A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Water shortages:
Ag gets unfair
burden of blame
W
hile well-heeled
urban residents fret
about dead lawns,
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year of drought is already
being paid in the largely rural
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Researchers from
University of California-
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Sciences say the drought will
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as many as 18,600 workers
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million acre-feet less surface
water than they would in a
normal water year – about a
33 percent loss of supply on
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Growers are expected
to fallow 564,000 acres,
suffer a crop revenue loss
of $844 million and incur
$558 million in additional
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Packers, processors, truckers,
suppliers and retailers — and
their employees — will lose
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Lost jobs, lost businesses
– and the cost ripples out
in the prices we all pay for
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Still, some in California
would have ag water cut
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goes, agriculture takes 80
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water – an undeserved boon
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In a recent op-ed in the
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Nathanael Johnson put that
often-repeated figure into
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Farmers, he says, actually
take 40 percent of the fresh
water, while non-farm
human uses account for
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saltwater out of the Delta,
fish alive and river habitat
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“We devalue the
environment if we leave
it out of the equation,”
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judge the arguments for and
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Forty percent is a lot,
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so often cited in the
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amount held sacrosanct
by environmentalists and
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Drought always impacts
farmers first, followed
shortly by workers and
businesses in rural areas who
depend on the food and fiber
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place out of sight and mind
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and popular culture trend-
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farmers and ranchers the bad
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in on part of the picture,”
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holistic solutions, we have to
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Even in the ag community
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things must – and will –
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more regulations on farmers
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F ARMER ’ S F ATE
A combine, a dresser, and a lawn mower
By Brianna Walker
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in your marriage every once in a while
– not just for the learning experience,
but also for the revelations that always
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keeper of the laundry: sorting, wash-
ing, folding, putting it away, and toss-
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ticularly hectic period of farming, my
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time to buy some more,” he muttered
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I looked at the big stack of his dirty
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I wish I had magic drawers like he
does – continuously restocking his
clean clothes, folded or mated, until
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ing, I picked up the laundry basket and
headed to the washing machine before
crawling into bed beside my already
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So recently we decided to try a little
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into bed with a book and my husband
trudges downstairs with the laundry
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frustrated as he tried putting them
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come to my world, why do you think
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He grumbled and
muttered, and soon
the laundry baskets
became home to the
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After only two
weeks, he came home
grinning like a school
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gotta be a place to put it!”
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dresser was satisfactory – until he had
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Not long after that, I sat down at
the computer and noticed a web page
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an old riding mower, one that needed
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had 4 plugs and a bottle of green goop,
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clutch and brake at the same time be-
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One day after 45 minutes of tinker-
ing and a hand that was still smarting
from the shock when I tried to spark
across the battery with a screwdriver,
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faster with a push mower!”
Guess what arrived weeks later …
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band hired out my mowing services to
a neighbor widow to pay for my new
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that after only one time of using my
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I thought about the time I was driv-
ing combine with a sprained foot; I
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broken, and it was so hot the chickens
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the swelling down in my foot, I used a
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combine was a sauna and I was con-
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just for a few days before I park it for
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went on a parts run while he climbed
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a few hours later when I saw the com-
bine parked in the yard … and the AC
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My eyes narrowed as I stared at the
screen of pretty new John Deere rid-
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and soon I would be doing the laundry
and mowing my own yard – and those
neighbors have an awfully big yard
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right, I can get a riding mower – and
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Brianna Walker writes about the
Farmer’s Fate occasionally for the
Blue Mountain Eagle.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
See you at market
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
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Copyright © 2015 Blue Mountain Eagle
All rights reserved. No part of this publication covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced
or copied in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
taping or information storage and retrieval systems — without written permission of the publisher.
indulge in the luxury of this gift of
bounty, beauty and community right
in the middle of John Day, from 8-12
To the Editor:
Grocery shopping need not be a every Saturday, June 20 through Oc-
chore of the day but an adventure of WREHU
See you there!
the senses; right here in your own
Jim & Sandy Bay
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John Day Farmers Market
market where you will meet friends
John Day
and neighbors and just have a good
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Your sixth annual John Day Farm-
ers Market opens Saturday, June 20, Gohmert on the FS
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Fresh eggs, honey and grass-fed beef To the Editor:
from right here in your valley as well
We are being inundated in the news
as locally grown fruits and veggies media today with matters of such astro-
RI DOO NLQGV 7KH\ DUH VR IUHVK WKDW nomical importance as the recuperating
they are still crisp and very tasty, comedian who wrapped his limousine
having been lovingly raised and just around a Walmart truck or an aging
picked that day, or the day before, Bruce Jenner with his clip and tuck
instead of one or two or three weeks challenging the Kardashians for female
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tiful selection of arts and crafts, all
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locally made with loving hands for the Citizens for Public Access, Forest
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Access for All, Western Alliance of
Choosing not to go to the grocery Rural America and others are going un-
store to buy that imported beef, sal- remarked and unheeded by the people
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dime for a dime-a-dozen item or gift,
Hidden in the main media news
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Farmers Market and buying those SXEOLFDQIURP7H[DVDQGPHPEHURIWKH
locally grown and hand-picked fruits House Natural Resource Committee,
and vegetables, eggs, honey, beef
in a joint legislative hearing told two
and arts and crafts is turning your IHGHUDOODQGRI¿FLDOV'HSXW\'LUHFWRU
back on the industries that would of Operations for the Bureau of Land
control us and let us forget who we 0DQDJHPHQW %/0 6WHYH (OOLV DQG
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Every time we say “NO” to con- /HVOLH:HOGRQ³,FRPHEHDULQJJRRG
sumer culture, we say “YES” to QHZV,WKLQNLI\RXUHPSOR\HHVNHHSXS
something more beautiful and sus- the arrogance, keep denying access to
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,WKDVDPD]HGPHIRUWKHODVW¿YH dramatically cut your employees back
years that every weekend we meet and start turning those powers over to
local John Day folks who have not WKHVWDWHV
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market every Saturday morning, all of your presence here by letting you
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those who are aware of it who “just URJDQFHRISHRSOHRQ86)RUHVW6HU-
have not made it there yet,” as if it YLFHODQGDQG'HSDUWPHQWRI,QWHULRU
is a one-day, once a year thing that land – national forests – even from law
is only a novelty to be enjoyed per- HQIRUFHPHQW WKH\ VD\ LW¶V MXVW JRWWHQ
chance, if one has the time to be tougher and tougher to deal with arro-
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“Some of us have been pushing
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So, it is time to get there and EDFNWKH86)RUHVW6HUYLFHWKH%/0
the Department of Interior and let each
state manage the federal land within its
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ter job at managing your land than your
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Judy Kerr
Canyon City
Sweat with us
To The Editor:
, GLGQ¶W DWWHQG JUDGXDWLRQ VR ,
FDQ¶W FRPPHQW VSHFL¿FDOO\ RQ WKH
³SRRU´ FKRLFH RI DWWLUH WKDW 0U
7KRPVHQ IURP $XURUD WDNHV LVVXH
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know well the person that he was
criticizing and would suggest that
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the occasion that there was probably
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%HFDXVH WKLV SHUVRQ¶V FRQWULEXWLRQV
to our county have at least earned
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the deference to wear whatever he
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sit on any boards or commissions
here, volunteer for neighborhood
activities, coach youth sports, donate
money to local causes, have kids in
our schools, or anything else that I
would consider to warrant my re-
spect as a contributor to our commu-
QLW\+HPD\EHDJUHDWJX\EXWKH
also could have just come to Grant
County to “ranch” our way of life
and, like so many others resembling
him, wants to change the very char-
acteristics of our area that attracted
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We may be a little rough around
the edges sometimes but remem-
ber – you made the choice to move
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built this community and we are
generally the ones who struggle
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icize; put a little skin in the game,
collect some scars and sweat a little
bit with us – then you can lecture
us poor mountain folk on how we
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Shaun W Robertson
John Day