Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
OTHER VIEWS
TPP has positives This column is gluten-free
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for ag, but
questions remain
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big multi-nation trade pact, has been
negotiated and within the month will
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by member countries.
The agreement — known by
its initials TPP — is designed to
improve trade relations between the
12 participating countries, including
the United States, Japan, Canada,
Mexico, Australia, Vietnam, Chile,
Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru,
Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.
We are for trade. It’s the lifeblood
of American farmers and ranchers,
particularly those in the Northwest.
Anything that facilitates the opening
of markets abroad is probably good.
In a teleconference with reporters,
Secretary of Agriculture Tom
Vilsack touted these among the
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• TPP eliminates or reduces tariffs
or taxes assessed by other countries
on U.S. agricultural products,
including beef, pork, poultry, dairy,
horticulture, rice, grains, soybeans,
wheat, cotton and processed
products.
• The agreement includes
safeguards to protect U.S. markets
from other countries essentially
dumping product into the country.
• TPP gives the United States an
additional opportunity to contest
sanitary and phytosanitary standards
that are not based on risk or science.
• Beef and pork producers will see
reductions in taxes levied by Japan
on their products. The deal expands
the market for dairy products such
as cheese and yogurt in Japan and
Canada.
So, painted with a broad brush
the deal sounds good for American
agriculture. That said, this is a
complex treaty with a lot of moving
parts. The devil may well be hiding
in the details that have yet to be
made public.
Critics are concerned with
portions of the pact that deal with
intellectual property, the Internet and
dispute resolution.
Opponents worry that one
common component of recent trade
agreements, known as “investor-
state dispute settlement,” will allow
big, multi-national corporations at
odds with American laws to bypass
U.S. courts in favor of an expert
panel of arbitrators.
Where once such a provision
made sense when companies didn’t
want to risk the third-world judicial
system, opponents point out that
most if not all participants of the
TPP have stable, established legal
systems.
Critics say the deal includes
provisions that could severely
restrict the Internet and remove
“fair use” protections for use of
copyrighted material. Labor unions
oppose the deal because they say
it will move more American jobs
overseas.
Although alleged drafts of the
deal have been posted to Wikileaks,
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copies for another 30 days, after
Congress has reviewed the pact. The
public will then get 60 days to pore
over the terms.
Congress gave President Obama
“fast track” authority in negotiating
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such, it can only give the deal an up
or down vote, and it can’t amend it.
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and potential harms of those details
is all the more important.
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text, the deal appears to us to
be positive for U.S. farmers and
ranchers. We are for trade, but not
for a deal for a deal’s sake. We await
a vigorous debate.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
shrewd dietary choices; and they are
ONDON — I was in Venice
surely not wrong to blame processed
a few weeks ago and friends
food and manipulated food and
reported seeing a restaurant
greater pollution and stress for certain
menu with the following important
allergies.
message emblazoned it: “We do NOT
The political, it often seems, has
serve gluten-free food.”
become personal. Where people
It was easy to imagine an
wanted to change the world, now
exasperated Italian proprietor, driven
they want to change their bodies.
to frenzy by repeated requests from
Roger
Wellness is a political pursuit because
$PHULFDQVIRUJOXWHQIUHHSDVWD¿QDOO\ Cohen
it involves choices about food that
deciding to cut short such exchanges
Comment
will impact the planet. Eating local
with this blunt pre-emptive blow.
or eating organic or both are lifestyle
Rough translation: My way or the
statements that have become engaged political
highway. If you don’t like my pasta the way
acts. The pursuit of wellness, increasingly tied
la Mamma has always made it, try someplace
to the pursuit of beauty and
else.
agelessness, stands at the heart
Gluten is the main protein
of the current zeitgeist. I eat
component of wheat, rye
well therefore I am.
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People, if they have a
cultivated about 12,000 years
choice (and it’s worth recalling
ago and it’s safe to say gluten
that much of humanity still
has never had as hard a time
does not), are eating better.
as in recent years. The hunter-
That’s good. But there is also
gatherer turned cultivator would
a downside that has to do with
be appalled at what he has
self-indulgence, commercial
wrought. Free associate from
manipulation, the rampant
the word “gluten” these days
anxiety associated with
and you’ll probably come up
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with poison.
fussiness.
This column, by the way, is gluten-free.
Some years ago I was told about the
Please feel at liberty to read on.
experience of a London caterer who had
There has been a huge and mysterious rise
in celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that provided the food for a birthday party for Lord
Carrington, who is now 96. The caterer asked
results in damage to the small intestine when
if any of the aged crowd had special dietary
gluten is ingested. According to the Mayo
requirements. There were none among the
Clinic web site, four times as many people
suffer from celiac disease as 60 years ago, and many octogenarian and nonagenarian guests.
They were happy to eat anything.
roughly one in 100 people are now affected.
More recently, another friend told me of
Why is unclear. Perhaps it’s the way gluten
her sister’s experience with a large house
products are prepared today, or even, some
party in Scotland last summer. When the sister
have suggested, the result of a bored immune
inquired about any special dietary needs,
system looking for new targets.
many requests came in, particularly from the
But of course the gluten-free trend is not
younger crowd. Hardly anyone aged between
just about multiplying celiac sufferers. People
18 and 25 was up for eating anything. One
decide gluten must be bad for them because
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they see shelves full of gluten-free food at
I do eat lobster.”
supermarkets. Forms of food intolerance,
Right.
whether to wheat or dairy products or
If people over 80 will eat anything, yet
something else, have reached near epidemic
levels among the global middle class.
people under 25 are riddled with allergies,
Special dietary needs are all the rage.
something unhealthy is going on — and
Allergies, real or imagined, multiply. One
it’s going on most conspicuously in the
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most aggressive, competitive, unequal,
intolerance, yet a 2010 Portsmouth University individualistic, anxiety-ridden and narcissistic
study found the claims were often unfounded. societies, where enlightenment about food
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has been offset by the sort of compulsive
expression in the food-intolerance explosion:
anxiety about it that can give rise to imagined
Having a special dietary requirement is one
intolerances and allergies.
way to feel special in the prevailing “me”
Overall, I’m with the Venetian restaurant
culture.
owner making his stand for tradition, la
But I don’t want to show the intolerance of Mamma and eating the food that’s put on your
the omnivore for faddish food particularism,
plate. Gluten has done O.K. by humanity for
however overblown it may be. There’s a lot
upward of 10 millennia. It’s bad for some
that’s good in food fetishes.
people, but the epidemic of food intolerance
People are more aware of what they eat and has gone way over the top.
how they want to feel as a result of what they
Ŷ
eat. They are more demanding, with instant
Roger Cohen joined The New York Times
access to the information they need to make
in 1990.
This column,
by the way,
is gluten-free.
Please feel
at liberty to
read on.
YOUR VIEWS
Rising tourist numbers
can help pay for streets
Tourism numbers are increasing
in Pendleton. Our visitor industry
helps to support our many unique
shops, restaurants and tourism
attractions. I don’t know of any
other town of 17,000 people
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tourism attractions that Pendleton
has. That is why our visitor
numbers are up.
The local hotel/motel industry
provides the city of Pendleton
with the Transient Room Tax and
the Travel Promotion Assessment
Charge so that Pendleton can
continue to promote, market and
sell Pendleton. Ask any of our local
retailers what tourism means to
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impact is huge.
How do the tourist get here?
They drive. They need to drive
home so they buy gas. The tourists
that don’t spend nights here but are
driving to Boise, Portland, Spokane
or Seattle need to buy gas. That is
good for Pendleton. That is good
for the economy.
It is a no-brainer. Let these
visitors help us pay for our street
maintenance. We help pay for
maintenance in Portland, Eugene
or Bend when we gas up in those
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that we will walk away from
visitor’s assistance? Let them help.
Vote yes for a nickel a gallon gas
increase. Time to let others invest
in our future.
Jill Thorne
Pendleton
Spend coffee, beer
money on city streets
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streets? If a cup of coffee or a glass
of beer costs $2 or more, what does
it cost to save a street? About $2 a
month of city fuel tax.
Let’s skip that drink.
John Brenne
Pendleton city councilor
Excessive taxes will put
Pendleton at risk
I just wanted to make a few
remarks about the infrastructure tax
hikes and fees. First, you should
know that more taxes means a
slowed economy. Second, these
fees are so high it’s ridiculous. Our
seniors and disabled don’t make
enough money to keep up. Isn’t Al
Plute’s solution for the poor to put
a lien on their homes outrageous?
Businesses and residents thinking
of moving to Pendleton will think
twice, while Pendleton residents
will move out.
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because of loss of residents and
lack of business means less taxes to
collect. If a household makes over
$50,000 a year these taxes don’t
seem so dramatic. If you make
under $15,000 it seems impossible.
How do you justify making people
that make under $15,000 pay the
same taxes and fees as someone
that has a median income? Putting
a lien on the poor because they
can’t afford their bills is criminal.
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Where are Pendleton’s
problem solvers? Where are our
compassionate leaders in Pendleton
who wouldn’t dream of potentially
putting our most vulnerable at risk?
How do you really expect this to
work? I pay all my taxes. Where
is that money going? Why all of a
sudden do we need all this money
right now when the problems
have been manifesting for the last
25 years? You never thought of
saving back or cutting out some pet
projects?
I know some city councilors are
nice people, but I don’t believe any
of you are in touch with the reality
of this for many citizens. I believe
true leaders understand all of their
citizens’ needs and limitations and
are farsighted in their thinking.
Going through with all these
taxes without considering the
consequences seems so narrow-
minded. I could be a city council
member, mayor, or commissioner
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all problems by taxing the citizens
with unrealistic taxes to pay for
everything.” Wow, that sounds
easy — where do I sign up?
I am in communications with
several governors, senators,
representatives of Oregon,
secretary of the state, attorneys
and others because I think this is
beyond your capabilities. I guess
we will see.
Chris Hallos
Pendleton
Scary part of gas tax is
if it doesn’t pass
“Enough is enough!” screams
the headline. Two dollars a month
is going to hurt small businesses
and families. This horrendous
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our streets. This brouhaha is really
the boondoggle that should concern
any citizen of Pendleton.
What really should concern us
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shut down all nonessential services.
You would then be just funding
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to his plan. All other services that
are unfunded but paid out of the
general fund would cease to exist.
I guess he will never need an
ambulance.
If you don’t want the
non-resident visitor to help pay
for the streets then vote no. If you
think the non-essential services are
not important then vote no.
If you would rather help
your neighbor and keep what is
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cost you approximately $2 a month
and you will be on the road to
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yes on November 3
Ron Gavette
Pendleton
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes
original letters of 400 words or
less on public issues and public
policies for publication. Submit-
ted letters must be signed by the
author. Send letters to 211 S.E.
Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
or email editor@eastoregonian.
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