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A4 Opinion wallowa.com May 18, 2016 Wallowa County Chieftain Who’s the farmer’s friend? U nless establishment Republicans pull some convention shenanigans, Donald Trump will likely be the GOP nominee for president. Bernie Sanders remains a contender, but it is still unlikely he will upset Hillary Clinton to be the Democrat’s standard- bearer. But what either think about the concerns for farmers and ranchers is, and will probably remain, a mystery in the short run. There was a time when presidential candidates pursued the farm vote. But farmers and ranchers have Voice of the Chieftain gotten short shrift from presidential candidates in the 21st century. That is at odds with a certain reality. Everyone in America eats, and eats quite well. Food is so abundant that it doesn’t register as a concern, and food producers are so few that they no longer constitute a viable interest group. Trump’s website doesn’t mention agriculture speciically. Sam Clovis, Trump’s national campaign co-chairman and chief policy adviser, told our sister newspaper the Capital Press the campaign “looks at agriculture from a security issue as every bit as important as energy and border security.” Clinton’s campaign didn’t respond to the CP’s request for information. Her website offers the vague promise to “increase funding to support the next generation of farmers and ranchers, invest in expanding local food markets and regional food systems, and provide a focused safety net to assist family operations ...” Here’s what we know based on what the candidates have said or published: Neither Clinton or Trump like the Trans-Paciic Partnership, the big 12-party trade deal now pending before Congress and important to agriculture. Clinton was for the pact before she was against it. As secretary of state she touted the negotiations and the prospects for a deal. She once referred to the TPP as the “gold standard” for fair, transparent trade. But once the deal was inalized, candidate Clinton dropped her support. Her online campaign material doesn’t say what she wants in future trade deals. As always, Trump is blunt. “The TPP is horrible deal,” Trump said of the pact. How he thinks it could be improved, we don’t know. His positions on trade are fairly general — it will “lourish,” he says. Clinton supports the use of genetically modiied crops, and mandatory labeling on food products. Trump, who eats organic at home, told the Iowa Farm Bureau that he supports the use of biotechnology in food products and opposes mandatory labeling. On immigration — a matter hugely important to farmers — the candidates occupy opposite poles. Clinton supports a path for citizenship for illegals now in the country, Trump does not. Clinton supports “humane, targeted immigration enforcement.” Trump wants to hire 10,000 more U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement oficers and repatriate all criminal aliens as well as everyone caught crossing the border. Clinton supports the president’s plan to give work permits to as many as ive million illegal immigrants. Trump supports mandatory E-Verify screening to prevent noneligible applicants from getting jobs. Trump has promised to reduce federal regulation, Clinton has not. For the farm sector, it’s hard to know which is the friend. EDITORIAL USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 Ofice: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore. Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921 Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884 Enterprise, Oregon M eMber O regOn n ewspaper p ublishers a ssOciatiOn P UBLISHER E DITOR R EPORTER R EPORTER N EWSROOM ASSISTANT A D S ALES CONSULTANT G RAPHIC D ESIGNER O FFICE MANAGER Marissa Williams, marissa@bmeagle.com Scot Heisel, editor@wallowa.com Stephen Tool, stool@wallowa.com Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com editor@wallowa.com Jennifer Powell, jpowell@wallowa.com Robby Day, rday@wallowa.com Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com p ublished every w ednesday by : EO Media Group Periodical Postage Paid at Enterprise and additional mailing ofices Subscription rates (includes online access) Wallowa County Out-of-County 1 Year $40.00 $57.00 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery See the Wallowa County Chieftain on the Internet www.wallowa.com facebook.com/Wallowa | twitter.com/wcchieftain POSTMASTER — Send address changes to Wallowa County Chieftain P.O. Box 338 Enterprise, OR 97828 Contents copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Volume 134 The most radical thing you can do I’m a Democrat who has crossed party lines often on state and local elec- tions, and crossed out of both parties at least once that I remember in a nation- al election. But I am a Democrat and I still haven’t decided whether to vote for Hillary or Bernie in the primary. I like many things that Bernie says, but some- thing about him — or more, something about Bernie’s army of supporters — has been nagging at me for weeks. There’s a self-righteousness — “Barack just didn’t get health care right, and Bernie will” — that is a bit annoying. But in a moment of revelation, it hit me that what is really troubling me about Bernie, and what had troubled me about Barack Obama’s election, is not the can- didates, but the young, hip, tech-savvy army of supporters who elected Barack and then went back to their fancy jobs and fancy lives. That left Barack with the existing army of federal bureaucrats — mostly holdovers from two Bush admin- istrations, but including many of those recruited during the Clinton administra- tion — that were not in government out of conviction and the desire to change things, but for job beneits and security. I’ve worked for the government a few times. I refereed intramural sports and MAIN STREET Rich Wandschneider worked in the library at UC Riverside, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years and then on Peace Corps staff for three more, and I came to Wallowa County as an extension agent with Ore- gon State University. The thing I remember about the Peace Corps was that we were excited and com- mitted to the program. Few complained (and they went home!) about 12-hour training days or being put on a train headed for some remote village where no one spoke English. President Kenne- dy had asked us to think not about what the country could do for us, but what we could do for the country. On Peace Corps staff, we had administrators, doctors and professors who took pauses in solid ca- reers to do the work. Some worked for a dollar a year. In 1971, when I came to work for OSU and Wallowa County, some of the luster of government work had worn off with the Vietnam War and strife over civil rights, but extension workers believed we could help the agricultural community and the whole community through research, edu- cation and a 4-H program that operated in every county in America. And in 1971 in Wallowa County, Forest Service workers held their heads high, and many ranchers and townspeople remembered the roads and trails they had helped build, the ires they had been conscripted off the highway to ight and the government paychecks that had pulled them through tough times. President Roosevelt gave us Social Se- curity, and I’m told he insisted that there would be no corruption on New Deal programs — and the agencies and people involved held to that word. Truman, de- spite great resistance and his own South- ern background, integrated the military. Eisenhower brought two new states into the union and built the Interstate Highway System; Kennedy taught us to look to the rest of the world and began pushing a civil rights agenda that Johnson, in spite of bit- ter resistance, cajoled past Southern con- gressmen and into law. Johnson did this knowing the Democrats would lose the South for generations, and that he would not get a second presidential term. See STREET, Page A5 U.S. longevity going wrong direction We are at war, and we are losing. It’s not a war of guns and smart bombs, but rather a war of life and death. Last month an editorial in the presti- gious Journal of the American Medical Association (April 4, 2016) recognized that as a society we are now beginning to die at an age younger than our par- ents. The longevity curves that are sup- pose to continue going up with modern- ization indicating that our lifespans will continue to increase are now beginning to trend downward. The main reason we haven’t seen this earlier is because of the “increasingly powerful and expensive array of treat- ments” such as statin drugs, medications for high blood pressure and diabetes, blood thinners, surgical procedures such as open heart surgery and stents to open blocked arteries, and other medical therapies. If it weren’t for those mod- ern medical miracles, this trend would have become evident long ago. But it now appears that we have reached a “tipping point … beyond which [these] technological advances may no longer compensate” for our current unhealthy lifestyles. GUEST COLUMN Cameron Smith As with any battle, to win we must know the enemy and understand its bat- tle tactics. In our current Western culture we are being attacked on all sides. In front of us, we are ighting “the conlu- ence of uncertain science and special in- terests.” In other words, there are pow- erful interest groups that are inluencing public policies. When the USDA deines a breakfast of Cocoa Puffs and choco- late milk as a “healthy breakfast” there are serious concerns about who is advis- ing policy makers in Washington. Additionally, we are being outlanked by many well-written and convincing books based on “uncertain science” that are misleading and ultimately very det- rimental to our health. As one patient recently asked me, “How can anyone know what is really true when it comes to all the health claims out there?” Parents are faced with uphill battles with “predatory advertising” to children in which companies market demonstrable unhealthful products to minors. When we walk into Walmart and on both sides of the isle are stacks of cheap sugary drinks, high-fat chips and highly processed cookies, it can be hard to pass them by. As stated in the JAMA article, the enemy is the “added sugars and highly processed carbohydrates [that] comprise the most harmful components of the food supply. National policies are need- ed that shift away from low-quality com- modities like corn and wheat and instead encourage production of high-quality proteins, fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, and other whole foods. … Parents must assume greater responsibility by limiting exposure to foods with poor nu- tritional value, encouraging physical ac- tivities for their children and educating them and themselves about good health habits. … Health care professionals can model healthful behaviors and dedicate time during routine ofice visits to dis- cuss diet.” See SMITH, Page A5 Voters have the power to limit terms The battle over term limits is a joke. We, the American people, have had the power of “term limits” for many, many years. That power is called “voting”. If you continue to vote for the same person time and again, you end up with what? A career politician created by you. If America needs someone different in a public ofice, then America should vote someone in, not gripe about term limits or the job they are doing. You alone have the power to create term limits. You al- ways have. Now use it. If you don’t like America the way it is, then vote to change it. No more career politicians. They are useless after a time. Let’s be clear. The only reason there are career politicians is because people are too lazy to use due diligence in an ef- fort to elect the absolute right person for the job. Many would rather just vote for whomever was in ofice last, or simply vote for a single candidate because they have nobody running against them. That alone creates a career. Are they really the right person? You will only know if you do a little research. The election of 2016 will truly be a turn- ing point in history. Use your right to vote, to ensure America’s freedoms re- main. Too many brave Americans have LETTERS to the EDITOR bled and died for the freedoms we enjoy. Now is the time for due diligence on the part of the American people as we watch many of those freedoms gradually slip away. Create your own term limits. It is up to you. Doug Dutton Joseph Pierce the one for Oregon As Wallowa County residents get their ballots in the mail, I want to urge my fel- low conservatives here in Northeast Ore- gon to join me in voting Dr. Bud Pierce for governor in the Republican primary. Bud is a bright, renowned and caring on- cologist with a successful medical prac- tice. He is not a politician. He served his country in the Marine Corps and Navy Reserve, made lives better through his work in charity and enlightened young minds while teaching medicine at Ore- gon Health and Science University. This great record of service to society, plus his proposed agenda for defending the 2nd Amendment, restoring local control of education and public lands, increasing job opportunities, growing the econo- my and improving military and civilian healthcare are what draw me to his can- didacy. Most importantly, Bud has taken the time to visit Eastern Oregon to learn about our needs and concerns. Read through the Oregon Voters’ Pamphlet or visit www.budpierce.com to learn more about why Bud is the candidate for our region and state. I hope you will join me in marking Bud Pierce on the ballot to take back the governor’s ofice. Alex McHaddad La Grande Keep cemetery beautiful The Lostine Cemetery District board would like to make sure people are aware of rules regarding placement of lowers on cemetery memorial stones. These are posted as you enter the cemetery and serve to help keep the maintenance and grooming of the grounds much easier and to keep the cemetery in a beautiful state throughout the year. We thank everyone for helping in this endeavor. Sue Coleman, Chairman of Lostine Cemetery Board Lostine