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Daily Record - Summer 2021
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Summer brings lots of fun – but it can also pose lots of safety concerns! Here at Kittitas PUD, we want to help keep our customers and community safe and healthy.
Visit our website at KittitasPUD.com to learn more about year-round energy-saving tips, to enroll for our Medical Alert list for planned outages, and for links and information about safety and emergency preparedness. We also recommend customers educate themselves about how to be prepared for disasters and emergencies – Check out some of these helpful websites for useful safety tips, emergency preparedness kits, and more: Ready.gov • Weather.gov • National Safety Council at nsc.org • RedCross.org
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Table of contents n Timothy hay challenges: Heat, rain, logistics............................................................ 4
Publisher Heather Hernandez
n Drought takes bite out of almond harvest................................................................. 7
Advertising Contact us: Ag Journal 401 N. Main Street Ellensburg, WA 98926 509-925-1414
n W ith drought worsening, should California have much tougher water restrictions?............................................................................................... 8
The Ag Journal is published three times a year by Kittitas County Publishing LLC. Contents copyrighted 2021 unless otherwise noted.
n Pacific Northwest strengthens heat protections for workers.................. 10 n Farming takes root in Seattle-area food desert.................................................. 11 n Biden order seeks to boost cattle ranchers, clarify for consumers........ 12 n Tribe becomes key water player with drought aid to Arizona..................... 14
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Brian Myrick / Daily Record file
Timothy hay challenges: Heat, rain, logistics by KARL HOLAPPA Staff Writer
The first cutting of timothy hay is from the Kittitas Valley is beginning to make its way to market, and growers this year are facing some of the same issues they encountered in recent seasons, mainly challenges with weather that affect the aesthetic quality of their finished product. “It looks to us like the yield is down slightly due to the warm and dry spring we had this year,” Mike Hajny of Hajny Trading said of the first
cutting. “Some of the young cut early timothy caught a rain shower, which has kind of changed the grading of it this year. The horse field seems to be a bit tighter than it normally is.” Anderson Hay and Grain CEO Mark Anderson said the beginning of this season has yielded some interesting results. “We’re seeing tight supplies of the horse grade timothy, the higher end,” he said. “We’re actually seeing lower supplies also of the lower end timothy, your No. 1 and No. 2 kind of stuff. There’s a whole lot of just middle
grade hay that got produced this year. A lot of real nice hay, so there’s a lot of hay that needs to go to dairies in Japan and Korea.” Anderson said the main culprit for the middle grade product is weather, as well as the possibility that some of the crop could have been cut early. “When we did start harvest, the weather was pretty good,” he said. “We didn’t get a lot of rained on hay or tough curing conditions that would have produced some of the lower grades.” Despite the quality skewing towards
4 | 2021 Ag Journal - Summer
the middle of the road, Anderson said growers can still expect to do OK this season, especially with the water supply looking like it will guarantee a strong second crop. “There’s really not a lot of disappointment for growers, because interestingly enough prices have been really high this year,” he said. “From a grower’s perspective, the market has really has stayed surprisingly strong, even with those middle grades of hay, even though so much was produced.” Beyond the price situation, Hajny said the ability for Yakima Basin
Brian Myrick / Daily Record file A thriving crop of timothy hay covers a field along Hansen Road west of Ellensburg during harvest. Despite the challenges of weather and logistics, timothy hay growers in Kittitas County consider themselves in a good position this growing season.
growers to guarantee a second crop due to 100% prorationing for junior water rights holders gives them a strategic edge over other growing regions stricken by drought and subsequent water usage restrictions this season. “We’re in a way better situation than half the West Coast is,” he said. “It’s a little early to make predictions, but I would not be surprised to see second cutting be darn near as strong as first cutting this season.”
CHALLENGES WITH HEAT Anderson said the record-breaking heatwave that hit the valley in early July will most likely affect the second crop of timothy, giving that growth a slow start due to the conditions. “Whether that has an impact on yield or anything like that, time will tell one we get to the harvest of second cutting timothy,” he said. Although he said the tail end of the first cutting was wrapping up by the time the heatwave struck causing some color loss in some of the fields, Hajny said the stress placed on the young second crop as it was trying to get established. “When it’s that warm, the irrigation water scalds the plant and makes it
really difficult to get going,” he said.
Hajny said it looks like the shipping issue is letting up a bit as additional feeder vessels are added to the transpacific rotation to pick up some of the slack but said freight rates have more than doubled what they were this time last year. “It’s been a challenge,” he said. “We’ve put a lot of our resources into managing logistics.” Although the product is eventually making its way overseas, Anderson said another issue exporters have to contend with is rising costs for shipping. He said this issue has extended not only on the ocean freight side, but also towards the logistics of getting the product to port terminals. “In many cases, we can’t get the turns per week per truck that you want to get, so the cost immediately goes up on trucking,” he said. “It seems like every month it’s something different.”
DEMAND STILL GOOD, LOGISTICS STILL TOUGH Although he said it is a little early to tell what buyers will want this year, Anderson said buyers in the horse industry are already securing contracts for their needs, while other buyers are waiting to see where the prices will fall for this year’s crop. “In the middle, most of those buyers are taking a wait and see approach, because they know there’s plenty of hay,” he said. On the shipping side of things, Anderson said one challenge tends to present itself after another in the process of getting the hay to buyers overseas. “The supply chain was really empty of inventory in early spring, and then later spring it looked like it was getting better,” he said. “Right now, there’s a lot of product that has arrived in Japan, but now it’s kind of slowed up and interrupted again. Whether it’s rail, terminal, or continued vessel issues, it’s been one thing after another. That said, hay is still shipping and arriving in markets, and the markets aren’t out of product.” 5 | 2021 Ag Journal - Summer
STAYING HOME Although a few buyers have made the trip overseas to physically inspect product, Anderson said the majority of buyers have chosen to stay home due in large part to strict travel quarantine rules that have remained in place in Japan. “There’s just not a lot of visitors coming,” he said. “I think this year with timothy, they’ve got a pretty good understanding of the quality.” Looking towards future seasons, Hajny said time will tell if buyers begin to travel to Ellensburg with the frequency they had before the pandemic struck. “A good portion of them are finding that the way we are marketing with Zoom meetings, samples, and photos is actually working out pretty well for them,” he said. “I don’t know if this is the new norm. I would say it’s not, but I think we’ll see less customer inspections the way it had been in the past.”
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DROUGHT TAKES BITE OUT OF ALMOND HARVEST by JOHN HOLLAND The Modesto Bee The worsening drought forced a 13% cut in the projected almond crop in California. The U.S. Department of Agriculture now expects about 2.8 billion pounds from the August-October harvest. The initial estimate in May was for a record 3.2 billion pounds. Some growers have opted to strip nuts from branches so their trees can get by with less irrigation this summer, the July 12 report said. Water is especially short in parts of the western and southern San Joaquin Valley. Any upside? Growers with adequate water can expect higher prices per pound from almond buyers around the world. This includes the Modesto, Turlock, Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation districts. The state accounts for about 80% of the global almond supply. Farms and processing plants employ several thousand people in and near Stanislaus County. Even with Monday’s revision, this year’s harvest would be the second-largest ever, topped only by the 3.12 billion pounds in 2020. The Almond Board of California, based in Modesto, noted this in a news release. “The report still forecasts a really large crop, and it’s further proof that California is an ideal place to grow almonds, even in difficult times,” said board chairman Kent Stenderup, a grower in Kern County. The estimates are made each year by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. The first is announced in May, based on a telephone survey of growers about how their almonds are developing. The second is in July, following visits to orchards to count and measure nuts. The initial projection was based in part on favorable
weather in February and March for the bees that pollinate the trees. Growers also reported little trouble with almond pests or diseases. The winter had below-average rain and snow. The outlook got even worse with the lack of spring storms. “Due to low water allocations and record high temperatures in June, the crop did not develop as well as expected,” Monday’s report said. “Some growers have decided to save their trees by stripping nuts before harvest.” Many customers of the federal Central Valley Project have zero water this year. Some are getting 75% because of river rights predating its construction. MID and TID are providing about 80% of their accustomed amounts. Growers can tap wells, if they have them, and stretch the supply with careful use. OID and SSJID have not capped growers and TULARE, CA - APRIL 21: A worker sets up irrigation lines to water almond tree rootstocks along Road 36 on Wednesday, April in fact are selling surplus water to the West Side. 21, 2021 in Tulare, CA. A deepening drought and new regulations are causing some California growers to consider an end to The record crop in 2020 had a downside farming. (Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times/TNS) — lower prices paid to growers. They got an average of $1.83 per pound, below the cost of growers, which is currently below the cost of production due producing the crop. to the recent record crop.” The Almond Board reported strong shipments in recent The $1.83 per pound last year was the lowest average price months of the nuts remaining in storage from the 2020 harvest. since the $1.79 in 2010. This figure was in the profitable range They were running about 22% ahead of 2019 as of June. of $2.39 to $2.53 from 2016 to 2019. It spiked as high as $4 in “Shipment numbers show that the demand for California 2014, but a sustained price at that level could drive away buyers. almonds continues to increase both in the U.S. and around the The average price for the 2021 crop will not be announced world,” President and CEO Richard Waycott said. until well into next year, after all of the almonds in storage “.... With such strong demand, competition for the 2021 are shipped. crop could lead to a much needed increase in the return to
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WITH DROUGHT WORSENING, SHOULD CALIFORNIA HAVE MUCH TOUGHER WATER RESTRICTIONS? by ARI PLACHTA Los Angeles Times When Gov. Gavin Newsom asked Californians to voluntarily conserve water in early July as he stood in front of the retreating shoreline at Lopez Lake in San Luis Obispo County, some must have had déjà vu. It was only six years ago when former Gov. Jerry Brown stood in a field near Lake Tahoe that was bereft of normally plentiful snow and called for water restrictions amid the state's punishing years-long drought. But by that point, Brown was done asking. In April 2015, he ordered cities and towns across the state to cut water use by 25%, the first mandatory statewide water restrictions in California history that browned lawns and
A truck crosses the Enterprise Bridge at Lake Oroville, which stands at 33 percent full and 40 percent of historical average when this photograph was taken on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 in Oroville, CA. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
shortened showers to the tune of more than 500 billion gallons saved that year. As Californians wonder when mandatory water restrictions might be coming, officials and experts including those who played roles in addressing the 2012-2016 drought say
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the pace and strategy of Newsom's current response sufficiently incorporates insights gained from the past. The governor's approach, however, has also frustrated some scientists who consider his actions too little too late as record-high
temperatures intensify the water shortage, particularly in northern and central parts of the state. Newsom, who is facing a September recall election, called on Californians on July 8 to voluntarily cut their water usage by
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15% compared with last year and expanded his regional drought state of emergency to 50 counties, home to roughly 42% of the population. "We're optimistic that Californians are going to step up as they have in the past," said Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot. "And if the drought persists and conditions get worse, we'll obviously have to contemplate other actions including mandatory restrictions." Conditions already appear to be outpacing the previous drought: Scant winter rainfall led to minimal snowpack on the Sierra Nevada mountains, and spring heat evaporated much of the runoff that was expected to flow into reservoirs. Felicia Marcus, who worked closely with Brown as chair of the state water board during California's last record-breaking drought, called Newsom's voluntary conservation a prudent start. "You can always do more — like to save fish — or you could have done more earlier in the year. There are always coulda-shouldawouldas, but this is a welcome step," said Marcus, who is now a visiting fellow at Stanford University. Marcus says she expects state officials to make a decision on mandatory restrictions by monitoring available water supplies and scouring data to see whether communities are heeding Newsom's voluntary call to conserve. "We need to accelerate everything that we thought we had to do even five years ago
in the face of climate change, because it's clearly coming harder and faster than we were expecting," Marcus said. "I think it takes a certain ... planning for the worst and not just hoping for the best." Peter Gleick, a longtime water scientist and founder of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, is more critical of Newsom's decision making. He said research shows a 15% voluntary cut in water use would be relatively painless for both the agricultural sector and Californians in urban areas. "It should have been done two months ago or three months ago. It's not as though we haven't seen this drought coming," Gleick said. "I'm sorry it's not more than 15%. I'm also sorry it's not mandatory, because we are in a worse position now than we were in the third and fourth year of the previous severe drought." The question of why Newsom hasn't declared a statewide drought emergency can be answered in large part by looking to the past at the blowback Brown received from local water districts tasked with implementing his mandatory restrictions. "When that 25% reduction came into place there was a lot of criticism from local agencies who said, 'We don't need to reduce, we've got extra supplies' and 'You're punishing us for the work we've already done to prepare,'" said Rachel Ehlers, water policy analyst at the Legislative Analyst's Office. Elhers, Crowfoot and other longtime observers of water politics say that smaller
water agencies that depend on a single well or groundwater source often look more kindly on state intervention during difficult drought times. But large urban districts such as the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California that heavily invested in reservoirs and recycling plants have made clear that they — and their budgets, which are dependent on supplying water to customers — preferred to be left alone. Those stances, along with 2018 legislation that required local water districts to do more intensive water management planning, led the state to be more attuned to utilities and their unique circumstances, Ehlers said. Southern California, for example, has been spared from Newsom's emergency order. Conditions haven't been as dry, and utility executives say water supply storage has granted them more flexibility. "We spent a lot of effort learning from the last drought, and put in this framework where water utilities had to develop their own plans for reacting to shortages," said Brad Coffey, group manager at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. "So let's think about the wisdom of allowing those plans to come into effect, rather than stepping in and kind of nullifying those plans by deciding to do something else on a statewide scale." Brown's pioneering mandatory restrictions are far more likely to be remembered by Californians for yellowed grass than water agency politics. With the help of local lawn-removal
incentives and social pressure, his ambitious 25% reduction goal nearly became a reality. Between June 2015 and April 2016, residential water use in California's urban areas fell 24.5% according to UC Davis researchers. Some conservation efforts, such as new drought-tolerant lawns, led to permanent change. Urban water use levels are currently at 15% lower per capita than those in 2013. That means statewide conservation is crucial when considering the very real possibility of future dry years, said State Water Resources Control Board Deputy Director Erik Ekdahl. "You're going to have to have a really wet year next year to get us back to average, and there's no guarantee of that. What happens if it's dry or even below normal? God forbid another critically dry year," Ekdahl said. "Then we're in a really bad situation everywhere." Policy and political considerations aside, Newsom is simply operating on a tighter drought timeline this time, said state Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), who served as Brown's Secretary of Natural Resources. "The year after year of dryness came upon Gavin Newsom a little quicker," said the Democrat, who represents Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. "He's following a similar path [as Brown]. But regardless of these two situations, if you're a governor you're limited to what's in your toolbox. The big thing you have is the bully pulpit to tell Californians that they have to save."
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Pacific Northwest strengthens heat protections for workers y NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS B Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Washington state on July 9 became the second state in the Pacific Northwest in as many days to announce emergency rules that provide farmworkers and others who work outdoors more protection from hot weather in the wake of an extreme heat wave that is believed to have killed hundreds of people. The announcement comes a day after Oregon approved what advocates call the nation’s most protective emergency heat rules for workers and as temperatures are spiking again this week in parts of the U.S. West, though not as severely as the end of June. The heat is making it difficult to fight wildfires in parts of a region struggling with a historic drought tied to climate change. “The heat experienced in our state this year has reached catastrophic levels,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said. “The physical risk to individuals is significant, in particular those whose occupations have them outdoors all day.” Washington’s new rules take effect Tuesday and update existing mandates that are in place from May through September, when the state’s multibillion-dollar agricultural industry relies on tens of thousands of farmworkers to tend and harvest crops such as apples, cherries, hops and asparagus. Under the emergency rules, when the temperature is at or above 100 F , employers must provide shade or another way for employees to cool down and ensure a paid cool-down rest period of at least 10 minutes every two hours. The state already required employers to provide
every outdoor worker with at least a quart of drinking water per hour, offer safety training on outdoor heat exposure and respond to any employee with symptoms of heat-related illness. A new requirement is that the water must be cool. The onus is on businesses under heat rules in Washington, Oregon and California, where Del Bosque Farms owner Joe Del Bosque was monitoring his workers in early July, when he was expecting temperatures above 110 F in the Central Valley. “If we see it gets too hot and it’s a danger to them, we will shut down the operation and send them home,” he said. Del Bosque also said he educates workers who pick and pack melons on his farm about preventing heat illness and provides plenty of cool water and shade to rest. The scramble to protect workers follows a heat wave that hit the Northwest and British Columbia at the end of June and broke all-time heat records in places like Seattle and Portland, Oregon. An immigrant from Guatemala who was part of an outdoor crew moving irrigation lines at a Oregon plant nursery was among those who died in the heat wave. Nearly 200 deaths have been blamed on the heat in Washington and Oregon, while authorities in British Columbia say hundreds of people there may have died. The record-high temperatures were caused by what meteorologists described as a dome of high pressure worsened by human-caused climate change, which is making such extreme weather events more likely and more intense. Last month was the hottest June on record for the contiguous United States, smashing the record set in
2016 by nearly a degree, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The unheard-of extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest at the end of the month was a main driver as the country averaged 72.64 degrees Fahrenheit for June, beating the old record of 71.76 F . The 20th century average for June is 68.4 F. Usually records get beaten by one- or twotenths of a degree, but “that’s a wide margin,” NOAA climate scientist Farmworkers at Del Bosque Farms pick and pack melons on a mobile platform in Firebaugh, Calif., on Friday, Ahira Sanchez-Lugo July 9, 2021, where temperatures were expected to surpass 110 degrees this weekend. (AP Photo/Terry Chea) said. “That is pretty remarkable.” employees are observed for alertness and signs of While there is natural variability always involved, heat illness. “our climate is changing,” she said. At 80 F or above, employers must provide Eight states — Arizona, California, Idaho, sufficient shade and an adequate supply of drinking Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode water. Island and Utah — had their hottest June, while Agricultural-rich California adopted the nation’s six more had their second hottest. NOAA records first rules requiring shade and water for farmworkers go back 127 years. in 2005 following 10 heat-related deaths — four “The recent heat wave is a reminder that of them farmworkers — in a two-month period. extreme temperatures can be a real danger in the The regulations have since been beefed up, workplace. With more hot weather on the way, requiring employers to provide shade when we’re taking action now,” said Joel Sacks, director temperatures rise above 80 F (27 C) and 15-minute of the Washington state Department of Labor & breaks in the shade each hour when temperatures rise Industries. higher. Employers also must provide cool drinking Its rules are similar to increased protections that water in easily accessible locations, toilets and handOregon adopted Thursday, but that state went washing facilities. When it’s hot, many work in the further. Once the heat index rises above 90 F (32 middle of the night. C), employers in Oregon must ensure effective communication between workers and supervisors so employees can report concerns and must ensure
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FARMING TAKES ROOT IN SEATTLE-AREA FOOD DESERT b y MICHELLE HISKEY American Heart Association News Nine thousand miles separate Veronica Karanja from her mother's farm in Kenya and where she now farms in Kent, Washington. Karanja's expertise – and her vegetables that are culturally significant in Kenya – are helping transform a food desert just south of Seattle by supplying freshly picked produce at the seasonal East Hill Farmers Market. "This makes me feel so good," she said a few days before the market opened in mid-June. "I'm doing the work I am supposed to do." Being able to eat a healthy diet depends largely on having access to affordable, nutritious food – and that often depends on proximity to grocery stores and enough available income to buy food. But some communities don't have such access because of a historical lack of investment and other systemic problems. Karanja farms within one of those communities, which are known as food deserts. "Our mission is to have a healthier community," said Xavier Wurttele-Brissolesi of Living Well Kent, an immigrant-led nonprofit working to create a healthier, more equitable food system in the community of 132,000, among which 13% live in poverty and 1 in 3 were born outside the U.S., according to 2019 census data. "The grocery store may be 2 miles away," Wurttele-Brissolesi said, describing what shopping can be like in a food desert. "But to get there, they might have to walk to take the bus, and if they have four to six kids, how are they supposed to bring home enough food on the bus? It's easier to get a frozen pizza from the corner store." Living Well Kent sells the farmers' produce through a community-supported agriculture
program, giving turnips, radishes customers access and peppers. They to a range of also have access products based on to a greenhouse a subscription or and technical membership fee; assistance. Tools, and it sets up the seeds and water are weekly market, free for them. where shoppers The city of Kent can pay for the is one of the most vegetables with ethnically diverse federal nutritional communities in subsidy benefits the country. The like SNAP, the farmers themselves Supplemental represent Nutrition countries that Assistance include Somalia, Program. Zimbabwe and "In Seattle, the Iraq, so their urban agriculture farming practices scene can seem like are rooted in a privileged space the Middle when you rely on East and Africa SNAP benefits," The group also s a i d Wu r t t e l e includes farmers Brissolesi, who from Mexico manages the food and Afghanistan. access program Living Well Kent that supports the Photos courtesdy Living Well — (top) Produce is purchased at the East Hill Farmers Market encourages them in Kent. (bottom) Kent A few of the items availble at the East Hill Farmers Market in Kent. immigrant farmers' to grow vegetables work. "You can feel that are significant like you don't belong, and our goal is to help the in the country where they got their start. people who need the most help." Managu – a leafy green grown in Kenya – is King County, where Kent is located, is home growing on Karanja's plot. She uses it as a divider to Tokul soil, which is one of the world's most between other vegetables, a method she learned in productive soils thanks to fallen ash from the state's Kenya to maximize her yield. volcanoes. On five acres leased by Living Well Kent, Another is planting corn on the perimeter of Karanja and nine other immigrant farmers grow her plot and using the cornstalks to support vines crops that include greens, tomatoes, carrots, onions, of sweet snap peas.
"When the wind comes, nothing falls," she said. Sales of her all-organic produce make up 80% of her annual income, Karanja said. Along with managu, she grows terere, a leafy vegetable, and kahurura, a pumpkin-like gourd. Even more important, her fresh-picked harvest feeds her, her husband and three children. As her mother taught her to farm in Kenya, she is teaching her children to farm in Kent. "I know you are what you eat," she said. "You eat healthy food, you will be healthy. Even your heart can't be healthy if you are not eating healthy food. This is food grown without chemicals, with only organic fertilizer, and for those who cannot afford to buy it, I donate it through the churches." In 2020, because of the pandemic, Living Well Kent operated only a farm stand, not a market. They harvested 4,000 pounds of produce. This year, the organization's goal is 10,000 pounds. To reach it, Living Well Kent needed funds to lease farmland, pay for water and seeds, and continue operating the greenhouse. "Farmers from hotter climates find the greenhouse very valuable," Wurttele-Brissolesi said. About 65% of those costs are covered in 2021 through funding from the American Heart Association's Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund, named for the Kaiser Permanente CEO who died in 2019. The fund invests in local, evidence-based efforts to reduce health disparities and address social determinants of health. For farmers like Karanja, the growing season does not end the nutritious food supply. In winter, she will make meals from the extra produce that she prepped and stored in her freezer – extending her farming's impact in the food desert of Kent.
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Biden order seeks to boost cattle ranchers, clarify for consumers By Bryan Lowry and Jonathan Shorman McClatchy Washington Bureau WASHINGTON, D.C. — Where was your burger born? The meat in your bun could have come from a cow raised on a Kansas farm. Or it could be from Australia, Canada or a handful of other countries. Either way, you might find it in the grocery store labeled as a “Product of the USA” if the meat was processed at an American plant. In the case of ground beef, cuts from other countries might be mixed with American beef and labeled as a domestic product after processing. But that’s likely to change after President Joe Biden in early July directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to consider adopting a rule to ensure that only meat that comes from animals born and raised in the U.S. can be labeled as a “Product of the USA.” “This was a nice, welcomed surprise,” said Phil Perry, who owns and operates a cattle ranch in Oskaloosa in northeast Kansas, which typically has about 400 to 500 black angus cattle at any given time. “It’s good to know that somebody has brought these issues to his attention. It’s good to see that maybe somebody in our industry is getting back there and making tracks.” The provision on meat labeling was part of a larger executive order by Biden intended to help U.S. companies compete internationally and to challenge conglomeration domestically. The executive order issued by Biden will affect a range of industries, including aerospace and pharmaceuticals, but the sections on meat could have a significant impact for Kansas and Missouri, two of the top beef-producing states. While the bulk of meat consumed in the U.S. comes from American farms, Biden’s administration argued that imported meat that can be marketed as American under current rules creates unfair competition for U.S. ranchers. “Something I learned that I found a little outrageous— we’ll see what you all think— is that under current labeling rules, most grass-fed beef labeled ‘Product of USA’ is actually raised and slaughtered abroad, and then imported to the U.S. for processing,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said last week. “The President and the USDA believe it is unfair for domestic farmers and ranchers to have to compete with foreign companies that are misleading consumers.”
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The push to tighten the rules on labeling comes after several years of advocacy by ranchers on the issue. Biden’s order doesn’t immediately enact new rules but instructs the USDA to begin the process of drafting them. Ranchers say they want the labels to remain voluntary, but they also want to ensure accuracy. “There’s tremendous pride in our members for the safe, wholesome product that they produce, but at the top of the list is providing accurate information… to consumers so they can make an informed decision about what they’re purchasing,” said Matt Teagarden, CEO of the Kansas Livestock Association. “If it’s going to be used, it’s going to accurately reflect what’s in the package or on the bun in the case of a hamburger out at a restaurant,” Teagarden said, explaining that in some cases ground beef includes cuts from more than one country.
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Mike Deering, the executive vice president of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association, said in an email that his organization would be cautious until rules were finalized, but at “first glance, we are excited the Administration is paying attention to the realities of our industry.” Ranching is a major industry in both Kansas and Missouri. Beef cattle generated nearly $8.4 billion in farm income in Kansas in 2019, more than half of the state’s overall agricultural output and nearly 13 % of the cash receipts for cattle nationwide, according to USDA data. In Missouri, beef cattle brought in nearly $1.9 billion in the same year, representing 20 % of the state’s agricultural output and its second biggest product behind soybeans. Hogs rank as Missouri’s fourth biggest agricultural product and accounted for nearly $930 million in the same year, according to the USDA. But meat processing is also a major industry with a combined 64 beef plants and 53 pork plants in the two states, according to the White House. A 2020 report from the Kansas Department of Agriculture found that both cattle ranching and meat processing amounted to more than $8 billion industries in the state. Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he supports efforts to enable American ranchers to distinguish their product on the shelves. But he also wants to allow for the creation of other labels for processors. “I believe multiple new voluntary labels such as ‘Processed in the USA’ and ‘Born, Raised, and Processed in the USA’ should be developed to help U.S. ranchers differentiate the wholesome, safe, and nutritious beef they raise,” Marshall said in a statement. Cargill, one of the processing companies with plants in Kansas, declined to comment on the order’s impact to the industry. Perry said he thinks the proposed labeling rule will give Kansas ranchers a marketing opportunity, but cautioned that he doubts it’s the issue at the top of most consumers’ minds. “I ask people in the grocery store if they read the labels. Many of them don’t. They’re more concerned about the price,” Perry said. Glynn Tonsor, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University, said that if the USDA adopts a more restrictive labeling rule it could result in higher costs for consumers. “Almost always, if you have additional governmental oversight and-or regulation that restrict private industry choices— that’s what’s on the table there— that almost always adds cost,” Tonsor said. Congress passed a strict meat labeling rule in 2002 in response to fears of mad cow disease coming from imported beef, but it was repealed in 2016 after the World Trade Organization repeatedly ruled against the U.S. in trade disputes. Tonsor said that the USDA should be careful crafting the rules to avoid running afoul of the WTO. “My words of caution would be it needs to be kept in a voluntary ‘if you want to use it, you’ve got to be compliant’ space as opposed to getting really close to the old days of mandating everything’s labeled,” Tonsor said. Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran also said that the USDA must be careful not to violate trade agreements, which could harm beef exports
abroad, as it takes steps to ensure more accurate labels domestically. “Misleading labels undermine our cattle producers’ ability to generate new marketing opportunities for beef produced to meet consumer demand. It is important for USDA to ensure ‘Product of USA’ labeling standards are clear and accurate, while also avoiding violating our trade agreements and harming export markets for U.S. beef,” Moran said. While the labeling change has been touted by the administration, Perry and Teagarden both pointed to another development as more significant: the administration order steering $500 million in federal dollars to expand the capacity of U.S. meat and poultry processing and another $150 million to aid small plants in weathering the COVID-19 pandemic. The USDA said the investment was a key step in implementing Biden’s order to promote competition and foster a more resilient food supply chain. “For beef producers, access to additional packing capacity would be highly supported. We’ve been through two years of disruptions,” Teagarden said, referring to a 2019 fire at a Tyson Foods beef plant in Holcomb, Kansas, and the pandemic, both of which severely diminished the state’s capacity for processing cattle. MAKING IT EASIER FOR FARMERS TO WIN CLAIMS
The North American Meat Institute, a lobbying group which represents the processing companies, declined to comment on the proposed labeling change until the USDA crafts its rule. But it criticized another portion of Biden’s order, which seeks to make it easier for farmers and ranchers to win claims under the Packers and Stockyards Act, a 1921 law which prohibits meat packers from engaging in unfair or deceptive
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practices. The White House contends that the enforcement of the act was systematically weakened under former President Donald Trump’s administration and Biden’s order asks the USDA to reinforce an interpretation of the act that it is unnecessary for farmers to show industry-wide harm to prevail on a claim. “President Biden’s executive order calling for USDA to change the Packers and Stockyards rules will have unintended consequences for consumers and producers,” North American Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts said in a statement. “Government intervention in the market will increase the cost of food for consumers at a time when many are still suffering from the economic consequences of the pandemic. These proposed changes will open the floodgates for litigation that will ultimately limit livestock producers’ ability to market their livestock as they choose.” The administration argues that consolidation in the meatpacking industry has made it more difficult for ranchers to get a fair price for their cattle and the act provides a tool to rectify that. Teagarden said the USDA pursued a similar interpretation under former President Barack Obama, but stopped short of implementation. While the provision is intended to help individual ranchers prevail on claims, Teagarden said the Kansas Livestock Association is worried about the broader impact. He warned that it could stifle innovation. Teagarden said that 30 years ago the price of cattle was determined also entirely by their weight, but now ranchers can improve the prices through feeding techniques and other methods that produce a higher quality product to respond to market needs. Mary Hendrickson, a professor in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the
President Joe Biden has directed the USDA to consider tightening the rules under which meat products can marketed as made in the U.S. (Dreamstime/TNS)
University of Missouri-Columbia, said consolidation has made the food industry less resilient to handling disruptions. “That is a hugely concerning issue for us as we face down climate change, social disruptions like pandemics, you name it and we don’t have enough resilience,” Hendrickson said. “So anything
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the administration can do to get us on the path to resilience by addressing some of the issues of consolidation and competition is a good thing.”
TRIBE BECOMES KEY WATER PLAYER WITH DROUGHT AID TO ARIZONA b y FELICIA FONSECA Associated Press FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — For thousands of years, an Arizona tribe relied on the Colorado River's natural flooding patterns to farm. Later, it hand-dug ditches and canals to route water to fields. Now, gravity sends the river water from the north end of the Colorado River Indian Tribes reservation through 19th century canals to sustain alfalfa, cotton, wheat, onions and potatoes, mainly by flooding the fields. Some of those fields haven't been producing lately as the tribe contributes water to prop up Lake Mead to help weather a historic drought in the American West. The reservoir serves as a barometer for how much water Arizona and other states will get under plans to protect the river serving 40 million people. The Colorado River Indian Tribes and another tribe in Arizona played an outsized role in the drought contingency plans that had the state voluntarily give up water. As Arizona faces mandatory cuts next year in its Colorado River supply, the tribes see themselves as major players in the future of water. “We were always told more or less what to do, and so now it’s taking shape where tribes have been involved and invited to the table to do negotiations, to have input into the issues about the river,” firstterm Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores said.
Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona border has fallen to its lowest point since it was filled in the 1930s. Water experts say the situation would be worse had the tribe not agreed to store 150,000 acre-feet in the lake over three years. A single acrefoot is enough to serve one to two households per year. The Gila River Indian Community also contributed water. The Colorado River Indian Tribes received $38 million in return, including $30 million from the state. Environmentalists, foundations and corporations fulfilled a pledge last month to chip in the rest. Kevin Moran of the Environmental Defense Fund said the agreement signaled a new approach to combating drought, climate change and the demand from the river. “The way we look at it, the Colorado River basin is ground zero for water-related impacts of climate change,” he said. “And we have to plan for the river and the watersheds that climate scientists tell us we’re probably going to have, not the one we might wish for.” Tribal officials say the $38 million is more than what they would have made leasing the land. The Colorado River Indian Tribes stopped farming more than 15 square miles (39 square kilometers) to make water available, tribal attorney Margaret Vick said. “There's an economic tradeoff as well as a conservation tradeoff,” she said. While some fields are dry on the reservation, the tribe plans to use the money to invest in its water infrastructure. It has the oldest irrigation system built by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, dating to 1867, serving nearly 125 square miles of tribal land. The age of the irrigation system means it's in constant need of improvements. Flores, the tribal chairwoman, said some parts of the 232-mile concrete and earthen canal are lined and others aren't, so water is lost through seepage or cracks. A 2016 study conducted by the tribe put the price tag to fix deficiencies at more than $75
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In this April 12, 2013, file photo, a patrol boat makes its way upstream along the Colorado River in Black Canyon just south of Hoover Dam near Willow Beach, Ariz. The Colorado River Indian Tribes Water Resources has played an outsized role in Arizona to help keep Lake Mead from falling to drastically low levels. Still, Arizona is expected to face the first-ever mandatory cuts to its Colorado River water supply in 2022. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
million. It's leveraging grants, funding from previous conservation efforts and other money to put a dent in the repairs, Flores said. “If we had all the dollars in the world to line all the canals that run through our reservation, that would be a great project to complete,” Flores said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen in our lifetime.” The tribe is made up of four distinct groups of Native Americans — Chemehuevi, Mohave, Hopi and Navajo. The reservation includes more than 110 miles (177 kilometers) of Colorado River shoreline with some of the oldest and most secure rights to the river in both Arizona and California. While much of the water goes to farming, it also sustains wildlife preserves and the tribe's culture. “We can't forget about the spiritual, the cultural
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aspect to the tribes on the Colorado River,” Flores said. “Our songs, clan songs, river and other traditional rites that happen at the river.” The tribe can't take full advantage of its right to divert 662,000 acre-feet per year from the Colorado River on the Arizona side because it lacks the infrastructure. It also has water rights in California. An additional 46 square miles of land could be developed for agriculture if the tribe had the infrastructure, according to a 2018 study on water use and development among tribes in the Colorado River basin. “One day,” Flores said. “That’s the goal of our leaders who have come behind me, to use all of our water allocation and develop our lands that right now are not developed.”
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