East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, August 18, 2018, WEEKEND EDITION, Page Page 4A, Image 4

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    Page 4A
East Oregonian
Saturday, August 18, 2018
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
FDA head travels to farm country
t must have been the first time a head of
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
ever visited a feedlot in Central Oregon
— or anywhere else, for that matter.
But there Scott Gottlieb was, at the
Barley Beef feedlot near Bend, talking
about the Food Safety Modernization Act
with farmers, ranchers and others. His
message: Implementing the easy part of
FSMA is done. “The issues we’re grappling
now are hard.”
FSMA represents a sea-change in how
the FDA handles food safety. Formerly, the
agency concentrated on figuring out what
went wrong when someone became ill from
food. Seven years ago, Congress changed
that role to preventing food-borne illnesses.
As FDA considered how to do that, the
agency’s regulation writers got creative.
Among the issues they looked at was
treating irrigation water for onions, though
there had never been problems in the
past. Ultimately, Oregon State University
researchers showed that irrigation water
did not cause any bacterial contamination
problems in onions. In fact, no E. coli
was found in onions even after they
were irrigated with bacteria-laden water.
Researchers also found that switching from
wooden to plastic onion bins would have
no food safety benefit. The FDA wanted
to require the change, which would have
I
Mateusz Perkowski/EO Media Group
Scott Gottlieb, head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, speaks with farmers
about the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act during a recent
stop at a feedlot near Bend.
cost millions of dollars and, apparently,
accomplish nothing.
The issues reached a head, so to speak,
when FDA regulators turned their pens to
spent grains from breweries. For centuries,
leftover grain from making beer has been
fed to cattle with no problems. The fact the
grain had been steeped in 170-degree water
YOUR VIEWS
apparently didn’t impress the FDA, which
wanted spent grains handled the same
as all animal feed, including drying and
packaging them. The added cost of doing
that meant the spent grains would go to
landfills instead.
After brewers in Oregon and around
the U.S. pointed out those senseless
requirements to members of Congress,
including Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., the
rules were dropped.
And all that was the easy part of FSMA?
The FDA doesn’t want to saddle the
fresh produce industry with burdensome
unintended consequences, Gottlieb told the
group at the feedlot. That sounds good.
We can only hope FDA regulation
writers stick to science and not
extrapolations of their imaginations as they
come up with ways to keep the U.S. fresh
food supply safe. They should not get extra
credit for creating solutions to problems that
don’t exist.
Gottlieb, who is a doctor and has
worked at FDA even before becoming
its top administrator last year, also faces
a pile of other agriculture-related issues,
including the insistence of some food
manufacturers on using the term “milk” on
their concoctions made from soybeans, nuts,
rice and other commodities. Another issue is
whether the FDA or USDA should oversee
the production of meat grown in petri
dishes. Ranchers favor USDA for that job.
We’re rooting for the good doctor to
continue to simplify FSMA regulations
and make sure they prevent food safety
problems without preventing farmers,
ranchers — and even brewers — from
doing their jobs safely and efficiently.
OTHER VIEWS
The coming green wave
RV parking area a downside to
new fairgrounds facilities
Another county fair is in the books. The
nostalgia of animal barns, Ferris wheels, elephant
ears, and camping at the fair often lingers in my
mind. I was nervous about the change to the new
fairgrounds, but sometimes change is necessary.
I see great potential in the new location. My kids
love the fair, and had a great time as always.
I was quite disappointed in the camping area,
though. The first year of camping at the new
fairgrounds was challenging, but we understood
because everything was new, and still being
worked on. This year, we really thought that
things would be improved. Instead, it was worse.
Having no electricity or sewer is very difficult,
especially in the heat. Our desire to be a part of
the fair is strong enough to endure those difficult
conditions, nonetheless.
However, the weed infestation covering the
camping area was just too much. The weeds left
thorns (goatheads) everywhere. It was impossible
to take a step anywhere outside the campers
without getting a shoeful of thorns. Several pairs
of shoes, our new RV hose, and camper carpet
will never be the same. Instead of the usual fond
memories of the fair, we have flashbacks of
needles and tweezers, pulling out painful thorns.
It was sad to me that more concern for the
general people camping at the fair was not shown.
I certainly hope that the county fair I take pride
in attending will have an improved facility for
camping by next year.
Sara Taylor
Athena
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT
Donald Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
U.S. SENATORS
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office: 541-962-7691
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office: 541-278-1129
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Greg Walden
185 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
La Grande office: 541-624-2400
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.
f emotions were water, and you took all the
again, they’ll have to come through me,” says Xochitl
heartbreak felt by the millions who followed the
Torres Small, a Democrat with an even chance of
plight of a starving orca whale grieving over her
taking a longtime Republican seat in New Mexico, in
dead calf, you’d have a river the size of the mighty
an ad showing off her political chops.
Columbia.
The revolt started after Trump shrunk several
If anger were a volcano, and you let loose all the
national monuments in the West last year — the
rage felt by people over the daily assaults on public
largest rollback of public land protection in our
land by the Trump administration, you’d have an
history. Outdoor retailer Patagonia responded with a
Timothy blank screen on their webpage with the words: “The
eruption with the fury of Mount St. Helens.
Egan
And if just one unorganized voting segment, the
President Stole Your Land.” It was the first shot in a
Comment
60 million bird-watchers of America, sent a unified
battle that has been raging all summer.
political message this fall, you’d have a political block
At the big, boisterous outdoor industry’s national
with more than 10 times the membership of the National Rifle trade show in Denver last month, retailers who sell to the 144
Association.
million Americans who participated in an outdoor activity
A Green Wave is coming this November, the pent-up
last year, or the 344 million overall visitors to national
force of the most overlooked constituency in America. These
parks, vowed to flex some muscle in the upcoming midterm
independents, Teddy Roosevelt Republicans and Democrats
elections.
on the sideline have been largely silent as the Trump
They scoffed at the absurdity of propping up coal when
administration has tried to destroy a century of bipartisan love there are more yoga instructors in the United States than
of the land.
people who work to produce a filthy fuel source. They were
But no more. Politics, like Newton’s third law of physics,
appalled that the increasingly strange interior secretary,
is about action and
Ryan Zinke, blamed
everything but climate
reaction. While
change for a summer
President Donald
of epic wildfires. And
Trump tries to prop
they promised to be
up the dying and dirty
heard this fall.
coal industry with
“We hunt and fish,”
taxpayer subsidies,
said Land Tawney, a
the outdoor recreation
Montanan who leads
industry has been
the fast-growing
roaring along. It is
Backcountry Hunters
a $374-billion-a-
and Anglers. “And we
year economy, by the
vote public lands and
government’s own
water.”
calculation, and more
Only 1 in 10 voters
than twice that size by
think Americans
private estimates.
should use more
That’s more than
coal. And more
mining, oil, gas and
than 80 percent of
logging combined.
millennials, soon to
And yet, the
centerpiece of a clean and growing industry is under attack by be the largest cohort of voters (if they ever turn out), believe
there’s solid evidence behind these freakish manifestations of
a president with a robber baron view of the natural world.
an overheated earth.
I write from the smoke-choked West, where the air quality
Science, a huge majority believes, is not a conspiracy. And
in major cities has been worse than Beijing this month. While
yet, this huge majority has been ignored. These people are
Trump spends his days comparing women to dogs, and tweets
now ready to “put aside our differences and stand together
nonsense about rivers flowing to the sea, the biggest wildfire
for the places we love,” as Tawney and Yvon Chouinard, the
in California history blazes away.
founder of Patagonia, wrote in The Denver Post.
After the four warmest years ever recorded, scientists have
You will see it in Minnesota, where the 140,000 people
now warned that the next five will be “anomalously warm.”
who work in outdoor recreation are furious at Trump’s
But Trump doesn’t even understand time zones, let alone
attempt to open a sulfide-ore copper mine near Boundary
atmospheric upheaval.
Waters Wilderness. You will see it in a half-dozen tossup
In face of these life-altering changes, Trump is drafting
congressional races in California, where the administration
rules to make it easier for major polluters to drive up the
is mounting the biggest assault yet on public health, with its
earth’s temperature. While the orcas of Puget Sound are
attack on emission rules.
starving, Trump is trying to weaken the law that protects
If it’s self-interest powering the wave, such is the nature
endangered species. And while lovers of the outdoors break
of politics. At a time of real peril for the things that most
visitation records at national parks and forests, Trump is
Americans love, the silent green majority has had enough.
removing land from protection.
■
This is not green goo-goo or fantasy projection. You can
Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a writer for The New
see and feel the energy in places ignored by the national
York Times, first as the Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as
political press.
a national enterprise reporter.
“If D.C. comes for our public land, water or monuments
I
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.