June 21, 2023 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3
News
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ture to get the sheep that
are going to help clear
the land. By the end of
the month we’ll have two
sheep out there, we’re go-
ing to be rotating around
to help clear the invasive
English ivy and Hima-
layan blackberry that’s
taking over the land. It’s
a lot of money to get that
infrastructure in place,
which snowballs – fenc-
“
rooms, but we just real-
ly have the intention to
give to communities of
color. We’re really learn-
ing our ancestors used
to have this in their diets
too.
Campbell: Otter Paw
Herbs is a culinary and
medicinal herb-growing
business. I’m growing a
wide array of herbs that
can be used either just as-
We’re really learning our
ancestors used to have this
in their diets too.
ing to get sheep, which
means we’ll be able to
clear more land, which
means I have access to
more land to grow, we
have more land to offer
other people to grow that
isn’t covered in blackber-
ry or ivy, so you don’t
have to do a ton of labor
when first you’re start-
ing out.
It really opened things
up to do things the right
way, to do things at a
pace that feels good and
is sustainable…As Black
people who are used to
scraping and figuring
things out, it’s nice not to
have to do that.
Tell us about Otter Paws
and Pharm to Body, two
of the inaugural pro-
grams at the collective.
Mofidi: Pharm to Body
is run by me and Jasmine.
We basically have been
researching mushrooms
for two years now, ex-
perimenting with grow-
ing. Now that we have
it down, we know what
we’re doing, we came
across Dawn’s post ask-
ing if everyone wanted
to use the land to grow
mushrooms, and we said
yes. Growing mushrooms
to help rejuvenate the en-
vironment and the land,
using permaculture, and
now we’re working on a
project where we’re us-
ing overgrown blackber-
ries to try to grow oyster
mushrooms.
Basically, our main
goal with Pharm to Body
is to get communities of
color to take them every
day because they’re so
good for our bodies, and
just incorporating it into
our diets because they
help prevent major dis-
eases (that impact) entire
communities, like diabe-
tes and heart disease.
Once we get a bigger
operation, we’ll have
supplements and things
like that. We’ll be work-
ing with schools and food
pantries around town
to get our mushrooms
out there into the com-
munities we want them
to go to. We can all go to
Whole Foods and farm-
ers markets and pay $20
for a pound of mush-
is, providing folks bulk
dried and fresh herbs to
use for herbalists in the
community who make
medicine for the commu-
nity, or folks who are just
interested, or folks who
just want some parsley to
go with their dinner that
night. I think a big part of
why I started this is just
feeling how important it
is for Black folks to just
reconnect with the land
and to be engaged with
their food processing
and just with the agricul-
tural community in Port-
land and in Oregon, just
so they can have more
say over what they’re
putting in their bodies
and have more options.
I’m also working on
some tea blends, some
spice blends, infused
salts and sugars – getting
good quality products
that are grown with love
and intention into my
community. And at pric-
es that they can afford to
have access to the things
that for generations
we’ve been using, and
herbs that our ancestors
have been using to main-
tain themselves and to
feel good.
This is our inheritance.
It’s important we relearn
all those things, and that
it’s not scary or sketchy
“witch stuff.”
This is knowledge that
we have the right to have
access to, and have the
right to continue those
practices because they
work and are so benefi-
cial to us.
Are there other pro-
grams or groups doing
similar things who
you’re working with?
Mofidi: Jasmine and I
are in a program where
we’ve been able to net-
work with other farmers.
Because growing mush-
rooms is so good for the
soil and your land, espe-
cially the leftovers, we’ve
been able to connect with
other mushroom farm-
ers or even worm farm-
ers in the area that want
to do exchange, instead
of having to use capital-
ism, we’re echoing that.
Black Futures Farm
was telling us how they
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Farm
Juneteenth Celebrated at Jimi Hendrix Park
Artist Devona Roy and the band Ancient Robots and Z. Jones take the stage during Juneteenth at Jimi Hendrix Park in Seattle on
June 19. Thousands of people attended the event which included hundreds of vendors, a line up of more than a dozen local and
national performers, a children’s zone and food. The Juneteenth Celebration was sponsored by King County Equity Now and is part of
Africatown’s Summer of Soul Series. Find more events at https://www.summerofsoulseries.org/summer-of-soul.
Legistlature
cont’d from pg 1
last week, and a potential law to
strengthen access to contracep-
tion, abortion and gender affirm-
ing care, which will likely be up
for a vote later this week.
Here is the status on key bills
before the legislative session
ends June 25.
HEALTH CARE
HB 2002
As a neighbor to Idaho, Ore-
gon borders a state with some of
the most punitive anti-abortion
measures in the country. With
abortion access no longer a con-
stitutionally protected right, Or-
egon Democrats introduced a bill
to protect individual’s access to
reproductive health care., includ-
ing contraception, services to ter-
minate pregnancy, and gender-af-
firming medical treatment.
As introduced, the bill would
have allowed minors of any age
to seek abortion without paren-
tal consent – an approach that
advocates argue would protect
victims of abuse. But Republi-
cans branded “parental rights”
as a motivation for stalling the
legislative term, and as a term of
ending their walkout, Republi-
cans were successful in diluting
the bill so that children under 15
still require parental permission
for such procedures. The bill now
includes an exception to paren-
tal notification if two health care
providers at two different medi-
cal practices agree that parental
notification would be harmful to
the patient.
The bill is scheduled for a third
reading tomorrow.
HB 2697
Portland representatives Rob
Nosse and Travis Nelson in-
troduced this bill to lower the
heavy patient-to-nurse ratios
that lead to poor outcomes for
both (https://www.theskanner.
com/news/northwest/34316-i-
have-no-doubt-people-are-dying-
because-of-insufficient-staffing-
portland-representatives-intro-
duce-bill-to-require-safer-hospit-
al-standards-for-staff ). Nelson,
a registered nurse, has gone on
record saying patients are dying
due to insufficient staffing, point-
ing out such practices also lead
to a high rate of burnout among
nurses. The bill would create
staffing oversight committees in
each hospital, introduce signifi-
cant fines to hospitals that don’t
comply with staffing plans, create
an online portal for staff to report
violations and outline acceptable
staffing minimums in each hospi-
tal unit.
The bill was passed by the
House and will likely head to the
Senate this week.
PUBLIC SAFETY
HB 2005
Another major point of conten-
tion for Republicans, the “ghost
gun” bill aims to ban the manufac-
ture and sale of firearms that are
unserialized, and which are often
sold at gun shows and online as
kits for home assembly. Such fire-
arms provide a loophole for mi-
nors, felons and others who would
not normally pass background
checks to purchase a firearm.
As introduced, HB 2005 also in-
creased the minimum age to pur-
chase certain firearms from 18 to
21, and would have allowed pub-
lic entities to prohibit concealed
weapons on premises, even if the
carrier had a concealed permit.
These two points were redlined
as part of negotiations for the
Republican senators’ return to
session.
The bill was passed June 15.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Senate Bills 868, 869, 870 and
871 are a package of environ-
mental bills focused on energy
efficiency in state buildings:
Healthy Heating and Cooling for
all, which streamlines heat pump
installation, as well as retrofit-
ting buildings for weatheriza-
tion and efficiency; Build Smart
from the Start, which updates the
state building code for added en-
ergy efficiency in new buildings;
Building Performance standards,
which
requires
commercial
buildings to adhere to improved
efficiency standards; and Smart
State Buildings, which improves
the energy efficiency of public,
state-owned buildings.
The package was referred to
the Joint Committee on Ways and
Means.
HB 3409
A package of 15 measures re-
lating to promoting heat pump
technology in homes, commercial
building energy performance
standards, state building energy
use and greenhouse emissions,
sustainable building and prop-
erty design, a community green
infrastructure grant program,
urban tree canopies, the study of
low-carbon fuels from woody bio-
mass residue, rebate programs
for zero-emission vehicles, work-
force training programs for jobs
in natural climate solutions, solar
installation rebates and water
testing for harmful algal blooms.
The bill would also rename the
Oregon Global Warming Com-
mission as the Oregon Climate
Action Commission.
A second reading of the bill con-
tinues today in the House.
EDUCATION
SB 3
This bill requires high school
students to take courses in both
career planning and financial lit-
eracy as a requirement for grad-
uation. High schools would be
required to offer classes that pro-
vide one half-credit of each. The
bill is scheduled for a third read-
ing today, and is likely to head to a
Senate vote after.
HB 3198
Pre-pandemic in Oregon, only
18% of Black fourth-graders test-
ed at or above reading proficien-
cy level for their grade (https://
w w w.theskanner.com /news/
northwest/31057-march-to-liter-
acy-confronts-the-ways-we-fail-
black-students). The Early Litera-
cy Success Initiative would create
a Birth Through Five Literacy
Plan and establish Early Literacy
Success grants for schools and
communities.
The bill heads to a third reading
in the Senate today.