10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2015
Crops: It’s not just agriculture that’s shifting
Continued from Page 1A
He admits his initial busi-
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“I completely misjudged
how hard it would be. Cultural
differences and (lack of) work
ethic,” he said. “It’s hard to
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ing their jobs,” he said.
Still, he said, it was the
right decision. He has workers
and he doesn’t have to worry
he’ll lose them in an audit by
U.S. Immigration and Cus-
toms Enforcement.
Production that was on his
own land in El Centro, where
his Swiss-immigrant grandpar-
ents started farming in 1911, is
now all in Mexico.
U.S. food production shifting overseas
Major exporters of food to the U.S.
Alaska
(U.S.)
Canada
U.S.
China
Hawaii (U.S.)
Mexico
Peru
Chile
South Africa
New Zealand
Source: Capital Press research
Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
A worrisome trend
Scaroni, 58, is just one ex-
ample of a growing trend in
the past decade — U.S. farm-
ers moving or expanding oper-
ations in other countries.
It raises a question of food
security. Could the U.S. ulti-
mately become subject to for-
eign control of its food supply,
or portions of its food supply,
as it is for foreign-produced
oil?
Availability and cost of la-
bor, regulatory burdens and
costs including the Food Safe-
ty Modernization Act, lack of
water and pesticide issues are
all factors enticing U.S. farm-
ers overseas.
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Valley, the nation’s leading ag-
ricultural region, is in serious
decline because of drought.
Some 600,000 to 1 million
acres will be fallow this year,
18,000 jobs lost and the state’s
agricultural economy will take
a $2.7 billion hit, say sources
at the University of Califor-
nia-Davis and Fresno County
Farm Bureau.
“Above 75 percent of your
tomatoes come from Mexico
now. We are outsourcing our
food supply,” Scaroni said.
He grows strawberries in
Salinas but thinks their future
is in Mexico.
Should Americans fear
losing too much vegetable
production? “Absolutely, they
better fear it. It’s happening.
It’s a cold hard fact,” Scaroni
said.
He’s worried about supply
of food being held hostage
against the U.S. “It’s a con-
cern I’ve voiced over and over
again in my lobbying efforts in
Washington, D.C. I think it’s a
huge concern, but it seems to
fall on deaf ears,” he said.
Some aren’t worried
Others aren’t so concerned.
Daniel Summer, director of
the Agricultural Issues Center
at UC Davis, said the U.S. pro-
duces more than it consumes
in most food commodities but
depends on imports and ex-
ports.
“Trade is a two-way street
and will continue to be. We do
not feed ourselves now. The
only country that tries to feed
itself is North Korea. South
Korea, which imports much of
its food, is far more food se-
cure,” he said.
There is “zero” chance, he
said, of the U.S. losing control
of its food supply and it’s “not
worth speculation.”
Andy Anderson, executive
Courtesy of Scaroni Family of Companies
Workers chop tops and tails off Romaine lettuce for Scaroni Family of Companies. Sca-
roni grows most of his lettuce in Mexico to avoid labor shortages in California. notforsale
director of Western United
States Agricultural Trade As-
sociation in Vancouver, Wash.,
said the U.S. exports most of
what it grows, including huge
amounts of wheat and soy-
beans.
“We’re a long way off from
becoming food insecure. To
me the bigger issue is some of
the reasons we see that shift
taking place. We continue to
increase government regula-
tion and make it harder and
harder for farmers to run the
maze of regulation. That caus-
es people to go to other coun-
tries,” Anderson said.
But Scaroni doesn’t think
it’s unrealistic to consider the
U.S. losing even grain and for-
age dominance.
“Brazil is big in soybeans.
There’s no law that says we get
to keep it all. We compete in a
worldwide economy,” he said.
He sees lack of labor, reg-
ulatory costs and drought as
major factors in an increasing
shift of production to over-
seas. It would be even great-
er, he said, were it not that so
many companies have large,
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It’s not just agriculture
shifting, he said.
“Our automotive industry
down in Mexico is going cra-
zy. Proctor and Gamble has a
big plant less than three years
old. I’m concerned, yes. If we
don’t wake up, we will export
our production base,” he said.
Mexico is not the total an-
swer, he says, because it has
water problems on top of less
productivity and higher equip-
ment costs.
Western
Growers survey
Western Growers, Irvine,
Calif., represents fresh pro-
duce farmers in California, Ar-
izona and Colorado. In 2007
and again in 2011 in building a
case for immigration reform, it
surveyed some of its members
on their movement out of the
country.
The organization argues
immigration reform will ease
chronic shortages of seasonal
agricultural workers which is
one of the factors driving U.S.
farmers overseas.
Tom Nassif, Western
Growers president and CEO,
helped craft an immigration
bill that passed the Senate in
2013 but stalled in the House.
He said immigration reform
needs to happen if the U.S.
wants to feed itself without
being “dependent on foreign
countries that may not like
us and use food as a leverage
point.”
Nassif warned if immigra-
tion reform fails, the exodus of
vegetable producers from the
American Southwest to Mexi-
co, Latin America, the Middle
East, South Africa and China
will accelerate.
In its survey, Western
Growers found that 27 of its
member companies were farm-
ing almost 114,000 acres and
employing more than 23,500
workers outside the U.S. They
were growing 25 crops includ-
ing asparagus, avocados, ber-
ries, melons, lettuce, greens,
peppers, beans, tomatoes and
broccoli. Overall, they repre-
sented a potential loss of near-
ly $1 billion annually in direct
economic activity for Califor-
nia.
Most of the exodus was to
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insula, the San Luis and Mexi-
cali valleys and the Guanajua-
to and Sonora areas.
True numbers were great-
Wal-Mart: A citizens group
requests that the courts set aside
and remand the Corps’ permit
to Wal-Mart , according to The
Dalles Chronicle.
Karl Anuta, the lawyer
Anuta added it is likely
representing CRAW, said it that Wal-Mart will eventually
is highly unlikely Wal-Mart intervene in the case between
will move forward with its CRAW and the Corps to sup-
Warrenton location until the port the company’s interests,
lawsuit is over . Discovery in as it has in other cases.
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The citizens group seeks
until late August , and the or- judicial review of the Corps’
dering of a pretrial or resolu- approval of Wal-Mart’s wet-
tion hearing is not until late ODQG¿OOSHUPLWXQGHUWKHIHG
September .
eral Clean Water Act, along
“I would be astonished if with review of the Corps’ en-
there was a complete reso- vironmental impact analysis
lution by that point,” Anuta DQG ¿QGLQJ RI QR VLJQL¿FDQW
said, adding it can take years impact in September that un-
to exhaust the appeals process derpins the approval. It re-
in such cases.
quests that the courts set aside
Anuta represents Citizens for and remand the Corps’ permit.
Responsible Development in
Anuta said this case is
The Dalles, a citizens’ group that particularly interesting be-
¿OHGDVHFRQGDSSHDOLQ-DQXDU\ cause Wal-Mart was behind
against an Oregon Department DZHWODQG¿OOSHUPLWEXLOGRQ
RI6WDWH/DQGVZHWODQG¿OODQG 17 acres of land near Marlin
removal permit issued in 2013 Avenue and Highway 101 but
Continued from Page 1A
for whatever reason turned
its focus to the North Coast
Retail Center. The wetlands
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with limited wetlands needing
protection, the Corps should
have looked at the site as an
alternative.
Wal-Mart
spokeswom-
an Delia Garcia declined to
comment on the litigation,
but provided a statement via
email: “We know that cus-
tomers on the North Coast are
anxious for our new store and
we look forward to beginning
construction as soon as we’re
able to do so.”
In April, Wal-Mart spokes-
man Rick Thomas said the
company was close to open-
ing bids for contractors , with
construction potentially start-
ing in early summer. But Gar-
cia said in an email Monday
there is no contractor selected.
er because the survey did not
include all growers who had
moved operations out of the
U.S., the report said.
Hank Giclas, senior vice
president of science and tech-
nology at Western Growers,
said the survey has not been
updated but that the numbers
are greater now.
Labor and regulatory costs
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ing production gaps, providing
year-round supply, Califor-
nia’s drought and the loss of ir-
rigation water to federally-pro-
tected Delta smelt are also
contributing factors, he said.
“More (food production)
seems to be shifting out of Cal-
ifornia than I’m comfortable
with,” Giclas said.
“I look at California as the
epicenter for fresh fruits and
vegetables in the U.S. and
world. I see people closing
up shop and moving to other
areas. I’ve seen it through the
course of my career (25 years
at Western Growers). It’s dis-
heartening and we have to
think about potential impact
on prices and availability if we
are not masters of our destiny,
so to speak.”
Mission Produce Inc. of
Oxnard, Calif., is a global
grower, packer, shipper and
marketer of avocados. It has
ripening facilities across the
U.S. and distributes in North
and South America, Europe
and Asia. It packs about 25
percent of California’s crop
and has production partners in
Mexico, Peru, Chile and New
Zealand.
The company is building
what it believes will be the
world’s largest avocado pack-
ing plant in Chao, Peru.
“Demand has increased
markedly around the globe
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ious markets during the May
through August period,” said
Robb Bertels, vice president of
marketing.
The company owns produc-
tion, packing and distribution
facilities in Peru, which “keeps
us close to the product and of-
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our distribution system,” Ber-
tels said. “Our focus on Peru
is not related to labor or costs.
It is more related to securing
supply for our global customer
base.”
Government policy
Alan Schreiber, adminis-
trator of the Washington As-
paragus Commission, is most
bothered when domestic pro-
duction is lost as a result of
government policy.
From 1990 to 2010, an act
of Congress caused the U.S. to
lose two-thirds of its domestic
asparagus production.
The Andean Trade Prefer-
ence Act directed the federal
government to help establish
asparagus farms in Peru in
hopes of weaning growers
away from producing cocoa
leaves for cocaine. The effort
resulted in Peruvian grow-
ers producing both crops and
wiped out Washington state’s
55
million-pound-a-year
canned asparagus industry,
Schreiber said.
The fresh asparagus sector
also suffered but remains, as
does some pickled and frozen
processing.
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cient in food, it increases your
vulnerability,” he said. “If you
put a naval blockade around
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der because it imports so much
of its food it would starve to
death.
“If we lose our production
it will be to lower-cost pro-
ducers that don’t have strong
regulatory systems, and how
good will their food safety
be?”
Asparagus is a good exam-
ple of the migration of U.S.
food production offshore, what
Desmond O’Rourke, a retired
Washington State University
agricultural economist and pri-
vate consultant, calls a “creep-
ing problem.”
“Thirty years ago, Cali-
fornia had a monopoly on ta-
ble grapes. Now it shares the
market with Chile and Peru
is coming in,” he said. “Chile
can deliver a Granny Smith
apple to Philadelphia as cheap-
ly as we can (in Washington)
because of lower production
costs.”
Giclas, of Western Grow-
ers, said he doesn’t think the
U.S. is in danger of losing its
secure food supply anytime
soon, but the nation needs to
recognize the importance of
maintaining a strong and vi-
brant agricultural industry.
“We can grow the best
crops in the world, but we
need labor and water and the
regulatory environment con-
ducive to it,” he said. “As
pressure is put on growers,
they look elsewhere to see if
there is someplace they can do
it better.”
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