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, […]

By Oregon Department of Agriculture, New statistics indicate land use laws have helped, but prime ag land still at risk The loss of farmland in Oregon to development and other uses continues, but at a much reduced rate, according to the latest numbers from an inventory of land uses conducted […]

Oregon State Extension Service (Photo by Stephen Ward) Hundreds of farmers from throughout Oregon will gather in Corvallis this winter to improve their skills and get inspired for the next growing season. The 14th annual Oregon Small Farms Conference will take place Feb. 22 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. […]

By Cindy National Corn Growers Association In case you haven’t heard, lots of folks are droning on about the great potential for the use of drones in agriculture. The politically correct term is actually Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or UAV, but drone still seems to be the preferred word, despite any […]

OSHA Targets Small Farms By Oregon Family Farm Association Since 1976, Congress has included specific language in appropriations bills which exempts family farms with less than 10 employees from OSHA regulations. By law, OSHA inspectors are prohibited from setting foot on those farms. However, a 2011 memo from OSHA’s Director […]

Associated Oregon Industries Oregon’s largest business advocate Representative Jeff Reardon (D-Portland) plans to introduce a bill in the February 2014 Legislative Session that would add certain pesticides to the state’s restricted use list, effectively preventing the retail sale of products containing those chemicals to home gardeners.  Although the proposal will […]