Page 8A
NATIONAL AG WEEK
East Oregonian
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
UNDERSTANDING OREGON
After 12 years in Washington, D.C., Alexis Taylor visits all 36 counties
during first year as Oregon Department of Agriculture director
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
T
he walls and shelves in Alexis
Taylor’s office at the Oregon
Department of Agriculture are
lined with framed photographs from her
earlier career in Washington, D.C.
There’s
Taylor
with
retired
congressman Leonard Boswell from her
home state of Iowa, whom she served
as legislative director for five years.
There’s Taylor next to Tom Vilsack,
secretary of agriculture under former
President Barack Obama. And there’s
Taylor smiling alongside the president
and first lady Michelle Obama at the
White House.
All together, Taylor spent 12 years
in the nation’s capital, including the last
four years with the USDA, where she
oversaw Farm and Foreign Agricultural
Services — including the Farm Service
Agency, Risk Management Agency and
Foreign Agricultural Service.
As her political appointment came
to an end in 2016, Taylor began her job
search in the Midwest to be closer to her
family’s farm outside Holy Cross, Iowa.
A friend and co-worker at the USDA
then told her about a position in Oregon,
leading the state Department of Agricul-
ture in Salem. Taylor had been to Oregon
once before, and was intrigued by the
wide diversity of farms and ranches.
“That diversity was attractive to
me,” said Taylor, reflecting on her first
year at ODA. “I thought it would be
challenging, but it also opens a lot of
exciting opportunities for agriculture in
Oregon.”
Despite some initial hesitation,
Taylor applied and was appointed by
Gov. Kate Brown in November 2016.
Taylor arrived the following month for
her Senate confirmation, and celebrated
her one-year anniversary on Jan. 23. She
replaced Pendleton native Katy Coba,
who is now the director of the Oregon
Department of Administrative Services
and chief operating officer of the state.
At ODA, Taylor manages a depart-
ment with 370 full-time employees and
a most recent biennial budget of $114.4
million for 2017-19. The USDA Farm
and Foreign Agricultural Service had
14,000 employees across three agencies,
with $2 billion in annual salary and
George Plaven/EO Media Group
Alexis Taylor, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, marked her
one-year anniversary on the job Jan. 23.
ODA photo
ODA Director Alexis Taylor with Cory
Carman, of Carman Ranches, during
a tour of Wallowa County.
expenses.
A big part of Taylor’s first year was
simply learning the lay of the land,
touring more than 40 farms and ranches
across all 36 counties.
“I need that real-life context with
farmers and ranchers, so when I’m
sitting here in my office with my staff
talking about an issue, I’ve gotten to see
the people it’s impacting,” she said.
Visiting every county gave Taylor
a sense of Oregon’s agricultural land-
scape, as well as how producers are
adapting to remain competitive in the
marketplace.
She remembers stopping at Thomas
Orchards in Grant County, a tree fruit
oasis on the high desert. Another stop in
Klamath County revealed how farmers
there started growing carrots, some-
thing they had never done before, at
the request of companies struggling to
source the crop from drought-stricken
California.
“That willingness to try something
new, to be innovative, is pretty unique
here in Oregon,” Taylor said. “You
don’t find it everywhere.”
Innovation extends to new technolo-
gies, Taylor added, whether it’s a dairy
incorporating computerized milkers or
a vineyard flying drones over blocks of
wine grapes to pinpoint pest or water
stress.
“It’s a lot of fun to work with an
industry that is so willing to look at new
technologies and push those bounds,”
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she said.
The interactions Taylor had during
her cross-state road show helped to
inform the department’s new five-year
strategic plan, a collaboration between
staff and stakeholders that was officially
announced earlier this year.
Wherever she went, Taylor said the
top concern was challenges facing the
next generation of farmers and ranchers.
She pointed to the state Agricultural
Heritage Program, approved by the
2017 Legislature, to develop grants for
succession planning and easements. A
12-member commission met for the first
time in February to begin writing rules
for the program.
Another strategy is outlined under
the ODA Strategic Plan under “Key
Objective 6,” promoting agriculture as
an exciting career choice for students.
Taylor calls this the “agriculture is
cool” objective.
Citing a 2015 study by the USDA
and Purdue University, Taylor said there
will be enough college graduates with
expertise in food, agriculture, renewable
natural resources, or the environment to
fill just 61 percent of jobs available in
agricultural fields through 2020.
“You don’t just have to farm. You
don’t just have to ranch,” Taylor said.
“You can work in logistics. You can be
a journalist. You can do policymaking.
We need the gamut of people.”
The ODA Strategic Plan goes on
to describe how ODA can work more
closely with partner agencies and review
its policies to ensure farmers’ issues are
being addressed across the state, such
as water quality and availability, labor
shortages and the urban-rural divide.
Ivan Maluski, policy director for
Friends of Family Farmers, said his
organization has tried to underscore the
importance of ODA supporting small
farms. While it hasn’t gone perfectly —
Maluski was critical of the department’s
approval of Lost Valley Farm, a 30,000-
cow dairy in Morrow County that is now
being sued by the state for wastewater
violations — he said it is clear the door
is open to small farm input.
“I’m hopeful there will continue to
be receptiveness on things the agency
can do to support small and mid-size
farms and local food systems,” Maluski
said. “I think the signs are encouraging
on the whole.”
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