LET TERS
CRIMINALIZING SURVIVAL
As I write this I am looking at a ticket
a friend, who happens to be homeless,
received for using a heating vent in one
of our many alleys here to warm his
hands. His charge? Criminal trespass 2,
which carries a $280 fi ne. It appears that
in the minds of the EPD, homeless people
who have died from exposure are much
preferable to the sight of one warming his
hands in an alley.
My question to the EPD, Chief Kerns
and our ineffective City Council would
be this: When did it become a crime to
survive, and when does the city end its war
against the homeless? As a city who feels
appearance is more important than human
necessity, and prefers the homeless go hide
away from the sight of “normal” citizens,
Eugene has shown itself to be a city of
vanishing moral and ethical reasoning
and should cast off all pretense of being
concerned with human rights, dignity and
sense of humanity.
It’s time the city and its leaders wake
up to the fact that the homeless are not
going away. They will not suddenly vanish
into thin air. Homelessness will persist
and perhaps even worsen. Avoidance of
the issue is not the solution. It is time that
real effort gets put into dealing with the
core issues: mental illness, addiction, an
economy only seen as good by the rich,
and most of all a lack of concern for other
human beings. A system of assistance that
also stresses accountability is possible and
is a must if we are ever going to begin
to correct the situations that create the
homeless.
VIEWPOINT
it was deemed dangerous and killed.
She was scared that the same thing
might happen to Travis because he was a
puppy and had puppy traits like jumping
up and nipping people. I offered to help
her train Travis and we spent fi ve or six
sessions together trying different collars
and techniques. She was dedicated to
her dog and she turned him into a well-
trained companion dog that gave her a lot
of comfort and a feeling of security while
living on the street.
I had not seen her around town lately
and wondered why. Her friend Larry told
me about her death last week. She died
Oct. 13 from viral meningitis. I hope she
got the care she needed at the hospital.
Goodbye and I will miss you, Tracy.
Thank you to the rest of the un-housed, the
churches, the City Council and mayor, the
Occupy homeless coalition, and SLEEPS
for continuing to work on solving the un-
housed problem.
Joann Ernst
Eugene
Until then the EPD will continue to
punish and ticket those who are doing
nothing more than trying to survive.
Shame on you Chief Kerns, shame on you
City Council and shame on all of you who
would demonize and cast out the homeless.
You have all made calling Eugene “a
human rights city” a laughable matter.
Eugene Wanderer
(Jeremy Lawrence)
Eugene
TRACY AND TRAVIS
I am writing this letter to tell people
about another homeless person’s death.
I met Tracy at the Egan Warming Center
with her Labrador puppy Travis. Through
the course of that season I learned some
things about her. I learned that at one time
she owned a German shepherd and one day
while walking by the river some people
startled her and the dog bit someone. The
police took the dog, and she was unable to
do what they asked to get the dog back, and
BY KIM GOODWIN
Canola Questions
WHY DO SEED FARMERS FEAR CANOLA IN THE VALLEY?
I
keep hearing the question, “Why are farmers
so worried about canola?” For the last seven
months I’ve studied the topic, spoken with diverse
farmers, read books on seed-saving and vegetable
development, and researched canola. Here’s what
I’ve learned and what you should know before the Oregon
Department of Agriculture holds its hearing in Salem on
Jan. 23:
Growing high-quality seed is a LOT of work. With
brassica seed (like cabbage, broccoli, and caulifl ower) it
is extremely diffi cult to keep the genetic quality pure. A
gardener and seed-saver myself, I was really surprised
by this fact. In his book, Gardening When It Counts:
Growing Food in Hard Times, Territorial Seeds founder
Steve Solomon explains the extreme diffi culties of
growing brassica seed. For example, cabbage requires
a minimum of 200 plants in order to save high-quality
seed with varietal purity. Varietal purity is what keeps
your cabbage displaying the characteristics of that
specifi c cabbage, rather than devolving into a wilder,
less palatable plant. Seed growers may plant twice the
amount of needed cabbages, and then cull out less tasty,
less uniform, less desirable plants. The remaining plants
must be cared for until they bloom and develop seed — a
huge investment in labor, water and space, aka, money.
This is not a venture for your average home gardener or
amateur seed-saver.
4
BEYOND THE ‘STREET’
Upper Willamette Street between 29th
and 24th perhaps should be visualized
not as a through street but to facilitate
shopping. Amazon Parkway is the logical
throughway for traffi c into town down
(revising the transition with Pearl of
course).
By creating a “parking avenue,” merging
private frontage parking with circulation
eliminating curbs and driveways, auto,
bus, pedestrian and bicycle access could
be coordinated and planned into the design
January 17, 2013 • eugeneweekly.com
Seed purity is a very big deal to food growers.
Commercial seed growers cannot settle for anything
less than purity. “Satisfactory” results seriously harm
their business and reputation. Producers of high-quality
vegetable seed sell their product to market farmers who
grow food for the public. Market farmers are called
a “critical trade” because the seed they buy must be
absolutely consistent and reliable. Each vegetable must
grow uniformly and, of course, taste great.
When a cross-pollinator like canola is planted nearby,
en masse, a brassica grower’s ability to keep seed purity
is lost. Because of this fact, regions across the world that
now produce canola no longer have noteworthy brassica
seed production — as our Willamette Valley farmers have
been repeatedly warned.
Canola is harmful whether it is genetically
engineered (GE), or not. Cross-pollination and seed
contamination issues come with both GE canola and
traditional canola. International seed buyers, as well
as organic seed buyers, cannot use seed that contains
genetically modifi ed organisms (GMOs), but the problem
is bigger than cross-pollination. Contamination also occurs
when canola seed is accidentally mixed into other seed,
such as when “volunteer” canola plants are unintentionally
harvested with the intended crop. This is a problem not
only for brassica growers, but also beet seed, grass seed,
clover and wheat growers — uniting an unprecedented
group of farmers, conventional and organic, against canola.
Canola contamination will have widespread effects
on economic and food security. Talking to many seed
farmers this fall, I was impressed to learn that vegetable
seed production provides some of the highest paid,
living-wage jobs in agriculture. Unlike canola production
(which requires only minimal amounts of low-paid labor),
vegetable seed requires highly skilled, and consequently,
well-paid workers. Plus it’s a farming venture that works
on small acreage, with high profi t per acre. This means
new generations of vegetable seed farmers can develop
a profi table farm, pay fair wages, and support the
economy and their families. This is an astounding rarity
in agriculture today.
During OSU’s investigation into the risks posed by
canola, international seed buyers and growers expressed
their deep concern. They testifi ed about the worldwide
importance of Oregon’s vegetable seeds, and warned of
other seed growing regions now lost to canola production.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture is poised to
allow canola to be grown in the seed-producing regions
of the Willamette Valley. We are at a crossroads. One way
continues us down the path of local economic and food
security. The other choice will end the hard-won gains
farmers and food/farm organizations have cultivated for
years. If you value these contributions, if you want to
support our local economy and farmers, or if you eat
food, please make your voice heard at the upcoming ODA
hearing at 9 am Jan. 23 at the Salem Fairgrounds Cascade
Hall. To read more about issue with canola or for directions
to the hearing, please visit www.farmandfoodrights.org
Kim Goodwin is the executive director of Oregonians for Farm & Food
Rights. To read a longer version of this piece with quotes from internation-
al seed buyers about the problems with canola, please see the full article
at eugeneweekly.com