The Oregon Natural Resources Report - Agricultural News from Oregon

National Association of Wheat Growers

The Supreme Court declined this week to review a case that concluded pesticide discharge is a point source of pollution subject to additional regulation and permitting under the Clean Water Act, effectively letting the ruling stand and ending judicial appeals in the case.

The case, National Cotton Council of America v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was decided by the Sixth Circuit Court in January 2009. In effect, the ruling will mean that EPA will almost certainly require producers to obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits or some other type of permits for each and every pesticide application, even if applied within label requirements.

From USDA,
Amber Waves, March 2010

another chart below

Stallman: New H-2A regulations will make it harder to put food on America’s tables
American Farm Bureau Federation,

New rules for the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program, released by the Labor Department on Feb. 12, will make the program more difficult than ever to use, according to American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman.  Among the changes is a requirement that farmer employers who seek H-2A visas for agricultural workers provide documented evidence that they have looked for qualified U.S. citizens to fill the jobs. Previously, employers only had to indicate they had looked for qualified workers.

Oregon Wheat Grower’s League honors Sen.David Nelson, Sen. Martha Schrader, Sen. Joanne Verger, and Rep.Bruce Hanna. Rep. Mike Schaufler received

The OWGL Board of Directors together with OWGL staff participated in a “Day at the Capitol” on Friday, February 12 in honor of Oregon’s Birthday which fell on Sunday this year.  Governor Kulongoski addressed the audience comprised of interested citizens and school children prior to cutting the birthday cake sponsored by the Oregon Wheat Growers League.  Special thanks to the Governor and Lisa Hanson, Oregon Department of Agriculture, for their remarks and willingness to participate.

The day was filled with legislative meetings to outline areas of concern and priority issues for the industry.  The Legislators were grateful for the update and complimented the Board members for spending time in the Capitol.

Despite being more costly to produce, organic milk production more than tripled in 5 years, but, more recently, growth has slowed in the wake of the weaker U.S. economy.
By William D. McBride and Catherine Greene
Characteristics, Costs, and Issues for Organic Dairy Farming,
US Dept. of Ag.

Organic milk production has been one of the fastest growing segments of U.S. organic agriculture. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of certified organic milk cows increased an average of 25 percent each year to more than 86,000 in 2005. The number of farms specializing in organic milk production more than tripled between 2002 and 2007, to more than 1,600. Many of these are small dairy operations that have switched to the organic approach to help improve farm profitability.

Organic milk cows comprised only about 1 percent of all U.S. milk cows in 2005. USDA estimates that organic milk’s share of U.S. fluid milk sales increased from 2 percent in 2006 to 3 percent in 2008. Rapid growth in the sector has recently slowed, however, as a weaker U.S. economy dampened demand for organic food products.

Bill sets the stage for tackling transportation & greenhouse gas reductions
SB 1059 is the product of a diverse work group established in the 2009 session
By Senate Majority Office,

SALEM – Legislation that will help governments make decisions about how to develop smart, sustainable, and cost-effective transportation systems passed in the Senate this afternoon. Senate Bill 1059 lays the groundwork for communities to plan for future population and employment growth while reducing greenhouse gases.  “This bill deals with one important piece of the climate puzzle – transportation,” said Senator Alan Bates (D-Ashland), who carried the bill on the floor. “We must design our cities more efficiently, everything from timing our traffic signals to increasing our ability to run errands with fewer or shorter trips in the car. This bill sets the stage for progress.”

Oregon Department of Agriculture,

1. Marion County $493 million
2. Umatilla County $369 million
3. Morrow County $345 million
4. Clackamas County $302 million
5. Klamath County $241 million
6. Washington County $238 million
7. Linn County $237 million
8. Malheur County $227 million
9. Yamhill County $222 million
10. Polk County $162 million

Agriculture’s economic downturn has swept across Oregon, negatively impacting all but one of the state’s 36 counties when it comes to agricultural sales in 2009. An overall drop of nearly 15 percent last year left very few commodities in good shape. Marion County remains the runaway leader in terms of agricultural sales, but still saw a reduction of $111 million in 2009. Only Hood River County recorded an increase last year, which clearly demonstrates the unprecedented difficulties facing a diverse Oregon agriculture industry.

HB 3608 Provides Incentives for Production, Transportation of Woody Biomass
By House Republican Leader Rep. Bruce Hanna,

SALEM—House Republicans today made a final effort to advance HB 3608 this session to improve Oregon’s rural economy and create desperately-needed jobs. The legislation would have provided incentives for the production and transportation of biomass but, on a partisan vote, majority Democrats rejected bringing it to the Floor for debate.

“It’s unfortunate that Democrats would kill an affordable measure to put people back to work,” Rep. Thompson said. “Providing tax incentives for harvesting woody biomass is the only effective way to encourage companies to gather and transport the material to produce renewable energy. By blocking this bill’s passage, Democratic leadership decided to put partisan politics ahead of job-creation.”

HBO Special Highlights the Unique Impact of Temple Grandin on Beef Production

DENVER (February 4, 2010) – This Saturday, February 6, when HBO’s Temple Grandin airs, farmers and ranchers across the country will be tuning in to honor Temple Grandin’s work in improving the care of cattle. Grandin, living with autism, revolutionized livestock handling by tapping into her ability to see the world in a different way to develop a deeper understanding of animal behavior.  “There’s not a rancher in this country that isn’t aware of her work. We have all been influenced by Temple,” says Clint Peck, Director, Beef Quality Assurance at Montana State University. “There is no question her work has helped us all understand more about our animals and how to handle them in a caring and humane manner.”

National Association of Wheat Growers,

The federal government’s historic and growing debt load was the hot topic in Washington, D.C. this week, with President Barack Obama issuing an executive order to establish a commission to examine the problem after Congress failed to create a commission of its own.

The Obama order set up an 18-member panel to make recommendations due Dec. 1. The panel will be bipartisan, with Obama appointing Republican and Democratic co-chairs, plus three additional Democrats and one Republican, and each party’s Congressional leaders choosing six from their delegations.

A NW feedlot company, Easterday Ranches, filed a and lost a suit against the USDA over the COOL laws. Cattle Network reports in detial the ruling.

In a memorandum sent Friday to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), R-CALF USA explained that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington (Court) recently issued an order that addresses a principal argument contained in the complaints filed at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law by Canada and Mexico. The order stems from the lawsuit that Easterday Ranches Inc. (Easterday) filed against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding the U.S. COOL law. In that litigation, Easterday argued that the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s marking rules, established to implement the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), provide that beef derived from the slaughter of imported cattle in the U.S. market is entitled to be designated as a product of the USA. Easterday further argued that as a result of these preexisting marking rules (NAFTA marking rules), the COOL law improperly requires beef from such imported cattle to be labeled as a product of both countries – Canada and the United States.

Oregon Farm Bureau
Legislative Bulletin 2/12/2010

We’ve hit the halfway mark of the February special session. Thursday marked the last day a bill could pass out of the committee of the chamber of origin. This has substantially reduced the number of bill moving that your government affairs staff has been working. Of the major issues we highlighted in our last two issues, here is what’s left on our plate:

HB 3648 – Reserves 50/50 plan - The bill to curb the potential for aggressive growth of the UGB in the Metro region moved from House Ag to the House Rules committee on Thursday. The House Rules committee does not have the same restriction for moving bills as other committees have. As the Metro reaches its final decision with the area counties for the designations it is our hope that this bill will provide leverage to protect critical areas of ag land from conversion. Chairman Clem gave an excellent closing speech where said he would be interested in “pulling the plug” on the process if critical grounds were not protected. To hear the conversation click here:

SB 1060 – Navigability/Floatage - The bill moved out of the Senate Environment Committee on Thursday. However, the current bill was amended to only creates a taskforce to address the issue during the interim. Farm Bureau will continue to be engaged in the issue.

By Alex Moore,
Cascade Harvest Coalition

A lot of my peers (I’m about 30 years old) have spent more than half of their lives in a US with certified organic products and view the National Organic Program (NOP) as a sort of birthright. From time to time I hear grumbles or even adamant criticism about loopholes in the standards that allow larger scale agriculture to circumvent the original intention of the Organic Food Production Act of 1990.

Well, the New York Times and the Atlantic Magazine reported that the USDA has amended National Organic Program (NOP) regulations that govern the definition and use of ‘pasture’ in organic dairy production. According to the New York Times, some producers interpreted the old language, “organically raised livestock had to have access to pasture,” to mean that cows were only required to be pastured during times when they were not producing milk. Here is an excerpt of the new, much tighter regulation.

Roseburg BLM Announces Collaborative Forestry Project
Bureau of Land Management,

Roseburg, OR –The Bureau of Land Management’s Roseburg District is initiating a public process to apply principles of “collaborative forestry” in the District. The initial scoping meeting for the Roseburg Collaborative Forestry Pilot project is scheduled for Wednesday night, February 24 at 6:30 at the Roseburg District BLM office at 777 Garden Valley Boulevard in Roseburg. This collaborative approach is based on the following three goals:

- Accelerate the development of habitat components across the landscape as needed to support the conservation and recovery of Northern Spotted Owls and Marbled Murrelets;
- Reduce the hazard of uncharacteristically large/intense wildfire in dry forest types as needed to support landscape and community fire resiliency/resistance; and
- Provide reliable and substantial timber volume to support employment, income and public services while recovery planning/critical habitat designation and associated land use planning are addressed.

Oregon Small Woodlands Association,

Forestland owner Gary Springer and conservation group director Sybil Ackerman have been appointed to the Oregon Board of Forestry. They replace board members Bill Hutchison and Larry Giustina, whose second terms will expire this spring.

Active in Oregon environmental causes since the 1990s, Ackerman is currently executive director of the Portland-based Lazar Foundation, which funds projects to protect the environment throughout the Pacific Northwest. Prior to her employment with the Lazar Foundation, she was legislative affairs director for the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Her credentials also include positions with the National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society of Portland.

OSU receives $1 million gift for hops breeding and chemistry research
Shaun Townsend

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon’s vibrant craft beer industry received a major boost this week with the announcement that a new aroma hop breeding program will be created in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University.  A gift pledge of $807,000 from Indie Hops, an Oregon-based hop merchant, will support the new program, which will be led by Shaun Townsend, a research associate and hop breeding specialist at OSU.

Indie Hops already has provided $200,000 to OSU’s Thomas Shellhammer, holder of the Nor’Wester Professorship in Fermentation Science, to foster research in new techniques for developing aroma hops and to study aroma hop chemistry. The new hop breeding program will work closely with Shellhammer’s lab to study hop essential oil composition and how individual oil components impart the characteristic flavor and aroma to beer.

By Rex Storm, Forest Policy Manger
Oregon Associated Loggers,

Diesel Climbs to High: US retail prices of diesel fuel surged January’s first week, soaring an average 6.5 cents to $2.80 per gallon, its highest level in over a year.  At press time, the US average rose further to $2.91/gal.  By January 19th, Oregon’s average diesel price had climbed 11 cents (+4%) from the previous month to $2.902 per gallon, the nation’s 26th highest average price, according to Fuel Gauge Report (www.fuelgaugereport.com).  The rise is due to rising crude oil price and unexpectedly high heating oil demand in a cold US winter.

Study finds Private Forest Huge Economic Benefit: A report, commissioned by National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) and written by Forest2Market, quantified large economic contributions to the US economy from private “working” forests.  One thousand acres of a privately-owned forest generates $277,000 in state gross domestic product, while the same area of public forest generates just $41,000.  A 1,000-acres of private forest annually generates 8 jobs, $270,000 payroll, $9,950 state taxes, and $733,000 in sales.  The report online: www.forest2market.com/f2m/f2m-impact/

NCBA Files Petition for Reconsideration and Stay of EPA’s Endangerment Finding
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association,

WASHINGTON (Feb. 12, 2010) – The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is petitioning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider its finding that human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are an endangerment to public health and welfare (“endangerment finding”). The petition, filed yesterday by NCBA and other members of the Coalition for Responsible Regulation, is based upon information uncovered during the recent “climategate” scandal, which seriously calls into question the scientific validity behind EPA’s finding.  “It’s become evident that EPA’s endangerment finding may be based on flawed data,” said Tamara Thies, NCBA chief environmental counsel. “The fact that EPA did not choose to reconsider its finding after the extent of the climategate scandal was revealed publicly is perplexing to say the least; ignoring climategate will not make it go away.”

Since “climategate” wasn’t exposed until after the public comment period of the endangerment proposed rule had expired, NCBA and the Coalition are calling on EPA to convene a proceeding for reconsideration, and stay any further regulatory actions or rulemakings based upon the finding until the reconsideration is completed

Chart from USDA,

AFBF Asks Ag Committees to Back Aggressive Trade Agenda
By American Farm Bureau Federation,

WASHINGTON, D.C,  – Combined, the Colombia, Panama and Korea free trade agreements represent almost $3 billion in increased U.S. agricultural exports. Congressional action to approve those agreements would help set an aggressive trade agenda that is important to the U.S. economy and the creation of American jobs, AFBF President Bob Stallman today told leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees.

In a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of both committees, Stallman said approving the trade agreements would be a great way to answer President Obama’s call in his State of the Union address for doubling U.S. exports over the next five years. Stallman, last week, sent a similar letter to members of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.