Jr versus Sr agricultural rights

The question, it seems to me, is whether a new agricultural practice that damages old traditional agricultural practices be allowed to continue or even exist. Like when the court found in the water-challenged Klamath area, the older water-rights holders had the option to say they would be damaged if junior rights holders were allowed to continue. With bill 633 now headed for a House vote to take away local control of genetically modified organisms, (GMOs), and give it to the obviously GM fans in Salem, there could be a field day for lawyers. Courts will be tied up who knows how many years if it passes.

It would be a great foot in the door for the big bio-tech corporations who would rejoice in even ten more years of getting farmers hooked on lower yeilding crops, and probably without the locals' knowledge if the past is any measure. The chance to sell a larger amount of their chemicals is the end game. Forget their mantra of feeding the world and all that malarkey, new studies are discounting that all the time, and finding new health risks like allergies and mystery gut bacteria. The rest of the world has said, "We just don't buy it."

Syngenta, the big Swiss bio-tech company, who with the blessing of the Oregon Farm Bureau, surreptitiously and illegally introduced GM sugar beets to the Rogue Valley, has now been banned from planting any GM crops in it's native land. Who are these Farm Bureau folks anyway? At least you know that the politicians supporting GM crops will get something out of it. Take the intrepid Oregon legislator who launched House companion bill HB3192 out of his committee, albiet with an exclusion for our very own Jackson County.

And what makes the environment and traditional farmers in Jackson County any more special than any other county in Oregon? Because 'we just don't buy it?' Because we were the principal county that called the pols out on the issue? We have names. Like the one who said he couldn't meet with the local growers here because he had a meeting with my group at the exact time. I may be a blogger, but I sure don't have a 'group' and certainly had never talked to him. But I'm a researcher and I know the harm GM crops can cause. And the wheat fiasco just proved my point.

Crops of all shapes and sizes are potential export items, and the foreign importers don't want anything to do with it for all kinds of health reasons. Somewhere along the line politicians started ignoring the will of the people even to the exclusion of science, as in this case. You can see red flags a mile away with GMOs and on closer inspection, as legislators are required to do, the science is overwhelmingly against the bio-tech giants. But junk science seems to stick when there is payola involved. Especially when the Food and Drug Administration's ex-Monsanto folks only require the bio-tech corporations to evaluate heir own products. Where in the world of products does that happen? Certainly not in fish packing plants, or kids toys.

Besides the pol who invented a phantom group for me to get out of meeting real constituents, another one told me that "our farm policy" was something better left to them. Well, I don't agree that simply taking away regional control is any sort of 'farm policy.' Farmers in every corner of Oregon know much more about farming than arm-chair farmers in the Capital. And I'll guarantee they don't like having to plough under their organic crops because some Swiss corporation snuck in something that rendered their crop useless. Now that is economic sabotage, not the other way around as the Mail Tribune famously splashed across their front page when someone dug up test plots of GM beets near Medford.

Maybe Syngenta dug up their own GM beets. Monsanto sure blamed saboteurs when someone snuck in some GM wheat seeds with a shipment of regular wheat in Eastern Oregon recently. Giant class action lawsuit against Monsanto going on there now. And who was that free-lance writer who got the issue of a few dead beets front and center in the newspaper anyway? I'll tell you that those kids who shot out sixty car windows in Central Point caused real economic sabotage. That sure didn't hit the paper like a few beets did. Very fishy. The Oregon legislature will reek a lot worse than a truck load of rotting beets if they pass a ban on local control of growing food. What would they do next, outlaw any kind of crop that wasn't genetically modified just to get the campaign contributions?

This kind of thing is where democracy ends and fascism starts. Right here, right now. Remember, fascism is just government teeming up with industry for their mutual benefit at the expense of everyone else. Granted, most people don't know a GM crop from a GM truck, but that's no reason to railroad them all. Jackson County just got a little more organized and started educating people around here as to what is going on compared to the rest of the state, hence the fear of being thrown out of office around here. The big corps move faster than community consensus can be built, hence the need for an end-run bill like 633 to pre-empt local referendums on the subject. SB 633 was filed just shortly after Jackson County declared that they were going to vote on banning GM crops next May. What a coincidence.

Since the GMO Free Jackson County Facebook page has had 7 million views, I thought I'd do my civic duty to bring this up now before a next week House vote and put it on Facebook too. Lots of viewers would like to know whether real people can make their representatives reflect their wishes and have that extrapolated to brother and sister farmers elsewhere. Or will Oregon be a blueprint for taking away farmers rights to the unimpeded practice of their craft nationwide. Isn't rule number one for government 'First do no harm?'

"For the Fish"

When Larry was younger he could head down to the Rogue River and hook four king salmon in a morning  on the edge of the Rogue Valley. After a career as a Navy pilot and an airline pilot, he took his son to the same spot and it took a month to get his son hooked into a king. Coming from Alaska, I'm spoiled on an abundance of salmon and wouldn't spend the time beating the water to a froth to try catch something. I distinctly remember times that if I didn't get something in a few casts I figured something was just plain wrong. Certainly I wouldn't go ten years trying like the guy who meets up with his fishing buddies every spring up above Shady Cove to camp and fish for a king. His catching a fish finally, warranted an article in the Mail Tribune.

The point is that lots and lots of fish in a water body is the natural order of things. Certainly not like one Fish and Wildlife guy promoting an expectation of only 50,000 summer run kings every year in the Rogue. Those guys are well aware that the original runs were more than ten times that amount. And I've said before that if the Rogue king salmon runs were fully restored, it would be an tourist mecca here, much like the Kenai River in Alaska. Not that the Kenai is all that anymore either, but the reputation and economic impacts of lots of big salmon are still felt in that area.

So what gives around here in Southern Oregon? One thing Larry did in recent years was to join the Coastal Conservation Association when the CCA came to Oregon and started opening chapter groups. He wasn't one to ask what can the CCA or anyone do for me, he just started doing things. And that is what the original premise was that attracted so many water warriors to the group. It is still the premise.

Larry has worked on various initiatives 'for the fish' in the few short years since. One was to survey the little dams on a tributary of the Rogue that were blocking the spawning grounds of the kings and steelhead in that creek. Dam owners were thumbing their noses at the fish even though they weren't using the water behind the dams for anything.. That made Larry mad. And to many minds, just plain ignorant and anti-social, not to mention all the other environmental maladys you can think of.

Another project Larry took by the horns was to get the salmon carcasses that were being taken to the garbage dump from the Lost Creek Dam hatchery and put them back into the streams. That is the natural order of things as well. Some of that had been done in the past, but he found that officialdom was ag'in it. Why? Well, Larry didn't worry about that, he knew the creeks and rivers needed the dead adults to feed the baby salmon as nature intended, so he got 'er done. Now we are throwing tons of carcasses into places like Little Butte Creek and Evans Creek. And we have assurances that we can continue to do so every year.

Turns out that 70 percent of the diet of small salmon is detritus torn from the bodies of spawned out adults. Much like little aquatic pac men, the fingerlings and smolts feed on the bodies of the decaying adult salmon and steelhead. Who'd of thought? Other groups of people have had the same thought though and have helped us CCA guys in the actual work of the "fish tosses."

What I find most remarkable and encouraging is the willingness of some young folk I found who were interested in joining the CCA and being official Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Volunteers. I had a hunch one of the teens would be a prime recruit. He had occupied himself at my wife and my wedding reception on the banks of the Rogue River casting for a king salmon he saw. He came out on a 'fish toss' recently and had a blast, even in a downpour as a storm passed through.

Something as mundane and smelly as pitching dead salmon and steelhead from the Lost Creek Hatchery into creeks and rivers may seem odious, but in actuallity the satisfaction of really being part of restoration work is hugely satisfying. And wonders upon wonders, government has embraced the 'public's enthusiasm.' It's easy in these politically oriented days to say, "well, it makes everyone look good." But the point is, it's just "for the fish."

Some of the most enthusiastic volunteers I saw on the couple of fish tosses I went on were retired Fish and Wildlife biologists. Some were from other fishing clubs. One group was a gaggle of Navy vets. It's been a real bonding opportunity for fish lovers of all stripes, and maybe even folk who just want to contribute something constructive to the area we live in, and be outdoors in about as pristine areas as you find in a short drive from town. Some of us are getting tired of the battle to do positive things that float all boats, which is why I'm so enthused about the interest from the young people.

I just think there is way too much emphasis on putting them in jail and not doing something to get them out in nature and doing things that give them a sense of pride in accomplishment. I hope this is the start of something more encompassing. I know we have one enthusiastic supporter in the Fish and Wildlife corridors in the person of Chuck Fustish, the volunteer coordinator and a long-time fish biologist. I met Chuck when I first reported king salmon ramming their heads against that wooden irrigation dam under the freeway in downtown Medford. The dam was out in only a couple of days. I was hooked on the fact that I was able to do something positive for the fish.

This kind of thing might become more necessary too, as this drying trend moves out of the Southwest into the Northwest. This was my private conviction in the early '90s after I looked into risks to State of Alaska investments into fisheries infrastructure, including $85 million in breakwaters and harbor work in the Pribilof Islands: maybe some risk from sea level rise. Maybe we need to do ALL we can for the fish just to keep them from dying out, but I have a dream of lots of fish again. Every king salmon is estimated to put $300 into the local economy. And I think Chuck is right in that the Rogue could support a quarter million kings. That would be a $75 million boon to the economy of Southern Oregon. Jobs for the next generation and beyond. Besides having a lot of fun in the process.

As a side note, the CCA is having a banquet on Sat the 29th of June: here's the scoop from the Chapter Pres. Good chance to get involved 'for the fish.'

WHAT: ROGUE VALLEY ANNUAL FUNDRAISER BANQUET

WHEN: SATURDAY JUNE 29, 2013 DOORS OPEN AT TWO THIRTY AND DINNER SERVED AT 4

WHERE: SAME PLACE AS LAST YEAR "THE WILLOWS BED AND BREAKFAST" 3347 OLD STAGE ROAD, CENTRAL POINT, OR.  

THERE WILL BE AUCTION ITEMS,  RAFFLE ITEMS, AND MOST LIKELY SOMETHING YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO LIVE WITHOUT.

TICKETS FOR THIS FINE ADVENTURE ARE AVAILABLE AND WILL BE $40.00 PER PERSON AND $70.00 FOR A COUPLE WHICH INCLUDES YOUR NEW MEMBERSHIP OR RENEWAL TO THE COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION. 

PLUS AS A BONUS YOU CAN HAVE THE BEST PORK BUTT OR BEEF BRISKET AVAILABLE IN JACKSON COUNTY THAT DAY.

A NO HOST BAR WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR ADDED ENJOYMENT.

IF ANYONE HAS A GUIDE SERVICE OR SOME OTHER COMPANY THAT NEEDS A LITTLE ADVERTISEMENT PLEASE LET ME KNOW AS WE CAN USE SOME DONATIONS FOR RAFFLE AND AUCTION ITEMS.

FOR TICKETS PLEASE CALL ME AT 541-973-6215 OR LARRY BUTTS AT 541-973-8763

THANKS STEVE

ROGUE VALLEY CCA