Agriculture secretary fields tariff questions during Oregon visit
SALEM, Ore. - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said wherever he travels across the country farmers want to know the latest about trade uncertainty, labor and the status of the 2018 Farm Bill.
This week's stop among the rolling wheat fields of eastern Oregon was no different.
Perdue arrived at Martin Farms in Rufus as part of his "Back to our Roots" tour featuring stops around the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.
Flanked by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., he took a brief tour of the farm before arriving back in the shop, where about 50 local farmers and county officials awaited for a meet-and-greet that quickly became an impromptu town hall.
Perdue focused his comments first on the administration's looming trade war with China. Starting today, the U.S. is set to impose a 25 percent tariff on roughly $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. In turn, China has pledged retaliatory tariffs on 545 American products - especially targeting agriculture.
As one farmer pointed out, cash bids for hard red winter wheat have dropped from around $7 per bushel to $6 per bushel amid the turmoil. Between 85 percent and 90 percent of Oregon wheat is exported overseas.
"I'm well aware of what percentage of crop here in the Northwest goes overseas," Perdue said. "We are mindful of that, not only in your wheat crop but in your specialty crops."
Perdue added that U.S. soybeans have taken a 20 percent hit over the past few weeks. Other farm imports subject to increased Chinese tariffs include everything from fresh fruit to beef and pork.
Perdue said the USDA is working on "some sort of compensatory mitigation strategy" for farmers, but did not offer specifics.
"(Trump) knows that you all are great patriots. He knows that you stand behind him when he calls out China for cheating for years," Perdue said. "But he also knows the bank is going to need more than patriotism to pay the bills."
Perdue said he is more optimistic about passing a new Farm Bill before the current package expires Oct. 1. Both the House and Senate have passed their own versions of the bill, and though there are differences between the two, Perdue said he believes they can be resolved.
Sherman County farmers also spoke up for changes in regulations they would like to see, including provisions in the National Organic Program requiring organic farmers to comply with all state and local weed ordinances.
That request stems from an incident last year between Azure Farms, a 2,000-acre organic operation near Moro, Ore., and neighboring wheat farms. Growers had complained for years about weeds blowing into their fields from Azure Farms, prompting the county to intervene.
Alan von Borstel, a wheat farmer near Grass Valley, and vice president of the Oregon Wheat Growers League, asked Perdue about the USDA Transition Incentives Program, which is designed to help get new farmers started while also taking land out of the Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, and putting it back into production.
The program works by paying retiring farmers or ranchers two more years on their CRP contracts, on the condition they sell or rent the land to a beginning grower - someone who has not been a farm or ranch operator for more than 10 years.
However, the transition cannot be made between direct family members, such as father to son, which von Borstel criticized as being discriminatory.
Logan Padget, a neighboring Grass Valley wheat farmer and member of the Oregon Farm Bureau's Young Farmers & Ranchers committee, said he got his start in farming thanks to the Transition Incentives Program, taking on a neighbor's former CRP ground.
The program is a valuable risk management tool, Padget said, especially since it takes two years for a grower to harvest that first wheat crop in a dryland fallow rotation.
