ALBANY, ORE. — SnoTemp Cold Storage, which added 100,000 square feet just five years ago, will break ground this month on the eighth expansion of its Albany plant since 1974.

The work, expected to be done by May 2016, demonstrates the company’s continued commitment to production agriculture and local food and beverage processors, CEO Jason Lafferty said.

The company freezes and stores bulk vegetables and ingredients for repackers such as NORPAC Foods Inc., the farmers’ cooperative, and provides frozen or cold storage for other customers ranging from ice cream and dessert makers to craft breweries.

The company’s storage capacity is the equivalent of 15 football fields, each piled 25 feet high with frozen food, Lafferty said.

SnoTemp, which began in Eugene in 1957 and still has storage facilities and administrative offices there, will expand the Albany cold storage plant by about 20,000 pallet positions arranged in vertical racks. The work will make it easier to accommodate small to mid-size processors that struggle to gain a foothold in the marketplace.

“In a bulk warehouse environment, bringing in a pallet or two or three is a challenge,” Lafferty said. “We’ve had to say no to the smaller folks. We’ve been protecting space for our core customers.”

The additional storage space may benefit processors, for example, who have put all their capital into kitchen facilities.

“What they need to get to the next step is cold storage,” Lafferty said. “In Albany, we’ve had to turn people away.”

Adequate and accessible cold storage is among the problems hampering “ag of the middle” producers and processors, according to a recent report by Ecotrust, a Portland nonprofit.

Small processors “always run out of cold storage first,” said Amanda Oborne, Ecotrust’s vice president of farms and food and lead author of “Oregon Food Infrastructure Gap Analysis.”

The report examines the hurdles faced by small- to mid-size growers and processors who are too big to survive by farmers market and CSA sales but too small to joust with commodity and corporate competitors.

Additional cold storage is critical to support regional food systems, Oborne said. She is familiar with SnoTemp’s relationship with small processors. “They’re willing to work with very small players,” she said. “I can’t overstate how important that is.”

Stahlbush Island Farms, of nearby Corvallis, has used SnoTemp for off-site cold storage of its vegetable, fruit, grain and legume products since 1990. Co-founder Karla Chambers cheered SnoTemp’s expansion, calling the company “a really good family and a really good business.”

The expansion also appears to be part of a continuing economic success story for Oregon food processors. A labor trends report issued by the state Employment Department in December 2014 showed that from 2007 to 2012, the depth of the recession, Oregon’s manufacturing sector lost 15.8 percent of its jobs. But food manufacturing jobs increased 7.8 percent during that same period.

Lafferty, the CEO, said SnoTemp has doubled the combined employment at its Albany and Eugene plants in the past four years.

Lafferty is part of a third-generation wave that has assumed control at SnoTemp. His cousin, Caroline Lafferty, is accounting and resource manager; Willie Lafferty is facility engineer and Paula Lafferty, is vice president of finance and technology head.

Online

http://www.ecotrust.org/publication/regional-food-infrastructure/

About 10 years ago, an unscrupulous importer taught the F.C. Bloxom produce company a pricey lesson about the hazards of doing business in China.

After paying for multiple shipments, the importer unexpectedly stiffed the Seattle-based distributor for $180,000 and skipped town to avoid legal consequences, said Antonio Esteves, its export director.

The experience didn’t entirely sour F.C. Bloxom on the Chinese market, but the firm is now more wary about potential customers.

“We are trying to be more careful,” Esteves said.

As part of that cautiousness, the company recently sought out new Chinese buyers for fruits and vegetables during an inbound trade mission organized by the state agricultural departments of Oregon and Idaho, as well as the Western U.S. Agricultural Trade Association, or WUSATA.

“At least we have a good start, because they do some due diligence,” said Esteves.

Representatives of six Chinese food companies recently arrived in the U.S. to tour farms and food processors in Oregon and Idaho from Aug. 4-7.

The Chinese firms were investigated by the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service as well as a contractor hired by WUSATA, a non-profit that’s funded by the federal agency.

“We check out the track record. We do our best to vet them before we ever bring them over,” said Andy Anderson, WUSATA’s executive director.

Aside from providing Northwest food producers with a measure of security, the trade mission allowed them to present their products to multiple Chinese buyers at once.

“Chinese business people generally want that face-to face. This is the way to do it,” said Aaron Foster, who handles technology and sales for All Berry & Fruits, which sells a variety of dried, frozen and puree products.

Inbound trade missions are usually the first step in a business relationship and are intended to facilitate introductions rather than sales transactions, said Theresa Yoshioka, international trade manager for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Once a Northwest company makes that initial contact, they’re encouraged to participate in an outbound trade mission to demonstrate a commitment to the market, she said.

“That really moves the relationship forward and gets you much closer to a purchase,” Yoshioka said.

Reliability is a major concern for Chinese buyers, who want to be assured that U.S. partners can provide them with a steady flow of product.

Price and quality are prime considerations, but distributors in China also don’t want to frequently replace suppliers in the U.S., said Henry Chen, vice manager of Guangzhou Yangchen Food Co., a large distributor in southern China, through an interpreter.

American products compete with those from Europe, Australia and New Zealand, as Chinese consumers generally consider foreign goods to be of high quality, he said. “People can tell the flavor.”

Jerry Liu, brand manager for the Sinodis food distributor, also cited supplier consistency as a top priority for his company.

Sinodis is looking for partners that are large enough to ship directly — not through a broker — and have a constant volume of goods available, he said.

However, the firm doesn’t preclude working with smaller producers, since major U.S. food manufacturers are often too inflexible to supply the China market, Liu said.

Major brands often aren’t willing to change their labels and meet other requirements unless they’re assured of a quick payoff within the first few years, he said.

“Usually, that’s not the case. You have to really develop the market first,” Liu said.

In China, the U.S. food industry is well known for its jams, chips and cream cheese, he said.

These goods are most famous in “tier one” cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, with the highest population of affluent shoppers, he said.

More recently, though, food distributors have introduced foreign foods to “tier two” cities, which are smaller but where people are also trying to improve their lifestyles, Liu said.

While foreign foods are seen as superior, Chinese consumers aren’t aware of regional differences within countries.

“They really don’t have an opinion as to a specific part of the U.S. or Europe.”

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Trail camera photos confirm that Oregon’s famous wandering wolf, OR-7, has fathered at more pups.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist John Stephenson said Thursday that brings to seven the number of wolves in the Rogue pack, which lives on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in the Cascades of southwestern Oregon. That includes three pups from last year.

Biologists had confirmed the second set of pups last July, but didn’t know how many.

OR-7 became famous as his GPS collar tracked his travels across Oregon and into Northern California in search of a mate. That collar’s batteries have since died, and biologists have been unable to replace them.

Meanwhile, another collared wolf from OR-7s Imnaha pack has come to southwestern Oregon, and is living east of Klamath Marsh.

LANGLOIS — Join the Coos Bay District of the Bureau of Land Management at the New River Nature Center for an August full of fun activities. The agency will offer a series of Junior Explorer programs, developed for children 5…

LANGLOIS — Join the Coos Bay District of the Bureau of Land Management at the New River Nature Center for an August full of fun activities. The agency will offer a series of Junior Explorer pr…

PORT ORFORD — Summer hasn't been idle in the Port Orford/Langlois school district. We served 422 student meals and 173 adult meals during the six-week period. In the Kinder Bound program, nine…

PORT ORFORD — Summer hasn't been idle in the Port Orford/Langlois School District. The district served 422 student meals and 173 adult meals during the six-week period. In the Kinder Bound program, nine students participated in the entire four-week program,…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday designated farmers and ranchers eligible for federal drought relief in 18 Washington counties, seven Oregon counties and five Idaho counties.

Producers in many of the counties were already eligible for assistance because they live in counties that border areas declared disaster zones in prior declarations

The USDA declares disasters in counties that have had severe drought conditions for at least eight weeks.

The designation makes producers eligible for low-interest loans and other programs through the USDA’s Farm Service Agency.

The Washington counties declared disaster areas Thursday are Asotin, Chelan, Douglas, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Lincoln, Mason, Pacific, Pierce, Skagit, Skamania, Snohomish, Thurston, Whatcom and Whitman.

The Oregon counties are Benton, Coos, Curry, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln and Tillamook.

The Idaho counties are Boundary, Idaho, Lewis, Nez Perce and Valley.

Farmers and ranchers in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties are now eligible for relief. Only San Juan County has not been included in a disaster declaration.

Some 31 percent of the state is in “extreme drought,” the U.S. Drought Monitor reported Thursday, unchanged from the week before.

Oregon and Idaho also were unchanged. Some 41 percent of Oregon and 22 percent of Idaho are suffering an extreme drought.

CORVALLIS, Ore. — The way Lauren Gwin sees it, helping small farmers and processors thrive is right in Oregon State University’s sweet spot as a land-grant university. It’s all about collaboration, sharing information and wading through the regulatory thicket.

A successful local food system, she says, bridges the gap between farmers and community nutrition and public health in a way that producers don’t get caught in the “price-point conundrum.” Meaning they can make a living while providing people access to an affordable, healthful diet.

It’s a complicated challenge, but it has become part of the College of Agricultural Sciences’ mission at OSU. Gwin is associate director of the college’s Center for Small Farms and Community Food Systems. She and center Director Garry Stephenson head up a program that helps beginners and small-scale producers learn how to raise crops, operate machinery, find markets, improve soil, understand regulations and many other lessons.

Meanwhile, Gwin has emerged as one of the country’s go-to experts in small-scale meat processing. She co-founded the national Niche Meat Processor Network, an online service that allows small processors to pose questions, offer suggestions, figure out the rules and support each other with peer-to-peer consulting.

She’s also developed an Introduction to Food Systems course at OSU.

To her, the term local food takes on a regional definition. Some food can be grown in close proximity to markets, but others — such as beef — need more landscape.

“When I talk about local food I’m talking about environmentally regenerative, possibly organic, humane and minimizing the use of external inputs,” she said.

The OSU small farms center is expanding its focus beyond ground-level operations to include long-term profitability, Gwin said.

Not every county needs or can support a meat processing plant, for example, but there are ways local producers can cooperate to save money and time. Small producers might share livestock transportation to a plant, so one producer isn’t wasting time and money taking just a few head “over the mountain” for processing.

“We have a vision for agriculture and food in Oregon and the region and the country,” she said. “These farms will persist.”

A combination of technical knowledge, business management and supportive political and consumer environments will help that come about, Gwin said.

“It’s important to our economy that these things thrive,” she said.

Lauren Gwin

Position: Assistant professor and Extension Service food systems specialist, Oregon State University. Associate director of OSU’s Center for Small Farms and Community Food Systems.

Personal: 44, two daughters, Lillie and Susannah. Husband Clint Epps is a wildlife biologist and an assistant professor in OSU’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.

Background: Grew up in Connecticut, was an English and liberal arts major at Harvard, earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of California-Berkeley. At OSU since 2008.

Notable: Co-founded and coordinates the Niche Meat Processor Network, an online resource to help small processors wade through regulatory issues, share tips, ask questions.

At a glance: Bubbling with information and enthusiasm for local food systems, small growers and processors and the need to help them thrive. “You ask a simple question, you get a pageant,” she says. “I come from a long line of people who tell very long narratives.”

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Authorities are warning Oregon marijuana growers to be very careful using pesticides.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture said Wednesday it has drawn up a pesticide advisory, which the Oregon Health Authority is sending to registered medical marijuana growers around the state.

The advisory says no pesticides have been specifically approved for use on marijuana, which is still illegal on a federal level, and the health and safety impacts on cannabis workers have not been evaluated.

Department of Agriculture spokesman Bruce Pokarney says rules for pesticide use are being drawn up along with a host of other rules for growing and selling retail marijuana.

Full retail marijuana sales are not to begin until late in 2016, but in October medical marijuana dispensaries can start selling limited amounts to anyone over 21.

SALEM — In a record-breaking year, cattle and calves became the most valuable agricultural commodity in Oregon, ending a 20-year reign in the top spot by greenhouse and nursery products.

The production value of beef jumped to $922 million in 2014 from $669 million in 2013, a 38 percent increase, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The value of Oregon nursery products was up 11 percent, from $754 million in 2013 to $830 million last year.

Cattle last ranked No. 1 in Oregon in 1994.

“In agriculture things go up and down, but beef producers have seen good returns this year,” Oregon Beef Council executive director Will Wise said.

Wise said many factors — from the millennial generation’s fascination with the “paleo” diet to improved market access abroad — helped spur the increase. Thanks to a lobbying effort funded in part by the Beef Council, Japan dropped an onerous regulation in 2013 prohibiting the import of cattle slaughtered after 20 months of age.

According to the U.S. Meat Export Federation, beef exports now add $350 of value per head to cattle. That statistic was pegged at just $109 per animal in 2009.

This year’s NASS statistics contained other surprises, too. Wine grapes, valued at $118 million in 2014, joined the top 10 list, passing onions.

Onions, Christmas trees and blueberries all topped $100 million in production value, but didn’t make the top 10.

There are now 34,600 farms in Oregon, a slight dip, with an average size of 474 acres.

On the top 10 list, only wheat and potatoes decreased in value. Wheat’s value dropped 18 percent, from $368 million to $302 million in 2014. Potatoes lost about $6 million in value, from $170 million in 2013 to $164 million last year.

Kathryn Walker, a special assistant to the ODA director, said in a press release that Oregon’s severe drought could negatively affect the value of agricultural commodities this year.

However, she cautioned that it was still too soon to say.

“We are going to have to watch to see how the weather impacts our producers and the yields of their commodities,” Walker said. “But our agriculture industry is resilient. They have faced these kinds of challenges before and typically bounce back.”

All told, Oregon’s farmers and ranchers added $5.4 billion to the state economy. Oregon farmers produce 17 commodities each valued at $50 million or more, and 220 crops overall.

NORTH BEND — North Bend hopes to ease kids into kindergarten this fall with a new prekindergarten program this summer, a smooth transition that educators say some kids were missing.

NORTH BEND — North Bend hopes to ease kids into kindergarten this fall with a new prekindergarten program this summer, a smooth transition that educators say some kids were missing.

SACRAMENTO — Grappling with drought and heat, growers of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries in California and the West have been fighting to keep pace with last year’s production.

With the Golden State’s blueberry season having wrapped up, producers had shipped about 8.2 million flats as of July 29, down from 8.7 million at the same point last year, according to the industry-compiled National Berry Report.

California produces more than 40 million pounds of blueberries per year, according to the California Blueberry Commission.

Oregon production is ahead of last year’s pace, with 2.6 million flats so far this year compared to a little more than 2 million at the end of July 2014, the report states. Production is up worldwide with nearly 70 million flats produced compared to 62.5 million a year ago.

Nearly 19.23 million flats of raspberries have been produced in California, down slightly from 19.27 million at the end of July 2014. Global production is up significantly, with nearly 42.3 million flats produced this year compared to 36 million for the same period in 2014.

Raspberries in California are typically picked through the summer months, according to the crop information website PickYourOwn.org.

Blackberry production is finishing ahead of last year in California, with nearly 2.2 million flats compared to 1.9 million at the same point last year. Globally, growers have produced 28.8 million flats compared to 26.2 million at the same point last summer.

Blackberry season typically begins in mid-May and runs through the end of July.

PORTLAND — Jokes and seed spitting contest aside, there was a polite edge to Hermiston’s renewed tradition of handing out free watermelons and potatoes in downtown Portland.

This time, Hermiston’s growers and civic leaders stood in Portland’s Pioneer Square as representatives of Eastern Oregon’s biggest and fastest growing city and one of the state’s agricultural powerhouses.

As a line formed for the giveaway Friday, Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann acknowledged the two cities vary greatly in scale — Portland has about 570,000 more people — but said they share issues such as public safety, livability, transportation and water.

“Those are all common things, regardless of size,” he said.

Drotzmann said he hoped the event reminded Portland residents of Hermiston’s agricultural prowess. Umatilla County ranks second in the state, behind Marion County, with about $500 million in annual gross farm and ranch sales. The region is best known for Hermiston watermelons, but grows a wide variety of irrigated vegetables as well.

“We provide the fruit and vegetables you pick up in the grocery store every day,” Drotzmann said.

In his remarks to the crowd at Pioneer Square, Drotzmann said the eastern side of the state gladly extends its hand to Portland.

“We know when Portland is successful, all of Oregon is successful,” he said.

The watermelon delivery and accompanying melon seed spitting contest began in 1991 with a friendship between longtime Hermiston mayor and councilor Frank Harkenrider and colorful Portland Mayor Bud Clark.

The event ran for 17 years then faded, but was renewed this year by civic leaders and the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce. Harkenrider and Clark attended Friday’s renewal, and Harkenrider admitted the city slicker bested him at seed spitting. “He got me all the time,” he said with a laugh.

Portland Mayor Charlie Hales said the exchange “was a good idea then and is a good idea now.”

“This is what good neighbors do for each other,” Hales said, “they share their bounty.”

Hales presented Drotzmann with a tie embossed with a depiction of Portland’s new Tilikum Crossing bridge, which opens in September and will carry light-rail trains and bikes over the Willamette River, but not cars and trucks.

The melons and potatoes, donated by Walchli Farms, Bellinger Farms and Bud-Rich Potato Inc., disappeared in about 20 minutes as a long line of pleased Portlanders took advantage.

For the record, Hermiston swept the seed spitting contest. City Councilor Doug Primmer took first, and Drotzmann was second. Both sent seeds flying more than 300 inches. Hales showed he was no slouch with a 296-inch launch, and Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman managed to spit one 126 inches.

Primmer indicated the city boys didn’t have a chance against people who grew up in watermelon country.

“You live in Hermiston, you get into competition when you’ve got brothers,” he said.

CANYONVILLE, Ore. (AP) — Clouds and the end of triple-digit heat helped firefighters battling the Stouts wildfire in southwest Oregon.

Fire spokesman Dave Wells says the blaze is only 3 percent contained, but crews made good progress on the fire lines and some evacuated residents were able to return.

The fire burning in forestland east of Canyonville has scorched 23 square miles, and kept about 35 families from their homes.

Another 100 families along the Tiller Trail Highway have been told to prepare to leave.

The flames have yet to burn any homes. No injuries have been reported.

More than 1,000 people have been assigned to fight the wildfire that started Thursday. The cause has not been determined.

High temperatures this week are forecast to be in the 80s and 90s.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon State Fair is looking to hire 400 workers.

The Salem Statesman Journal reports that there will be a recruitment day Tuesday at the fairgrounds looking for people to work as ticket sellers, parking attendants, ticket takers, cashiers, food handlers, bartenders and grounds crew members.

Most of the jobs last from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7, the duration of the fair.

Fair spokeswoman Mary Agnew says all jobs pay minimum wage but bartenders also make tips.

ONTARIO, Ore. — Oregon State University researchers in Eastern Oregon are trying to help onion growers figure out which mix of insecticide treatments is most effective, and economical, for controlling thrips populations.

Researchers are rotating chemistries, using them at different times of the season and applying them in varying intervals, said Stuart Reitz, an OSU cropping systems extension agent.

Onion thrips cause feeding damage and are also a vector for the iris yellow spot virus, which can significantly lower onion yields.

There are no good biological controls for the insects and onion growers say that not spraying for them in this region isn’t an option.

“Onion thrips are a bigger problem than anything else in onion production,” Reitz said. “If you don’t do anything to manage thrips in the Treasure Valley, you’re not going to have very good onions.”

Onion growers used to spray three or four times a year for thrips but in recent years they have had to spray as many as eight to 10 times in a season, said Nyssa farmer Paul Skeen.

“The key ingredient in controlling thrips is getting on it early and keeping their populations down,” he said. “When in doubt, you spray.”

But each treatment costs money and the main goal of the OSU trial is to try to find a season-long control program that will allow growers to reduce the number of times they spray, Reitz said.

Researchers are also trying to determine if products have a longer residual effect at certain times of the season. If they do, growers could get by with spraying less often.

“It’s getting so costly to control them and we want to see if we can reduce that cost for growers,” he said.

There are only six products that are effective for controlling onion thrips and researchers also want to develop a treatment program that allows growers to rotate chemistries often to avoid insect resistance, Reitz said.

Malheur County farmer Bill Johnson said the ongoing OSU trial is helping growers zero in on the optimal treatment program for thrips.

“We continue to have issues with flexibility in some of the chemistries we work with,” he said. “We’re just trying to find the right mix of chemistries. There are a lot of complexities (involved).”

This year’s trial includes some experimental onion varieties that could have resistance to thrips.

The varieties come from New Mexico State University’s onion breeding program, which wants to see how they perform in an area with strong thrips pressure, and the early results are encouraging, Reitz said.

“We seem to be seeing lower numbers of thrips on some of these experimental lines,” he said.

If any of the varieties do have genetic resistance to thrips and that trait can be bred into commercially acceptable lines, that would help onion growers in this region immensely, Reitz said.

“It would have huge benefits all around, helping growers’ bottom line as well as avoiding problems like insecticide resistance,” he said.

CANYONVILLE, Ore. (AP) — Record-breaking heat and parched forestlands fueled a southwest Oregon wildfire that rapidly spread to nearly 10 square miles.

The Stouts fire started Thursday afternoon in the unincorporated community of Milo — east of Canyonville. A few hours later, helicopters were dumping pond water on the hillside flames and aerial tankers dropped retardant.

Gov. Kate Brown invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act so the Oregon fire marshal can mobilize resources from around the state to protect homes. About 450 firefighters were on the scene Friday.

Kyle Reed of the Douglas Forest Protective Associations says several homes were threatened, but none burned.

Nearly two dozen residents were told they could go to a crisis shelter at Canyonville Elementary, but the Roseburg News-Review reports that no one was there late Thursday.

The area near Canyonville has a history of explosive wildfires. The 1987 Bland Mountain fire destroyed 14 homes and killed loggers Mark Giles and James Moore.

SOUTH COAST — Get some fresh air and your pick of ripe produce from local growers on the Northern Wild Rivers Coast Farm Trail.