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.

SEASIDE, Ore. — Farmers, ranchers and those interested in making a living in agriculture made it clear they reject the idea that the Oregon Coast is the wrong place to put down roots.

“The presence of all these farms show that it’s patently untrue that ‘You can’t grow anything here on the coast,’” said Emily Fanjoy, owner of Peace Crops farm in Nehalem, in introducing the keynote panel of the third Grow the Coast at the Seaside Civic and Convention Center Saturday.

The theme was heard repeatedly during the convention as presenters discussed topics ranging from weed management and cost accounting to winter vegetable production and seed saving.

Farmers can grow many crops on the coast, said Teresa Retzlaff of 46 North Farm in Olney. She was one of three keynote panelists.

“There’s no can’t about it,” she said. “It’s about the choices we make.”

Laura Swanson, manager of the Manzanita Farmers’ Market, spoke about the proliferation of farmers’ markets on the North Coast. Nine markets cooperate on days and hours of operation, she said.

It’s an arrangement that’s worked out well. All the markets seem to be growing, and travelers like the market option.

“One question always asked is, ‘Where are other farmers markets,’” she said.

For farmers, the markets offer a stepping stone to getting their products into grocery stores and other markets, she added.

Clatsop County Commissioner Dirk Rohne, owner of Brownsmead Island Farm, said when he was in high school, people were uninterested in farming.

“Now it’s ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ cool,” he said.

In the same way the craft beer industry has taken off, locally grown food can also find a bigger place in communities, he said.

Suggestions on financing a farm included loans through a traditional lender or innovative funding through crowdsourcing.

Michelle Dragoo, a U.S. Forest Service biologist from Tillamook, was there just to check out the possibilities,

“It’s something I would love to do” she said.

She considering buying a vegetable farm or an orchard. She’s thinking about a place where she could have poultry or livestock and room for processing value-added products.

It would depend on the land available, she said.

All these issues came up during discussions. It’s not just buying the land, said Suzanne Hayes, farm loan officer for the USDA Farm Service Agency. Zoning issues can affect what you can and can’t do on your land. It’s important to check with county officials before making plans, she said.

The coastal farm can produce income by bringing tourists to the table, but there’s a load of red tape involved.

Scottie Jones, co-owner of Leaping Lamb Farm in Alsea and founder of Farm Stay USA, shared her experiences in making her working farm a place for city slickers to get back to nature.

Zoning, regulations and neighbors play a role in agritourism, she said. Talk to the neighbors first, she emphasized.

“The neighbors can put a kink in the works,” she said. “If you have bad relations with the neighbors before you start a farm stay, do you really think this is going to make it better?”

A backyard poultry operation may sound like a great business, but better check city or county officials to make sure you can do it, said James Hermes, OSU Extention poultry specialist.

Hermes went over some of the specifics of the number of poultry and the age of the birds that often get small producers in trouble with local authorities.

He also gave an overview of the types of chickens and turkeys that do best in coops and free range. He explained that the fast-producing Cornish cross, the common chicken found on dinner tables today, owes its existence to a small-scale farmer.

“It was created by a small farmer like yourself selecting for those traits,” he said.

The session on tasty poultry traits broke just in time for lunch.

While others addressed coastal weed problems and crop health, Marc Bates gave a crash course in cheesemaking.

While Tillamook County dominates the cheesemaking industry, there’s been a proliferation of cheese producers, he said. In Oregon there were five or fewer in 1999. That number had climbed to 10 in 2005. In Washington there were nine in 1999 and 29 in 2009.

He expects to see a facility in Clatsop County sometime soon.

“It’s a question of when,” he said.

He cautioned that the craft cheese industry is unlikely to balloon like the craft beer industry because of stricter regulations and higher startup costs.

Nellie McAdams of the Friends of Family Farmers, said, “There’s a sea change in farming on the coast.”

More people, including young people, are beginning to farm. It’s an exciting time for farming locally and nationally, she said.

“They’re looking at it as a lifestyle and a viable business.” Grow the Coast, sponsored by Oregon State University, the Oregon Food Bank, The Daily Astorian, the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Meyer Memorial Trust and CenturyLink, drew between 225 and 250 participants, organizers said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s expensive fight over the labeling of genetically engineered food has entered the final round.

An initiative before voters Tuesday would require manufacturers to label genetically engineered packaged foods as “Produced With Genetic Engineering” or “Partially Produced With Genetic Engineering.” The change would take effect in 2016.

The measure would not apply to animal feed or food served in restaurants.

If it passes, Measure 92 could make Oregon one of the first states to pass a labeling measure in an election.

Colorado voters also are tackling the issue Tuesday, and the Vermont Legislature approved a labeling bill that’s set to take effect in 2016. Scores of countries have GMO labeling laws, including the entire European Union.

Over the past two years, proposals to require GMO labeling have failed in neighboring California and Washington. Oregon voters also have defeated a labeling measure, but that was in 2002, when the issue was less on the public radar.

Earlier this year, voters in two rural Oregon counties approved bans on genetically engineered crops, showing the issue has gained traction outside liberal Portland.

The votes in Jackson and Josephine counties followed the discovery of a patch of GMO wheat in eastern Oregon, a finding that led Japan and South Korea to temporarily suspend imports of the crop.

Though genetically engineered crops are common and no mainstream science has shown they are unsafe, opponents contend GMOs are still experimental and promote the use of pesticides. They say more testing is needed and people have a right to know what’s in their food.

Opponents, including some of the world’s largest food producers, have raised about $20 million to prevent the labels from appearing on Oregon grocery shelves. Though the labels are not a warning, they fear the words will spook consumers.

The campaign to pass Measure 92 has surpassed $7.5 million in donations.

The anti-labeling campaign spent about $45.6 million in California, compared with $8.7 million spent by supporters. In Washington state, opponents spent $33.3 million, compared with $9.8 million by the pro-labeling groups.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The issue of driver’s cards for immigrants who are in the country illegally has been a political hot potato since at least as far back as Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential run.

Now, Oregon is the first state to put the matter before voters.

Residents in the state on Tuesday will decide whether the cards should be provided to those who cannot prove their legal status in the United States.

If the measure passes, Oregon will join 10 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing immigrants who entered the country illegally to drive here legally. In 2008, a state law took effect requiring proof of residence to obtain a driver’s license.

Gov. John Kitzhaber signed a state law last year granting the cards, but an interest group put the measure before voters this year.

Supporters said the measure will make streets safer by forcing people to learn the rules of the road and get insurance. They noted the cards can’t be used for privileges such as voting or getting government benefits. The cards also can’t be used to board a plane or buy firearms.

Opponents, including 28 of Oregon’s 36 sheriffs, argued granting the driver’s cards would reward illegal behavior and facilitate crime.

Business groups have turned out in support of the proposal, especially those with a hand in agriculture and manual labor. That has fractured the conservative voting bloc a bit, pitting those who prefer a stronger hand on immigration laws against businesses that rely on unauthorized immigrant labor.

But recent polling does not bode well for the measure. And supporters believe its wording — which specifies that those seeking driver cards don’t need to show proof of residence — works against it.

The measure would allow immigrants and others to apply for the driver cards if they have lived in Oregon for at least a year and meet other requirements. It was aimed mainly at the tens of thousands of immigrants who live in Oregon after entering the country illegally.

The measure follows a general loosening of rules nationally surrounding driving rights for immigrants who are in the country without legal permission.

California projects get nearly half the money in a round of farmworker housing grants and loans announced Friday by the USDA.

Washington and Oregon housing projects also received funding as the USDA handed out $20.7 million in loans and $8.3 million grants for 10 projects in six states.

The projects will provide housing for 320 farmworker families, with rental assistance offered on 315 of the units, according to a USDA news release.

The California projects include: Coachella Valley Villa Hermosa Phase II, $3 million loan for 68 units; Peoples Self Help, $3 million loan for 33 units; Avenida Maria, $3 million loan for 60 units; and Golden Valley, $3 million loan for 41 units.

In Washington, Grant County Housing Authority will use a $2 million loan and $1 million grant to develop 16 units.

The Oregon grant went to Farmworker Housing Development Corporation, based in Woodburn. The non-profit will use a $1 million loan and $2 million grant to build a 20-unit project in Silverton.

Robert Jimenez, FHDC executive director, said the Silverton project has a total cost of $5.4 million. His agency took over the project from another entity and hope to begin construction in June 2016. The development will have 19 units for families and one for a resident manager. Jimenez described the units as “contemporary, two-story walkups.”

Jimenez said there is a “huge demand all across Marion County” for farmworker housing. The agency’s Woodburn housing development alone has a waiting list of 500 families, he said.

The county is Oregon’s leading agricultural county and features many labor-intensive crops, Jimenez noted.