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CapitalPress.com
Friday, February 11, 2022
Agriculture groups support
Senate shipping reform bill
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The Ag Transportation
Coalition and groups repre-
senting the U.S. meat and
dairy industries are support-
ing a bill introduced in the
U.S. Senate to ease export
shipping backlogs and boost
U.S. agricultural exports.
The Ocean Shipping
Reform Act, S.3580, was
introduced by Sens. Amy
Klobuchar, D-Minn., and
John Thune, R-S.D. The leg-
islation would make it harder
for ocean carriers to unrea-
sonably refuse goods ready
to export at ports and give
the Federal Maritime Com-
mission greater rulemaking
authority to regulate harmful
practices by carriers.
The coalition said the
transportation crisis for U.S.
agricultural products has
become increasingly dire.
“The damage to our farm-
ers and processors is getting
worse, we are losing custom-
ers in foreign markets,” the
coalition said in a letter urg-
ing Senate Majority Leader
Charles Schumer and Sen-
Julie Anna
Potts
Krysta
Harden
ate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell to advance the
bill.
A recent survey by the coa-
lition found, on average, 22%
of U.S. agriculture foreign
sales could not be completed
due to ocean carrier practices.
Those practices included
exorbitant freight rates,
declined booking requests,
unreasonable freight and
demurrage/detention charges
and failure to communicate
schedules in a timely manner.
The House recently over-
whelmingly passed the Ocean
Shipping Reform Act of 2021,
the coalition pointed out.
“It is essential the Senate
also pass legislation to allow
U.S. agriculture to remain
viable,” it said.
National Milk Produc-
ers Federation and the U.S.
Dairy Export
Council said
the legisla-
tion would
help allevi-
ate delays
and disrup-
Jim
tions at U.S.
Mulhern
ports
that
have been a
critical part of the export sup-
ply chain challenges plaguing
U.S. exporters.
“The supply chain chal-
lenges that have beset Amer-
ican exporters pose signif-
icant diffi culties for U.S.
dairy producers, causing over
$1.3 billion in export losses
for our sector during the fi rst
three quarters of 2021,” said
Jim Mulhern, president and
CEO of NMPF.
“We are committed to
working with the senators
and their colleagues in Con-
gress as legislation moves
forward to ensure that a fi nal
law delivers the changes
our exporters most urgently
need to see, he said.”
Krysta Harden, president
and CEO of the U.S. Dairy
Export Council, said the leg-
islation address many of the
challenges dairy exporters
have faced including secur-
ing export vessel bookings
and combatting unfair deten-
tion and demurrage charges.
“When we can’t export
our products, we not only
jeopardize our foreign cus-
tomer relationships and mar-
kets, but we also lose val-
ue-added opportunities that
create jobs and investment in
the United States,” she said.
The
North
Ameri-
can Meat Institute said
the inability of shippers to
deliver their products on
schedule aff ects the reliabil-
ity of American exports and
decreases export values and
market share.
“The problems at our ports
include delays of shipments
of American made goods to
overseas trading partners due
to the unreasonable practices
of foreign-owned ocean carri-
ers,” said Julie Anna Potts, the
Meat Institute’s president and
CEO.
“These delays are a huge
cost to meat and poultry com-
panies as their perishable
products await transport,” she
said.
‘Plant sunscreen,’ long used by apple growers, gets upgrade
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
JUNCTION CITY, Ore. — Solbere,
a natural, protective coating that apple
growers have long been spraying on
orchards to prevent fruit from sunburn-
ing, is getting upgraded.
Current research and development,
underway in the Willamette Valley since
2018, is aimed at creating what com-
pany scientists call “Solbere 2.0” — an
improved formula designed to simulta-
neously prevent plants from sunburning,
maximize growth and increase carbon
capture. The company is working toward
expanding its use into other crops.
“The newer technology got a lot of
science poured into it. The apple sun-
burn technology, that was your 1.0. This
is your 2.0 product, and we’re continu-
ing to make improvements,” said George
Baker, co-founder and president of
Solbere.
Baker is also the owner of ORCAL,
a pesticide manufacturing company, and
founder of the nonprofi t CO2 Solved
Foundation.
Since 1999, Baker has manufactured
a variety of “plant sunscreen” products
made primarily from water and calcium
carbonate, ground from the common
white rock known as calcite.
Baker’s invention was based on
the ancient Greek practice of applying
white calcite clay on grape vines, olives
and fi g trees to keep them from getting
sun-scalded.
Around 2010, Baker realized the
products could be fi ne-tuned for second-
ary benefi ts.
Baker partnered with Cliff Fairchild,
professor emeritus in Oregon State Uni-
versity’s Physics Department, to invent
Solbere.
Their aim was to create a similar but
separate product that would not only pre-
vent sunburn but also make photosynthe-
sis — the biological process by which
plants convert light into chemical energy
— more effi cient.
Plants, on average, convert only 1%
of the sunlight that hits them into energy
for growth.
Photosynthesis takes place within a
plant’s chloroplasts, which contain chlo-
rophyll. When a plant is under heat or
direct sunlight, the chloroplasts move to
the sides of cells to avoid sunburn, limit-
ing photosynthesis.
Idaho ag welcomes
state income tax relief
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
BOISE — Idaho Gov.
Brad Little on Feb. 4 signed
House Bill 436, which
reduces the top corpo-
rate and individual income
tax rate from 6.5% to 6%
and provides a tax rebate,
moves applauded by most
of the state’s farmers.
“I am grateful for any
income tax relief we can
get,” said Sid Freeman,
who farms west of Cald-
well. “However, I would
prefer to see relief in prop-
erty taxes,” which are “con-
sistent year-in, year out,
whether we make money or
we don’t.”
A lower state income tax
rate “is going to put a little
bit more money back into
our pockets,” he said. “With
the exponential increase in
our production costs for this
coming year, we may not
even notice it.”
University of Idaho agri-
cultural economist Garth
Taylor said most farm-
ers take income in a form
other than a wage or salary.
Their income tax liability
thus varies based on factors
such as the type of income
earned.
Jared Asumendi, manag-
ing partner with Nampa tax
and accounting fi rm Asu-
mendi & Kicheloe, said
if an ag producer elects to
have a partnership or S-cor-
poration pay income tax, the
state corporate rate applies.
If not, income fl ows to the
shareholder or partner as an
individual.
“So it’s really just what
they decided to do,” Asu-
mendi said. “If you pay
the tax at the entity level,
the benefi t is that you can
deduct it at the federal
level.”
Idaho’s rate cut “puts
more money in the farmer’s
pocket,” he said. “Every
percent they can save on
paying tax to the state of
Idaho is more money into
the operation for increased
productivity and increased
wages.”
Food Producers of Idaho,
which represents some 45
agriculture organizations,
supports the legislation.
The Idaho Dairymen’s
Association supports it
even though income tax
rates often impact that
industry less than many in
the larger economy, said
Rick Naerebout, the associ-
ation’s CEO.
Many dairy operations
use cash accounting, he
said. For example, a dairy
producer could prepay an
expense one year and defer
income into the next, which
is useful if a good year is
expected to be followed by
a decline.
“State and federal gov-
ernments recognize the
volatility in commodities
and in agricultural produc-
tion and have given ag pro-
ducers the benefi t of cash
accounting,”
Naerebout
said. “Governments recog-
nize we have good years
and bad years, and it is their
way of giving ag producers
a tool to try to manage that
and take some of the risk
out of food production.”
The association sup-
ports HB 436 because of its
broader implications.
“From a high level, we
are always going to be sup-
portive of reducing tax
rates,” Naerebout said. A
lower state income tax rate
“benefi ts employees and
those who work in the dairy
industry.”
HB 436 consolidates
individual rates into four
brackets with 1%, 3%,
4.5% and 6% rates retroac-
tive to Jan. 1. Two rates are
fractionally lower. A 5.5%
bracket is eliminated.
The bill’s fi scal impact
statement says new rates
provide $251 million in
ongoing relief starting in
the July 1 fi scal year, partly
off set by $94 million from
the state tax relief fund.
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