JANUARY 13–19, 2022
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T ake a turn
at Anthony
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INSIDE TODAY
SPORTS A6
LOCAL A2
Go! Magazine
Arts and entertainment guide
State committee nixes potential
switch to 9-man football
Cliff Bentz voices opposition
to River Democracy Act
IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • BUSINESS & AG LIFE • SPORTS
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
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Meat of the Matter
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Rona
Music of Baker City.
Ranchers optimistic about federal attention to
lack of competition in meatpacking
BRIEFING
—————
Local, A5
JOHN DAY — The 10-
year stewardship contract
between the Malheur
National Forest and Iron
Triangle is widely credited
with saving John Day’s
last surviving lumber
mill, creating hundreds of
jobs and improving forest
health.
But it has also prompted
criticism from some who
feel the John Day-based
logging company has
profi ted at the expense of
smaller rivals.
Sports, A6
Baker’s girls and boys
basketball teams were
scheduled to open their
Greater Oregon League
season on Tuesday, Jan. 11,
by playing host to rival La
Grande in the Baker gym.
But then COVID-19
intervened.
Quarantines in both
the La Grande girls and
boys teams prompted the
games to be postponed,
Baker School District
Athletic Director Buell
Gonzales Jr. announced
late on the morning of Jan.
11, about seven hours
before the girls game was
slated to tip off at 6 p.m.
WEATHER
—————
Today
38/24
Mostly cloudy
Friday
34/22
Mostly cloudy
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
Schools,
hospital
weather
COVID
surge
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Cattle in Bowen Valley, just south of Baker City, on Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022.
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Curtis Martin doesn’t expect a prob-
lem that was decades in the making to
be solved by a single announcement
from the White House, even one that
comes with a billion-dollar pledge.
But Martin, a North Powder cat-
tle rancher and past president of the
Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, is
nonetheless encouraged by the Biden
administration’s effort to increase
competition in the meatpacking in-
dustry, which is dominated by four
corporations.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Martin
said of the administration’s recent
announcement that it would divert
$1 billion from the 2021 American
Rescue Plan Act to address problems
in the meat processing system and
try to encourage the construction of
smaller, regional meat processing op-
erations and, potentially, curb a recent
rise in beef, pork and poultry prices at
the retail level.
“It’s really a positive report, and I
think the best thing ranchers can do
is engage in it and help Tom Vilsack,”
Martin said.
Vilsack is the U.S. Agriculture Sec-
retary, and one of the federal officials
who met with Biden recently in a vir-
tual meeting to discuss the situation.
The resulting plan, which was an-
nounced on Jan. 3, has among its goals
enforcing existing competition laws
and making the machinations of the
cattle markets more transparent.
That new federal focus is welcome
news for Martin, who has been con-
cerned for many years about what he
considers an unfair manipulation of
beef markets by the four companies
that control about 85% of the coun-
try’s cattle processing — Cargill, Tyson
Foods, JBS, and National Beef Packing.
While retail beef prices have risen
by 21% over the past year, according to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
that trend hasn’t been reflected in
what ranchers are receiving for their
cattle, Martin said.
Tom Sharp, the Oregon Cattlemen’s
current president, addressed the rise
in beef prices in an October 2021 in-
terview with the Pacific Northwest Ag
Network.
“Those profits have largely gone
solely to the major beef packing com-
panies that dominate boxed beef pro-
duction here in the United States,”
Sharp said. “There’s really four multi-
national companies that produce 83%
of the total boxed beef for retail con-
sumption here in the United States.”
Martin said he believes one way to
reduce the dominance those four com-
panies have is to encourage more local
and regional processing of beef.
That would also give ranchers more
options for marketing their cattle, and
boost consumer choice, potentially
affording them the option of buying
beef raised, and butchered, in the same
county where they live.
Martin said there is a sufficient
number of beef cattle in Eastern Or-
egon and Western Idaho to support
processing plants with a capacity to
handle 250 to 500 head per day.
But now, he said, “we have abso-
lutely no competition in the North-
west. There’s no negotiation. You
take what is given to you (in terms of
prices).”
Martin said he’s encouraged by Agri
Beef ’s construction of a beef process-
ing plant in Jerome, Idaho. It’s ex-
pected to open by the end of 2022, and
will have a capacity of about 500 head
per day.
“That’s a great thing, but I still see
the need for more competition,” Mar-
tin said.
Smaller processing plants would also
benefit rural economies by creating
jobs, he said.
Increasing competition
Martin said he’s encouraged that
Attorney General Merrick Garland
also participated in the recent virtual
meeting.
Martin has been advocating for
years to have the U.S. Justice Depart-
ment investigate what he believes con-
stitutes “price manipulation” in the
beef industry.
Matt McElligott, who raises cattle
between Haines and North Powder,
said he’s glad that issues in the beef in-
dustry are being acknowledged at the
federal level.
“The good thing is that it is being
talked about,” said McElligott, who
is chairman of the public lands com-
mittee for the Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association. “It’s something we in the
industry have been talking about for
a long time, the need to have a more
vibrant and competitive industry.”
McElligott said that although de-
tails of the Biden administration’s
$1 billion campaign have yet to be de-
termined, a preliminary draft called
for spending $375 million, over two
phases, to “jumpstart independent
processing” for beef and other meat.
The first phase could include $150
million earmarked for 15 specific lo-
cal processing projects, which could
potentially help ranchers market beef
to local consumers, McElligott said.
Prospective processors would com-
pete for the dollars under the pro-
posal.
The second phase would designate
the remaining $225 million to expand
the capacity at existing processing
plants across the nation, he said.
McElligott said boosting indepen-
dent processing, and thus reducing the
dominance of the four leading process-
ing companies, would be beneficial to
both ranchers and consumers.
See, Cattle/Page A3
The surge in COVID-19
cases spawned by the highly
contagious omicron variant
accelerated this week in Or-
egon and in Baker County,
but some experts predict that
infections could soon start
dropping rapidly in the U.S.
Baker County reported 30
cases on Tuesday, Jan. 11.
That’s the second-high-
est one-day total during the
pandemic. The record is 37
cases. That was the total on
two days, Sept. 9 and Sept.
14, during the wave of cases
driven by the delta variant.
For the first 11 days of Jan-
uary, the county reported 161
cases, an average of 14.6 per day.
See, COVID/Page A3
Council
discusses
pharmacy
struggles
BY SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
The Baker City Council’s
newest member, Dean Guyer,
reported to his colleagues
during their
Tuesday, Jan.
11, meeting
about the
pharmacy
crisis.
Guyer,
who was
appointed
Guyer
during the
Council’s Dec. 14 meeting,
talked about problems that
have arisen since the phar-
macy at the Baker City Bi-
Mart store closed in early
November.
See, Council/Page A3
Commissioners discuss ‘constitutional county,’ mandates
In a comment that Nichols posted
in the online portal for the work ses-
sion and that was read aloud during
Several Baker County residents at-
tended a work session Wednesday,
the session, he wrote: “We commis-
Jan. 12, to again urge county com-
sioners have no legal means to over-
missioners to approve a resolution
ride the Governor’s executive orders.
As a commissioner I swore an oath for
declaring that Baker is a “constitu-
about the third or fourth time in my
tional county” where state and fed-
life to support the constitution and to
eral governments must comply with
follow the laws of the state of Oregon.
the U.S. Constitution.
To choose to openly defy the Gover-
The work session was scheduled
nor’s executive orders is a violation
after the commissioners’ Dec. 15
of the oath that I swore I would com-
meeting.
Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald ply with. I too do not like mandates,
During the earlier meeting, Jake
About 40 people attended a Baker County Commission work session Wednesday
forced vaccinations, and the ongoing
Brown of Halfway, a representative
never-ending rules. Yet I represent all
from Baker County United, asked
afternoon, Jan. 12, at the Baker County Events Center.
of the people in the county so my per-
commissioners to approve the reso-
sonal feelings are secondary to those
Courthouse, where signs are posted
space. All individuals in attendance
lution.
that do not agree with me.
Commissioners moved the Jan. 12 outside citing the mask requirement. at meetings under the control of
“Civil disobedience is sometimes
The county’s notice for the Jan. 12 Baker County are expected to comply
work session from the usual meeting
room at the Courthouse to the much meeting stated: “Baker County must with this rule, unless actively eating, necessary to make a point yet with
COVID cases continuing to rise now
comply with all federal, state and lo- drinking, speaking or presenting in
larger Baker County Events Center,
is not the time in my view,” Nichols
the meeting.”
in the former National Guard armory cal laws, or face penalties and fines.
wrote. “I value all points of view and
Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR
Most audience members during
at 2600 East St.
even those that disagree with me. Yet
During the Dec. 15 meeting, with 333-019-1025, Masking requirements the Jan. 12 did not wear a mask.
Commission Chairman Bill Har-
in protecting our rights we all must
about 30 people in the audience,
for indoor spaces) states that indi-
vey and Commissioner Mark Bennett be careful to not trample on the rights
commissioners didn’t comply with
viduals five years of age and older,
attended the work session in person. of others. It is our duty to protect
Gov. Kate Brown’s executive order
regardless of vaccination status, are
Commissioner Bruce Nichols at-
requiring that masks be worn in in-
required to wear a mask, face cover-
See, County /Page A3
door public spaces. That includes the ing or face shield when in an indoor tended remotely.
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
TODAY
Issue 103
28 pages
Business .................B1 & B2
Classified ....................B2-B4
Comics ..............................B4
Community News.............A3
Crossword ...............B2 & B4
Dear Abby .........................B6
Senior Menus ...................A2
Horoscope ..............B3 & B4
Letters ...............................A4
Lottery Results .................A2
News of Record ................A2
Obituaries .........................A2
Opinion .............................A4
Sports ...............................A6
Weather ............................B6