The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend $27.5 million on cranberry concentrate, buying a fraction of the surplus berries that are suppressing prices.

The purchase of the value-added product will soak up 30 million pounds, or 300,000 barrels, of cranberries, according to the industry’s Cranberry Marketing Committee, which announced the purchase in a press release June 29.

“We’re pleased to hear that. Certainly when you have an inventory of 7 million barrels, it’s nice to have some help getting rid of that,” Washington cranberry grower Malcolm McPhail said July 1.

Total U.S. production in 2015 was about 8.4 million barrels, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The cranberry surplus has hovered around 90 percent in recent years, swelled partly by a bumper crop of nearly 9 million barrels in 2013. Farmers have seen prices fall every year since 2009.

The average price growers received in 2014 was $30.90 per 100-pound barrel. The USDA is due to issue a report Wednesday on the 2015 crop.

“Any sale of cranberries helps our growers,” Ocean Spray cooperative spokeswoman Kellyanne Dignan said. “From our perspective, we appreciate the USDA’s attention to the cranberry industry.”

The USDA purchases surplus food to stabilize prices under a program created during the Depression. The government distributes the food to schools, summer camps and charities.

The USDA has been a regular customer for cranberry farmers. The purchases included buying 680,000 barrels for $55 million around Thanksgiving 2014. A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers from the five cranberry-producing states lobbied for the purchase.

“We are grateful for the continued support of the USDA and appreciate the positive impact that this bonus buy has on our industry,” the marketing committee’s executive director, Michelle Hogan, said in a written statement.

A Massachusetts task force in mid-June made several recommendations to help that state’s cranberry growers.

The recommendations included providing grants, tax credits and low-interest loans to farmers to renovate bogs and increase yields.

Other recommendations called for programs to pay farmers to convert bogs to wetlands to reduce production.

Cranberries are the top farm crop in Massachusetts, the country’s second-leading cranberry producer.

Washington, the fifth-leading cranberry state after number-three New Jersey and number-four Oregon, has 1,700 acres planted in cranberries. “I think everybody is hanging in there,” McPhail said.

SALEM — The Oregon agricultural industry is gearing up for battle against a campaign to pass a corporate sales tax measure on the November ballot by shedding light on how the tax will affect individual companies and farmers.

Under Initiative Petition 28, the Mt. Angel-based Wilco farm supplies and fuel cooperative faces a 1,388-percent increase in its state corporate income tax bill, from $168,000 to $2.5 million per year, CEO Doug Hoffman said.

The tax would apply only to the $100 million in sales at Wilco Farm Stores in Oregon; direct sales to the cooperative’s 3,000 members are exempt, Hoffman said.

The ballot measure targets C corporations, imposing a 2.5 percent tax on their Oregon gross sales exceeding $25 million. It’s expected to raise about $3 billion a year in new state revenue.

The nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office says the tax will act largely as a consumption tax, raising prices for consumers and businesses.

The union-backed campaign A Better Oregon says the state needs that revenue to bolster support for education, health care and senior services. Proponents also note that corporations’ income tax contributions to state revenue has declined as a percentage from 18.5 in the mid-1970s to 6.7 now, according to a study by the Oregon Public Policy Center.

While the campaign says the tax targets big out-of-state corporations, it also affects some Oregon businesses with high sales receipts but relatively low profit margins, said Dave Dillon, executive vice president of Oregon Farm Bureau.

Wilco typically nets income of 2.5 to 3.75 percent of gross sales, Hoffman said. In some years, such as 2009, the company doesn’t make a profit. One reason he opposes IP 28 is that even companies that lose money have to pay the tax as long as their gross sales exceed $25 million.

Supporters are unmoved.

“A Better Oregon was specifically designed to protect farm co-ops and it won’t raise taxes on the supplies farmers buy through their co-ops,” said Katherine Driessen, a campaign spokeswoman. “A Better Oregon was also designed to make large pesticide companies like Wilco and Monsanto pay their fair share in taxes. Based on the claims that Wilco has made, it has to do at least $100 million in non-farm co-op sales. It can and should pay more to support or schools and critical services.”

Dillon said those extra costs will be passed onto farmers.

The impact of the tax could be felt at every point of sale, as suppliers and retailers increase prices to cover their additional costs.

The gas and diesel that Wilco sells, for instance, changes hands several times before it gets to the end consumer, Hoffman said. By that time, the tax may push the cost up 5 to 7 percent, he said.

That will impact farmers who have to drive their products to market. The tax also will drive up the cost of fertilizer, farming equipment and other necessities for producing and selling a crop, Dillon said.

“We are going to have folks out of work, and there isn’t going to be an economy to pick them up,” said Katie Fast, executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter.

The tax is estimated to slow growth in private sector jobs by 38,000 in the next five years years, but public sector jobs would grow by 17,000 in the next five years, according to the Legislative Revenue Office.

A recent study by Portland State University, commissioned by A Better Oregon, found that the tax would boost public sector jobs by 33,600 by 2027 and slow growth in private sector jobs by 13,500.

“You don’t see Wilco take a stand on many things,” Hoffman said. “We believe we have the story that touches people in a small way It will affect us and our consumers We couldn’t let it stand and suck it up and not get involved.”

Support for international trade slipped in Oregon while the major candidates for president criticized the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that Congress could consider later this year.

According to two polls conducted by DHM Research, the percentage of Oregonians who believe foreign trade is an opportunity for economic growth dropped from 65 percent in March 2014 to 53 percent in April 2016.

During that time, the percentage of Oregonians who believe trade is more of a threat to the economy increased from 19 percent to 36 percent.

“Our polling data reveal that Oregonians are less certain that international trade is a good deal for our state and our country in 2016 than they were two years prior,” says DHM Research founding partner Adam Davis.

The drop in support followed repeated attacks on international trade treaties by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. All three candidates came out against the TPP, even though Clinton had previously called it the “gold standard” of such treaties.

“The seemingly 24-7 coverage of Trump and Sanders this past year has taken its toll on public understanding and appreciation of the benefits of trade,” Davis says. “It’s been a constant drumbeat of Americans losing jobs and big companies being the only beneficiaries of policies like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”

Doug Badger, executive director of the Pacific Northwest International Trade Association, deplores the criticisms. Although Trump, Sanders and — to a lesser extent — Clinton have all claimed such treaties have reduced the number of American jobs, Badger says the opposite is true, especially in Oregon.

“Trade is creating jobs in the country and the region, which is especially dependent on trade. And they are good-paying jobs,” says Badger, whose organization is aligned with the Portland Business Alliance and is pushing for approval of the TPP.

Badger notes that support for international trade is still above 50 percent in Oregon, which he says is a good thing. But he worries the criticisms by the presidential candidates will make it harder to win approval of the TPP and future trade agreements.

“The politicians are saying one thing but the economy is saying another when it comes to trade,” he says.

Davis agrees there’s little public understanding of the benefits of trade.

“Like we see in our research about public understanding of the basics of governance and public finance, there’s a great deal of ignorance about international trade. And the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement? You got to be kidding; there’s next to no facts-based understanding of what it is and how it affects Oregon’s economy — positively or negatively,” Davis says.

TPP opponent Michael Shannon of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign argues that just the opposite is true.

“The public isn’t responding to the politicians, the politicians are responding to the public,” Shannon says.

“People are tired of stagnant wages and increasing inequality, and previous trade deals have shipped good paying jobs with benefits overseas,” says Shannon, whose organization includes labor, environmental and social justice organizations.

Shannon and other opponents point to a recent study by the United States International Trade Commission that says some manufacturing jobs would be lost because of the TPP, although other sectors of the economy, like agriculture, would benefit.

Davis confirms his company’s polls are finding deep public dissatisfaction with the economy.

“Nearly half of Oregonians believe that America has gotten the short end of the stick, perhaps in a nod of agreement with Trump and {img:116920}Sanders about the exportation of manufacturing and other blue-collar jobs that once served as the backbone of our economy. Many of these same people are not considering, because they’re not aware, the benefits of international trade such as lower prices and the availability of a wider range of goods and services,” he says.

A 2013 study by the Value of Jobs Coalition found that $20 billion worth of Oregon goods and services were exported in 2012. There were 490,000 jobs tied directly or indirectly to international trade that year, up 20,000 from 2010. And the amount of Oregon’s trade-related employment grew 7.5 times faster than total employment between 2004 and 2011, said the study, which was supported by such business groups as the Portland Business Alliance and the Port of Portland.

The TPP is an agreement between the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. According to Badger, seven of Oregon’s top 11 export markets were on this list in 2015, and they accounted for nearly half of all of Oregon’s export value that year.

“The export of Oregon goods and services will only increase if we can reform the rules and reduce the tariffs with our major trading partners,” Badger says.

Shannon counters that the biggest companies, such as Nike, benefit most from such deals, not average workers.

Because of the political climate, some observers believe President Obama will ask the lame-duck session of Congress to approve the TPP after the November general election.

Several growers in Northeast Oregon are accusing the Westland Irrigation District of cheating them out of water to benefit larger farms.

A federal complaint claims the district unconstitutionally deprived the plaintiffs of water and seeks $2.9 million in damages as well as an injunction requiring the Westland Irrigation District to enforce the plaintiff’s water rights and properly deliver water.

Plaintiffs include ELH LLC, Oregon Hereford Ranch LLC, Paul Gelissen, Maurice and Lucy Ziemer, Frank Mueller, Craig and Cynthia Parks and Richard and Kristine Carpenter.

Mike Wick, the district’s general manager, said it would premature for him to discuss the lawsuit.

“Our board hasn’t had a chance to meet to discuss the complaint,” he said.

The Westland Irrigation District will hold a special executive session about the litigation that’s scheduled for July 5 in Echo, Ore.

According to the complaint, the district “facilitated large scale theft” over the past six years from 10 farms with senior water rights, which own between 58 acres and 837 acres each, to deliver water to three operations with more than 5,000 acres.

The lawsuit claims those three farms with junior water rights — L&L Farms, Eagle Ranch and Amstad Farms — diverted more water than they were allowed.

The district used several methods to make the overpumping possible, including fraudulent accounting and improper contracts, the complaint said.

“Defendant’s misappropriation of plaintiffs’ senior water rights has deprived plaintiffs of the opportunity to double crop their farms and shifted that lucrative opportunity to junior water rights holders in violation of Oregon water rights law.”

Capital Press was unable to reach a representative of L&L Farms as of press time.

David Prior, whose family owns of Eagle Ranch, said he hadn’t heard about the litigation.

“We don’t have any information because we’re not in the lawsuit, so I can’t comment,” he said.

Skeeter Amstad, whose family owns Amstad Farms, said it’s too early for him to comment on the lawsuit but said his company is transparent in its water use and has done nothing wrong.

“We work extremely hard to get water through all the legal channels,” he said.

Dixie Echeverria, co-owner of plaintiff ELH LLC, said she was alerted to the problem when her company didn’t receive all the water to which it was entitled during the spring.

Westland Irrigation District didn’t provide answers to her questions and the Oregon Water Resources Department’s local watermaster refused to intervene in the dispute, she said.

The lawsuit was filed to ensure senior water rights in the district are protected, Echeverria said.

Litigation filed by farmers against their own irrigation district is rare, according to an Oregon water law attorney who didn’t want to be named.

An irrigation district’s board of directors is supposed to ensure proper water allocations, but these governing bodies are often dominated by the largest landowners, the attorney said. “That’s potentially a problem.”

If the board’s directors refuse to take action or are accused of wrongdoing themselves, farmers have few alternatives aside from litigation, the attorney said.

State watermasters regulate at the point of diversion from a public water source, but they aren’t involved in internal water distribution, the attorney said. “They leave that to the district to manage.”

Members of the Farmers Cooperative Creamery in McMinnville, Ore., have accepted an agreement that allows dairy farmers to apply for membership in the much larger Northwest Dairy Association of Seattle.

FCC dairies have 60 days to decide whether to apply. The two organizations have cooperated informally for several years on processing and marketing, according to a news release from FCC executive Mike Anderson. FCC has about 60 dairy members.

Northwest Dairy Association, also a cooperative, has about 500 dairy members in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Northern California. Its members produce about 8.9 billion pounds of milk annually. The cooperative’s marketing and processing subsidiary is Darigold Inc., which operates 11 processing plants in the Northwest.

A Farmers Cooperative Creamery plant in McMinnville is not included in the agreement with NDA. Anderson, the FCC executive, said that does not necessarily mean the plant will close.

In an email, Anderson said the agreement with NDA “is an extension of a relationship that has been developing for a number of years and is driven by common interests and good business opportunities and planning for a bright and secure future for all dairymen.”

Ukraine and Romania are hungry for U.S. investment in grain storage, irrigation and other agricultural infrastructure, said Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba.

Major U.S. companies are best poised to immediately take advantage of opportunities in Ukraine and Romania due to their expertise working in foreign nations, said Coba, who recently returned from a trade mission to the two countries.

In the future, though, there may be greater openings for Oregon farm exports to the Eastern European countries, particularly as they need more high-quality seed, she said.

“If democracry continues to grow, those are markets for us to keep our eye on,” Coba said.

The USDA led a trade mission of state agriculture officials and agribusiness representatives to Ukraine and Romania on June 13-17, after which Coba visited Croatia with her two daughters.

A major challenge for U.S. farm exports to the two countries is transportation — air freight is expensive, while ships must take a meandering route through the Mediterranean and Black Seas, she said.

“It’s quite a truck for our stuff,” Coba said.

The U.S. shipped $321 million worth of farm goods to Ukraine in 2013, but that amount had plummeted more than 75 percent by last year, according to USDA trade data.

“The Ukrainian economy collapsed after the overthrow of their president in 2014,” Coba said.

That year, Ukraine’s parliament ousted the nation’s Russian-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, leading to Russia’s invasion of its Crimea region and conflicts along its eastern border.

During the trade mission in Ukraine, U.S. officials toured a grain facility owned by Archer Daniels Midland and participated in the opening ceremony for an oilseed crushing facility built for nearly $300 million by Bunge.

Ukraine has insufficient infrastructure for irrigation, storage and processing of crops, so the nation is looking for American help to expand its production capacity, Coba said.

“They’ve got a long road ahead of them,” she said. “The U.S. presence there is critical.”

Romania also faces changes to its agricultural system, which is dominated by a large number of farmers who cultivate relatively small plots of land, Coba said

The country’s government wants to increase its agricultural efficiency, which is often achieved through consolidation, while protecting its small farmers, she said.

U.S. farm exports to Romania have ranged from roughly $50 million to $100 million per year over the last decade, while our imports from that country tripled last year, to more than $150 million.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Arizona tattoo artist pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges in the Oregon’s ranching standoff case.

Brian Cavalier, a bodyguard for standoff leader Ammon Bundy and his father Cliven Bundy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and possessing a gun in a federal facility. Cavalier admitted in federal court in Portland that he conspired with others to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the refuge near Burns.

He became the sixth defendant to plead guilty in the continuing case. The other five took deals in which government prosecutors agreed to dismiss the gun charge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said prosecutors, in exchange for Cavalier’s acceptance of responsibility, will recommend a sentence far below the maximum of 11 years in prison, likely 15-21 months.

Cavalier also faces charges in Nevada for his involvement in a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents at Cliven Bundy’s ranch. Gabriel said Wednesday’s plea agreement is with Oregon alone, and there are “no promises” in the Nevada case.

Cavalier, 45, traveled to Oregon this past winter to participate in the Ammon Bundy-led occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a protest against the federal control of Western lands and the imprisonment of two ranchers convicted of setting fires.

Cavalier stayed for only five days before going back to Arizona. He had a run-in with police there and returned to Oregon.

He was arrested Jan. 26 along with Bundy as the two traveled to a community meeting away from the refuge. Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, the occupation spokesman, was in a different vehicle and was fatally shot by Oregon State Police during the traffic stop.

Gabriel noted that Cavalier was armed during his initial stay at the refuge, but didn’t have a gun when he returned to Oregon and was unarmed during the traffic stop.

Cavalier told the judge his actions could have led to the intimidation of federal employees. Gabriel took exception to the word “could,” and the defendant rephrased his answer. In response to another question, he said: “Yes, your honor. I did agree with at least one other person to impede,” emphasizing the last word.

Cavalier will be sentenced Sept. 30, three weeks after most of the remaining 20 defendants — including Ammon Bundy — are scheduled to go on trial.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon is one of several states without a routine water testing program, leaving many bodies of water unmonitored for harmful algae blooms.

The Bulletin reports a handful of the state’s lakes are shut down each summer because of harmful algae blooms. The blooms, sometimes called blue-green algae, are caused by toxin-producing bacteria and often form a green paint-like scum on the surface of the water. It can cause health problems for humans and can kill livestock and pets.

Most blooms are only a minor inconvenience, but environmental authorities are concerned that climate change and runoff are increasing the frequency and severity of harmful algae blooms and putting people and animals at greater risk.

Algae expert Dr. Wayne Carmichael says the blooms will get worse unless people address water quality.

THURSDAY, JULY 7

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said Tuesday that she will be taking a stance on a ballot measure that would raise taxes on businesses, but she’s not yet ready to do so.

The initiative, currently referred to as IP-28, has qualified for the November ballot. It would raise taxes on businesses with sales that exceed $25 million, generating a projected $3 billion dollars per year in tax revenue.

“I will be making a decision,” Brown said following an event in downtown Portland. “The bottom line is as governor I believe it’s important that I consider all of Oregon, all of Oregon’s businesses and the people throughout the state. I think that it’s more important that I get the decision right than have it be done quickly.”

Brown said she’s meeting with businesses and service providers as she tries to determine whether or not she’ll support the tax measure.

Many in the business community oppose the ballot measure, arguing it will harm Oregon’s economy. Public employee unions, the measure’s biggest supporters, said the state needs additional funds.

On that point, Brown agreed.

“We are facing a revenue shortfall in the next biennium roughly in the neighborhood of $1.4 billion,” Brown said.

Former Gov. John Kitzhaber has been critical of the measure as well as Brown’s neutral stance on the tax measure.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Residents of a remote county in eastern Oregon where an armed group seized a federal wildlife refuge have voted overwhelmingly to keep in office a top local official who had denied the occupiers access to a county building.

“I feel so good about the outcome,” Harney County Judge Steve Grasty told The Associated Press over the phone from the county courthouse in Burns. “The voters have spoken. What’s important is to move ahead, see where is the common ground. ... People won’t always agree but we can find what we can work on together.”

Grasty had faced the special recall election Tuesday because he refused to let the activists, who said they were protesting federal land-use policies, use a county building to host a meeting. Supporters of the recall say Grasty violated rights to free speech and freedom of assembly.

According to unofficial final results, 2,038 residents, or 70 percent of votes cast, opposed recalling Grasty; 861 residents, representing 30 percent of ballots, voted to remove him.

“Looks like a strong statement was made,” Harney County Clerk Derrin E. “Dag” Robinson said.

The first recall effort in this high-desert county in 21 years underscored divisions that remain more than four months after the 41-day occupation ended Feb. 11.

The group took over the refuge in opposition to federal government overreach in the West, where a lot of land managed by the federal government.

“I certainly hope, after tonight, we can work as a community to heal, let the past go, and move forward in a positive way,” Robinson said.

Most signs in a nearby town and on ranch fence posts were for Grasty, who, even though he prevailed in the recall effort, retires in December.

“I’m going to save packing up until the end of the year,” Grasty told AP. He had earlier said that if he lost the recall, he’d put his belongings in a box and leave right away.

He had told the AP in a recent interview that he viewed this special election as a referendum on how he and other county officials handled the takeover of the 188,000-acre Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

More than two dozen occupiers were arrested amid the takeover, and one was shot dead at a roadblock confrontation with law enforcement. Several have pleaded guilty to conspiracy in exchange for the dismissal of a charge of firearms possession in a federal facility. Most of the remaining defendants, including leader Ammon Bundy, are scheduled to go to trial Sept. 7.

The headquarters of the refuge, 30 miles south of Burns, is still closed, though refuge roads are open. Refuge manager Chad Karges said he expects the headquarters to reopen in late summer or early fall.

The county’s last recall election, in June 1995 against another county judge and a county commissioner, resoundingly failed, Robinson noted. The recall petition had complained, among other things, that the judge had “purchased luxury automobiles with the taxes of people struggling to survive.”

“They were Fords, Crown Victorias,” Robinson, who that year worked for the county clerk’s office as an intern, remembered with a laugh. “They were not luxury cars.”

The issues this time are rooted in something more serious — seizure of federal property by occupiers from out of state, plus the deadly confrontation. Their presence, and that of hundreds of law enforcement officers, put county residents on edge.

Grasty said he stands by his decision to deny Bundy and his group from using a county building.

“He had already taken over, with firearms, a whole compound of buildings. And (the request) didn’t make sense to me, nor did it fit public policy about public safety,” Grasty said.

Robinson said Harney County recently got a scanning machine for examining ballots and tallying election results; this election was the second time the county has used it.

He said he had posted on his own Facebook page to try to boost voter participation. The county lacks a radio station and has only a weekly newspaper.

Voter participation in the Tuesday recall vote was 64 percent.

ALBANY, Ore. (AP) — After having to throttle down for more than a week due to periods of pounding rainfall and spotty hail, mid-Willamette Valley farmers put combines back to work in area grass seed fields over the weekend.

They are looking forward to several days with temperatures in the mid-to-upper 80s and only a 10 percent chance of rain on Saturday.

“It’s very early in the season, but it doesn’t appear the rain caused many problems,” said Oregon State University seed specialist Clare Sullivan. “There were patches of hail that appear to have affected some fields. Rain wise, I haven’t heard anyone complaining about that.”

The hail may have shattered some seed heads, loosening the seed prematurely from the shaft of the plant that had been swathed and was in the drying stages before being picked up by a combine.

Sullivan said it’s also too early to say whether unusually warm weather — several days in the high 90s a month ago — had a detrimental effect on seed size.

“Usually, extreme heat will speed up the ripening process, which can result in lighter weight seed,” she said. “But I think that by the time the hot weather arrived, the plants were already ahead of last year in their growing cycles and were going through their physiological changes.”

Sullivan said the rains have also helped keep the regrowth grasses green.

It’s interesting to see the contrast of the bright green grass under the swath rows,” she said.

Oren Neuschwander started harvesting grass seed fields near Eicher Road Monday afternoon and said that, so far, things were looking good.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in May that about 118,000 acres in Oregon are devoted this year to annual ryegrass, down about 4 percent from 2015.

The number of acres of perennial ryegrass is expected to remain unchanged at about 97,000 acres.

The USDA reported that numbers in 2015 were lower then usual due to drought conditions.

Growers also reported heavy damage from winter cutworms, mice and slugs.

A ruling striking down the ban on genetically engineered crops in Josephine County, Ore., is being appealed by supporters of the ordinance.

The prohibition was passed by voters in 2014 but overturned in May by Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Pat Wolke, who held that state law clearly pre-empted local regulations of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

Oregonians for Safe Farms and Families, a nonprofit, and Sisikou Seeds, an organic farm, defended the GMO ban in court and have filed a notice informing the judge that they will appeal his decision.

Mary Middleton, executive director of OSFF, said the group continues to believe in local control and wants to vindicate the will of voters who created the GMO-free zone.

“Winning sets a precedent for the rest of the state,” Middleton said.

Middleton and other supporters of the GMO ban feared that biotech crops will cross-pollinate with organic and conventional ones, ruining their marketability.

Farmers Robert and Shelley Anne White filed a lawsuit against the ordinance last year because they wanted to plant genetically engineered sugar beets.

Wolke agreed with them that state lawmakers disallowed such local restrictions in 2013, rejecting arguments that the pre-emption law was unconstitutional.

John DiLorenzo, attorney for the plaintiffs, said he’s confident the Oregon Court of Appeals will affirm the decision, preventing county-by-county litigation if other local governments pass similar GMO bans.

“That’s why I’m not opposed to an appeal. I think we’ll establish a state rule,” he said.

Currently, Oregon’s Jackson County is the only jurisdiction where a GMO ban is allowed under state law.

The initiative on Jackson County’s ordinance was already on the ballot when the Oregon Legislature approved the statewide pre-emption statute, and it has since been upheld by a federal judge.

However, county restrictions on GMOs have come under fire in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has been asked to decide whether such local regulations are allowed under federal law.

Meanwhile, DiLorenzo is seeking $29,000 in attorney fees from OSFF and Siskiyou Seeds, alleging that some of their legal arguments lacked an “objectively reasonable basis.”

The non-profit and farm have objected to this request, arguing it would have a “chilling effect” on other groups that want to “challenge unjust laws that impact local communities,” according to a court document.

Siskiyou Seeds owner Don Tipping said the $29,000 award would result in “great financial harm” for his company, since “farming is typically close to a breakeven livelihood,” according to the document.

Middleton of OSFF said in the document that the requested amount is greater than the group’s operating budget for the GMO ban campaign, so being forced to pay it “may result in shutting down and/or dissolution of the entire organization.”

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Last votes are coming in for a special election being held in Eastern Oregon that was the site earlier this year of an armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge by militants opposed to overreach by the federal government.

Harney County Judge Steve Grasty, the top administrator of the sparsely populated high-desert county, faces a recall vote because he refused to allow the militants to use a county building to hold a meeting. The vote underscores that divisions remain in the county more than four months after the 41-day occupation ended on Feb. 11.

By late Monday afternoon, Harney County Clerk Derrin E. “Dag” Robinson had collected 58 percent of the roughly 4,400 ballots sent out. Voters can cast ballots at drop-off boxes until 8 p.m. Tuesday, at which time the last ballots will all be collected. In Oregon, voters mail or drop off ballots.

Signs calling for voters to reject the recall effort, and a few of them supporting it, are on lawns and businesses all over Burns, the county seat.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The San Jose Sharks issued a qualifying offer to pending restricted free agent forward Tomas Hertl and three other players.

BURNS, Oregon (AP) — Winter and spring have passed since an armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge ended, but its aftershocks are still shaking this high desert region of Oregon, with activists setting up “Camp Freedom” where an occupier was killed and organizing a recall election this week against a top county official.

The headquarters of the 188,000-acre Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which was occupied for 41 days, is still closed. Down the road, at The Narrows cafe, saloon, shop and gas station, things have settled. Co-owner Linda Gainer said the business she got from journalists, agents, occupiers, protesters against the occupation, and from protesters protesting the protesters, more than made up for any slower days now. The last militants surrendered Feb. 11.

“I met some awesome people. And you know, everybody that came through, they were all polite,” she said, describing how even militia members and anti-occupation protesters exchanged greetings.

At her place, 26 miles south of Burns, Gainer feels isolated from the divisions that broke open during the takeover and still linger. Burns is the main town in Harney County, which at more than 10,000 square miles is the largest in Oregon. With only 7,100 residents, it is also one of the least populated.

Those divisions are evident in the signs about Tuesday’s special recall election against County Judge Steve Grasty, who for the past 18 years has been the county’s top administrative official. Grasty blocked occupation leader Ammon Bundy from holding a public meeting in a county building, an act cited as justification for the recall effort. Grasty says it was absurd for Bundy, who said he wanted to turn the federal refuge over to local residents, to ask to use county property.

“He had already taken over, with firearms, a whole compound of buildings. And (the request) didn’t make sense to me, nor did it fit public policy about public safety,” Grasty, his shirt adorned with a “No Recall” button, said in an interview in the county courthouse.

Grasty sees this election as a referendum on the county’s handling of the crisis.

“I’ll be disappointed if I’m recalled,” Grasty said. “If I’m successful, I think it’s an affirmation that the county government did the right things during the course of the occupation.”

A local supporter of Bundy said a Harney County resident had tried to rent the building so locals could hear both sides on the takeover. The supporter, who did not want to be named for fear that doing so could impact the supporter’s business, said Grasty’s refusal violated rights to free speech and freedom of assembly.

However, the vast majority of signs in Burns and on ranch fence posts are for Grasty, who, even if the referendum fails, retires in December.

“I certainly hope the recall is defeated hugely,” said Donna Clark, who lives with her husband on 5 acres outside Burns, on ranchland they operated with other families before retiring. She said the recall effort is “sour grapes” for the minority of locals who supported the refuge takeover, which was carried out by outsiders.

More than two dozen occupiers were arrested. Several have pleaded guilty in federal court in Portland to conspiracy in exchange for the dismissal of a charge of firearms possession in a federal facility. Most of the remaining defendants, including Bundy, are scheduled to go to trial Sept. 7.

There was one fatality during the takeover. LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher, was shot by Oregon State Police at a roadblock on a snowy road on a mountain pass, far from the refuge as he and others headed for a meeting in an adjacent county. Aerial FBI video footage shows Finicum exit his pickup with his hands up, and then being shot as he reaches for what authorities said was a weapon.

Today, the snow is gone. Grass carpets the forest floor underneath towering ponderosas. At the spot where Finicum died is a makeshift memorial consisting of a stone slab with his LV cattle brand, American flags, a disc that says “land of the free because of the brave,” flowers and other items. Wooden crosses are affixed to nearby trees.

William C. Fisher said he drove to the site three weeks ago from Boise, Idaho, after he heard that sheriff’s deputies were ticketing people for erecting crosses. He began camping out to protect the site. He said one deputy removed crosses, even though roadside crosses for car-crash victims are permitted.

“I am here because there is an American hero that had been murdered over there, and I feel it is my duty that his memorial needs to stand,” Fisher said. “This is a peaceful assembly. This is a peaceful protest. We have that right to assemble and protest and have freedom of speech.”

A few others have joined Fisher. In the woods behind a roadside banner saying “Camp Freedom” a half-dozen tents have been erected. People dressed in camouflage military uniforms or street clothes sit around a campfire. Tarps provide shade. A decorated tomahawk hangs from a tree.

Someone is always on duty to protect the memorial, said John Hildinger, of Corpus Christi, Texas, wearing an American-flag bandanna on his head.

Larry Jay, a 72-year-old from Burns who describes himself as a Choctaw adopted into the Crow tribe, says the tomahawk and other ceremonial items provide spiritual protection.

“We are the honor guard,” Jay said, his bicep tattooed with Finicum’s brand. “We don’t use labels like patriots or militia.”

Later, a split emerged in the camp, with Jay and Fisher planning to get a permit for a permanent memorial, with others opposed. Fisher plans to pack up the memorial on Monday and deliver it to Finicum’s widow until the permit is issued.

Jay, meanwhile, said he is voting against the judge.

“We tried to get a spot where we could meet and talk, with the ranchers and the ones coming up from ... all over,” he said. “Steve Grasty put a stop to that.”

Sundays

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah militia group leader with ties to Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has been arrested and charged with attempting to blow up a rural, federally owned cabin in Arizona, federal authorities said Thursday.

An FBI agent said in charging documents that William Keebler, 57, was planning to retaliate against the federal government that he felt was harassing people and imposing overreaching grazing restrictions on ranchers.

Keebler is a the leader of citizen militia group called the Patriots Defense Force in Stockton, Utah, about 40 miles west of Salt Lake City, according to the charging documents.

Authorities say undercover FBI employees followed Keebler as he planned to set off an explosive outside a U.S. Bureau of Land Management cabin in the northern Arizona area of Mt. Trumbull.

Keebler traveled to the Arizona cabin Tuesday night with militia members and undercover FBI employees. An inactive explosive was placed against the door and Keebler was handed a remote detonation device and pushed it several times, according to the FBI.

The FBI arrested Keebler in Utah on Wednesday morning. He faces one count of attempting to damage federal property with an explosive. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch.

Keebler wore camouflage clothes and had his hands shackled in front of him during a brief hearing to inform him of the charges Thursday. His lawyer declined to comment.

His friend Pete Olson said outside the courtroom he’d been to meetings of Keebler’s militia, but never heard any talk of violence.

“This militia group is kind of like grown up Boy Scouts,” he said. Keebler is something of a survivalist with his own farm who often carries a gun, but Olson said he’s never known him to be around explosives.

“That’s not the Bill I like and I know, but I know that people get pushed beyond their limits sometimes,” he said.

According to the FBI, Keebler was at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch during a 2014 armed standoff with federal officials who were rounding up Bundy’s cattle over unpaid grazing fees.

He was also an associate of Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, who served as a spokesman for Bundy’s son, Ammon Bundy, and other ranchers involved in an armed standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge earlier this year.

The FBI says Finicum accompanied Keebler last October when scouting out the BLM facility in Arizona. Finicum was shot and killed by authorities during a Jan. 26 traffic stop that led to Bundy’s arrest.

After Finicum’s death, Keebler and members of his militia group discussed repercussions against a government they said was harassing people and imposing overreaching restrictions on ranchers, according to the FBI.

The militia group scouted out a BLM office in downtown Salt Lake City but abandoned the idea because it was near a shopping mall and homeless population, making it highly visible. Instead, they settled on the BLM cabin in Mt. Trumbull.

It’s unclear what the cabin is used for.

A BLM spokeswoman and Rydalch with the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to describe the facility or whether employees were working there.

Potato breeders at Oregon State University are hot on the tail of a microscopic parasite lurking in farms across the Columbia Basin.

Columbia root-knot nematodes might be too small to see with the naked eye, but they can cause noticeable damage to spuds if left unchecked. The faculty at OSU’s Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center are now working to identify the gene that makes certain potatoes resistant to nematodes, which could then be used to create new varieties.

Sapinder Bali, a postdoctoral scholar with the HAREC plant breeding program, is part of a team developing molecular markers for the nematode-resistance gene in potatoes. She discussed their progress during the station’s annual potato field day Wednesday.

Nematodes infect both the roots and tubers of potato plants, which can stunt their growth or kill them altogether. By developing a set of molecular markers, Bali said researchers will be able to scan potatoes at the DNA level to find which varieties are resistant and which are susceptible to nematodes.

“These markers can help breeders to confirm the resistant varieties before crossing for choosing right parents and evaluating the segregating populations with higher confidence,” according to the project summary.

That gives breeders like Sagar Sathuvalli a leg up on creating new varieties designed to save farmers money. Sathuvalli works with the Tri-State Potato Breeding Program with Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It takes a minimum of 12 years and thousands of samples before new varieties are ready for commercial release, he said.

The program did release three new varieties earlier this year, including Jester, Cheshire and Vermilion. Three others are also in the works. Sathuvalli said breeding is done primarily for resistance to pests like nematodes and diseases like Verticillium wilt and potato virus Y.

“Our goal is to identify those genes responsible for resistance,” he said.

Other field day presentations included updates on tiny Lygus bugs as a potential vector for disease, as well as efforts to monitor aphids in fields. The goal of HAREC field days is to provide the latest information on growing tools and techniques to make local farmers as efficient and profitable as they can.

Station Director Phil Hamm said HAREC is now home to 15 center-pivot irrigation systems for their fields, mostly due to the generosity of supporters. A new Blue Mountain Community College Precision Irrigation Agriculture building is also under construction.

“It just keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Hamm said. “I don’t think you can go anywhere where they have more faculty doing more with potatoes than we have here.”

Umatilla and Morrow counties are home to a sweeping variety of agriculture, from rolling wheat fields to colorful orchards and rugged cattle ranches.

State tourism officials say those same farms could become a major selling point for visitors wanting to see (and taste) the authentic Oregon experience.

Travel Oregon, along with the Eastern Oregon Visitors Association and Northeast Oregon Economic Development District, hosted a pair of workshops Tuesday and Wednesday to teach farmers ways they can attract tourists while sustaining their normal operations.

The melding of agriculture and tourism, or “agritourism,” is not a new concept. Activities can include things like U-pick fields, farm stands and horseback riding. Alexa Carey, destination development specialist for Travel Oregon, said the industry as a whole has been developing for decades.

“It’s a chance to experience the Old West,” Carey said. “These are opportunities people want to have.”

About 20 people attended Tuesday’s workshop at the Port of Morrow in Boardman, which provided an overview of where agritourism has been in Eastern Oregon and where it’s going. Data compiled by Travel Oregon offers a glimpse into what agritourists look like and what they’re looking for.

According to the agency, agritourists tend to be families with a moderate income, highly educated and mostly day-trippers. They are searching for authenticity and are more interested in having a story to tell than a T-shirt to buy.

“We want that explorer. We want that person who’s passionate about getting outside and trying new things,” Carey said.

One thing agritourists will spend money on, however, is food.

According to Travel Oregon, 55 percent of visitors between 2008 and 2010 participated in at least one culinary experience, whether it was at a restaurant, winery or craft brewery.

Elena Vizzini, also from Travel Oregon, said food and drink is part of the tourist’s immersion into the local culture. Those seeking agritourism came primarily from urban centers like Portland, Spokane and Eugene, based on information gleaned from the Travel Oregon website.

But farming is not always lucrative business and it can be a struggle to find the skill and capital needed to start something like a farm tour or tasting room. While Oregon tourism is a $10 billion business, Travel Oregon is still working on an economic analysis specifically pertaining to agritourism. That study is expected to be available by next year.

Carey and Vizzini did point to several other Eastern Oregon success stories, such as a promotional campaign for Wallowa County and the John Day River Territory brand. As a subregion, Umatilla and Morrow counties — dubbed “Oregon’s Rugged Country” — has the potential, but participants said they will need to do a better job collaborating to make it happen.

Alice Trindle, a rancher from Haines and executive director of the Eastern Oregon Visitors Association, said they are working on a marketing plan with four core initiatives — agritourism, cycling, arts and heritage.

“Somehow, we have to share those stories about our wonderful producers,” she said. “It really is about building relationships.”

Working together in groups, participants identified gaps they need to cover in the plan, including better communication, forging partnerships and finding new funding sources. Carey said regional collaboration is a key to marketing to tourists.

“We care about consumers that really want to participate in the products we’re producing,” she said.

Wednesday’s session, in Hermiston, focused more on specific business models to making agritourism profitable. That workshop was held at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center.