Association might
look like.
“Lots of people have spo-
ken really eloquently over the
years about the deeper prom-
ise of Northwest radicchio as
a year-round crop, as some-
thing that substitutes for Cal-
ifornia-grown salad during
the winter,” Duvall, Wash.,
farmer Siri Erickson-Brown
said. “It goes really deep, and
it’s brought us all together
in a way that I think is very
unusual for a vegetable.”
Erickson-Brown and her
husband, Jason Salvo, are
grower-leaders in forming
the association.
Growers held their first
meeting on Zoom March 27.
About 25 people attended,
including farmers from Can-
ada, Michigan and South
Carolina.
“There is a lot of radicchio
action going on,” said Lane
Selman, founder of the Culi-
nary Breeding Network and
an Oregon State University
professor of practice, provid-
ing a recap of efforts to boost
the crop so far, in the region
and internationally.
The meeting was a casual
and open discussion to get
farmer feedback. The actual
form of the association is
still to be determined, Erick-
son-Brown said.
“We get to decide,” she
said.
The biggest needs include
continued education for
growers through events and
field days about varieties,
timing and seed dates.
“It sounds like we know
what we need — we need
help with selling, we need
help with growing,” Erick-
son-Brown said.
CHICORY WEEK
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SURVEY
https://www.chicory-
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https://www.surveymon-
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Contact Siri Erick-
son-Brown at siri@
localrootsfarm.com
Shawn Linehan/Culinary Breeding Network
Pacific Northwest radicchio farmers are considering an
association to help develop production and marketing
opportunities.
An association’s duties
could include marketing
radicchio to local customers
and stores, and to restaurants
on the East Coast.
“We’ve got this amaz-
ing cult of radicchio here
in the Northwest, but we
have a skewed perspec-
tive,” Erickson-Brown said.
“What would it look like in
the United States if the same
amount of radicchio love was
present all over the place?”
A coordinated effort could
brand Northwest radicchio as
a premier option, similar to
the advertising campaign for
California raisins, she said.
Another
consideration
could be indoor growing
facilities or practices to raise
it year-round.
“How many of us wish we
could sell more radicchio?”
Erickson-Brown
asked.
“If suddenly a market just
appeared, would you expand
production? How much more
radicchio are people inter-
ested in growing?”
The organizers discussed
continued sponsorship of
an annual Seattle event,
Sagra del Radicchio, with
participating growers and
restaurants. Smaller events
are in the works for Bell-
ingham, Walla Walla and
Spokane.
The current effort uses
funding from a $250,000
USDA specialty crop block
grant through the Wash-
ington State Department
of Agriculture, designed to
increase awareness and con-
sumption of radicchio.
Selman plans to pursue
other grants.
Erickson-Brown
wel-
comes feedback from grow-
ers, and those interested in
getting involved in a steer-
ing committee for the asso-
ciation. Another meeting is
slated for the fall.
“This is really the phase
where we’re envisioning and
exploring needs, possibilities
and opportunities,” she said.
“We’re experiencing a radic-
chio renaissance. Everybody
loves radicchio in the North-
west ... It’s very exciting.”
USDA walks back
its eartag mandate
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
USDA Animal and
Plant Health Inspection
Service announced on
Wednesday it is pulling
back on mandating the use
of radio frequency iden-
tification eartags on cat-
tle and bison in interstate
commerce.
It will instead use the
rulemaking process for
any future action related
to the proposal.
The agency’s deci-
sion is a win for R-CALF
USA, which filed suit
against USDA over the
agency’s first attempt to
mandate the use of RFID
eartags with an April
2019 notice.
Represented by the
New Civil Liberties Alli-
ance, R-CALF alleged
the mandate violates cur-
rent traceability regu-
lations that allow other
forms of identification.
Within weeks, APHIS
withdrew that mandate but
issued essentially the same
mandate in July 2020.
“Today’s
announce-
ment is good news for cat-
tle producers, as it means
the impending threat of a
costly RFID mandate is
now removed,” Bill Bull-
ard, R-CALF’s CEO, said
in a statement.
“But we must not stop
defending the rights of
producers because it’s
clear the agency fully
intends to continue efforts
to force this costly man-
date upon America’s inde-
pendent cattle producers,”
he said.
APHIS’ 2020 notice
stated RFID eartags would
become the only identifi-
cation devices approved as
an official eartag for cattle
and bison on Jan. 1, 2023.
Until the agency takes
further action, cattle and
bison producers can con-
tinue to use metal or plas-
tic eartags, brands, tattoos,
group/lot
identification
and backtags authorized
under current law.
APHIS made the deci-
sion to go through the
rulemaking process after
reviewing more than 900
public comments on its
2020 notice, the agency
said in its announcement.
R-CALF
filed
an
amended lawsuit follow-
ing APHIS’ withdrawal of
its original mandate, alleg-
ing the agency also vio-
lated the Federal Advi-
sory Committee Act by
relying exclusively on a
hand-picked group of indi-
viduals who have been
advocating the use of
RFID tags — including
eartag manufacturers.
The lawsuit contends
the Federal Advisory
Committee Act requires
balanced representation on
advisory committees.
R-CALF attorney Har-
riet Hageman of the New
Civil Liberties Alliance
said her organization is
pleased APHIS is coming
to the realization it must
follow the law when con-
sidering animal identifi-
cation and traceability.
NCLA is a nonprofit and
nonpartisan public interest
law firm.
“Mandating
RFID
requirements through an
illegal process doesn’t
serve anyone in the live-
stock industry, least of all
our cattle and bison pro-
ducers,” she said.
Regulated identifica-
tion applies to sexually
intact animals over 18
months old.
APHIS stated it contin-
ues to believe the RFID
tags will provide the cat-
tle industry with the best
protection against the
rapid spread of animal dis-
ease and it will continue to
encourage the use of RFID
tags while rulemaking is
pending.
USDA
The new USDA rules for how organic livestock and poultry are raised may be reinstated.
Organic livestock rule back on the table
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
A hotly debated organic
animal welfare rule finalized
during the Obama adminis-
tration and quashed by the
Trump administration seems
to be getting another look.
The Organic Livestock
and Poultry Practices Final
Rule included new standards
for raising, transporting and
slaughtering animals.
It was set to go into effect
in March 2017 but was
delayed by an executive
order when President Trump
put implementation of all
pending regulations on hold.
USDA delayed imple-
mentation again in May
and November 2017 and
withdrew the rule in March
2018, stating it exceeds the
agency’s statutory author-
ity and could have a nega-
tive effect on voluntary par-
ticipation in the National
Organic Program.
The Organic Trade Asso-
ciation
challenged
the
delays in court in Septem-
ber 2017, amending its com-
plaint twice and challenging
the withdrawal of the rule.
In December, OTA filed
a motion to extend the dead-
lines for summary judg-
ment briefing to permit the
incoming administration
time to evaluate the case.
The court granted the
motion, and OTA and
USDA in February sought
a 30-day stay to explore the
potential for an agreement
that would allow resolution
without further litigation.
OTA and USDA on
March 22 jointly requested
another 30-day extension in
the deadline of a joint sta-
tus report, saying they have
conferred on several occa-
sions regarding a potential
amicable resolution.
A spokesperson for OTA
told Capital Press the asso-
ciation can’t comment on
ongoing negotiations but
its goal from the beginning
has been full reinstatement
of the final rule.
The rule has also gar-
nered support from four
Democratic
lawmakers
who have sent a letter to
President Biden to rein-
state the rule. The letter
was signed by Sens. Pat-
rick Leahy of Vermont and
Jon Tester of Montana and
Reps. Chellie Pingree of
Maine and Peter DeFazio
of Oregon.
By withdrawing the final
rule, the Trump adminis-
tration “erroneously con-
cluded that the Organic
Food Production Act does
not authorize existing fed-
eral organic livestock and
stand-alone animal welfare
standards,” they said.
“We urge the adminis-
tration to take this opportu-
nity to collaborate with the
organic industry by reinstat-
ing the final rule and restor-
ing organic policymaking
authority to its proper role,”
they said.
The OTA and other
groups jointly sent a letter to
Susan Rice, director of the
U.S. Policy Council, ask-
ing her to rescind the pre-
vious administration’s with-
drawal of the final rule and
reinstate it.
“These steps are neces-
sary to restore consumer
confidence in the USDA
Organic seal, improve ani-
mal welfare, protect the
environment and support
thousands of family farms
that are the backbone of the
organic industry,” they said.
Conventional livestock
and poultry groups, how-
ever, fiercely opposed the
rule, citing health threats to
animals and the public. They
argued its animal-welfare
standards aren’t based on
science and are outside the
scope of the Organic Food
Production Act, which they
said regulates only feeding
and medication practices.
In addition, some con-
tended the rule would have
vilified
conventionally
raised livestock.
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