Farm & Land Viability

With the consolidation and industrialization of agriculture, workforce availability compromised, high prices for land and ever increasing operating costs, the future of family-scale agriculture in Oregon is jeopardized.  Unrestricted growth and development continues to eliminate valuable land resources devoted to cultivation.  These dangerous components threaten to monopolize and outsource our food supply while crippling rural economies.

The Current Situation

Vertical integration and thin profit margins have forced farmers to get big or get out:

• Smaller producers cannot compete in the consolidated marketplace
• Family farms and ranches have been forced to incorporate into larger, consolidated enterprises
• The high cost of entry, plus markets diminished by regulations and absence of financial services, have made entry into family- scale agriculture very difficult

Farms need a larger workforce:

• Lack of farm education programs leads to an absence of interested young workers
• Difficult to move from internship to employer-employee relationship

Farmers suffer from low economic self-esteem:

• Cost of day to day operations exceeds price received for product
• Federal subsidies and factory food production have manipulated the true cost of food, minimizing the farm/ranch take of the food dollar
• Farmers continue to earn a wage that is not representative of the role they play in food security and public health
• Land prices make it difficult to carry a mortgage and run a farm business
• Traditional lending institutions no longer service non-commodity growers and operators
• Affordable health insurance is not accessible for many farm/ranch families
• Growing to the next level is challenging for producers with licensing fees, employment laws, food safety rules and regulations, and a lack of infrastructure to support them

Farmers and Ranchers desire to keep land in agricultural production, out of corporate control and free from development pressures that drive up the cost of farmland

Farms trying to serve their local and organic customers have limited or no access to local or organic grains:

• Quality grains often must come from another region or country, circumventing local agricultural economies and de-stabilizing supply, despite products being demanded at an ever increasing rate

Need for oversight on genetically modified organisms:

• Cross-pollination creates potential for non-modified seed contamination, threatening producers with litigation based on proprietary genetics
• Monopolized seed sources threaten food security through consolidation of genetics and manipulation of seed viability
• GMO crops threaten diversity in agriculture, leaving industry open to potentially large scale damage from pests, diseases, and drought
• Transparency in labeling and use of GMO technology is not required

Priority Action Items

1.  Increased access to credit and funding:

• Make it easier for under-served farming populations to get state grants/loans for agricultural business start-up, expansion, and improvements
• Increase access to credit while transitioning farm business from commodity production to food production and/or direct marketing or alternative production method
• Establish a state-supported revolving loan fund for land purchase, farm/ranch infrastructure development and marketing needs

2.  Protect the continuity of viable and existing farmland:

• Push practical conservation easements that are designed to protect farmland
• Expand legal residence options for farmers and farm-workers on existing farmland
• Examine the functionality of the 80/80 rule for perpetuating farmland
• Expand the ability to create Rural Reserves to the rest of Oregon

3.  Protect land and crops:

• GMO-isolation or restriction that ensures the viability of seed and organic crops
• Enact incentives to grow non-GMO crops
• Labeling for informed decision-making, including true origin of product
• Fund and support the Pesticide Use Reporting System (PURS)

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