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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Wednesday, February 28, 2018 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEW The brave challenge of small farming Most U.S. farms are small by one definition or another. A 100-acre apple orchard in central Washington can be described as small, and so can a 500-acre corn-and-soybean farm in Minnesota. So can 10 acres of watermelons in Echo or two acres of apples in Milton- Freewater. Small, as it turns out, is in the eye of the beholder. The old adage goes that your farm is “small” if it’s smaller than the one down the road. But something else beyond the number of acres needs to be considered. These days, “small farm” often brings with it a connotation, a state of mind. It’s one where farmers go to great lengths to learn to “do it right” — to care for their land and animals in a way that allows the farm to continue for generations to come. A great many small farms are also relatively new. Nearly every farm started small. A century-old wheat farm that now includes thousands of acres in eastern Oregon most likely started much smaller. Over time, economics allowed the family to buy more land. Eventually, the farm reached a “right size” that allowed it achieve economies of scale. Small-scale farmers are people like Nate and Janis Newsom, who three years ago moved from southern California to 17 acres outside Stayton, in the Willamette Valley. They have been successfully growing a variety of crops at their Bear Branch Farms, selling produce through their community supported agriculture program. Those who are new to farming often find themselves on a steep learning curve. Someone who wants to “farm” will also need to wear many other hats. Soil science, animal husbandry, botany, horticulture, genetics, hydrology, meteorology, economics, marketing, accounting, financial planning, small engine repair, diesel mechanics, plumbing, welding — even a knowledge of water law and local, state and federal regulations quickly become part of the picture. But there’s help. With thousands of farmers nationwide approaching retirement, the focus at large land-grant universities has broadened to include George Plaven/EO Media Group Nate and Janis Newsom arrived in Oregon from southern California three years ago to start Bear Branch Farms outside Stayton. They are among the thousands of small-scale farmers across the nation. small farmers and how to help them. Classes, programs, workshops and seminars such as the Oregon Small Farm Conference at Oregon State University that took place last week fling open the doors to small farmers of all types to inform and encourage them and help them form networks and relationships with mentors. This is an exciting time to be a farmer or rancher. Researchers are developing new and more efficient ways of farming and ranching. Conventional farming continues to be a great way to earn a living and make a lifestyle, and organic farming continues to gain in popularity. Farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture and food hubs all help small-scale farmers make important connections with customers. Farmers and ranchers are constantly finding new niches to explore and develop. The future has never been brighter for those who choose to cultivate the land, and make a life from it. We salute all who take up the challenge. OTHER VIEWS Conspirator, or just clueless? R YOUR VIEWS Drone development will help Pendleton and its airport As you know, I have been critical of the drone program. It did get me a tour of the command center. I will say that I was impressed with the center and the people in charge of the program. There is progress; companies are interested in what we have to offer at the airport. They would not let me see a drone because these companies are in competition with each other. Oh well, maybe next time. I do now think we should continue to support the drone program. They are starting to make some money. There will be high-paying jobs coming. I was told these companies are looking for people who have experience in electronics or are electricians. If they pass the company’s tests, they will send you to school and train you. I don’t think there will be hundreds of jobs, but there will be some. Pendleton High School is interested in the drone program. The airport has made room for the making of robots by high school students. Could work themselves into a career. The drones will not give a bunch of jobs,but I think it will help Pendleton. Rex J. Morehouse Pendleton State should demand lower pollution from Carty Portland General Electric, Carty plant’s proposed air quality permit should be denied if it allows self-monitoring of pollutants and here is why. As a former Union Pacific train conductor that delivered PGE coal to this plant, we witnessed many large tanker trucks applying hazardous waste to the stockpiles of coal. I was told by PGE employees this waste (coal tar pitch) was coming from the aluminum plants along the Columbia River. The coal tar pitch they were mixing and burning with the coal is a Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. known carcinogen when burned. This unpermitted burning of hazardous waste was brought to the attention of Oregon Public Utilities Commission during a recorded hearing I attended at the PGE Carty coal-fire plant. After the hazardous waste disclosure we never saw the tank trucks again. In the years since this happened, I have often wondered why this was not disclosed to the press. I am certain the wheat, potato and melon farmers would been interested in this news. The state agencies involved (PUC and DEQ) were bad actors if they helped with a news blackout. We were also told by some of the PGE Carty plant operators that their supervisors were making them turn off the stack scrubbers at night. My impression from the people saying this, they were not happy. If this was true what were the health effects from the fly ash that was being dispersed into the air? What poisons were being released? If my memory serves me right, the state of Oregon allowed this plant to be constructed and then immediately put into mothball for many, many years. Was this done so they could operate a dirtier plant in the future when clean air standards would be stricter? The state should never have permitted this plant in a way that would allow PGE to circumvent future clean air rules. This is morally wrong if it shortens people’s lives. It does not serve the public interest, that we would allow this plant the ability to increase pollution. PGE Carty coal plant gamed the clean air rules at the initial startup. This plant has always polluted more than they should have including the time they were illegally burning hazardous waste. The state of Oregon should require this plant to pollute less not more. The public should be informed of this plant’s dark history that affects our public health. Charles Erickson Oregon City obert Mueller, the special could not be paid. counsel, first indicted Paul By 2015, Manafort was in Manafort and Rick Gates, despair; according to Franklin the former chairman and deputy Foer’s exhaustive profile of him in chairman of Donald Trump’s The Atlantic, one of his daughters presidential campaign, last October feared he would commit suicide. on charges including money But in 2016, he seems to have laundering and conspiracy against glimpsed salvation in Trump’s the United States. At the time, the Michelle presidential campaign. Manafort White House and its apologists Goldberg wrote to Trump offering to argued that these alleged crimes work free, and Trump, famously Comment predated the campaign, and were tightfisted, accepted. He joined the thus unrelated to any putative campaign in March, and in May election-related conspiracies with Russia. was promoted to campaign chairman, with Tweeted Trump, “Sorry, but this is years Gates as his deputy. ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Immediately, Manafort sought to use Trump campaign.” his role in the campaign to repair his This wasn’t true then — multiple relationship with Deripaska. In April, as charges referred to crimes that were said The Washington Post reported, he emailed to continue at least through 2016. But an employee in Kiev about his new job, and Mueller’s new indictments, released last wrote, apparently in relation to Deripaska, week, render Trump’s defense even more “How do we use to get whole?” In July, ridiculous. They provide detailed evidence Manafort offered to give Deripaska private that Manafort and Gates’ alleged financial briefings about the campaign. crimes continued while they were running Of course, Manafort wasn’t the Trump’s campaign. And despite the White only figure in Trump’s campaign with House’s insistence otherwise, the felonies questionable Russian connections. On that Manafort is accused of, and the two Saturday, the House Intelligence Committee that Gates pleaded guilty to on Friday, released a memo written by Rep. Adam bear directly on the question of Russian Schiff, D-Calif., who is its ranking member, collusion. responding to Republican claims about the It’s certainly possible that Trump surveillance of former Trump foreign policy himself didn’t personally connive with adviser Carter Page. Buried inside was Russia for campaign help. Perhaps, an important new detail about the Russia through a combination of carelessness and investigation. miserliness, he unwittingly allowed his According to Schiff’s memo, when campaign to be infiltrated at the highest the Justice Department sought a warrant levels by both alleged and admitted to surveil Page in 2016, it presented the criminals with Russian ties. Such a court with contextual information about scenario, however, is not exculpatory. Russian election interference. The court was Thanks to Mueller’s indictments and told that Russian agents “previewed their some revelatory journalism, we have a hack and dissemination of stolen emails” decent picture of the desperate straits to George Papadopoulos, another Trump Manafort was in when he joined Team foreign policy adviser. Papadopoulos has Trump. In the charges unsealed last week, since pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI Mueller’s team described a two-part about his Russian contacts, and we knew criminal scheme by Manafort and Gates. he’d been told that Russia had emails that First, they laundered tens of millions could embarrass Hillary Clinton. of dollars while working for Viktor “The language in the memo is new, and Yanukovych, then the Kremlin-aligned I think significant,” Schiff told me. When president of Ukraine, and his political allies. Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared In 2014, Yanukovych fled into exile Kushner had their infamous meeting with in Russia, and according to Mueller’s Russian emissaries at Trump Tower in indictment, Manafort and Gates’ “Ukraine 2016, “at least someone on the campaign income dwindled.” That’s when the second was aware that not only did the Russians part of their scheme began. From 2015 to have dirt on Clinton, they had emails, and 2017, the indictment says they “fraudulently they were prepared to disseminate them in secured more than $20 million” in bank anonymous fashion.” loans by lying about their finances. Perhaps Trump didn’t realize that his campaign was being run by alleged Russian We don’t know why they needed money launderers, that at least two of his all this money. But we do know that in foreign policy advisers had entanglements 2014, lawyers for Russian oligarch Oleg with Russian intelligence, and that his Deripaska filed a petition in the Cayman campaign had a heads up about Russian Islands claiming that Manafort and Gates plans to dump stolen Clinton emails online. couldn’t account for almost $19 million None of last week’s new information that a company controlled by Deripaska had given them to invest. Deripaska, who is proves that Trump is too disloyal to his own country to be president. But the only reportedly very close to President Vladimir alternative is that he’s too clueless. Putin, has been denied entry to the United ■ States because of his suspected ties to Michelle Goldberg is a New York Times Russian organized crime. One would not, op-ed columnist. presumably, want to owe him a debt that The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
