Friday, July 16, 2021
CapitalPress.com 9
Impact: Order has received mixed responses from food sector
Continued from Page 1
competitors.
• Ordered USDA to report
on market concentration in
seeds and other agricultural
inputs with the intent that
giants like Bayer and Syn-
genta won’t charge unfair
prices.
Following the order,
USDA announced it will
offer $500 million in grants,
loans and other assistance
to help new meat and poul-
try processors enter the mar-
ket, along with $155 mil-
lion invested in existing
processors.
The order received a
mixed response from the
food sector.
Ethan Lane, vice presi-
dent of government affairs
at the National Cattle-
men’s Beef Association,
called the order “a vital
next step toward securing
a steady beef supply chain
and increasing opportuni-
ties for profitability for our
producers.”
American Farm Bureau
President Zippy Duvall
thanked Biden for the order,
specifically for the supply
chain and machinery repair
provisions, but added his
team would “closely exam-
ine” all potential impacts.
Scott Bennett, congres-
sional relations director, said
AFBF is “very supportive”
of investments in meatpack-
ing capacity and excited for
additional clarity on “Prod-
uct of USA” labels. He said
rules about non-competitive
agreements could be good
as long as they don’t unin-
tentionally hurt specific live-
stock sectors.
Julie Anna Potts, CEO of
the North American Meat
Institute, which represents
processors, warned the new
regulations would have
“unintended consequences
for consumers and produc-
ers,” potentially increasing
the cost of food and opening
floodgates for litigation.
The U.S. Chamber of
Commerce was also critical.
“Our economy needs
both large and small busi-
nesses to thrive — not cen-
tralized government dic-
tates,” the chamber said in a
release. “In many industries,
size and scale are important
not only to compete, but also
to justify massive levels of
investment.”
Jim Monroe, spokes-
man for the National Pork
Producers Council, said it
would be premature to com-
ment on Biden’s order until
USDA has proposed specific
rules.
He did say, however,
NPPC “generally opposes
any regulations that interfere
with pork producer rights to
freely enter contractual rela-
tionships.” Monroe said he
can’t speculate yet whether
Biden’s order will interfere
with contracts.
Wine: ‘If your wine is not world-class, they are not going to buy it’
Continued from Page 1
High quality
Though their numbers are
small, Idaho winemakers have big
goals.
Gregg Alger of Huston Vine-
yards in southwest Idaho said the
state is producing “world-class”
wines and “can compete on a
world level.”
He said the industry is benefit-
ing as much from its commitment
to quality as from the state’s popu-
lation gains — the populace is up
17.3% in the past decade.
“You
could
have all the people
in the world come.
If your wine is not
world-class, they
are not going to
buy it,” he said.
Martin Fujishin
Martin
of Fujishin Fam-
Fujishin
ily Cellars and
Free Dog Winery
said more grapes
are being planted,
“and some of the
old vineyards are
Gregg Alger of Huston Vineyards near Caldwell, Idaho.
now being repur-
posed into newer
varieties, which is
really helping to
Melanie
propel the indus-
Krause
try forward.”
A shift from
white varieties to red is “driven
by consumer demand for new and
more well-suited varieties for our
region than what we had seen pre-
viously,” he said.
Hawkins said of his just-added
site: “In 1978, when they put that
vineyard in, the thought probably
was that the Idaho climate was bet-
ter for white, with a bit shorter grow-
ing season” compared to some other
regions.
“We have proven with our vine-
yard next to it that this is ideal” for
Courtesy of James and Sydney Nederend
reds, he said.
Brad Carlson/Capital Press
James and Sydney Nederend
Ron Bitner of Bitner Vineyards
grows 14.5 acres of his own grapes Bee scientist Ron Bitner, of Bitner Vineyards outside Caldwell, Ida- of Koenig Vineyards and Scoria
and 45 acres for another owner. ho, for years has worked on the industry’s promotion and research Vineyards.
He has done some replanting and sides.
red-focused brands,” James Ned-
white-to-red shifting at both sites in
the Caldwell-Marsing area, though website that its annual production said. “We are seeing a need for some erend said.
At Scoria this year, they added 6
more whites.”
more than half his client’s ground capacity is now 150,000 cases.
In 2010, Precept acquired the
Melanie Krause, winemaker and acres of Syrah, 1.5 acres of Mour-
remains in white grapes.
White grapes drove much of the Corus Estates & Vineyards brands co-owner at Cinder Winery in Gar- vèdre and a half-acre of Grenache,
growth of Ste. Chapelle into Idaho’s including the Sawtooth Winery in den City, said she sees a trend toward all reds. White grapes “wouldn’t
largest winery. The Symms family Nampa, the state’s second-largest “planting new acres with new or rel- fare well in our sandy, rocky soil
atively new varieties for the Snake and warm vineyard site,” James
winery.
sold it in the late 1990s.
The Baty family owns Winemak- River Valley, plus a lot of the old said.
“Dad had been to Germany,”
They have not added vineyard
Dar Symms said of his father, Dick ers LLC, Precept, and the Sawtooth classics.”
“We are starting to see those acres at Koenig, where “we are
Symms, who died a year ago. “He and Skyline vineyards. The vine-
really felt we could make great white yards, both in Nampa, are 400 acres plantings come to fruition,” she said. continuing to focus on our core
wines here. … He thought ours was combined and are the major suppli- “We are particularly excited about offerings of Syrah and Cabernet
a similar climate to parts of the ers to Ste. Chapelle, Sawtooth and the potential of wines getting even Sauvignon while increasing pro-
duction of Italian varieties like
Rhine in Germany, where they grew many other Idaho wineries, viticul- better over the next few years.”
turist and vineyard manager Jake
Nebbiolo from the exceptional
great Johannisburg Rieslings.”
Seeing red
Lanae Ridge Vineyard,” he said.
Ste. Chapelle’s 1978 building Cragin said.
Other growers continue to see All are reds.
“The general trend of the indus-
near Marsing was designed to pro-
duce 10,000 cases, “and by the early try in Idaho is that we’re not see- red — grapes, that is.
Williamson Orchards & Vine-
1980s, we were at 100,000,” prompt- ing whites taken out — but as new
James and Sydney Neder- yards in 2018 increased planted
ing an expansion, Dar Symms said.
vineyards go in and new acreage is end own Scoria Vineyards and acres from 55 to 70. Co-owner and
In 2012, Seattle-based Precept planted, people are putting in reds,” Koenig Vineyards in southwest vineyard manager Mike William-
son said plantings typically do not
Wine acquired Ste. Chapelle from Cragin said. His team plans to add Idaho.
“Our vines at both locations are produce the first year.
Ascentia Wine Estates of Healds- some red grapes in 2022 and “a lot”
burg, Calif. Ste. Chapelle says on its of new acres of whites in 2023, he thriving, and we will remain as
“In the second year, you can
Huston Vineyards
get some production sometimes,
depending on how the plants
do,” he said. “In years three and
four, you are getting close to full
production.”
Good conditions
IWC says grapes benefit from
Idaho’s hot days and cool nights
that balance acids and sugars, lim-
ited rain, and cold winters that pro-
mote gradual dormancy while lim-
iting pest and disease pressure.
Bitner, a longtime grape grower,
has one of 22 vineyard-sited
weather stations in Idaho. The
Boise State University-led project
started about six years ago. Sta-
tions track wind, sunlight, rainfall,
temperature and barometric pres-
sure as well as soil moisture and
temperature.
Stations track differences in
daily high and low temperatures,
and their accumulated growing-de-
gree days.
“And with this information,
the models can help predict pest
hatches of different kinds,” Bitner
said.
The system helps current and
prospective grape growers track a
site’s seasonal weather patterns to
optimize farming decisions.
Hawkins, who is retired from
Boise’s technology sector, said
the wine industry is benefit-
ing from the high-tech weather
stations.
“If there was concern our grow-
ing season was not long enough,
we’ve kind of dispelled that now,”
he said.
For example, Hawkins said,
if growers had access to similar
weather stations in past decades,
more of them may have planted
red grapes rather than earlier-ma-
turing whites.
Endangered: Marbled murrelets were listed as threatened in 1992
Continued from Page 1
across its nesting habitat.
“We’re relieved that after
so many missteps, the Ore-
gon Fish and Wildlife Com-
mission will finally move
forward with extending mar-
bled murrelets the full pro-
tection of endangered status
under state law,” said Quinn
Read, Oregon policy direc-
tor at the Center for Biolog-
ical Diversity.
Opponents countered that
uplisting was not warranted,
with current protections in
place that have led to modest
gains in both marbled mur-
relet habitat and population.
Marbled murrelets were
listed as threatened under
the federal ESA in 1992,
and listed as threatened by
ODFW in 1995.
ODFW staff recom-
mended against uplist-
ing the species, pointing to
data in its latest biological
assessment that shows mar-
bled murrelet populations
increased roughly 2.2%
per year between 2000 and
2019.
High-probability nest-
ing habitat also increased
from 1993 to 2017, accord-
ing to the assessment, from
471,220 acres to 517,686
acres, or 9.9%.
Sara Duncan, spokes-
woman for the Oregon For-
est and Industries Council,
a trade group representing
private forestland owners
and timber companies, said
the commission’s decision
“flies in the face of real-
ity and is a slap in the face
for rural Oregonians who
have made decades of costly
investments to protect spe-
cies at the expense of their
livelihoods.”
“The only conclusion one
can draw about a decision to
designate a species whose
population is increasing as
‘endangered’ is that it had
everything to do with poli-
tics and absolutely nothing
to do with science,” Duncan
said in a statement.
Seth Barnes, director of
forest policy for the OFIC,
testified during the commis-
sion’s virtual meeting, say-
ing that acreage taken out
of timber production and
set aside for species habi-
tat over the last two decades
“have only just begun to
show their early returns.”
John Sweet, a Coos
County commissioner and
vice chairman of the Council
of Forest Trust Land Coun-
ties, specified more than 3
million acres of state and
federal forestland that has
been taken out of timber
production, impacting rural
coastal communities.
“Keep in mind, this has
been at the cost of some of
our other populations, our
family and children, who
too often live in poverty
due to lack of job opportu-
nity,” Sweet said during his
testimony.
However, the same bio-
logical assessment con-
ducted by ODFW also sug-
gested future threats such
as climate change, adverse
ocean conditions, predation
and oil spills could put the
bird at greater jeopardy.
“Under the best of situ-
ations,” the agency wrote,
“a small population may
be able to sustain itself, but
if the cumulative effects or
even a single catastrophic
event occurs, a smaller
population may be unable
to recover to previous
levels.”
That is especially true
for a species like the mar-
bled murrelet, according to
ODFW. Marbled murrelets
do not breed every year, and
when they do, they lay only
a single egg, meaning pop-
ulations may not be able to
recover from catastrophe
quickly or easily.
“There’s nothing the-
oretical about the kind of
catastrophe that could doom
marbled murrelets to extinc-
tion,” Read said. “We have
to act now.”
Sristi Kamal, senior rep-
resentative for the North-
west Program at Defenders
of Wildlife, said the uplist-
ing decision was a long time
coming.
“Marbled murrelets face
significant habitat loss due
to excessive logging, and
warming ocean waters due
to climate change is impact-
ing the species ability to
forage and nest,” Kamal
said. “We applaud the com-
mission for taking a big
step in the right direction,
which will give this species
a much-needed opportunity
to recover in the state.”
As part of the uplisting
requirements, the Fish and
Wildlife Commission also
voted 5-1 to adopt amended
survival guidelines as pro-
posed by staff.