Category: Environment

Daylight Savings Time or Standard Time???

Now if you thought about the Oregon legislature you might not immediately think about the debate on Daylight Savings time versus Standard Time.  But currently that is a discussion being held in Salem.  And you also might not think it’s a “hot topic” but it is proving that people have some very strong opinions about what the time on the clock reads when the sun comes up.  And I also fall under that category as someone who does care one way or the other.

  1. It’s not because “I feel tired” two days a year (let’s be honest I have three kids, I am tired all the time)
  2. It’s not just because I like my late summer evenings (I’m usually in a field until dark anyway)
  3. It’s not because I personally am a farmer (because as many of you will say in your heads while I’m writing this…”You’re a farmer don’t you just work when it’s light no matter what the time says?!”)

The bills currently moving through the House and the Senate address changing Oregon’s time to year round Daylight Savings time.  Which is the time that we are currently on as we “sprung forward” into spring.  Currently we are only on Standard Time about four months out of the year, November through mid-March.  So why the heck would I be against this?  For two reasons.

  1. My kids safety to school in the dark on a bus for 30 minutes.
  2. Our employees and their work out in the fields during those months.

So reason number one is a pretty personal one.  Our son Hoot will be in all day kindergarten next year and will jump on the bus at the farm around 7:15 and arrive at school at 7:45am.  During those four months, that entire trip will be in pitch blackness.  Not to mention some of the days the view out the school window would also be dark until almost an hour into the actual school day.  And I get that even if we didn’t change he would have days where it wasn’t super bright and sunny while he rode into town for school, but it would be for way less days than if we changed to Daylight Savings through those winter months.

And reason number two…I’m an employer.  So as the “farmer” yes my husband and I work often without looking at the clock.  But when it comes to the folks who work for us, that’s a different story.  Our employees are asked to work 7 days a week often 14-16 hours days all summer.  And you know what that does for family time in the summer?  It rarely exists.  So these winter months are their time to have a set schedule at work.  To get off at a reasonable hour, often at the same time as their families so they can have a good quality of life at home.  This is important to us.  But if we change to DST year round, our employees won’t have the time outside in the orchards pruning.  This time will be cut short by an hour, or I will have to ask them to work until 6pm all winter, cutting into that family time.  If I don’t have them work until 6pm we will lose about 2-3 weeks of outside time per employee.  When it comes to pruning, we are often in the orchards until nuts are forming on the branches, so basically until the time comes when it will do more harm than good to get the job done.  I have real concerns over how much time we loose doing our jobs outside during the winter.

And this goes beyond pruning.  We also rogue out weeds, spot spray, mouse bait by hand in the fields, all during these winter months.

So there you go, that is why some of us farmers are against this change.  And believe me if Washington and California decide to change, that puts us sort of (or literally) in the middle of a time zone, and I understand that we would more than likely be forced to follow suit.  But I also think that we need to be conscience of the changes that this will bring to those of us who do work outside year round. There aren’t many of us, but what we bring to this state, not to mention the dinner table, might make some stop to think about it.

I know there are strong feelings on this topic, stronger than I ever would have thought. But feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below!

More on Cap & Trade

Yesterday I posted my testimony regarding Cap & Trade and House Bill 2020.  I drove away that evening feeling like I had missed a lot.  It’s hard to cover how something is going to effect your operation so thoroughly.  I probably wouldn’t have even gotten it all out if I had an hour!  But I wanted to get on here to include just a few things that I wish I would have included or explained better.  If something resonates with you, even just one small issue, your voice need to be heard.

Opportunities to testify are listed at he end of this blog.
Here are just a few things that I wish I would have included down at the Capitol...

  • How much this will cost me just as a person living in Oregon, never mind a business owner. – This is real folks. I said in my testimony that it would cost our business an estimated $5500 in additional fuel costs in year one, only to be increasing from there.  But what about my own personal vehicle.  What about those who use Natural gas to heat their homes?  That increase looks like it will be in the 53% range for home owners?  53%!!!  That is ridiculous!  Plus we just increased the price per gallon of fuel by 10 cents, now they want to add another 16 cents on top of that.  Making us the third highest fuel paying state.
  • Use of technology already –Farmers today are very innovative. We take so many things into account when we are working the land and running our business.  There are things that can work for us and there are things that don’t work as well.  But either way, all the innovations that we have put into place, with this new legislation would be completely disregarded.  These could not be a part of the incentive program that is supposed to help farmers so much.  A great example of this is our incredibly high investment in irrigation systems.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars were put into getting the right amount of water on the crop in the most efficient way possible for our cropping systems.  Yet in this bill, we would get zero credit for that.  Now if we wanted to put in hundreds of thousands of more dollars into programs, the state doesn’t want to work within parameters that have already been set up and working for farmers.  They want new administrative rules, —ones we haven’t been involved with—and there are concerns that administrative barriers will be so high that farmers won’t be able or interested in the new “sequestration” programs. That new tractor that we bought just a few years ago with new and improved better emissions.  Doesn’t count.  The carbon that we sequester over the thousands of acres of farmland.  Doesn’t count.  Nothing that we do today will count.  All the money that we have put into our business because it was the right thing for the environment, to do more with less.  Because we did it before this plan came to be, it’s as though it never happened at all in the eyes of the state.
  • More about the sequestration of carbon – Farmers create a vast amount of oxygen for this state. A 50×50 ft lawn creates enough oxygen for a four person family.  Now take a drive down I-5 and look around.  Let that all sink in.  Folks what we are doing with our land here in Oregon as farmers, as we protect it and continue to make the soil healthier and more viable, we are also not just producing food to feed your family, we are also creating oxygen to protect all our livelihoods.  Oxygen is produced by taking carbon from the air by plants and making Oxygen.
    Long term implications – This bill has the (very scary ability if not done right) to challenge how we farm viably in this state. See point 3 above, because I’m here to tell you in the midst of a housing crisis, in the midst of a population boom, I have very little doubt in my mind that if we go under due to regulations our of our control.  There will be a lot of land up for sale, not to the farmer down the road, maybe to the investment bankers from California, (but that’s a whole other issue) it will be to make solar farms.  It will be to concrete, metal, and unless it’s covered in plants, it will have a negative impact on our environment that I don’t think any legislation could fix in any small way.
    I don’t trust that we won’t get just ANYTHING passed – I do not trust our state to be on the forefront of such a large undertaking when only ONE other state has implemented this program. The science needs to be backed up to this, there needs to continue to be more thought put into this bill.  There needs to not be the mentality that “we just have to get SOMETHING passed” because that will in the end hurt us more than help us.  I also am so frustrated that they took out many of the “helpful” pieces that were agreed upon to be in there to help farmers.  When working in conjunction with folks to try to find a workable solution, then those solutions are just disregarded, it leave me little hope that we won’t be raked over the coals or forgotten in this discussion.

It’s not just a conversation about who or what we have to “save”.  It’s a conversation about who we are hurting and balancing that against true information about what this will really do in the long term, or even in the short term to change the amount of pollution that we have.  I hope I’m wrong on a lot of this but I just don’t think that I am.

Representative Shelly Boshart Davis said it perfectly, “As written, HB 2020 will change Oregon’s economy while have a minuscule and insignificant effect on climate change and carbon emissions.  I am not willing to risk good-paying family wage- Oregon jobs in *hopes* that other states will follow suit.  Let’s be proud of what Oregon has done and will continue to do to Keep Oregon Green.”

So I urge you….please please call your legislators, write an email, go out and testify at one of the hearings across the state.  This is a situation where your voice matters, careful thought matters, and just pushing something through just can’t be tolerated.

Here is an excellent article written by another farmer Marie Bowers.

https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20190221/bowers-cap-and-trade-could-make-farming-unviable

Here is where you can email your comments:

jccr.exhibits@oregonlegislature.gov

Here is a schedule of the remaining hearings:
Springfield 2/22 12-3pm
Medford 2/23
The Dalles 3/1

Cap & Trade Testimony

Today I wanted to discuss Cap & Trade and the bill that is currently in the Oregon Legislature in Oregon, House Bill 2020.  While it’s an ongoing conversation in my world, it may not be on everyone’s radar.  Two weeks ago I was asked to come and speak to the Joint Committee on Carbon Reduction at the Capitol regarding this issue and how it would hurt farmers here in Oregon. 

My son Hoot got to come watch me testify, which was “really awesome mom!”

It’s a complex issue and I only had 3 minutes to speak to the problems that need to be fixed for us, but I wanted to share my testimony.  The video below is the Natural Resource panel from Feburary 11th.  It begins with Chris Edwards, lobbyist for OFIC, my testimony, followed by another farmer’s.  Then follows up with lots of questions.

https://oregon.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=25756&starttime=849&stoptime=2578&autostart=0&embed=1

Tomorrow I will be posting a few things that I wish I had time to include in my testimony and in my answers.

There is still time to comment and have your voice heard on this bill!!  Comments are being taken until March 2nd.  I will post more information on how you can comment tomorrow in my blog.  Below though is my official testimony, if you’re not in the video watching mood….

Brenda Frketich, Oregon Farm Bureau
February 11, 2019

Chair Dembrow, Chair Power, Vice-Chairs Bentz and Brock Smith and members of the committee,

My name is Brenda Frketich.  I am third generation farmer from St. Paul.   My husband and I farm 1000 acres of filberts, grass seed, wheat, clover, vegetables and vegetables seeds.

I am here as a farmer and on behalf of Oregon Farm Bureau in opposition of HB 2020 as currently drafted.  

The first issue is that as farmers and ranchers, we must absorb the full impact of cost increases from fuel and natural gas under HB 2020. 

It’s difficult to assign the “cost” of cap-and-trade to the average family farm.  However Farm Bureau surveyed their members to get an idea of the indirect costs, those responses are summarized on OLIS…AND they are significant. 

My family farm would likely pay more than a $5500 increase in the price of fuel alone.  Which is a 15% increase in our total fuel bill for our farm, in just the first year!  I know other farmers would experience similar increases in fuel prices. Considering farms are natural sequesters of carbon already, this bill neglects to even touch the benefits that we already provide to the environment, only punishing us instead.

Those who use natural gas to operate peppermint distilleries, greenhouses, hop and hazelnut driers could see a 13% increase in their natural gas rates in 2021.  And what about 2035 and beyond? 

In December, the Carbon Policy Office presented an option to exempt ag fuels (or dyed diesel) from the cap to mitigate some of these increases.  This was a first step in helping to alleviate some of the price impacts but now it is NOT included in this bill.

Our family farm operates on slim margins and as price takers.  We can’t just pass on the increased costs of production to consumers.  So we are saddled with the full costs of cap-and-trade—making us less competitive with growers across the nation and world.  Without safeguards to keep farmers from absorbing these costs, it will be incredibly difficult to keep families farming in Oregon. 

This also makes it much less likely that the farmland stays in production, and much more likely that farms are parceled and sold to development that won’t have the environmental benefits associated with keeping it in farming. 

Our second issue is with how the incentive and offset programs are structured in the bill.

As written, I think you’ll see many farmers that could have participated in the offset or incentive programs will now avoid them.  We’ve talked to California Farm Bureau, and offsets don’t really work in dynamic agricultural landscapes, especially with how diverse Oregon agriculture is.

Oregon Farm Bureau worked for months with state and federal agencies to craft workable incentive programs with sideboards spelled out in statute.  Section 31 doesn’t reflect that work. I’ve participated in some of the federal conservation programs that offered incentives for soil health programs and irrigation water conservation, but I know that farmers are concerned that the incentives in HB 2020 won’t be accessible or affordable.  California Farm Bureau said that administrative requirements kept farmers from even participating.  My fear is we will see the same thing here in Oregon.

It’s important that any voluntary investments are made available to all of agriculture and don’t penalize early adopters.  OSU should also be a partner in this effort.

The bill doesn’t include any of the policy fixes that we worked on with the Governor’s Carbon Policy Office in 2018 and will result in unnecessary costs for family farms.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

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