Business
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
PORTLAND — When it
comes to ranking Oregon’s most
valuable agricultural commodi-
ties, the greenhouse and nursery
industry remains king.
The state Department of Agri-
culture has released its annual list
of top 20 crops by value of pro-
duction for 2020, with greenhouse
and nursery products leading the
way at $1.18 billion.
Cattle and calves placed a dis-
tant second at $587.8 million, and
third was hay at $569.1 million.
Rounding out the top 10, in
order, are milk, grass seed, wheat,
potatoes, winegrapes, cherries
and hazelnuts.
Data for the rankings comes
primarily from the USDA
National Agricultural Statis-
tics Service. Other industry esti-
mates are also provided by ODA,
Oregon State University, the
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife and the Oregon Wine
Board.
For Oregon’s greenhouses
and nurseries, 2020 marked the
second straight year with at least
$1 billion in sales.
Jeff Stone, executive director of
the Oregon Association of Nurs-
eries, said getting to this point
was a long time coming after the
industry was ravaged by the Great
Recession in 2008. The housing
crisis and declining consumer
confidence created what Stone
described as “a perfect storm
of economic calamity” for the
industry.
“We lost one-third of the nurs-
eries in the state,” Stone said. “We
saw really good nurseries that had
not made poor business decisions
evaporate, because there was no
market.”
In 2019, ODA initially valued
greenhouse and nursery pro-
duction at $955.1 million before
revising that estimate to $1.06 bil-
lion. Last year saw another 11%
increase, which Stone said was
due in part to greater interest in
gardening and home improvement
projects during the pandemic
lockdown.
Hay and cattle swapped places
in the 2020 rankings, though both
saw declines in value from 2019
of approximately 16% and 6%,
respectively. Overall, hay produc-
tion was down by 386,000 tons
while the inventory of cattle and
calves was down by 30,000 head,
according to USDA figures.
Just cracking Oregon’s top 10
commodities were cherries and
hazelnuts, which saw significant
gains in 2020. Cherries increased
78% in value over 2019. Hazelnuts
also had a record year in 2020,
with growers harvesting 63,000
tons of nuts compared to 43,000
tons in 2019, to a 57% increase.
OREGON’S TOP 20
AGRICULTURAL
COMMODITIES
The Oregon Department of Agriculture
and USDA National Agricultural Statis-
tics Service have compiled the state’s
top 20 agricultural commodities by
value for 2020.
Greenhouse and nursery — $1.18 billion
Cattle and calves — $587.8 million
Hay — $569.1 million
Milk — $557.3 million
Grass seed — $458.3 million
Wheat — $273.7 million
Potatoes — $216.8 million
Winegrapes — $157.9 million
Cherries — $133.8 million
Hazelnuts — $132.3 million
Blueberries — $119.6 million
Onions — $118.6 million
Christmas trees — $106.9 million
Pears — $97.5 million
Corn, grain — $77.5 million
Hops — $74.8 million
Eggs — $72.9 million
Dungeness crab — $72.6 million
Sweet corn — $41 million
Apples — $39.2 million
Thursday, October 21, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Boosting safety
OREGON AGRICULTURE
Nursery
crops again
top list of
Oregon’s most
valuable ag
commodities
AgLife
B
OTEC using virtual reality to share safety education messages
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Oregon
Trail Electric Cooperative
became the first electric com-
pany in the nation to use vir-
tual reality technology to share
safety education messages with
the public.
This move helped start a
high-tech campaign that today
is gaining momentum. The vir-
tual reality videos OTEC pro-
duced in 2018 have been so
well received that plans are
being made to produce more
in the future, according to Joe
Hathaway, the cooperative’s
communications coordinator.
“We are trying to take our
education a step further,” he
said.
Plans will soon be devel-
oped, Hathaway said, to pro-
duce additional virtual reality
videos about electrical power
safety at home, in the work-
place and in other venues.
These will complement the
two virtual reality safety
videos OTEC has already
produced to educate first
responders about how to pro-
tect themselves when in the
presence of fallen electrical
lines and another aimed at
helping farmers to work more
safely when in the presence of
power lines.
La Grande Police Chief
Gary Bell said the vir-
tual reality videos for first
responders are valuable in
helping law enforcement offi-
cers learn how to better work
safely around downed power
lines.
“I commend OTEC for
using technology to show how
to respond to hazardous situa-
tions,” he said.
Bell said law enforcement
officers are often the first to
arrive at the scene of live elec-
trical lines that have been
thrown to the ground by strong
winds or after a motorist has
crashed into a power pole.
“We encounter down power
lines with a lot more fre-
quency than people are aware
of,” he said.
Nick Vora, emergency
manager for Union County
and a La Grande Rural Fire
Department firefighter, also
Dick Mason/The Observer
Charlie Tracy, left, director of engineering at Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative, provides guidance to Nick Vora, Union
County’s emergency manager, as he tries OTEC’s virtual reality training on Sept. 30, 2021.
MORE INFORMATION
The Golden Shovel Agency of Min-
nesota produced OTEC’s seven vir-
tual reality videos, and production
of the videos was sponsored by
Federated Rural Electric Insurance.
OTEC’s VR videos can be seen on its
website, www.otec.coop. People
interested in having safety pre-
sentations using the virtual reality
headsets should call OTEC in La
Grande at 541-963-3115 or in Baker
City at 541-523-3743.
Dick Mason/The Observer
Lea Hoover, right, director of administration and strategic services with Or-
egon Trail Electric Cooperative, on Sept. 30, 2021, watches an OTEC virtual
reality safety training with a headset while Charlie Tracy, OTEC’s director of
engineering looks on.
said he is impressed with the
work OTEC has done to create
the safety videos.
“The downed power line
training videos that OTEC has
developed really demonstrate
its commitment to ensuring
the overall safety of the com-
munities they serve,” he said.
Vora said virtual reality
videos make it possible to
focus more on what is being
taught.
“After experiencing it, I
think the immersive nature
of VR video is a great format
for delivering video-based
training, because distractions
are all but eliminated, and as a
result, I expect content reten-
tion will be much higher com-
pared to other remote and self-
paced learning methods,” he
said.
Vora also said virtual
reality training addresses an
important need because many
first responders are volunteers
who work diverse hours.
“The VR headset training
is an effective conduit to
deliver consistent training
to first responders who may
have difficulty finding time
to attend traditional class-
room-based training,” he said.
“This is especially relevant for
agencies staffed by volunteers
with varying work and life
schedules.”
Anyone putting on a
headset takes a dive into the
See, OTEC/Page B2
Survey: Workers prioritize values in job
By SUZANNE ROIG
MORE INFORMATION
The Bulletin
SALEM — Workers value
having a job they can be proud
of, that is close to home with
flexible hours and that has health
insurance, according to a survey
by the Oregon Values and Beliefs
Center.
Rated the highest by all demo-
graphic groups by those sur-
veyed, at 63%, was having a
work-life balance, according to
the survey.
The second highest work-
place feature was health insur-
ance and working with people
who the survey respondents
respected.
“It’s unsurprising that most
people rank earning a good
salary as the most important
consideration when choosing
a place to work and that it is
really important to people
without a college degree
because a good salary can be
more difficult for those to come
by,” said Amaury Vogel, asso-
ciate executive director of the
Oregon Values and Beliefs
Center, which conducted the
survey Sept. 14-22. “The
ranking tells us a little bit more
because it makes people choose
a few priorities.”
Earning a good salary was a
priority for 72% of those partic-
ipating in the survey who were
30-54 years of age and 64% for
The Oregon Values and Beliefs Center,
a nonpartisan charitable organization,
has partnered with Pamplin Media
Group and EO Media Group to report
how Oregonians think and feel about
various subjects.
The Oregon Values and Beliefs Center
is committed to the highest level of
public opinion research. To obtain that,
the nonprofit is building the largest
online research panel of Oregonians in
history to ensure that all voices are rep-
resented in discussions of public policy
in a valid and statistically reliable way.
Selected panelists earn points for their
participation, which can be redeemed
for cash or donated to a charity. To
learn more, visit www.oregonvbc.org.
EO Media Group, File
A survey by the Oregon Values and Beliefes Cetner shows that employees today
place a higher value on jobs with flexible hours.
all respondents. While it makes
sense that earning a good salary
ranks among the top priorities,
Vogel said the work-life bal-
ance probably was not something
workers placed such a high value
on 20 years ago.
“Oregonians in the 30-44 age
range are more likely than other
age groups to have young chil-
dren and therefore prioritize a
flexible schedule, but it’s a bit
surprising that those 18-29, who
are often just establishing their
careers, would prioritize flexible
hours.”
When Annis Henson was a
full-time worker, health insur-
ance was a priority for her
and her family. The Bend res-
ident worked for Habitat for
Humanity as a field staffer prior
to retirement. As a worker she
valued the collaborative nature
of the work and having a super-
visor who valued her opinion.
“My work was very satis-
fying,” Henson said. “I could see
results in the work we did.”
The center’s online survey
was sent to 1,124 Oregon res-
idents. The survey’s margin
of error is 1.7% to 2.9%. The
Oregon Values and Beliefs
Center is an independent, non-
partisan organization.
Looking at the demographics,
people of color and white people
aligned on what is important
about where they choose to work,
according to the survey. The top
priorities in both groups were
earning a good salary, developing
skills, flexible hours and feeling
appreciated.
Urban Oregonians were
more likely than rural residents
to believe that contributing to
society was ranked as a very
important part of their work life.
And both groups — urban and
rural residents — placed equal
importance on where they lived
with 42% ranking this as a very
important issue.