Business
AgLife
B
Thursday, November 18, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Students eat more
fresh produce
after farm visits,
survey finds
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
county.
Everyone agreed that the
cost of materials and their
availability really puts a hitch
in things.
Kathy Bohms, office man-
ager for the Joseph-based
Chris Borgerding Con-
tracting, said workers hav-
en’t really been a problem
for them.
SALEM — Recent Oregon studies indi-
cate that students who visit farms or meet
local producers through farm-to-school
educational programs are
more likely to eat fresh fruits
and vegetables.
Statewide data are not yet
available, but recent studies in
some Oregon districts show
that participation in farm-to-
school programs influences
Barker
students’ nutritional choices.
“I’ve seen firsthand how much of an
impact it has had on students’ willingness
to try new foods,” said Melina Barker,
director of the Oregon Farm to School and
School Garden Network.
Barker said students who visit farms,
work in school gardens or have farmers
visit their classrooms all appear more
willing to eat fresh produce than they were
before having those experiences.
One example comes from Rogue Valley
Farm 2 School, or RVF2S, in Southern
Oregon.
RVF2S recently partnered with Project
Impact to track student behavior after par-
ticipation in a program that involved les-
sons, farm visits and tasting tables.
The soon-to-be-published data show a
70% increase in the number of teachers
reporting that their students requested
more fresh vegetables after the program
— not just students eating more fresh pro-
duce, but asking for it.
Sheila Foster, executive director of
RVF2S, said she believes the positive
experiences students have at farms or in
gardens makes them more likely to want
fresh food.
“What we’re doing is tapping into cre-
ating a culture around healthy food and
lots of positive experiences around that,”
said Foster.
Pre-COVID, Foster said, farm visits
typically took place twice a year — once
in the spring, and once in the fall. During
a 3- to 4-hour farm visit, students would
help with harvest, meet farm owners and
farmworkers and then prepare a meal
together on-site, such as pizza and salad.
During COVID, farm visits have been
more limited, but Foster said students have
still eaten more fresh produce afterward.
Other districts have seen similar results.
Mindy Bell, executive director of the
School Garden Project of Lane County,
said students in her program work in a
school garden, take field trips and some-
times interact with local producers.
Bell said teachers and students were
surveyed after participating in the pro-
gram. About 68% of students said they
tried a fruit or vegetable they’d never tried
before and 66% said they now like a larger
number of fruits and vegetables than
previously.
Bell said students love the program, and
for some, it’s where they bloom.
See, Builders/Page B2
See, Students/Page B2
Staying
busy
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Melanie Aschenbrenner, a construction worker, staples housewrap to a house/office on Wallowa Avenue in Joseph on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. The building is
being built by Charlie Kissinger Construction.
Despite hurdles,
builders keep building
in Wallowa County
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The
construction business is
making progress in Wallowa
County, despite difficulties in
various aspects of it, contrac-
tors say.
Labor and materials seem
to be the top areas of concern
to those interviewed.
“Our biggest issue is labor.
It’s really hard to find, espe-
cially young people who want
to work or anybody with
experience,” said Charlie
Kissinger, the semi-retired
owner of Charlie Kissinger
Construction. “Around here,
there’s a lot of construction
going on so the guys we have
are spread pretty thin. I know
it’s a problem everywhere.”
“It’s pretty tough (finding
workers),” son Josh Kissinger
said.
The younger Kissinger
manages the day-to-day
operations.
“I got pretty lucky,” Josh
Kissinger said. “I’ve got some
pretty good people now.”
Amy Wellens, co-owner
with husband, Keith, of
Wellens General Con-
tractor, agreed labor can be a
problem.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
What will become medical offices on the ground floor with a residence above is under construction Tuesday, Nov.
2, 2021, by Charlie Kissinger Construction on Wallowa Avenue in Joseph. The construction business is doing well in
Wallowa County, despite troubles obtaining materials.
“That is true. It’s unfor-
tunate, even with the young
kids coming out of school,
there are so many opportuni-
ties for subcontractors,” she
said, adding that there seems
to be a shortage of training
of young people in construc-
tion-related skills. “There’s
tons of money to be made.
Those skill sets are going to
be lost.”
Wellens said her company,
although based in the county
and employing people here,
doesn’t do a lot of work in
Wallowa County. Their jobs
are mostly in La Grande,
Pendleton, Lewiston and
Moscow, Idaho, and Pullman,
Washington. She said the
company prefers to work in
the county, but most of their
work takes them outside.
She did say about 90%
of her employees are in the
Economists flummoxed over statistic
By FEDOR ZARKHIN
The Oregonian
SALEM — Oregonians’
typical incomes grew more
in the last decade than in
any other state, and one of
the state’s chief economists
isn’t sure if there’s a root
cause.
“That’s one we don’t
fully understand,” said Josh
Lehner, an analyst with the
state’s Office of Economic
Analysis.
Oregon’s median house-
hold incomes rose from
about $47,000 to $67,000,
not adjusted for infla-
tion, from 2010, the year
after the Great Recession,
to 2019, the peak of the
recovery.
At 44%, that’s the
greatest increase in median
household income of any
state, followed by Colorado,
at 43%, and Washington,
with 41%.
Of course, there are the
usual suspects — and it
starts with the economy.
As Oregon recovered
over the course of the
2010s, more people worked,
raising household incomes,
and more people who
wanted jobs had them. As
economies improve, wages
rise, Lehner said, and that’s
what fuels most Orego-
nians’ incomes.
“Our wage growth is just
phenomenal,” he said.
But as Lehner’s anal-
ysis showed Oregon’s 2018
median incomes going past
the U.S. median for the
first time since the 1960s,
he wondered if there was
something else that could
explain the growth.
But beyond pointing to
an improving economy,
there’s a chance he won’t
know if there’s a spe-
cific, root cause behind the
growth.
That’s because the
COVID-19 pandemic and
the attendant economic
upheaval will likely present
entirely different puzzles
for Lehner and his col-
leagues to solve.
“We’ve moved on to dif-
ferent things in the last two
years,” he said.
For Lehner, under-
standing what’s been
driving Oregon’s median
income growth isn’t a case
of idle curiosity. The state
uses his office’s forecasts
to set the two-year budget
and, if the state raises more
than expected from per-
sonal income taxes, the sur-
plus goes back to taxpayers.
Since 2016, the state has
had multiple record surplus
“kickers” refunded to tax-
payers. With accurate fore-
casts, policymakers have
more money to conduct the
state’s business.
“Our goal is to not have
a kicker,” Lehner said.
The 2020 rebate paid out
to taxpayers was a record
$1.6 billion at the time, and
the one to be paid out next
year will be about $1.9 bil-
lion, another record.
Experts stumped
Lehner isn’t the only one
without clear answers about
Oregon’s rising income,
which includes a house-
hold’s wages, salaries and
tips for anyone 15 and older
in the household.
Gail Krumenauer
of the Oregon Employ-
ment Department said she
doesn’t know exactly why
Oregon has fared so well.
As a general rule,
Oregon does worse when
there’s a recession and then
does better when there’s
a recovery, she said. And,
also as a rule, recoveries
last longer than recessions,
potentially putting Oregon
ahead of the rest of the
country.
One possible reason
Oregon does better during
recoveries, Krumenauer
said, is because unlike
many other states, people
keep moving to Oregon,
providing a consistent labor
pool when jobs become
available again.
Another key reason Ore-
gon’s economy overall
has fared well post-Great
Recession could boil down
to industry diversity and
quality of life, said Univer-
sity of Oregon economics
academic expert Tim Duy.
The state has a lot of dif-
ferent industries, including
forestry, technology, agri-
culture, wine and mari-
juana, Duy said, making its
recovery stronger.
“Anything you want
done, you can probably find
a firm in Oregon that does
it,” Duy said. “If you have a
broad-based recovery, that’s
going to lift a lot of boats.”
Then, there’s the fact
that Oregon has a steady
stream of migrants that
Duy said could be attracted
by Oregon’s quality of
life. People move in from
expensive states like Cali-
fornia, he said, and there’s
a national trend of people
moving to coastal areas.
But when asked why
wages and incomes have
been growing more in
Oregon than elsewhere,
Duy and Krumenauer sug-
gested asking Lehner, the
state economist.
“I don’t have a good
answer for what, specifi-
cally, was happening,” Duy
said.
Minimum wage
Lehner also looked at
the impact of the minimum
wage, which was raised
incrementally starting
in 2016. But that doesn’t
explain the statewide trend,
he said, because employers
were often offering higher
pay than even increased
minimum wage rates.
Moreover, incomes grew
across income brackets,
not just for the lowest-paid
workers.
Neither was the increase
due to an influx of high-
paying tech jobs in the
Portland area. Those
account for some tens of
thousands of jobs, he said,
but “don’t move the state-
wide needle that much.”
“They matter, but that
does not explain very much
the statewide movement,”
Lehner said.
See, Income/Page B2