Oregon debates canola restrictions

Willamette Valley specialty seed growers say their industry is threatened by a bill rolling back recently passed legislation regulating canola.

In 2013, among increasing interest in canola as a biofuel, the Oregon Department of Agriculture loosened rules that had excluded the plant from being grown in the Willamette Valley for two decades.

That move brought protests from specialty seed growers, who say industrial canola has the potential to contaminate edible canola and other crops, such as radish and cabbage, and can spread pests and diseases to other vegetable crops.

In response, the 2013 Legislature passed a bill setting a six-year moratorium on commercial canola production in the Willamette Valley.

The bill allocated about $700,000 for Oregon State University to study the issue during the moratorium.

It allowed for a total of 500 acres of test plots of canola to be grown for three years, then monitored for pests and the spread of volunteer canola plants for an additional five years.

House Bill 3382 in the 2015 Legislature would allow Willamette Valley farmers to continue to grow up to 500 acres of canola each year. And it would allow unlimited canola production beginning in 2019.

Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, sponsored the 2013 bill.

"It is inappropriate to come back in the immediate next session and undo the good work that was done," Gelser told a Senate committee Monday. "This just jumps the gun."

The Willamette Valley's specialty seed industry is worth more than $100 million, said Ivan Maluski, policy director for Friends of Family Farmers.

"No new information has been presented to demonstrate that opening the Willamette Valley to commercial canola production is any less risky or problematic than it was in 2013," Maluski said.

The canola farmers who have been growing the test plots said the crop was extremely profitable. They said the industry has the potential to create new jobs in processing.

"Canola's reputation has suffered form a variety of misinformation campaigns designed to prejudice its viability as a desirable crop in Oregon," said Jana Jarvis, of the Willamette Valley Oilseed Producers Association, a trade group formed in 2012. "There is no scientific evidence to support the claim that canola provides unique cross-pollination challenges."

The Senate Environment Committee held a work session on the bill Monday but did not take action on it.

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