Capital Press
EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
Friday, October 1, 2021
Volume 94, Number 40
CapitalPress.com
$2.00
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Kim Garland Campbell, USDA Agricultural Research Service club wheat breeder.
AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB
Unique wheat variety popular among Asian customers
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
P
ULLMAN, Wash.
— With a keen eye,
USDA club wheat
breeder Kim Gar-
land Campbell sur-
veyed her newest
varieties on a recent Septem-
ber morning.
She paused several times,
inspecting this line or that,
the plants glowing gold in the
sun inside the greenhouse on
the Washington State Univer-
sity campus.
Campbell talked excitedly
about working with other
breeders to develop variet-
ies and pondered out loud
why the fi rst farmers 10,000
years ago might have raised
the odd-looking variety of
wheat, whose club-like shape
is unlike any other.
She was brimming with
enthusiasm about her subject.
“I could stand and talk
about club wheat all day,”
she said.
Club wheat is only grown
Courtesy Art Bettge/ADB Wheat Co
in the Pacifi c Northwest.
The diff erence between club
Farmers raise it when it com-
mands a higher price com- wheat, on the left, and soft
pared to soft white wheat, white wheat, is easily seen.
the region’s dominant wheat.
But customers overseas, par-
ticularly in Japan, can’t get
enough of it. Demand is
strong and steady, but sup-
plies are at a 12-year low
after this summer’s drought.
See Wheat, Page 9
Regulatory changes coming for Oregon hemp growers
Revisions bring state
hemp program into
compliance with USDA
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
SALEM — New rules are com-
ing for Oregon hemp producers as
the state brings its Hemp Program
into compliance with the USDA.
The state Department of Agri-
culture fi led draft revisions for the
program on Aug.
30. A public com-
ment period is now
underway, with a
deadline of Oct. 22.
Once adopted,
the agency will
Sunny
submit the plan
Summers
to the USDA for
fi nal approval. The
changes would take eff ect for the
2022 growing season, said Sunny
Summers, ODA cannabis policy
coordinator.
“It’s really important to follow
the requirements,” Summers said.
“There are a lot of people looking
at this industry, and you can’t aff ord
to be naive to the requirements any
longer.”
Perhaps the biggest change,
Summers said, is ODA’s new stat-
utory authority to conduct back-
ground checks on growers applying
for a hemp license.
Under the USDA hemp rule, any-
one convicted of a felony cannot
participate in growing or processing
hemp for 10 years. But ODA previ-
ously was unable to conduct back-
ground checks into applicants’ crim-
inal records.
House Bill 3000 — a broad can-
nabis bill signed by Gov. Kate Brown
in July to crack down on illegal mar-
ijuana operations — changed that,
granting ODA the ability to conduct
background checks in partnership
with the Oregon State Police.
“The background check is proba-
bly one of the biggest, if not the big-
gest, change that growers are going
to need to anticipate,” Summers
said.
HB 3000 also gives ODA stron-
ger authority to deny or revoke
hemp licenses, Summers said.
For example, if applicants have
already planted hemp before their
license applications are approved,
the agency can require the crop be
destroyed.
“Just because you submitted an
application to ODA does not mean
you are legal to grow,” Summers
said. “We’re trying to get that mes-
sage out, that you have to have fully
received your license.”
See Hemp, Page 9
Upper Klamath irrigators challenge water transfer to wildlife refuge
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
to the Lower Klamath Wildlife
Refuge for fi ve years.
The California Waterfowl non-
profi t had bought the water from
a ranch in the Upper Klamath
Founded in 1945
by Farmers and Ranchers.
Who saw a need for Rural Lending.
said the agency will review the
petition but “generally does not
comment on matters of pending
litigation.”
The petitioners argue that
OWRD failed to account for
return fl ows from irrigation, since
much of the diverted water would
normally fl ow back into the water-
ways and contribute to the stream
fl ows.
By sending the water out of the
See Water, Page 9
Hector Lopez and Michael Broeckel are
Experienced Lenders with a focus on
Agricultural and Commercial Loans
and Operating Lines of Credit.
PASCO, WA
ALSO LOCATED IN PASCO:
Daniel Rehm and Russell Seewald
5205 N. ROAD 68 / 509-545-6360
MEMBER FDIC / BEW IS A BRANCH OF BANK OF E. OREGON
HECTOR LOPEZ
Pasco, WA
S228617-1
A lawsuit claims Oregon water
regulators have authorized a
water transfer to a wildlife ref-
uge without properly analyzing
the impacts on Upper Klamath
irrigators.
The state’s Water Resources
Department in July approved a
transfer of 3,750 acre-feet of water
from the Wood River and Crooked
Creek in the Upper Klamath Basin
Basin in Oregon to convey to the
national refuge in California to
benefi t bird habitat under threat
from the drought.
However, the Fort Klamath
Critical Habitat Landowners non-
profi t and several irrigators in the
Upper Klamath Basin have fi led a
petition for judicial review chal-
lenging the decision, which has
the eff ect of automatically block-
ing it under Oregon water law.
Racquel Rancier, senior water
policy coordinator with OWRD,
MICHAEL BROECKEL
Pasco, WA