OFF PAGE ONE
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Farmers:
Continued from Page A1
This general population
data, however, doesn’t reveal
how many farmers moved.
Experts at nearly two
dozen Western organiza-
tions — state departments of
commerce, revenue, business
and agriculture, along with
nonprofi ts and associations
— said they are not aware of
any organization that tracks
businesses relocating to other
states.
“It’s challenging because
businesses are not required to
notify the state if they close or
move out of state,” said Penny
Thomas, spokesperson for the
Washington State Depart-
ment of Commerce.
Lynn Hamilton, professor
of agribusiness at California
Polytechnic University-San
Luis Obispo, said rather
than moving, farmers more
commonly respond to pres-
sures by consolidating, retir-
ing early or phasing out
labor-intensive crops in favor
of machine-harvestable crops
with higher profi t margins.
Some operations, includ-
ing vineyards, are especially
hard to move, said Tawny
Tesconi, executive director
of the Sonoma County Farm
Bureau.
“As farmers, we can’t pick
up the ground and move it,”
said Shannon Douglass, a
Glenn County farmer and
fi rst vice president of the Cali-
fornia Farm Bureau Federa-
tion.
Dair y and livestock
producers have moved in
larger numbers.
According to USDA,
between 2020 to 2021, Cali-
fornia and Washington lost
dairy cows while other states,
including South Dakota and
Texas, gained.
Ben Laine, vice pres-
ident of dairy analysis at
RaboResearch, said this can
be attributed to increasing
effi ciency, farmers moving
away f rom h ig h - c ost
states and rising consumer
demand for processed dairy
products including cheese;
many cheese plants are in or
Crystal Otley/Contributed Photo
The Otley family, from left, Sierra, Crystal, Shane and Jacee,
raise cattle and hay near the town of Burns, but now are leav-
ing Oregon for Idaho, part of a migration of farmers leaving
the West Coast.
near the Midwest.
“It’s not the case that
everybody’s bailing out of
the West Coast,” Laine said.
“Some are moving, but I don’t
want to sound the alarm. Cali-
fornia is and will continue to
be the main dairy state.”
Although most farmers
aren’t leaving, people with
a bird’s eye view — experts
at land-grant universities,
farm groups and commod-
ity commissions — said they
have noticed an uptick in
farmers moving during the
past few years.
“People have talked about
moving for years and years,
but now people are actually
doing it,” said Ryan Jacobsen,
manager of the Fresno County
Farm Bureau. “Statistically,
it’s still probably a blip on the
radar. But it’s crazy that it’s
actually happening. Some
people are pulling up stakes
and moving out of here.”
Here are some of their
stories.
Smith family
Oregon to Nebraska
In early 2020, cattle ranch-
ers Wayne and Midge Smith
moved with their three kids
from Oregon to Nebraska.
The Smiths had proper-
ties in Riley, near Burns, and
Seneca, south of John Day.
The couple’s decision
to move was multifaceted,
blending concerns over regu-
lations, dwindling ground-
water supplies and a desire to
give their kids a better chance
to farm for a living.
“In Oregon, it was an
uphill battle to stay in busi-
ness,” said Wayne Smith, 52.
“To do the best thing for our
business and for our kids to
have a chance and a future
in agriculture, we decided
to take the risk and make the
move.”
It took 21 semi-trucks to
haul their 360 best cattle to
Nebraska.
Moving also took an
emotional toll as the family
left relatives, friends and land
behind.
“Our whole family, we
miss the mountains,” Smith
said. “We don’t have any
mountains here. We can go to
the highest point of our ranch,
and as far as you can see, it’s
just rolling grass hills.”
But Smith said he believes
his family made a good deci-
sion.
“There’s not as much of
a daily wrestling match,” he
said.
Shay Myers
Oregon to Idaho
For some fa r mer s,
East Oregonian
“moving” has just meant
expanding across state lines.
One example is Shay
Myers, a grower in Malheur
County and CEO of Owyhee
Produce.
“Obviously, our farmland
can’t be moved. So, we’ve
moved our packing opera-
tions,” Myers said.
In the early 2000s, his
business moved its aspar-
agus-packing operation to
Idaho, and in 2018, its onion
packing operations. Next
year, Myers plans to move
the whole-peeled onion oper-
ation.
The No. 1 factor in these
moves, Myers said, was the
cost of labor. The minimum
wage is lower in Idaho than in
Oregon. Myers said that while
some industries, like tech, can
pass on or absorb costs, that’s
not an option for most farm-
ers, who are “price-takers.”
Those who stay
While some farmers leave,
most remain.
“Most people aren’t leav-
ing. Most are staying,” said
Douglass, the farmer in
Glenn County, California.
“I’m glad I’m here. We do
have these roots and this love
for the place. And we want to
stay.”
Mary Anne Cooper, vice
president for government
aff airs at the Oregon Farm
Bureau, said farmers are
pivoting, consolidating and
planting different crops to
stay in Oregon.
“It’s in your blood,” she
said. “It’s everything that
you’ve worked your life for.”
Into the unknown
For Shane and Crystal
Otley of Harney County, the
future is a blank slate. If their
deal closes April 15, they plan
to move their approximately
170 head of cattle to a state
where they can expand and
where their daughters, Jacee
and Sierra, can “take up the
reins” if they want.
“They’re young. They
can still change. But we want
to leave that door open to
them,” Shane Otley said of
his daughters. “Where we’re
going, I hope will be better for
all of us.”
Merkley:
Continued from Page A1
Greg Goad of Pend-
leton told Merkley that
Pendleton was suffering
from the eff ects of phar-
macy consolidation. With
Bi-Mart closing its phar-
macy last year, Pendleton
has only three pharma-
cies, and Goad said wait
times for prescriptions
had increased signifi cantly
since then.
“What about next year
if they do it again?” he
said. “If we get down to
one supplier, I’m afraid
that costs are going to go
through the roof.”
Merkley said he needed
to study the issue more
closely to determine why
pharmacies were closing,
but he added the economy
was becoming too central-
ized among large corpora-
tions.
Briana Spencer, an
enrolled member of the
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reserva-
tion, asked Merkley what
he would do to advance
treaty rights and ensure
the Confederated Tribes
of Warm Springs had
long-term access to water.
The Central Oregon tribes
recently issued an emer-
gency conservation order
after a fi re shut down its
water treatment plant.
With prices remain-
ing high after a recent
surge, Umatilla Mayor
Mary Dedrick asked what
Merkley is doing to lower
gas prices.
In the short term, Merk-
ley said there’s not too
much that can be done.
While the U.S. is releas-
ing oil from its strategic
reserve, it’s unlikely to
make a dent in prices at
the pump since the market
for oil is set globally. Long
term, the surge in gas
prices should provide the
country with an impetus to
transition away from fossil
fuels, a move that could
potentially hurt Russian
president Vladimir Putin.
“If the world gets off
of fossil fuels, they won’t
be able to make nearly so
much money,” he said.
“Russia would never have
undertaken this invasion
of Ukraine if they hadn’t
built up a massive foreign
reserve based on selling
petroleum.”
Merkley spent a good
portion of the town hall
criticizing Putin for the
invasion of Ukraine and
he also fi elded a question
from Spencer about Brit-
tney Griner, the WNBA
player who was detained
by Russian author i-
ties while playing in the
country and has yet to be
released. Spencer wanted
to know how Americans
should balance drawing
attention to the situation
with trying to ensure her
safety while she remains
detained.
Merkley said draw-
ing attention to Griner’s
detainment could further
damage Putin’s reputation,
but noted the kind of man
the U.S. was dealing with.
“I doubt he’s inclined to
be very helpful,” he said.
VISIT US
ON THE
WEB
EastOregonian.com
TRCI:
Continued from Page A1
“Mr. Hanna fi led for this
injunction back in October
of 2021 asking ODOC to
just comply with the same
mask order that he follows,”
Chavez said in a written
statement after the March
21 ruling. “While wait-
ing for this order, he caught
COVID in January 2022. He
and so many other prisoners
have had to sit and wait for
ODOC to do the right thing.
It’s clear and unfortunate
that the federal government
is the only actor to provide
any oversight of the agency.”
Beckerman also cited
exa mple s f rom ot he r
cases where DOC offi cials
described poor or improper
masking at state prisons.
Brad Cain, the former
superintendent at the Snake
River Correctional Institu-
tion, was deposed by Chavez
on Dec. 22, 2020 as part of a
separate case.
“Were you told why some
staff members didn’t want
to wear a mask?” Chavez
asked.
“I’ve heard people’s opin-
Ukraine:
Continued from Page A1
“Rarely did anybody who
pointed a gun at us and gave
us an ultimatum or fi red at us
before giving an ultimatum
have any comprehension of
our culture,” she said. “You
would have to know some-
thing to have a confl ict with
our culture. It is, historically,
extremely likely that they
knew nothing of our culture,
but deemed that their superi-
ority not only in power, but
with divine intervention and
military force, that they had
the right to do what they did.
It’s a question that applies
today. What right does Putin
have to conduct his actions?
Justifications matter not
because it is genocidal.”
is Hiring in Pendleton
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
A sign stands at the entrance of Two Rivers Correctional In-
stitution in Umatilla as the sun rises April 2, 2021. A federal
magistrate judge in a court order Monday, March 21, 2022, re-
quired offi cials at the state prison to follow their mask policies.
ions on it,” Cain replied.
“Some people didn’t believe
in it. They just didn’t believe
in it. They felt as if it was
against their rights. I had a
staff member tell me it was
against his religious beliefs.
I’ve had staff tell me that it’s
all political and (COVID-19
is) not real.”
During the course of the
case, the Oregon Depart-
ment of Justice revealed
that around one-third of the
employees at the Two Rivers
prison had received medical
or religious exemptions from
the vaccine mandate. Beck-
erman noted that employees
who have vaccine exemp-
tions must wear N95 masks
at work, but the prison’s
COVID -19 compliance
offi cer admitted he doesn’t
know who those employees
are, making it “impossible
for him to monitor masking
compliance in any meaning-
ful way.”
Beckerman denied Hanna’s
request to apply her order
across all of Oregon’s prisons.
Conner said she thinks
Americans understand the
stakes of Ukraine’s sover-
eignty. She recalled how she
recently spoke with another
tribal employee who could
trace her lineage to Kher-
son, the Ukrainian region
that was recently claimed by
the Russians. She hopes the
lesson people take away from
Ukraine and the history of
the CTUIR is a better under-
standing of the human condi-
tion.
“There’s an artificial
construct, that many of us
are of a diff erent race,” she
said. ”There is only one race:
the human race. I do not have
the right to do to my neighbor
what is happening there. Nor
do my neighbors have the
right to do it to me.”
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