OFS Legislative Report Oregonians for Food and Shelter Legislative Update from Scott Dahlman and Paulette Pyle Picture Becomes Clearer as Legislative Session Nears Finish While March 9th is the constitutional last day for the 2014 Legislative Session, the buzz around the Capitol is that the legislature could adjourn “Sine Die” […]

By Daily Digger Oregon Association of Nurseries As reported recently in the Capital Press (Salem, Ore.), a proposal to reclassify neonicotinoids as “restricted use pesticides” has been removed from a bill currently before the Oregon Legislature. The classification would have meant that only licensed applicators could use the class of […]

By American Farm Bureau Federation The American Farm Bureau Federation, as part of a multi-industry coalition of 636 business organizations – 154 of them agriculture-related – today urged Congress to move forward with immigration reform this year. In a letter sent to House Republican leadership, the coalition noted that all […]

Oregon Farm Bureau OFB Legislative Bill Update The list below represents the bills still alive that Oregon Farm Bureau is monitoring. Support HB 4093: Creates public record exemption for written agreements relating to conservation of wild birds entered into voluntarily by owners or occupiers of land with soil and water […]

By State Representative Mike McLane OREGON HOUSE PASSES BILL GIVING AGRICULTURE GREATER CERTAINTY IN SEED AND CROP LAWS The Oregon House of Representatives passed SB 863, the Certainty for Family Farmers of Oregon Act, in an effort to provide Oregon’s farm economy greater certainty regarding seed and crop regulations. The […]

HB 4101: Oregon’s Timber tax  By Oregon Tax News The current Legislative Session features a bill (Hb 4101) that seeks to punish victims of previous environmental policies problems with additional taxes.  HB 4101 creates a severance tax on timber production that would go to fund county government as well as […]

OFS Legislative Report Oregonians for Food and Shelter Legislature Hits First “Cutoff” of Session While it may seem like we just started the 2014 Legislative Session, the first legislative cutoff came on Thursday. February 13 was the deadline for bills to be moved from their house of origin committee. For […]

Senate approves crop donation credit By Senator Chuck Thomsen A bill allowing food banks and farmers to put more food on kitchen tables was unanimously approved on Friday. Senate Bill 1541, containing a crop donation tax credit, is part of the Senate Republican Legislative Agenda, and now heads to the […]

By State Representative Sal Esquivel When I returned to Oregon in 1970 after serving in the Vietnam War, I would spend my evenings pulling green chain at a lumber mill and earning $3.74 per hour in the process. That might not sound like much, but if you adjust it for […]

  By American Farm Bureau Federation One of the most important issues related to “big data” goes directly to property rights and who owns and controls farm-level data that may be collected, the American Farm Bureau Federation told Congress today. Risks to privacy that farmers face are of great concern, […]