Several companies are asking an Oregon judge to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the state’s “right to farm” law.

Oral arguments are scheduled for Nov. 21 in a case in which 17 residents of Curry County claim their properties were sprayed with chemicals intended for nearby logging sites last year.

The hearing will take place at 9:30 a.m. in Curry County Circuit Court in Gold Beach, Ore., but a judge has yet to be assigned to the case.

The plaintiffs claim that they’ve suffered physical ailments from the 2,4-D and triclopyr used by Pacific Air Research and several companies involved in logging.

Their complaint seeks a declaration from a state judge that Oregon’s right to farm law, which prohibits nuisance and trespass lawsuits against common farming practices, violates their constitutional right to seek a remedy for an injury.

At this stage of litigation, the defendants want the case dismissed largely on jurisdictional grounds.

The defendants argue that Oregon case law does not allow plaintiffs to challenge the constitutionality of a statute based on a hypothetical future nuisance or trespass lawsuit they might file.

Furthermore, the Oregon right to farm law only shields common agricultural and forestry practices that are conducted in a “reasonable and prudent manner,” the defendants say. In this case, the plaintiffs do not claim that the spraying was done prudently and reasonably, so the statute would not bear on their claims of being harmed by the chemicals.

The question of the right to farm law’s constitutionality was already affirmed by the Oregon Court of Appeals in 1993, the defendants claim.

The Curry County residents claim that this ruling is “worthless” because it has since been superseded by a 2001 opinion from the Oregon Supreme Court that interprets the constitution’s remedies clause.

Also, the 1993 ruling simply upheld the right to farm statute’s constitutionality “without discussion” and thus doesn’t provide the legal reasoning for the court’s decision, the plaintiffs claim.

The plaintiffs also argue that they must be allowed to challenge the constitutionality of the right to farm law before filing a nuisance or trespass case — otherwise, they would leave themselves vulnerable to paying the defendants’ attorney fees.

According to their interpretation of key legal precedents, a lawsuit challenging the statute’s constitutionality is allowable under these circumstances.

The plaintiffs are John Burns, Barbara Burns, Donald Hausmann, Janice Hausmann, Herman Liem, Partchara Liem, Charles Ott, Thomas Pitchford, Melissa Pitchford, Eric Rickard, Kathryn Rickard, Dan Sawyer, Janet Sinclair, Clinton Smith, Sandra Smith, James Sweeney, Barbara Welsh.

The defendants are Pacific Air Research, Crook Timberlands LLC, Barnes & Associates Inc., Josef Kaufman and Pro Forestry Consulting LLC.

Oregon voters may have joined Washington in legalizing recreational marijuana use, but that doesn’t mean employers have to tolerate workers who fail drug tests or show up for work high, labor lawyers say.

“Not as much has changed as employers may think,” said Andrew Schpak, a Portland attorney who represents management in labor cases.

Marijuana possession and use is still illegal under federal law, he said. Companies that test for drug use as a condition of employment and that enforce drug-free workplaces don’t have to change their policies, Schpak said.

Washington voters legalized pot in 2012 and Oregon voters did the same in the Nov. 4 election. Users can legally buy marijuana in Washington now; Oregon’s law allowing the possession, use, production and sale of pot goes into effect July 1, 2015.

Schpak said companies should tell employees: “Even though our state has legalized or voted to legalize marijuana, we’re not changing our policies.”

A reminder would be wise “Just to make sure on July 1, 2015, they’re not showing up at work with a joint in their hand,” he said.

Schpak and Jenna Reed, general counsel with the Cascade Employers Association in Salem, said Measure 91 approved by Oregon voters did not contain provisions relating to job protections. That is, employers don’t have to tolerate lawful use. The issue has already come up with Oregon’s Medical Marijuana law, and courts have ruled employers do not have to allow pot use as an accommodation for a disability.

Legal “off duty” use of may be a point advocates press in future pot and employment cases. Schpak said Oregon has already decided employers can’t prevent the use of lawful tobacco products.

“Cigarette smoking off the job is protected,” he said. “That doesn’t apply to marijuana, but if it continues to pick up steam that could be a choice of where marijuana advocates go next. That’s an argument we might see.”

Reed, of Cascade Employers Association, said alcohol use is different because it is not illegal under federal law.

“Because of this important distinction, only alcohol use or impairment on the job can be prohibited,” Reed said in a news release.

“Because marijuana is still illegal under federal law, any employee testing positive, regardless of when they used, can still be considered a violation of your company’s policy.”

Reed also said employers can rescind a job offer if an applicant tests positive for pot, even if the worker wasn’t impaired at the time and argues that they lawfully used days before the test.

“This could be true, but it probably doesn’t matter,” Reed said. “Measure 91 doesn’t provide any job protections and it is illegal under federal law.”

Potato yields increased throughout the Northwest and nationwide in the fall of 2014, according to a recent USDA report, but industry sources say strengthening fresh carton prices reflect a shortage of large, quality spuds.

Idaho’s yields, at 425 hundredweight per acre, were up 10 hundredweight from last year, and the state’s total production rose 2 percent to 134.2 million hundredweight, according to the report.

Washington’s yields, estimated at 605 hundredweight per acre, were up 5 hundredweight from last season, and the state’s total production rose 4 percent to 99.8 million hundredweight.

Oregon’s yields were up 40 hundredweight per acre to 585 hundredweight, and its total production of more than 22.8 million hundredweight was up 6 percent. U.S. yields were up 14 hundredweight per acre at 439 hundredweight, with total production up 3 percent at 406 million hundredweight.

Industry sources say strong fresh carton demand and flat prices of consumer bags evidence that the 2014 crop size profile is skewed toward smaller tubers.

“The (market) is telling you there aren’t many big potatoes,” said University of Idaho Extension economist Paul Patterson.

USDA estimates Idaho’s percentage of 4- to 6-ounce spuds rose 4.7 percent to 27.2 percent in the 2014 crop profile, and the percentage of spuds in the largest size category was down 5.3 percent at 9.4 percent.

According to USDA Market News, the price of five, 10-pound film bags of smaller, consumer-sized Russet Burbanks has remained flat in the Twin Falls and Burley District at $4.50 to $5. However, the price of a 70-count carton of larger Burbanks has risen from $8-$9 since USDA began tracking sales of the variety on Oct. 4 to $11-$12 on Nov. 8. Carton sizes are based on the number of potatoes needed to reach 50 pounds.

Potandon Produce in Idaho Falls has been receiving calls from buyers who aren’t normally Potandon customers seeking fresh cartons, said Ralph Schwartz, vice president of sales, marketing and innovation.

“We’re seeing a lot of smaller potatoes from a sales perspective,” Schwartz said. “We’ve probably been oversold on the larger-count bakers every single day for three to four weeks.”

Oakley, Idaho, farmer Randy Hardy, chairman of Sun Valley Potatoes, has also noticed rising demand for larger spuds, and he’s unconvinced that USDA’s estimates of significantly higher Idaho yields are accurate.

“It’s certainly not what I’m hearing from other growers and what I saw myself,” Hardy said.

Hardy believes a crop that started with a large set of tubers per plant, was stymied from bulking by wet August weather.

“We’re more optimistic than we were a few months ago,” Hardy said. “Mother Nature dealt us a blow with this weather in August, but maybe it was a blessing in that we don’t have a huge crop to deal with.”

He emphasized grower returns on cartons have risen $6 in recent months and the Thanksgiving rush is “always a good time to market potatoes.”

Dan Hargraves, executive director of Southern Idaho Potato Cooperative, is also skeptical of the USDA yield estimates.

“I think it’s way high,” Hargraves said.

Drones, climate change, succession planning and even a little crop talk are on the agenda when the annual Tri-State Grain Growers Convention unfolds Nov. 12-15 at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Wash.

The annual gathering of Washington, Idaho and Oregon producers features presentations, panel discussions, outings and exhibitions.

Highlights include a discussion Nov. 13 on the use of UAVs — unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones — on wheat fiels. The presenter is Ryan Jenson,a founder of HoneyComb Corp. of Wilsonville, Ore., which makes a battery-powered AgDrone aircraft equipped with cameras and sensors. Backers say the technology can be used to monitor field conditions, spot disease or irrigation problems, Jenson and his company were featured in a January 2014 article in the Capital Press.

A Thursday session on succession planning — turning farm operations over to the next generation — will be led by Sherri Noxel, director of the Austin Family Business Program at Oregon State University. Another session on that topic, “Real Life Farm Transition Stories,” will be held Friday.

Other Friday sessions include discussions of the climate change initiative and its impact on cereal grain production, and on building better barley markets in the Pacific Northwest.

Other topics on the convention agenda include spray drift impact grapes, a review of the Farm Bill, and the capacity of rail and river shipping systems.

For more information, visit www.wawg.org/convention.

The future of Pendleton agriculture is in bright, capable hands after local students shined during the 87th annual National FFA Convention and Expo in Louisville, Ky.

Twelve kids competed at the event Oct. 29-Nov. 1 representing the Pendleton FFA chapter, which took home a three-star rating from the National FFA Organization — the highest possible level of excellence.

Adviser Patty Abell, who teaches agricultural science at Pendleton High School, said the award recognizes all the hard work and community service their chapter does outside the classroom. In particular, she mentioned the FFA’s “Food for All” program, which has helped deliver 18,000 pounds of fresh produce to needy families.

“It’s just the hard and positive attitudes of the kids,” Abell said. “No matter if you win or lose, I was just proud of what they did and what they accomplished.”

Other Pendleton FFA members also received individual and team honors. Danny Paul, a freshman at Blue Mountain Community College, won the National Agricultural Proficiency Award for Agricultural Mechanics Repair and Maintenance.

The award is another top honor for students who have developed a specialized skill they can apply toward their career. Paul has been working on trucks since he was 9 years old, and works side-by-side with his father, Troy, servicing and repairing big rigs. He plans to continue working as a diesel technician.

It is the first time a Pendleton FFA student has received the award.

Pendleton’s agricultural issues team also won a bronze medal for their Saturday Night Live-inspired skit about the pros and cons of growth hormones in dairy and beef cattle. It was the only medal awarded to an Oregon team this year.

“It’s hard at the high school level for kids to act and present information in a way everyone can understand,” Abell said. “Our kids did pretty well with it.”

The team featured PHS juniors James Bradt, Julia Livingston, Dakota McCambridge, Emily Wanous and Kaleigh Waggoner, as well as sophomore Chris Nickerson and BMCC freshman Delaney Paullus.

PHS sophomores Isabelle Chapman and Annalise Oertwich placed fourth in the nation for their social systems agriscience project focused on genetically modified organisms. BMCC sophomore Garrett Correa received his American FFA Degree, a prestigious award which is presented to less than 1 percent of all FFA members nationwide.

In her four years as an adviser, Abell said this is the most students they’ve ever sent to FFA Nationals. And she expects the success will only continue.

“There’s a lot of strong support from farmers and ranchers in the community,” she said. “All the kids are excited to jump on the bandwagon.”

A Eugene, Ore., pesticide service company and an applicator have been fined a combined $16,000 for killing an estimated 1,000 bees in an incident at an apartment complex last summer.

An investigation by the Oregon Department of Agriculture determined that Glass Tree Care and Spray Service, Inc. and pesticide applicator James P. Mischkot, Jr. violated the state’s pesticide control law through “gross negligence” and in a faulty, careless manner.

The company was fined $10,000 and Mischkot was fined $6,000.

According to the ag department, Mischkot sprayed a pesticide containing the active ingredient imidacloprid on the grounds of a North Eugene apartment complex, including on 17 linden trees.

The trees were in full bloom and attracting pollinators at the time. After highly publicized bee kills in 2013, the department prohibited using imidacloprid and dinotefuran on linden trees and other Tilia species. The department also ordered labeling changes on the products.

Anticipating the presence of pollinators is part of the reasonable standard of care for pesticide application in Oregon, according to the ag department. In this case, the company and its applicator disregarded that standard, the department said.

No one’s ever accused Oregon grape growers and wine makers of speaking poorly of their crops and vintages, but accounts of this year’s work are expansive. With notes of, what is that? Hyperbole?

A news release from the Oregon Wine Board, a semi-dependent state agency that handles marketing for the industry, says the 2014 vintage “may be remembered as the vintage of a lifetime.”

Really?

Because the industry is famously optimistic, the glass is always half full. Dump a cold monsoon on the Willamette Valley in the middle of harvest, no problem. Tests your mettle, the industry said last year, had to bring all our skills to bear. Grapes have to struggle, after all. Gives them character.

This year, they’re saying an extraordinarily long and warm growing season resulted in excellent flowering and fruit set and large, evenly-ripened clusters of grapes. The vintage broke the record of “degree days” heat accumulation because overnight lows were higher than normal. Meanwhile, daytime highs lingered in the 90s, and the vines escaped the stress that comes when temperatures soar past 100 degrees.

Earl Jones, who grows multiple varieties southwest of Roseburg in Southern Oregon, said it was his best vintage in 20 years.

Jones said the growing season at his Abacela vineyard stretched nearly 230 days, while 195 days is average.

“My weather this year was incredibly in favor of making great wines,” he said.

Jones acknowledged it will be two or three years before the professional wine critics give their reviews, but said his grapes displayed great flavor and aroma before harvest. The wine he’s tasted from barrels has been excellent, he said.

“Farmers live at the whims of Mother Nature,” Jones said, “and Mother Nature often gives us things we don’t want: Insects, various diseases, birds that come in and eat your crop.

“We didn’t have any of that this year, either,” he said.

Jones said he harvested 224 tons of grapes, nearly 20 percent more than last year.

Vineyards in Oregon’s largest wine growing region, the Willamette Valley, also reported large yields and prime quality.

In the Oregon Wine Board news release, Brick House Wine Co. founder Doug Tunnell was quoted as saying he’d “Never seen the likes of it in 25 years.”

“It was as if Mother Nature just heaved grapes out of the bosom of the Earth,” Tunnell said in the news release. “The good news is that the wines are by and large lovely, ripe, rich, deeply concentrated and aromatic.”

Michelle Kaufmann(cq), assistant communications manager with the Wine Board, said she surveyed 30 vineyard operators and heard similar vintage reports.

“I said tell me the good and tell me the bad,” Kaufmann said. “It really is a good as we say it is.”

BEND, Ore. (AP) — A proposed wilderness encircling Oregon’s Painted Hills has the backing of local leaders.

The Bulletin newspaper reports the Wheeler County Court and the city of Mitchell support the plan for the Sutton Mountain Wilderness. The Bend-based Oregon Natural Desert Association is now trying to win over the state’s congressional delegation.

The federal designation of a wilderness requires an act of Congress and approval by the president.

The planned Sutton Mountain Wilderness would cover nearly 60,000 acres around and in the Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

The Bureau of Land Management currently oversees the land.

ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) — The last time Logan Linker and his fellow Ashland High School students got their hands on the 2-foot-tall incense cedar trees growing in the ScienceWorks’ shade-house nursery, they were little starter plants barely one-third their current height.

“Things grow all the time,” says Linker, 17, as he plops a milk crate full of cedars and similar-sized Ponderosa pines into a pickup bed.

Starting next week, these trees will be growing along the banks of Bear Creek, where they may create shade, cooling and cleansing the creek for future generations of wild chinook salmon.

“Doing this is a way I can help the environment, do something for salmon,” Linker says.

Linker and hundreds of other Rogue Valley students will be doing much of the same over the next seven days as the Ashland-based Lomakatsi Restoration Project embarks on its seventh annual Streamside Forest Recovery Week at five sites throughout the Bear Creek Valley.

Students will take more than 1,000 native plants, ranging from Oregon ash and incense cedar, as well as shrubs such as Oregon grape and Pacific ninebark to fortify streamside riparian zones either torn up over time by development or choked out by non-native Himalayan blackberries.

It’s a hands-on lesson in ecology and stewardship for grade- and high-school students who adopt these projects and get to watch them blossom into living sentries warding off stream degradation.

But you can’t plant ‘em until you grow ‘em.

And that’s just what Lomakatsi workers and their teenage volunteers do painstakingly at four greenhouse sites at ScienceWorks and nearby Wellsprings, as well as at Ashland High and Helman Elementary School.

Volunteers take native starter “plugs” bought from area nurseries and put them in pots for two years of coddling before they are prepped for planting and driven to the restoration sites, where armies of young hands will choose where they will take root.

It’s a formula Lomakasti has used, and expanded on, since 1997 at places such as the confluence of Paradise Creek as it wiggles into Bear Creek in southeast Ashland.

“Some of those trees along Paradise Creek are now well over 50 feet tall,” says Alicia Fitzgerald, Lomakatsi’s outreach and communications manager.

After Linker and his classmates carry crate after crate of trees and shrubs to a Lomakasti pickup, they get down and dirty with Lomakatsi Education Director Niki Del Pizzo in the nursery’s center.

“Now you will be, basically, restoring this nursery,” Del Pizzo tells the group.

Kyle Levin stops taking inventory to take stock in ensuring a Pacific Ninebark plug gets properly potted so its root ball has room to grow for 2016’s round of streamside plantings.

“When I think about what’s happening to the Earth, it makes me angry,” says Levin, 19, who has volunteered with Lomakatsi for three years. “Being able to do something like this makes me feel better.”

That’s a theme among teen volunteers on projects like this, says Jennifer Wahpepah, who teaches the alternative program at Ashland High.

“It’s a big self-esteem builder,” Wahpepah says. “They’re overwhelmed with a lot of negative things, like global warming. This helps them push through that wall by taking part in small actions to help change things.”

Consider Jesse Applegate a convert.

“They’re keeping nature as close as they can to original, not artificial,” says Applegate, a 15-year-old sophomore. “I love what they do, and I’m excited to be part of it

The Oregon Board of Forestry voted unanimously Nov. 5 to proceed with a new plan to create specific timber harvest and conservation zones on 600,000 acres of state-owned forests west of Portland and along the north coast.

The Oregon Department of Forestry currently uses a single management strategy to pursue both timber revenue and conservation goals, but officials concluded in 2012 that approach was not generating enough money. The new concept is known as land allocation. It grew out of recommendations from a stakeholder group that included representatives from the timber industry, environmental organizations, anglers and county governments.

During the board meeting in Portland, some of those stakeholders said they are concerned at the lack of detail in the proposal. State officials said that will spend the next eight months filling in details of the plan and forecasting how it would affect timber harvest revenue and conservation goals.

The forestry board would still need to give final approval to a detailed plan, before it could take effect.

“What’s before you here is not a management plan,” State Forester Doug Decker said. “We do have the broad contours of a management plan.”

A year ago, Gov. John Kitzhaber asked the board to look for opportunities to increase conservation in the northwest region, which includes the Tillamook, Clatsop and Santiam state forests.

The Oregon Department of Forestry also needed to increase revenue from timber harvests, which have not kept up with the cost to manage the state forests over the last decade. Financial Analyst Joan Tenny said the department’s $27.9 million annual state forest budget is approximately $6 million short of what the department needs.

As a result, the department has cut back on forest thinning, research and monitoring and improvements related to recreation, Public Affairs Program Manager Dan Postrel said.

State officials have not determined how much of the state forests might be designated for conservation or for timber harvest, despite an earlier version of the plan developed by the committee that would have roped off 30 percent of forest land for conservation and 70 percent for logging. Officials said there also might be more than two types of management zones.

One difficult question state employees face is how to divvy up timber harvest revenue among counties, if the state shifts to land allocation management. The state keeps one-third of the timber revenue to cover its management costs, and sends the remaining two-thirds to the county governments where the forests are located. If some forests are designated as conservation land where logging is reduced or banned, those counties would lose revenue unless the state and counties find a way to share timber money among counties.

Tim Josi, a Tillamook County commissioner and chairman of the Council of Forest Trust Lands Counties, said the council supported the land allocation concept. However, Josi said, “there are still some trust issues with some of the counties about changing the revenue sharing formula.”

W. Ray Jones, vice president of resources for Stimson Lumber Company, said the new management proposal would likely meet the goals to increase both conservation and revenue. However, Jones said he is concerned about proposals by Oregon Department of Forestry employees to include habitat conservation plans and expanded no-cut buffers along streams in the new plan.

“I’m having a hard time connecting the dots of why those no-cut zones would be expanded,” Jones said.

Bob Van Dyk, forest policy manager at the Wild Salmon Center, said at this early stage, the new management plan is like a Rorschach test: because there are few details, everyone who looks at it finds different potential problems.

“We support continued exploration of this,” Van Dyk said. “There’s at least a chance we can find something not anyone’s happy with, but everyone’s happy enough with.”

State officials currently plan to bring a detailed version of the plan back to the forestry board in June.

Upcoming library events

COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) — The Coos County, Oregon, sheriff’s office says a Bureau of Land Management employee was fatally injured when a falling tree at a logging site struck her Ford Explorer.

The sheriff’s office says 55-year-old Estella Morgan came upon a logging operation in the Blue Ridge area east of Coos Bay on Tuesday. A tree that had just been cut fell on her SUV, crushing the driver’s area. She died at the scene.

The accident is under investigation.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — In the end, not even Oregon’s backyard chicken owners and vegan foodies had enough money and clout to persuade voters to pass a ballot measure that would have required labeling of genetically modified foods.

Oregon is the fourth state in the West that has failed to pass a GMO labeling measure. A similar proposal also flopped Tuesday in Colorado, which joined Washington state and California as other states that have said no.

It would seem that if a label mandate could pass anywhere, it would have passed in a left-leaning state like Oregon, whose biggest city is a hub for hipsters, funky boutiques and farm-to-table dining.

But are opponents of GMOs ready to give up? Nope. They say they’re making headway against biotechnology companies like Monsanto Co. and are ready to continue the fight in legislatures, on ballots, and at the federal level.

“This is a social movement that’s gaining power, as people become more aware of how their food is produced,” said George Kimbrell, a senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety. “So there’s great success there regardless of the outcome of the measure.”

There’s little science that says genetically engineered foods are unsafe, and agribusinesses fear mandatory labels would spook consumers. Most of the nation’s corn and soybeans are genetically engineered to resist pests and herbicides, but labeling proponents say there’s too much that’s unknown about GMOs.

The Oregon initiative would have required manufacturers, retailers and suppliers to label raw or packaged foods produced entirely or partially by genetic engineering, but voters narrowly rejected it by about 1 percentage point.

In the past two years, voters in California and Washington rejected labeling requirements by about a 2-point margin.

“The reason we lost narrowly is because chemical companies and their allies smashed spending records in these states,” Kimbrell said. “People were being inundated with their commercials on televisions.”

Opponents raised about $20 million to defeat the Oregon initiative, while the campaign to pass Measure 92 had about $7.5 million in donations.

Labeling proponents were even more dramatically outspent in Colorado, where they raised $896,000 — compared with about $16.7 million by the opposing food and biotech companies. Coloradans saw no television advertising from proponents, but there were frequent TV spots featuring farmers who called the measure misleading.

There were similar disparities in California and Washington, where the 2013 ballot measure contest was the costliest in state history.

Oregon’s results underscored an urban-rural divide. Voters supported labeling in liberal cities like Portland, where at least one grocer will deliver organic produce to your door in a biodiesel-powered truck. Much of rural Oregon overwhelmingly opposed it.

“Measure 92 would have burdened our state’s family farmers and food producers with costly new compliance regulations and red tape,” said Pat McCormick, spokesman for the No on 92 Coalition.

Oregon voters also defeated a GMO labeling measure in 2002, when it wasn’t such a prevalent issue. That measure lost by a landslide, 70 percent to 30 percent.

Since then, the political fight has escalated. The Vermont Legislature approved a labeling bill that’s set to take effect in 2016. Maine and Connecticut also passed labeling laws, although they don’t take effect unless other states follow suit.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, some 30 other states have also considered GMO labeling legislation this year, though none of the bills has passed.

Earlier this year, voters in two rural Oregon counties approved bans on genetically engineered crops, and voters in Hawaii’s Maui County opted this week to temporarily ban the cultivation of GMOs, but those measures are a far cry from putting labels on products that families see at the supermarket.

Still, the West’s four GMO labeling measures have made people aware of their choices when it comes to their food, Kimbrell said.

Labeling proponents say they’re already gearing up to get legislation passed in more states and put initiatives on more ballots — though they declined to say where. Ultimately, they’re pushing for federal labeling rules, though there’s no indication of any impending nationwide solution.

Even those who didn’t support the measures say the anti-GMO momentum deserves Big Food’s attention.

“Independent of the results, there’s clearly some part of the population that ... wants to know what’s in the food they eat, how it’s made, and where it comes from,” said Gregory Jaffe, biotechnology project director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “I think the industry needs to figure out ways to be more transparent.”

While labeling advocates say they’re just getting started, opponents aren’t about to step aside.

“The patchwork of state labeling standards would require separate supply chains to be developed for each state,” said Pamela Bailey, president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the food industry’s main trade group.

“This maze of varied regulations based on inaccurate information would cripple interstate commerce ... and ultimately increase grocery prices for consumers by hundreds of dollars each year.”

Bailey and Monsanto, among others, say they are seeking a federal law that would take precedence over any state laws and let companies voluntarily label their engineered foods.

That’s unacceptable to food activists.

“The bottom line,” Kimbrell said, “is that this movement is going to continue to grow, move forward and gain in prominence.”

COOS BAY — The South Coast Community Foundation has picked the final three candidates to round out its seven-member board.

With Oregon’s genetically modified organism labeling initiative apparently headed for a narrow defeat, supporters and opponents agree the debate isn’t over.

As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, “No” votes for Measure 92 were leading “Yes” votes by slightly more than a percentage point: 50.6 percent versus 49.4 percent.

While it’s still possible that 35,000 uncounted votes in left-leaning Multnomah County could still put Measure 92 over the top, that result is unlikely.

Supporters of the initiative remain hopeful that the razor-thin margin will swing their way, but even if it’s defeated, the issue is unlikely to fade away, said Sandeep Kaushik, spokesman for the Yes on 92 campaign, which supported the initiative.

Mandatory labeling of food containing GMOs gained traction among Oregonians despite being tremendously outspent by the opposition, Kaushik said.

“This is absolutely not the last we’ve heard of labeling,” he said. “This is a long term effort. We are making progress.”

Concern continues to grow around the country about GMO labeling and supporters plan to continue to press the issue, though a specific strategy has yet to be set, Kaushik said.

A defeat of Measure 92 in Oregon would mark the third time that voters rejected similar labeling initiatives in recent years, after California and Washington, said Scott Dahlman, executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, which opposes labeling.

A labeling measure was also defeated Tuesday in Colorado.

Even so, the discussion is likely to continue, he said. “I don’t think this is an issue that is going away.”

Oregon voted down a similar labeling measure in 2002, which did not seem to deter backers of the most recent measure, said Pat McCormick, treasurer of the No on 92 campaign. “It’s apparent the proponents don’t take no for an answer.”

Oregon voters ultimately decided against the measure because they were convinced organic and non-GMO labels were more effective than a mandatory label, he said. “They’ve got a better system in place than this measure would provide.”

The initiative would have probably fared better in the 2016 presidential election, which will probably have higher voter turnout among young and liberal voters who favor labeling, said Russ Donero, retired political science professor at Pacific University.

“The proponents may have, unfortunately for themselves, mistimed when they put it on the ballot,” said Dondero, noting that a older, white, conservative demographic is more likely to vote in lower-turnout elections. “That didn’t help.”

Voters may have been confused by some aspects of the debate, like why certain types of food were excluded from labeling, he said.

Opponents of the measure were effective in raising doubts through their advertising, Dondero said.

Even if the advertising didn’t necessarily convince some people to vote against the measure, the negative message could have discouraged them from voting to the advantage of opponents, Dondero said. “It’s designed to do that.”

A proposed ban on commercial pesticide use in Oregon’s Josephine County was soundly rejected by voters, but supporters of the ballot initiative vow to regroup and continue fighting.

Measure 17-63, which would have prohibited licensed applicators from applying pesticides in the county but did not apply to residential properties, was defeated by a 2-1 margin.

Even if it had passed, the county initiative was would have been pre-empted by state law governing pesticides.

However, pesticide users and other opponents were worried that voter approval would have inspired vandalism, since the measure would allow citizens to take “direct action” if courts or local governments refused to enforce the ban.

The measure’s defeat shows most people recognize pesticides as a legitimate tool in agriculture, said Scott Dahlman, executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, a group that opposed the ban.

“The voters spoke pretty strongly,” he said, noting that 67 percent voted against the initiative. “That’s a pretty loud voice.”

Audrey Moore, director of the Freedom from Pesticides Alliance, said she was disappointed by the results but heartened that roughly 11,000 county residents supported the measure.

Voters rejected the measure due to a biased ballot initiative summary printed by the county and a deluge of advertising by opponents, she said. “It was downright lies that were put out in the media.”

Even so, pesticide critics will continue to advocate against their use, she said. “It’s a topic that’s been swept under the carpet by the state for way too long and we’re not going away. We’re going to learn and go forward.”

Supporters of Oregon’s Measure 88, which permitted driver’s cards for people without proof of legal U.S. residence, said the initiative’s defeat will worsen labor shortages in agriculture.

Opponents, meanwhile, say the measure’s failure is a demand from citizens for law and order.

Voters rejected the measure by more than a 2-1 margin on Nov. 4, effectively overriding a bill passed by state lawmakers in 2013 that allowed for the driver’s cards.

At 9 a.m. Wednesday, “no” votes totaled 852,759, while “yes” votes totaled 413,324.

The measure’s defeat will not keep undocumented immigrants off the roads — the state simply won’t be able to ensure they’re safe drivers, said Jeff Stone, executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries and a Measure 88 supporter.

“They’re still going to go to school, to church, to the doctor’s office, and they’re still going to be our neighbors,” said Stone.

Farmers, meanwhile, won’t be able to employ as many workers if applicants are unable to show they can legally drive to job sites that are often remote, he said.

“These farms are not off a busline,” Stone said. “It’s not like you can take the MAX to a strawberry field.”

Nurseries are already struggling with a labor shortage due to federal inaction on comprehensive immigration reform, which remains a top concern for the agricultural industry, he said. “We cannot solve the immigration issue in Oregon.”

Jim Ludwick, founder of Oregonians for Immigration Reform and an opponent of the initiative, rejected the argument that Measure 88 would ensure safety on the roads.

Illegal immigrants would drive anyway, even if they failed the driver’s card test, he said.

“They break the law on so many levels,” Ludwick said. “They’re constantly told they’re above the law.”

The fact that Measure 88 failed in an overwhelmingly Democratic-leaning state shows that people of all stripes are trying to send a message to government that they won’t tolerate lawlessness, he said.

If agriculture is facing a challenge with insufficient labor, the solution is to mechanize, Ludwick said.

“That’s the future,” he said. “That’s what we should be going for instead of importing cheap labor.”

Online

Measure 88 results

Early returns showed Oregon voters handily legalizing the smoking, growing and selling of marijuana, joining a parade of states that have decriminalized pot.

With about two-thirds of the votes counted, Measure 91 was passing 54 percent to 46 percent. The measure allows adults to possess up to an ounce of pot at any time, up to eight ounces at home, and to grow up to four plants per household. It also establishes the commercial sale of pot and pot products.

For Oregon farmers who might be interested, the measure also permits them to grow industrial hemp, which can be used to make food, oil, cloth, rope and other products.

It was easy to tell where Measure 91’s support was coming from: Portland and Eugene. Nearly 70 percent of Multnomah County voters favored the measure, and it took nearly 60 percent of the vote in Lane County.

Oregon voters are rejecting a ballot measure that would uphold a law enacted in 2013 by the Legislature that authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue four-year driver’s cards to Oregonians unable to prove legal residency in the United States.

Measure 88 was supported by many business and agriculture groups, particularly the nursery, vineyard and orchard industries.

According to the Secretary of State’s Office, at 11 p.m. “no” votes totaled 680,473, or 67.37 percent, while “yes” totaled 329,645 votes, or 32.63 percent.

Measure 92 mandates that many food items sold in Oregon stores containing genetically modified ingredients be labeled. As of 11 p.m., the measure was failing by a narrow, but widening, margin. “No” votes totaled 525,373, or 51.1 percent, while “yes” votes totaled 502,686, or 48.9 percent.

The campaign was the most expensive Oregon ballot measure ever, with supporters and opponents raising nearly $27 million.

A similar ballot measure failed Tuesday in Colorado.

Online results

Measure 88 - oregonvotes.gov/results/2014G/562976592.html

Measure 92 - oregonvotes.gov/results/2014G/1029276478.html

OREGON CITY — Nobody wants slugs and yellow jackets for Christmas, especially the buyers in Hawaii and other far-flung export markets who make Oregon’s Christmas trees a $103 million annual crop.

Hoping to avoid the ire of inspectors, reduce fumigation costs and maybe expand sales, one of Oregon’s major growers and shippers is washing trees with hot water to kill pests before shipping.

Kirk Co. may be the only Oregon shipper trying the treatment, and it’s attracting attention. Agriculture officials from Malaysia and the Philippines observed the method at the company’s facility Monday, watching as workers shook freshly washed trees to inspect for any remaining bugs.

“What you’re trying to do with that is control hitchhikers,” said Bob Bishop, a trade specialist with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service who accompanied the Philippines and Malaysia officials.

“We want to avoid diseases,” said Paz Benavidez, with the Philippines Department of Agriculture. “We’re checking how they do inspections and best management practices.”

Norsiyenti Othman, an entomology officer with the Malaysia Department of Agriculture, said her country now imports Noble Christmas trees without pest concerns, but is reviewing new procedures.

Although Malaysia is about 60 percent Muslim and 20 percent Buddhist, Otham said there is a steady market for Christmas trees among shopping malls, tourist hotels and households.

Gary Snyder, co-owner of Kirk Co., said the Hawaiian market is his biggest immediate concern. Inspectors there, leery of bugs they consider invasive, will set loads aside and require treatment if pests are discovered.

The company experimented with hot water washing last year with mixed results, but tweaked the operation this year. Harvested trees are routed by conveyor belt through an enclosed washer that raises the tree temperature to about 106 degrees.

“I’m shipping 75 to 80 containers to Hawaii,” Snyder said. “If less than five of them get held up for slugs, I’ll feel successful.”

Kirk Co. ships about 500,000 trees a year and has operations in Oregon, Washington, North Carolina and Nova Scotia.

Chal Landgren, a Christmas tree specialist with Oregon State University Extension Service, said some growers don’t have on-site water or electrical capacity to wash trees as Snyder’s crew is doing. Some are worried export markets may eventually require it.

“Growers in general hope it doesn’t come to this, but (Snyder) is thinking it might,” Landgren said.

Bishop, of USDA APHIS, said the washing method may control fumigation costs. As a side benefit, washed trees stay fresh and green longer because they carry so much moisture during shipment, Bishop said.

Oregon leads the nation in Christmas tree production, with about 7 million trees sold in 2013 and 17 percent of the U.S. total, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Christmas trees are Oregon’s 12th most valuable crop.