PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THIS CAREFULLY AND CONSIDER THOUGHTFULLY THE ISSUES RAISED.  THANK YOU! 

Dear Biodiesel Folks, 

I am strong supporter of renewable energy strategies of every kind. I support the development and use of biofuels, including biodiesel, as one of the many strategies we need to use to supply our current and future energy needs  

I am a Willamette Valley farmer, and also owner of a company that produces vegetable seeds in the Willamette Valley.  There are numerous companies, besides my own, that produce vegetable seeds in the Willamette Valley.  In fact, the Valley is one of the principal seed production areas supplying the world.  My company alone ships over 2 million lbs of vegetable seeds annually around the world and the USA.  To put this into perspective that is enough seed to plant about 1 million acres of vegetables annually.  I am sure that all of you whether urban, suburban, or rural dwellers are aware that we live in a wonderful plant growing paradise.  The reason that we grow vegetable seeds in the Willamette Valley is this; due to the unique confluence of natural attributes of soil, water, climate, latitude and growing season, it is one of only a very few places in the entire world that is perfectly suited to grow a wide range of vegetable seed crops.  Everyone is aware that we produce a great deal of grass seed in the Willamette Valley, about 400,000 acres a year.  What most people do not know is that there are approximately 14,000 acres of “specialty seeds” grown here as well.  The term “specialty seed” was coined so that we could speak generally about the very diverse range of seed crops grown.  This range includes, to name a few : sugar beets, red beets, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, Pak choi, Choi sum, radish, turnip, kale, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, mustard, rutabaga, swede, spinach, Swiss chard, radish, squash, pumpkin, cucumber, bulb onion, bunching onion, leek, buckwheat, flower seeds of many kinds, clover seeds….the list goes on.  When you eat any of these mentioned foods it is an absolute certainty that at least some, if not most, of the seeds that were used to plant those vegetables(whether they came from the grocery store or your local organic farmer) were produced with love and pride right here in your Willamette Valley!  There are very few places in the entire world that can do it the way we do! That is something to be proud of and also to cherish, protect and preserve.  It is not at all melodramatic to state that with out a safe, and stable, supply of seeds we do not have a safe and stable supply of food.  PLEASE THINK ABOUT THAT CAREFULLY AS YOU READ WHAT FOLLOWS. 

Specialty seeds are very high value, high management, low acreage crops.  They require a high level of agronomic management (expertise), regular care, and attention to maintaining the genetic integrity of the crop( think smaller family farms where the grower intensely manages his crops).  Not all farmers have the expertise, desire, or attention to detail required to grow these crops.  They are best adapted to an area with smaller farms and higher production capacity (due to climate, soils and irrigation) such as the Willamette Valley.   

Canola is a high volume, low value, low care crop that is grown on very large areas of land to be economical.  The profit per acre is very, very, low, therefore a farmer has to grow a lot of acres to cover his costs of production (think very large farms/corporate/subsidized farming).  It is adapted to an agronomic growing system that has a large land base, with low cost/value.  This is precisely why Canada is the world’s foremost producer of canola and why North Dakota produces 90% of the canola grown in the United States.  These are areas with a great deal of cheap land, and few other options of crops to grow due to a short growing season and general lack of irrigation water.   

The possible production of canola as a feed stock for biodiesel in the Willamette Valley is an immediate and direct threat to the continued production of specialty seeds in the Willamette Valley.  It is also creates a threat to the livelihood of the fresh market vegetable growers, growers of cannery crops and clover seed growers.  Over time it can become a problem for nursery and berry farmers as well.  Here is why it is a problem: 

For specialty seed growers:

• In order to justify the economics of a processing plant in the Willamette Valley a minimum of 50,000 acres of canola will need to be produced annually here.  That is a very big number if you consider that there are only 250,000 acres of irrigated land in the entire valley.  It is an overwhelming crop trying to be produced in a confined valley.
• Canola is in the Brassica family.  Same family as cabbage, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, pak choi, mustard, cauliflower  etc.  During the time that it is blooming it can, and will, readily cross pollinate with many of the vegetable seed crops now grown in the Willamette Valley.  Insects, mostly honeybees, do the pollination on these crops.  They will commonly travel up to 3 miles carrying pollen. If canola pollen contaminates a seed crop, at any detectable level, the seed crop is rendered useless.
• As you all know canola is a high oil content seed.  What you may not know is that precisely because of that high oil content canola seed will lie dormant in the soil many years and not lose it’s ability to germinate and grow.  Therefore canola will continue to germinate and grow in successive years even when it is not planted as a crop.  It in effect it becomes a persistent weed.  The majority of canola grown in North America is GMO canola that contains herbicide resistant genes.  This means it is resistant to certain herbicides.  In effect it is a genetically engineered super weed.
• Canola, growing on roadsides and ditch banks is now on the top 10 ten list of Noxious weeds in Canada. It is now an established fact that these roadside volunteers are genetically crossing with each other and accumulating or “stacking” herbicide resistant genes. So canola as a roadside weed has been found to contain stacked triple herbicide resistence. Not good.
• GMO traits being crossed into our vegetable seed supply is not what the general public in this country, or any other country, wants.   If canola is grown in the Willamette Valley it is not a matter of if this will happen, simply when.  It will not take long.  Once this happens most customers for Willamette Valley vegetable seed will immediately quit purchasing and the seed industry here will collapse.  It is that simple.  We seed producers here in the Willamette Valley have already been specifically warned by our customers, both foreign and domestic that they are aware of the considerations being made to grow canola in the Willamette Valley and the will not accept any contamination.  Contamination will sooner than later be physically impossible to avoid if canola is allowed to be planted here.
• Canola is a very small round seed, like a miniature ball bearing.  It is blown by the wind, carried by water and birds and leaks easily out of the smallest of cracks in farm trucks.  How will canola be moved from the farms to the crushing plant without being spread up and down every roadside in the valley?  Farm trucks leak, that is a fact.  Not all farmers are meticulous and careful; and when they are trying to produce a low value crop they will cut every corner they can to try to make a profit. Not all neighbors are good neighbors, this is true of farmers as well.  Some farmers will not care if their trucks leak a little seed.

I can go on with a number of other problems that canola presents to specialty seed growers.  The explanations become too complicated to address in this email, but I would welcome the opportunity to talk to each and everyone of you who is interested in discussing this.  

For fresh produce and cannery produce growers.

• Canola as a crop is susceptible to, and an inoculum source of, a number of very significant plant pests and diseases. Several of these plant pathogens are seed borne. These same pests and diseases will affect many of the crops grown by the fresh market and cannery growers in this valley.  If you do an internet search and look at any of the web sites dedicated to the production of canola you will find exactly what I am referring to.  A great deal of the information on how to grow the crop is centered around how to control these pests and diseases.  If you grow canola for oil in the valley you will be creating a very large reservoir of pests and diseases which will trespass into neighbors surrounding crops.  Who will be responsible for this?  Will the canola grower who is trying to produce his crop as cheaply as possible(12 cents/lb) be willing to pay his neighbor for the losses to his high cost, high value fresh market cabbage, cauliflower or broccoli crop?  Will the state or federal government step up and compensate farmers who take losses as part of their incentives to encourage renewable energy?

Clover seed growers.

• Canola when kept under strict control is considered a crop.  But when it gets loose on the roadside, or returns as a volunteer in a subsequent crop it is considered a weed.  In fact by federal seed law it is considered a noxious weed in many states(also other countries around the world). As such it is illegal to sell any other seeds contaminated with canola seed.  The clover seed growers in the Willamette Valley are terrified about the prospect of canola here because it is 1) extremely difficult to control as a weed in a clover crop and 2) virtually impossible to separate the seeds during cleaning.  If a clover grower’s seed crop is contaminated with a noxious weed he can not sell it.  End of story.

 
 
 

I hope this gives you a basic understanding of why a very large number of the farmers in the Willamette Valley and Central Oregon are strongly opposed to the introduction of canola as a crop to provide feedstock for biodiesel.  It is not that they are opposed to biodiesel, I think I can safely say that most farmers support, if not embrace, the idea of using and producing biodiesel.  The problem is simply the choice of crop.  

If you just look at the surface then canola would appear to be the obvious choice for biodiesel feedstock. In many areas of the U.S this is true.  However, what is a good idea in one place may be downright disastrous in another.  I think this is a basic concept we probably all understand, it is called prudent land use planning.  It is good to have homes in which to live and stores in which to shop.  Does that mean it is a good idea to build houses and stores everywhere?  It is good to have lumber to build houses, does that mean it is a good idea to cut down old growth forests that have been here for hundreds of years?  The answer is obvious.  Is the use of canola to produce biodiesel a valid idea? Yes.  Does that mean that we should plant it widely in every area of the state with out regard to it’s impact? No.  Specialty seeds have been produced in the Willamette Valley for well over 100 years should they be displaced by a low value commodity crop?  Should we jeopardize the continued supply of high quality, locally grown, produce simply so we can use more biodiesel when we are forced to truck that same produce in from out of state because we have driven out our local farmers?  Where exactly is the sense in that?  Is that really a wise and efficient use of our resources? 

The Willamette Valley is a unique agricultural environment, the settlers called it the “Eden at the end of the trail” with good reason.  It has good soils, good climate, good water.  It is also now close to large metropolitan areas like Portland.  For all these reasons the value of the land here is quite high, and therefore so is the cost and value of farming products. The introduction of canola to this valley will displace many high value food and seed crops that are currently grown here.  To what end? So that we can produce an additional small fraction of our annual diesel needs for the state? The fact that canola is a good feed stock for biodiesel absolutely does not mean that it should be introduced as a crop in every region of Oregon.  This is called foresight, or prudent land use planning.  It is the Governor’s goal to make Oregon a national leader in renewable energy production and that is laudable. If we want to be true leaders then we should show leadership by understanding the issues and acting wisely, and not encourage a one size fits all solution.  The production of canola in the wheat growing areas of the state, where they have few alternative crops is a great idea, but the Willamette Valley needs to continue to be kept off-limits to canola production in order to protect the high value local food and seed crops that are now grown here. 

There are in fact other crops that can be used as a feedstock for biodiesel that will grow well in the Willamette Valley and not conflict with the current crops grown here.   Sunflowers grow well here and with new high oil, high yield, varieties coming out of various university research programs may soon equal or surpass canola in per acre oil yield.  Flax, which was grown widely in the Willamette Valley until after WWII, is not only a good oilseed but also an extremely high fiber crop.  Within a few years the cellulosic ethanol process will be feasible and then Flax will be not only a source of biodiesel derived from it’s seed, but the entire plant and root can be made into ethanol.  Neither of these crops presents the problems that canola does to the existing crops now grown in this valley.  So there are viable alternative crops that can be grown in the Willamette Valley that can serve as feedstock for biofuels and not destroy the existing cropping systems here.  These are the types of crops that Oregon Department of Agriculture and OSU need to be investigating and promoting as oil seed crops for this valley. 

At present there is modern day gold rush to biofuels.  There is a great deal of money available now, most of it government money, some of it private venture capital.  When large sums of money get thrown around it tends to cloud peoples thinking and there are always “promoters” looking to gather up some of that easy money.  These promoters are looking at the personal benefit to be derived from cashing in on the gold rush, not thinking in terms of the greater social issues.  If you have made it this far in your reading I would ask you try to understand that all technologies have a potential downside, and biodiesel is no different.  By all means continue to be a supporter of biodiesel, but be aware that the current move to promote canola production in the Willamette Valley by certain people in our state government and University system is a serious, misguided mistake. 

There is an Oregon Dept of Agriculture administrative rule that prohibits the production of canola in the Willamete Valley, as well as parts of Central and Eastern Oregon .  This rule was wisely put into place in 2005 by the Oregon Dept of Agriculture, at the request of farmers in these areas.  In order to implement the rule there were many public meetings held throughout the state. The overwhelming majority of farmer input was in favor of implementing these protected areas.  Therefore the Director implemented the rule.  It is for the protection of farmers in these areas where canola production will present problems to other crops.  As you continue to support the development of a biodiesel industry in this state, please also be thoughtful and prudent supporters of your farmers and their farming future  Please do the following things: 

• Vocally and visibly support the continuation of the canola restricted areas in the state
• Make your friends and legislators aware of the situation so that any proposed biofuels legislation put before the current session recognizes these issues also.
• Encourage OSU, and other public entities that receive public funding, to act responsibly by  actively researching crops, other than canola, that will be compatible with, rather than destructive to, our current cropping systems.

 

On behalf of farmers through out Oregon and the Willamette Valley I want to thank you for taking the time to read this. I know it was very long. Hopefully you understand that while biodiesel is an idea whose time has come it is not always the Win-Win for farmers that it is advertised to be.  The choice of crop used for biodiesel feedstock is critically important. For the Willamette Valley canola is a disastrously bad choice being actively promoted by good intentioned but misinformed people.  Please do not be one of those. 
 

Best regards, 

Nick Tichinin