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Friday, August 20, 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
The two languages of climate change
T
he latest update by the Intergov-
ernmental Panel on Climate
Change contained few surpris-
es. The average worldwide tempera-
ture will continue to creep upward.
However, it will increase more
slowly as the production of green-
house gases such as carbon dioxide
and methane is reduced.
What is notable is not the contents
of the report so much as the reac-
tions to it. Scientists agreed that there
wasn’t much new in it and said so.
A few pointed out the need to plan
for ways to offset the impacts of a
warmer planet.
Politicians, however, seemed to
be leaping for the panic button. They
wanted drastic action now or the end
of the world was we know it would
soon be at hand.
It was as though they had read two
different reports and responded in two
different languages.
For example, Cliff Mass, an atmo-
spheric scientist at the University
of Washington, pointed out that as
the average tempera-
ture rises the snowpack
in the mountains will
likely decrease even as
precipitation increases.
The key for irrigated
agriculture, he said, is
to increase the amount
of water storage.
“We can deal with it with more res-
ervoir capacity,” he told Capital Press
reporter Don Jenkins. “We’ve been
lazy. We’ve used the snowpack as a
reservoir.”
Such an analysis seems reasonable.
We have long advocated more water
storage across the West in the form of
reservoirs and aquifer recharge. With
smaller snowpacks likely, that only
seems prudent.
“The world isn’t going to end,”
he said. “The report’s really quite
underwhelming. It’s not as hyped as
the headlines.”
Politicians, on the other hand,
seemed to read much more into the
report and responded in a different
language.
“This groundbreaking report makes
it clear that the extreme weather now
being felt around the globe and across
Washington state will look mild com-
pared to what’s ahead if we don’t act,”
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said in
a press release. “The next generation
deserves to be able to enjoy the bliss
of a Puget Sound summer day, not be
trapped inside by triple-digit tem-
peratures and smoky skies.”
To their credit, scientists such as
Mass are most interested in the facts
and initiating a discussion of what
we all can do to minimize the impact
of climate change on everyone,
including the farmers and ranchers
who produce our food.
And the politicians? Well, they have
their reasons to go to their grab bag of
hyperbole to promote drastic measures
and push through political agendas.
Instead of addressing the major
causes of climate change — such as
China, which produces 28% of the
world’s carbon dioxide — and seeking
out the best ways to cope with climate
change, they want to drop everything to
pursue paths that at best will only slow
climate change, not stop it.
The U.S. produces 15% of the car-
bon dioxide and its carbon footprint is
shrinking, while China’s is growing.
Providing constituents with a
Chicken Little version of science will
not solve the problem. It will only cause
more confusion, mostly among the
politicians.
Lawmakers take break,
but key dairy issues
await their return
Our View
I
Holly Dillemuth/For the Capital Press
Donnie Wagner left Philomath in the Willamette Valley early Saturday morning to haul hay to Malin, Ore.,
where it was distributed to farmers. He was part of a #TimberUnity effort to help Klamath Basin farmers who
had their water cut off in the midst of a drought.
F
Farm people help
their neighbors
armers and ranchers have a long history
of helping neighbors in need, so it wasn’t
surprising last weekend to see a convoy of
trucks roll into Oregon’s Klamath County loaded
with hay for stockmen whose own feed supplies
have withered for lack of water.
No better tradition exists in rural America, and all
those involved in the effort deserve a hand.
Farmers in the Klamath Basin have been hit by a
double whammy this season. Already suffering from
severe drought, their situation became dire when the
Bureau of Reclamation shut off water to the Klam-
ath Project, a sprawling irrigation system that serves
200,000 acres of farmland in Southern Oregon and
Northern California.
The effort was organized by #TimberUnity. The
trucks carried more than 170 tons of feed. Another
convoy on July 24 delivered nearly 2 tons of feed.
“These are our farmers, and they need help,” said
Tasha Webb, #TimberUnity secretary and chair of
the group’s disaster relief committee. “The dona-
tions have just been amazing.”
Along with hay for ranchers, Webb said
#TimberUnity began collecting donations for vic-
tims of the Bootleg Fire on July 24.
The group distributed 78 Blue Barrels in 40 com-
munities, where people could drop off things like
camping equipment, rubber boots, generators and
batteries.
Webb said they have teamed up with the Cascade
Relief Team to collect the barrels and bring dona-
tions to the Bly Fire Department, where a resource
center was established for victims.
Last year, farmers in the Klamath Basin sent 170
tons of hay north to help Willamette Valley produc-
ers who were scrambling to house and feed animals
displaced by massive wildfires.
This story should be a tonic to readers who are
regular consumers of the nation’s media and who
feel that they have been bombarded by little else
but bad news in recent months. But again, this kind
of effort is nothing out of the ordinary in the ag
community.
It’s what farm people do.
t’s that time of year for
members of Congress to
head home to their dis-
tricts, take tours and talk to
constituents. It gives lawmak-
ers a chance to take the pulse
of what is happening back
home after being in the D.C.
bubble nearly every week
since January.
While lawmakers will be
busy crisscrossing their dis-
tricts this month — includ-
ing visits to farms, hopefully
— a number of dairy-related
items will be waiting for their
return to Washington.
First and foremost, Con-
gress must pass an appropria-
tions bill by Sept. 30 to fund
the government for the 2022
fiscal year, which begins on
Oct. 1. This is always a con-
tentious battle over the price
tag and what “policy rid-
ers,” or unrelated provisions
that change policy, should
be included. These funding
bills are generally split into
12 smaller subcommittee
bills and eventually packaged
together when they go to a
full House vote.
While the Senate has just
begun considering funding
bills, the House has finished
a package of seven subcom-
mittee bills and passed two
others separately, completing
the majority of the appropria-
tions bills.
The “Agriculture, Rural
Development, Food and
Drug Administration, and
Related Agencies” funding
bill was part of the package
that passed the House. The
bill would boost the fund-
ing for USDA, the Food and
Drug Administration and
related agencies by around
10% from fiscal year 2021.
Also included in the bill
report is language direct-
ing FDA “to provide clarity
around the labeling of plant-
based foods that use tradi-
tional meat, dairy, and egg
terminology.” Edge supports
this language and hopes to
see the Biden administration
address the issue of rampant
mislabeling of dairy imi-
tation products that would
never be tolerated in other
GUEST
VIEW
Mykel
Wedig
food sectors.
With workforce top of
mind for most of our mem-
bers, Edge was happy to see a
provision included in another
House appropriations bill
that would allow year-round
employees to access H-2A
visas. It was included in the
bill that funds the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security.
The provision was added as
an amendment in committee
and was included in the final
House version.
Many members of Con-
gress oppose making any
changes to the H-2A pro-
gram without also address-
ing employment conditions
for visa holders. Regardless,
it is positive to see movement
on the H-2A issue while the
Farm Workforce Moderniza-
tion Act, a bill Edge strongly
supports, is halted for further
discussions in the Senate.
To end with some even
better news, a recently imple-
mented FDA rule would
amend yogurt’s standard of
identity — something the
yogurt industry has been
seeking for more than two
decades. The new legal defi-
nition states that cream, milk,
partially skimmed milk, skim
milk and the reconstituted ver-
sions of these ingredients may
be used alone or in combina-
tion as the basic dairy ingredi-
ents in yogurt.
It goes on to specify which
other additives and levels of
cultures are acceptable. Edge
applauds this move and looks
forward to FDA continuing
the process of updating the
standards of identity of other
dairy products.
Mykel Wedig is associate
director of government affairs
at the Edge Dairy Farmer
Cooperative, based in Green
Bay, Wis. It is one of the top
cooperatives in the country
based on milk volume.
Vaccine skepticism isn’t a rural/urban issue
L
ast week, Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown reinstituted
the mandate that Ore-
gonians must wear masks in
public spaces to halt the spread
of the COVID Delta variant that
threatens to overwhelm hospi-
tals in some areas.
In announcing the mandate,
Brown singled out rural elected
officials for not taking steps to
curb the spread of the virus.
“I expected local elected offi-
cials to step up and do the right
thing,” Brown said. “What
is clear is they are not taking
action. That is why we are mov-
ing forward.”
Brown has misjudged
many local officials who have
refused to institute their own
mask mandates. They did take
action in the interest of their
constituents — just not in the
way preferred by the gover-
nor. Whether they made the
right choice will never be
known because Brown has
made the opposite decision
for them.
It is also wrong to suggest
that vaccination resistance is
found mostly in rural areas, or
that it is the result of misinfor-
mation or misguided ideology.
It is true when measured as a
percentage, the rates of COVID
vaccination are lower in Ore-
gon’s rural counties than the
urban counties. It is also true
that many rural communities,
particularly in the east, are more
openly resistant to Salem’s man-
dates. But, by sheer numbers,
the bulk of the state’s unvacci-
nated adults live in more urban
areas.
Our combing of state data
shows that more than half of
unvaccinated adults — 56% —
live in the state’s five most pop-
ulous, and most liberal, counties.
That suggests to us that deciding
not to get a COVID shot is more
of a matter of personal choice
than an ideological statement.
We have said at the out-
set that people who are able
should get vaccinated. While
we respect the right of informed
adults to weigh their own
options and decide what is right
for themselves, we think the
vaccine is the best option.
Turning COVID vaccinations
into a right/left, rural/urban bat-
tle is a mistake — one that will
only harden the resolve of many
who are yet to be vaccinated.