Friday, April 16, 2021
CapitalPress.com 3
Legislative deadlines won’t
apply to Oregon ag overtime bill
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — The debate over
whether Oregon farmworkers
should be paid higher overtime
wages may last until the end of
the legislative session.
House Bill 2358, which would
end the agricultural overtime
exemption, has been moved to the
House Rules Committee, where
it won’t be subject to legislative
deadlines that cull legislative pro-
posals at various stages in the
session.
The legislative session must
adjourn by June 27.
The House Committee on
Business and Labor has voted
7-4 to make the referral without
recommendation as to the bill’s
approval.
Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene,
said it’s “imperative” to move for-
ward on the issue during the 2021
legislative session and that it was
“advantageous to both sides for
the conversation to continue.”
“I worry about the conse-
quences of inaction, at this point,”
he said.
All four Republicans on the
committee voted against moving
the bill.
The matter is “complex” and
will require “significant invest-
Andrea Johnson
Workers harvest Oregon winegrapes in this file photo. A bill that
would end the Oregon agriculture industry’s exemption from high-
er overtime wages won’t face legislative deadlines this session.
ment” by all sides to arrive at a
potential solution, said Rep. Dan-
iel Bonham, R-The Dallas.
Bonham said the discus-
sion over the bill belongs in the
House Committee on Business
and Labor and he’d prefer if a
workgroup came up with another
proposal for a future legislative
session.
“I think there’s too much to
consider to think we can get
through this in the next two
months,” Bonham said.
Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Clack-
amas, said that agricultural over-
time is a “human rights issue”
on which “the optics are hor-
rible,” adding that lawmakers
should make progress “sooner
than later.”
“Just because someone said
they can’t take something eco-
nomically doesn’t mean they’re
not there from a human rights
perspective,” Bynum said. “But
we have to get there from the
human rights perspective as well
as the economic perspective. This
absolutely needs to move forth.
How and when are the major
questions.”
WSDA seeks invasive hornet
quarantine, power to attack nests
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Washington State Depart-
ment of Agriculture plans to pro-
hibit trafficking in live hornets, a
quarantine inspired by Asian giant
hornets and other invasive hornets
that eat fruit and kill pollinators.
The department says it’s unaware
that any business imports live hor-
nets, but hornets are bred elsewhere
in the world and served as a delicacy
or sold as a health supplement.
“It would be a problem if some-
body did try to do it,” department
spokeswoman Karla Salp said
Tuesday. “A quarantine would give
us a tool to stop it.”
Washington has no native hor-
nets of the genus Vespa. The com-
monly found bald-faced hornet
belongs to the family Vespidae,
related to the yellowjacket and not
a true hornet.
The Asian giant hornets seen in
Whatcom County beginning in late
2019 are related to several hornets
that would be a problem for farmers
if they gained a foothold in Wash-
ington, according to the department.
Under a quarantine, researchers
could get state permits to work on
live hornets. Otherwise, transport-
ing or receiving a live hornet in the
state would be forbidden.
Along with a quarantine, the
department plans to adopt a rule
allowing it to go onto private prop-
erty and eradicate invasive hornet
nests. Until the hornets are gone,
the department would enforce a
restricted zone within 20 meters —
about 65 feet — of the nest.
The department received per-
mission last fall from a landowner
to vacuum Asian giant hornets from
a tree cavity. Four days later, the
department hauled away the tree
and later found more hornets inside.
“This will make it explicitly clear
that we have the authority to go in
and deal with an infestation,” Salp
said.
Salp said the department won’t
force people from their homes,
though it does hope to prevent nests
from becoming tourist attractions.
Weather, obstacles and equip-
ment availability could delay
assaulting the nest, though the
department anticipates eradication
and clean up would take no more
than two weeks.
Businesses may have to close
as the department restricts the area,
though the department hopes mer-
chants would be grateful to have
nests gone. The department would
pay for removal.
Hornets, even those smaller than
Asian giant hornets, are harmful to
humans, according to the depart-
ment. The venom can be toxic.
Unlike bees, hornets can repeatedly
sting.
$1.25 million in chlorpyrifos alternatives funding clears initial Oregon hurdle
would get $400,000 to con-
duct field trials of replace-
ment pesticides.
The proposal will now
be considered by the Joint
Committee on Ways and
Means, which makes budget
decisions.
Most uses of chlorpyrifos
will be phased out over three
years under an ODA rule
enacted last year in response
to concerns over the chem-
ical’s neurological impacts
on humans. However, grow-
ers of numerous specialty
crops still rely on the chemi-
cal for pest control.
“Without effective alter-
natives, farm and ranch fam-
ilies face crop losses and
could even lose access to
domestic and international
markets,” said Rep. Shelly
Boshart-Davis, R-Albany,
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
With chlorpyrifos insec-
ticides coming under new
restrictions in Oregon, the
farm industry is pushing
for increased research into
alternative products and
methods.
A bill that would direct
$1.25 million toward those
studies recently cleared an
important initial hurdle, with
the House Agriculture and
Natural Resources Com-
mittee unanimously recom-
mending approval.
Under House Bill 3249,
the state’s Department of
Agriculture would receive
$800,000 to establish a grant
program for chlorpyrifos
alternatives research, while
Oregon State University
Associated Press File
A bill that would direct $1.25 million for research into
alternatives to chlorpyrifos insecticides has cleared an
initial hurdle in Oregon.
the bill’s chief sponsor.
Research, field trials
and federal registration of
alternative pesticides are
expected to take up to seven
years per crop, so the studies
need to begin as soon as pos-
sible, she said.
Grass and clover seed
farmers don’t have many
registered pesticides at their
disposal and could experi-
ence yield losses of 30-40%
without effective alterna-
tives to chlorpyrifos, said
Roger Beyer, director of the
Oregon Seed Council.
Other crop sectors are
also likely to experience
serious impacts from restric-
tions on the insecticide, said
Katie Murray, executive
director of the Oregonians
for Food and Shelter agri-
business group.
Mint producers are esti-
mated to spend about $1.5
million to $3 million in
replacement costs, which
doesn’t even account for
reduced crop yields, she
said.
In strawberry fields
infested with symphylans
— soil-dwelling pests — the
yield losses are expected to
be total due to a lack of alter-
natives, resulting in losses
of more than $4 million to
farmers, Murray said.
“We’re leaving our grow-
ers at a disadvantage when
these restrictions are incon-
sistent with federal regula-
tion,” she said.
The U.S. Environmen-
tal Protection Agency had
planned to stop the use
of chlorpyrifos under the
Obama
administration
but then reversed course
when the Trump admin-
istration came into office
in 2017.
The 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals ordered the
Environmental Protection
Agency to ban the insecti-
cide in 2018 but reconsid-
ered that decision the fol-
lowing year. Last year, the
agency decided to continue
allowing chlorpyrifos use on
an interim basis.
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