ONTARIO, Ore. — Oregon State University researchers have alerted onion growers in the region to be on the lookout for the iris yellow spot virus in this year’s crop.

The virus has been detected in several volunteer onions, said OSU Cropping Systems Extension Agent Stuart Reitz.

“I haven’t seen it in the crop yet but if we’re seeing it in the volunteers, it’s only a matter of time before it shows up in the crop,” he said. “I expect to see it showing ... up in the crop any time basically.”

About 25 percent of the nation’s fresh bulb onions are grown in Eastern Oregon and Southwestern Idaho and the virus is one of the industry’s top production challenges.

It weakens the onion plant and can significantly reduce growth, which is important in the onion industry because larger-sized bulb onions fetch higher prices.

The virus is transmitted to onions by thrips and the insect’s populations are starting to build up rapidly, Reitz said.

“We’re consistently seeing 1 to 2 adult thrips per plant, which is a healthy population for this time of year,” he said.

The virus was detected in last year’s crop in early June.

Reitz said growers should be focusing on controlling volunteer onions, since they act as early season reservoirs for thrips and the virus to move into the crop.

“People need to get all of the volunteer stuff away,” said Nyssa farmer Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association.

Nyssa grower Reid Saito said the virus is one of the industry’s top two problems, along with the nutsedge weed.

“We don’t have a real good handle on it,” he said. “You just never know when it’s going to show up. Year to year and area to area, the virus pressure varies.”

Saito said he has seen onion fields that look great “and then when the virus shows up, I’ve seen the whole complexion of the crop change from good to terrible in a matter of days.”

Reitz and Skeen credit an aggressive thrips control program with helping keep virus pressure low last year compared with the previous several years.

2013 was a bad year for the virus but last year was mild by comparison, Skeen said, and that was due in part to farmers spraying earlier and more often for thrips.

Farmers should be out scouting their fields now and acting quickly if any virus pressure is detected, Reitz said.

“People should be checking their crop very carefully to see if any virus shows up,” he said. “The people who had less severe pressure last year were the ones who stayed on top of it.”

For more information about thrips and the virus, contact Reitz at (541) 881-1417.

A proposal to increase restrictions on genetically engineered crops has been revived in the Oregon Legislature a month after a similar bill died in committee.

House Bill 3554 would allow the Oregon Department of Agriculture to establish “control areas” where biotech crops — even those deregulated by federal authorities — would be subject to additional rules, such as isolation distances.

Growers who fear cross-pollination from genetically modified organisms could petition ODA to create a “market production district” in which such crops would face similar regulations.

Farm suppliers would also have to report sales of biotech seeds to the agency.

The new bill is a compromise because state officials could choose whether to designate control areas or market production districts, said Ivan Maluski, policy director of Friends of Family Farmers, a group that supports stronger GMO regulation.

“It’s done in a way that gives ODA the authority without telling them what to do,” he said.

Under earlier legislation, which died in the House Committee on Rural Communities, Land Use and Water in April, the agency would be required to establish control areas for biotech crops.

Clarifying ODA’s authority over GMOs is necessary because the agency currently believes it loses the power to regulate once they’re commercialized by USDA, Maluski said.

“Right now, they pretty much argue their hands are tied,” he said.

Opponents of the bill are disappointed that the control area concept has been resurrected, even though such designations aren’t mandatory under HB 3554.

“It might be scaled back in some respects, but none that are meaningful,” said Scott Dalhman, policy director of the Oregonians for Food and Shelter agribusiness group.

Subjecting biotech crops to control areas is a “draconian” idea that was previously rejected because it effectively allows some farmers to dictate what others can grow, Dahlman said.

Traditionally, farmers who signed contracts that guarantee price premiums in return for high seed purity were responsible for living up to those specifications themselves, he said.

Under HB 3554, growers can demand that the government dictate their neighbors’ farming practices to ensure the contract terms are met, he said.

Dahlman and other biotech proponents want lawmakers to pass House Bill 2509, which would create a mediation system overseen by ODA to resolve conflicts over genetically engineered crops.

Critics of GMOs, on the other hand, claim that a stronger statewide policy is necessary because lawmakers pre-empted most local governments from regulating such crops in 2013.

“There’s a lot of interest in the legislature following through on that promise,” Maluski said.

Up to $2.5 million is available from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service for farmers, ranchers and forest landowners to mitigate the effects of drought in 15 Oregon counties.

Baker, Crook, Deschutes, Grant, Harney, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Wasco and Wheeler counties have received drought declarations from Gov. Kate Brown. Other counties could be added if they receive declarations.

Landowners in those counties should submit applications to their local USDA Service Center by June 26 to be considered. The funding is through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, a financial assistance program in the Farm Bill that allows NRCS to work with private landowners to implement conservation practices and reimburse landowners for a portion of the expense.

NRCS nationwide is also aiding the most severely drought-stricken areas in seven other states: California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.

“This funding will help Oregonians in the most drought-stricken areas of the state to mitigate the impacts of drought on cropland, rangeland and forestland,” said Ron Alvarado, state conservationist, in a press release.

NRCS will give higher priority to applications in counties with the highest drought status according to the USDA Drought Monitor map, but producers in all counties included in declarations by the governor will be eligible to apply for funding.

In Oregon, NRCS will focus the funding on cropland, rangeland and forestry conservation practices. For cropland practices, NRCS will assist producers with planting and managing cover crops and implementing emergency soil erosion measures. These practices will help farmers protect the soil from erosion, promote more organic matter in the soil, and aid in better water infiltration.

For rangeland practices, NRCS will assist ranchers in developing grazing management plans and installing emergency livestock watering facilities and multi-purpose water impoundments. These practices help reduce pressure on stressed vegetation, allow the soil to retain more moisture, and deliver emergency water supplies to livestock.

For forestry practices, NRCS will help landowners with wildfire prevention measures, such as creating fuel breaks, multi-purpose water impoundments and other fuel reduction activities. These actions reduce excess vegetation in a forest so that wildfire has less fuel to spread higher into the canopy, where it causes the most damage. NRCS is partnering with the Oregon Department of Forestry to focus the funding on areas with a higher risk for catastrophic forest fire.

Applications will be ranked for funding based on the drought level, resource concern, conservation benefit and, if applicable, the wildfire risk factor.

I read with great interest in the May 18 edition of The World about the Wilderland School in Langlois and their monthly field trips. Not only do these trips highlight the local economy and his…

BANDON — He was just 17 years old and not even finished with high school.

COOS BAY — At 99, Wilma Jensen has created a lot of things on her sewing machine. She's made quilts. Dance costumes. Wedding dresses. Then there are things she's knitted, furniture she's finis…

BANDON — He was just 17 years old and not even finished with high school.

Agricultural researchers at the three Northwest land grant universities are hosting a series of train-the-trainer workshops on integrated pest management in June.

The series includes two three-day workshops:

• At the Oregon State University Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center on June 8, 9 and 10.

• At the Washington State University Whitman County Extension Center in Colfax on June 24, 25 and 26.

Two more will be held in 2016, said Silvia Rondon, OSU Extension entomologist specialist.

The workshops are designed for extension field faculty, agency professionals and crop consultants. They will include presentations on monitoring techniques, pest identification and pest management techniques.

“It’s all about increasing use of IPM in the region,” Rondon said. She added that the workshop are “very region specific.”

The land grant universities have offered short courses on IPM for control of insects in years past, Rondon said, but this is the first year the universities are adding diseases and weeds to the course agendas.

As part of the courses, participants will be provided materials for collecting weeds, insects and diseased plant tissue.

Participation is limited to no more than 20 per session, and the workshops “are very hands on,” Rondon said.

All sessions will also be available on line, she said.

Online

More information is available at http://extension.oregonstate.edu/umatilla/ipm

HERMISTON, Ore. — Grass seed growers in the Columbia Basin, Grande Ronde Valley and Central Oregon this year are able to stay abreast of ergot spore production thanks to the introduction of an Ergot Alert Newsletter.

Detection of ergot spores in grass seed crops can help growers minimize the disease’s yield impact and avoid unnecessary fungicide applications, according to Union County Extension agronomist Darrin Walenta.

Walenta informed growers about the newsletter at a May 19 field day at the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center.

The newsletter is being put out by the Ergot Research Team, a group of Oregon State University and USDA Agricultural Research Service researchers. It contains spore-count data collected from traps that capture airborne spores at seven monitoring sites, and ergot management recommendations.

The first newsletter, issued May 13, reported that airborne ergot spores were collected at four sites, two in perennial ryegrass seed fields and two in Kentucky bluegrass seed fields. The first ergot spores were detected on April 19 and 22 in two Umatilla County perennial ryegrass fields. On April 26 and May 1, spores were detected in two Union County Kentucky bluegrass fields.

A second newsletter, issued May 18, reported that additional spores were counted in the two Union County bluegrass fields.

The second newsletter included an advisory that fungicide applications recently made for control of stripe rust and powdery mildew will not provide protection from ergot. Those applications, the alert states, were too early to provide ergot suppression.

The newsletter also states that no action is needed at this time (on May 18), because spore density is “very, very low and flowering has not begun yet.”

Grass seed crops are most susceptible to damage from ergot during flowering.

“However,” the newsletter states, “it is very important to monitor fields closely and track crop-development progress.” The alert also stresses the importance of timely fungicide applications and that growers should keep particularly close watch “in fields that had some level of infection in 2014.”

“If you had an issue in a field last year, prioritize your monitoring efforts there,” Walenta said at the field day, “because you know there will be inoculum in that field.”

The research team has been working to identify methods to manage ergot since OSU Extension plant pathologist Phil Hamm first formed it five years ago. The disease, considered one of the oldest known diseases of grasses and cereals, continues to create problems in grass seed crops, particularly in perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass seed crops, where it can lower yields and render straw unusable for animal feed.

The disease infects the flower of grass plants, which then exude a sticky substance referred to as honeydew, which attracts insects that spread the disease.

The disease eventually replaces seed with black fungal sclerotia.

Managing the disease takes a combination of cultural and chemical management, according to the May 13 newsletter. Among cultural management techniques recommended in the newsletter are to plant ergot-free seed and to rotate fields out of susceptible grasses.

The alert advises growers to consult the Pacific Northwest Plant Disease Management Handbook for fungicide products available for ergot suppression in Oregon and Washington.

At the field day, Walenta also encouraged growers to participate in an ergot survey that is designed to assess the value of the electronically distributed newsletter and to help identify more effective tools for ergot disease management.

Walenta asked growers to contact Jeremiah Dung at the Central Oregon Agricultural Research Center in Madras, 541-475-7107, for more information on the survey.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Gov. Kate Brown has issued drought declarations for eight more Oregon counties, bringing the total to 15.

The action allows increased flexibility in how water is managed to ensure that limited supplies are used as efficiently as possible.

Brown said Friday that hot, dry weather this summer will likely lead to a difficult fire season and water shortages.

It applies to eight counties in central, southern and eastern Oregon. They are Deschutes, Grant, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Morrow, Umatilla and Wasco counties.

Lawmakers are adding a no-spray buffer requirement to Oregon pesticide legislation that also increases enforcement funding, doubles fines for violations and creates new requirements for applicators.

Controversy over Oregon’s pesticide laws was ignited by an off-target application of herbicides that affected residents in Curry County in 2013, prompting a multitude of proposals during this year’s legislative session.

Those concepts were distilled into a single piece of legislation — House Bill 3549 — that initially focused on better training for applicators and a greater capacity for state regulators to investigate complaints and enforce existing laws.

During a May 21 work session on the bill, the House Rules Committee adopted an amendment that will require 60-foot no-spray buffers around homes and schools for aerial pesticide applications in forestry.

Farm and forestry groups will continue to support the legislation despite the buffer amendment, said Scott Dahlman, policy director of the Oregonians for Food and Shelter agribusiness group.

“In the legislative process, there is compromise along the way,” he said.

Eric Geyer, manager of business development for Roseburg Forest Products, said the industry isn’t thrilled with the no-spray buffer amendment but the change isn’t enough to sink its support of the overall package.

Earlier bill proposals that died in committee would have imposed greater restrictions on pesticides, including an outright ban on aerial spraying and certain classes of chemicals.

The amendment adopted by the committee does not include stricter notification and reporting requirements for pesticide applications, which the timber industry has opposed as impractical.

“Real time” notification of sprays is challenging time-wise due to changes in the weather, particularly if a company must alert numerous people, said Jake Gibbs, director of external affairs at Lone Rock Timber.

The timber industry is also concerned about the potential for sabotage by eco-terrorists if specific sites and dates are announced for spray applications, said Rep. Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie.

Proponents of more stringent notification requirements claim it’s necessary in case aerial applicators violate rules against off-target spraying.

Advance notification would allow neighbors to prepare for pesticide sprays by staying indoors or leaving the area, said Rep. Ann Lininger, D-Lake Oswego.

“There are real people getting hurt and they need our help,” she said.

Kathryn Rickard, a Curry County resident affected by the 2013 incident, said it took state regulators six months to notify her which chemicals were found on her property, which hindered adequate medical treatment.

The situation would be different with advance notice and better reporting, she said. “Our physicians would have known how to treat us in a timely manner.”

While the no-spray buffer amendment to HB 3549 was adopted, the overall bill has not moved out of committee for a vote on the House floor, which means it’s still subject to further hearings.

Apart from the no-spray buffers, the bill would increase registration fees on pesticide distributors to raise up to $2.4 million for enhanced pesticide enforcement, complaint response and investigation.

Aerial applicators would be required to undergo 50 hours of special training a year and obtain a specific license, pesticide fines would increase twofold and the Oregon Department of Agriculture would create a pesticide hotline and hire additional staff, among other provisions.

THURSDAY, MAY 21

ADRIAN, Ore. — A lone wolf that inexplicably spent more than five weeks in an area of Malheur County not considered typical wolf habitat has moved on.

The wolf, known as OR22, moved into Grant County over the weekend, said Philip Milburn, a district wildlife biologist in the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Ontario office.

The male wolf, which separated from a Northeast Oregon pack in February, moved into Malheur County on April 10 and bucked conventional wisdom by spending much of its time here in sagebrush country west of Adrian and south of Vale.

OR22, which has a tracking collar, even made a brief foray into farm country near Adrian, where it was seen by several farmers napping in a wheat field and by ditch workers as it swam across a canal.

Before OR22, no other wolf was known to have spent more than a brief period in the county, Milburn said.

“I don’t know why he took a month-long break in Malheur County, but he did,” Milburn said. “He’s been a little unique. There’s probably no telling where he will ... move to.”

The wolf was moving 10-plus miles a day in recent days and is now south of Prairie City.

Malheur County is the state’s top cattle producing county and ranchers here were not unhappy to hear the wolf had left.

“We’re pretty happy he’s moved on,” said Malheur County Cattlemen’s Association president Chris Christensen. “Obviously, he didn’t like Malheur County and that’s a good thing.”

Fish and wildlife biologists found two cow carcasses the wolf had been feeding off and believe they played a major factor in the wolf’s decision to hang around so long. Both died before OR22 found them and the wolf started moving West after they were removed, Milburn said.

Milburn and Christensen said one of the biggest lessons learned from OR22’s visit to the county is that dead livestock carcasses are an enticement to keep wolves around and should be removed quickly.

Milburn said OR22 stopped his movement pattern after finding the cow carcasses.

“Having a readily available food source ... can really hold these animals in non-typical wolf habitat,” he said. “That’s a pretty good lesson.”

When the wolf moved into an area where cattle were grazing on public land, Milburn said biologists had a difficult time notifying the permit holders.

“When it came to a public land situation, it was not easy figuring out who needed to be notified,” he said. “The names of permit holders aren’t something that is readily available from agencies.”

He said the county’s wolf committee will work on that issue.

Milburn said communicating with people during the wolf’s stay here turned out to be helpful.

Milburn used emails to update media, local officials and the livestock industry on the wolf’s movements and notified producers who were directly impacted through text messages and phone calls.

“Good communication when something like this happens really helps so people are not having to rely on third-hand information,” he said.

After an uncontroversial start, legislation that would require mediation for disputes over biotech crops in Oregon is now facing opposition from critics of genetic engineering.

House Bill 2509, which would direct the Oregon Department of Agriculture to mediate conflicts over genetically modified organisms, didn’t initially meet with objections and passed the House by an overwhelming margin.

The bill arose from a work group convened by Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, that evaluated a range of GMO proposals.

During a May 20 legislative hearing, Clem said he’s surprised by the recent surge of antagonism toward HB 2509, which emerged from the concerns of GMO critics who worried that biotech farmers wouldn’t agree to mediation.

“This came from the anti-GMO community,” he said. “This was designed to be helpful for people worried about being interfered with by GMOs.”

Friends of Family Farmers, a group that favors stronger GMO regulation, participated in the work group negotiations and credited the bill with providing an incentive for mediation during a work session last month.

Now that HB 2509 is before the Senate, however, the nonprofit group and other GMO critics are asking lawmakers to reject the proposal because they say farmers who are harmed by biotech cross-pollination should not be forced into mediation.

“I strikes us that mediation should be a choice farmers make, not a mandated situation,” said Ivan Maluski, policy director of Friends of Family Farmers, during the recent hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

If a dispute over genetically engineered crops occurs between farmers, the bill calls for ODA to provide mediation to seek a coexistence solution. If a grower refuses mediation and later loses a lawsuit in the dispute, he’d be required to pay the opposing party’s legal costs.

While Friends of Family Farmers believes mediation may be useful in some circumstances, the group has decided to oppose the bill because mandatory mediation could impose a financial burden on small growers.

The mediation requirement may delay a timely court decision when a farmer faces market rejection of his crop due to cross-pollination, the group claims.

Our Family Farms Coalition, which successfully campaigned for a GMO ban in Jackson County, argues that HB 2509 would hinder the ability of organic and conventional growers to enforce that prohibition.

The group argues that small farmers would effectively be blocked from seeking a “quick legal action to prevent contamination of their crop” due to fears of paying astronomical attorney fees.

“This bill would prevent that as a practical matter,” said Kellie Barnes, a representative for the group.

The Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit involved in prominent legal battles over GMOs, alleges that ODA can’t be trusted to oversee the mediation program because the agency has served as the “mouthpiece of the agricultural biotechnology industry.”

Since the mediation requirement lacks any limit on duration or expense, ODA could use it as an obstacle for farmers who need a fast legal remedy to their dispute, the group says.

Scott Dahlman, policy director of the Oregonians for Food and Shelter agribusiness group, said he’s disappointed by the hostility toward HB 2509 after the work group tried to establish a middle ground.

The bill was intended to shed light on how many biotech conflicts actually exist in Oregon and encourage compromises that would be difficult to reach in court, he said.

“It might be as simple as communicating your planting schedule with your neighbor and planting at different times,” Dahlman said.

Lebanon, Ore. — Oregon State University plant pathologist Cindy Ocamb reported at a crucifer disease field day May 14 that she is finding seed fields infected with blackleg around the Willamette Valley.

The discovery is not unexpected, she said, given that blackleg infections were severe last year and infected crop residue provides a source for the disease to persist and spread.

Ocamb said she is finding the disease in a “patchwork” pattern and that different fields have different levels of disease — a disparity she attributed to lack of timely management with fungicides.

Ocamb advised growers to refrain from planting susceptible crops within one-quarter mile of a field that hosted a blackleg-infected crop the previous year.

“And the farther apart the better,” she said, noting that the fungus’ windblown spores could be moving “tens of miles” and not just a few miles, as once suspected.

Ocamb also said that she noticed some fields went from less than 1 percent infection to between 80 and 100 percent in a matter of weeks during rainy weather, showing that the disease’s secondary inoculum is readily splashed by rain from infected plant stems and leaves.

While the disease moves systemically down a plant and can cause lesions on storage roots, it does not move systemically up a plant to infect seed, Ocamb said. Seed infection typically occurs from inoculum splashing onto seed heads during pod development.

Ocamb said she started seeing the blackleg fungus in October in commercial vegetable seed fields and in fields planted as part of a three-year OSU experiment to determine the effect of brassica crops, such as canola, on specialty seed production.

Fields that were treated in the fall with a fungicide were performing better than fields that went without a fall treatment, Ocamb said.

Ocamb also reported she has found light leaf spot in fields in recent weeks, a disease relatively new to North America. It started appearing in valley fields during February, she said.

According to literature, growers in the United Kingdom, where light leaf spot is common, report 22 percent yield loss in oilseed crops infected with the disease, Ocamb said.

Many of the seed treatments and fungicide applications that target blackleg are expected to also control light leaf spot, Ocamb said.

Ocamb said she fears blackleg infection in 2016 in Western Oregon could be even worse than this year.

“Seed fields will probably face more pressure next fall,” Ocamb said.

“I think it is going to be critical that we not only treat seed, but have a fungicide campaign with early sprays in the fall,” Ocamb said.

In addition to increasing chances of plants dying from blackleg, plants infected in the fall are more susceptible to other pathogens, Ocamb said.

An ODA proposal that would mandate field inspections for five years provides an indication of how long the scientific community believes it will take for Oregon growers to get the disease under control.

“The industry and the ODA believe a limited time period (five years) of mandatory inspections … is necessary to bring the blackleg epidemic back under control,” the proposal states.

Ocamb added: “I think it is going to be important that everybody joins the control party.”

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is proposing a rule mandating inspection of crucifer fields in the Willamette Valley as part of an effort to quash what is being called “the blackleg epidemic.”

Oregon State University researchers first spotted blackleg infection in the valley last year in certain vegetable seed crops, such as turnips and canola. The disease appears to be more prevalent this year, said Cindy Ocamb, in part because windblown spores from infected plant residue helped spread infections.

In addition to concerns about seed lots being contaminated, Ocamb said she now fears the disease could be moving into fresh vegetable acreage.

In January, ODA adopted a rule mandating that crucifer seed be tested, found free of blackleg and treated prior to being planted in the valley.

The newly proposed rule would require that growers also apply to the department for an inspection and cover a portion of the program’s cost at a rate of $6.50 an acre. Each acre would need to be inspected twice, once early in the growing season and at early- to mid-flowering.

Nancy Osterbauer, ODA’s plant health program manager, said the two inspections will help determine if the department’s recommendations for controlling the disease are working.

“Part of (the motivation behind the rule proposal) is an education process for everybody involved,” Osterbauer said.

Under the proposal, if blackleg is found in a field, certain mitigation requirements would kick in, such as fungicide treatments.

Osterbauer said the seed industry came to the department seeking the rule.

The rule will sunset in five years, according to the proposal.

A public hearing on the proposed rule is scheduled for June 22, beginning at 11 a.m., at the department’s Salem research farm, 151 Hawthorne Ave. NE.

Interested parties can comment at the hearing or through written correspondence, Osterbauer said.

“We welcome comments,” she said. “This is an industry rule.”

Whether Oregon’s “right to farm” law extends to the production of genetically modified crops is a central question in the legal battle over Jackson County’s prohibition against such crops.

During oral arguments on May 20, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke questioned whether the statute was intended to protect such technology.

The legislative history seems to indicate that lawmakers passed the “right to farm” statute to prevent urban sprawl from undermining agriculture, he said

“It seems to me this situation doesn’t squarely fit into that now, does it?” Clarke asked.

The ban was approved by Jackson County voters last year, but two farms that produce biotech alfalfa filed a lawsuit challenging the ordinance’s validity.

The growers — Schulz Family Farms and James and Marilyn Frink — claim their ability to grow genetically engineered crops is protected by the “right to farm” statute, under which local governments are barred from restricting a common farming practice as a nuisance or trespass.

David Markowitz, the attorney for the farmers, said that the impetus of the law may have been urban sprawl, but “right to farm” protections are much broader.

The statute is intended to preserve the entire resource base of Oregon agriculture, which include biotech crops, he said.

Defendants also argue that Oregon lawmakers expressly authorized the GMO ban by excluding Jackson County from 2013 legislation, Senate Bill 863, that pre-empted local governments from regulating biotech seeds.

The judge asked why the legislature would pass SB 863 if biotech crops were already protected by “right to farm.”

“Doesn’t it indicate the legislature recognized the right to farm law isn’t going to preclude counties from banning GE products?” Clarke said.

“Isn’t that a pretty big pothole for your side?” he asked.

Markowitz responded that lawmakers did not intend to exempt Jackson County from any other state laws by passing SB 863, including the “right to farm” statute.

“It is a much broader and specific ban in relation to seed,” the attorney said.

The exemption created for Jackson County was simply to allow a vote on the ordinance, not to cast a judgment about whether the GMO ban would pass muster under other state laws, the farmers say.

They’re seeking an injunction that will prevent the prohibition against genetically modified organisms from becoming effective, or $4.2 million in damages if they’re forced to destroy existing alfalfa fields.

Under SB 863, Jackson County could have narrowly tailored a law that would reimburse organic farmers for actual damage from imprudent practices, Markowitz said.

However, Jackson County’s ordinance goes much further and thus violates the “right to farm” statute, he said.

“There isn’t even a suggestion that my clients have caused harm to anybody,” Markowitz said.

“It treats the prudent the same as the imprudent,” he said.

The ordinance was supposed to go into effect on June 6 but the county agreed not to enforce it until the lawsuit is resolved.

The ordinance was supposed to go into effect on June 6 but the county agreed not to enforce it until the lawsuit is resolved.

Farming genetically engineered crops is a “generally accepted, reasonable and prudent method” as required by the law, since such plants have become ubiquitous in U.S. agriculture, the plaintiffs argue.

While the Jackson County ordinance tries to avoid the “right to farm” issue by designating the production of GMOs as a “violation,” rather than a nuisance or trespass, the effect is the same, plaintiffs say.

A primary argument in favor of the ordinance was preventing the genetic contamination of conventional and organic crops with biotech traits, which amounts to the county treating GMOs as a nuisance or trespass, the lawsuit claims.

Jackson County and other parties that voluntarily intervened as defendants counter the ordinance isn’t affected by the “right to farm” statute.

Defendants argue a genetically engineered crop is not a “farming practice” that’s protected by the law — the ordinance only applies to plants with altered DNA, not the cultivation techniques necessary to grow them.

The rejection of GMO crops by 66 percent of Jackson County voters also shows that biotechnology is not “generally accepted” in the area, the county says.

Marion County voters overwhelmingly approved a tax measure that will support Oregon State University’s Extension office and 4-H programs in the county.

In Tuesday’s election, voters approved Measure 24-380 by a margin of 72 percent to 28 percent. The measure creates a Marion County service district for Extension and 4-H.

The measure will increase property tax bills by 5 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. It’s expected to generate about $1 million a year for the programs.

About two dozen Oregon counties have approved such special districts in response to state and local funding cuts over the years. The Marion County Board of Commissioners placed the measure on the ballot after judging community support for the idea.

Oregon’s medium-sized ag producers churn out high-quality meat, grain and greens, but gaps in the aggregation, processing and distribution infrastructure make it difficult to put on consumers’ plates at an affordable price.

A new report from Ecotrust, a Portland non-profit, calls for investment in “Ag of the Middle” producers and the network that can sustain a strong regional food economy.

The report, “Oregon Food Infrastructure Gap Analysis,” defines “Ag of the Middle” producers as too big to survive by selling only at farmers’ markets or to CSAs, but too small compete in commodity markets.

“It’s absolutely the most painful place to be as a producer,” said Amanda Oborne, one of the report’s authors and Ecotrust’s food and farms vice president.

The 250-page study describes a haphazard system in which growers and other food producers spend too much time on the supply chain instead of developing their product. They must cobble together outlets, pick, pack and store things themselves and deliver small amounts to multiple buyers.

Neighborhood grocery stores in Portland, especially those catering to consumers willing to pay more for local, organic or sustainably produced food, are besieged by clusters of delivery vehicles. Some of them amount to a cooler in the trunk of a grower’s car. In Portland’s increasingly busy streets, getting from store to store isn’t easy.

The founder of Portland’s Bowery Bagels, which uses Northwest grains, told the report writers he delivers to 114 outlets on weekdays. “I can make more bagels,” CEO Michael Madigan is quoted as saying, “but I can’t deliver any more.”

The report says Ag of the Middle producers often lack branding or marketing strategy and do without communications and strategic planning.

The result is a system that is “highly fragmented, lacking consistent data and information, and dependent on personal relationships,” according to the study.

Ecotrust is investing in the solution. The organization is retrofitting a former ironworks building in Portland’s eastside industrial area to be a food development, storage and distribution hub.

The building on Southeast Salmon Street — called “The Redd” after the egg nests salmon make in streams — will have 16,000 square feet of development, incubator or processing space for meat, grain and greens. A mezzanine will contain 8,000 square feet of offices and educational space.

A building next door will have cold storage and warehousing space, and a delivery company that uses electric cargo bicycles capable of hauling up to 800 pounds of product to restaurants or other customers. Bowery Bagels is moving into the building as well.

Portland has a reputation as a “foodie” city, but Oborne said Ecotrust and its partners are intent on developing a “food system, not a food scene.”

TODAY