Oregon’s Salinas Says Farm Bill 2.0 Is Unacceptable

The House Agriculture Committee started its markup of Farm Bill 2.0 on Tuesday. During her opening remarks, Oregon representative Andrea Salinas raised questions about what she called the partisan drafting process of the bill. She added while Oregonians will benefit from portions of the Farm Bill, for the most part the legislation is “unacceptable”.

“My district is home to a wealth of agricultural diversity, from Christmas trees to hazelnuts and, of course, our world-famous Willamette Valley wine grapes," Salinas said. "I’ve fought to ensure all our producers’ needs, including specialty crop growers’, are prioritized in the Farm Bill. I’m pleased to see the text establishes a specialty crop advisory committee and create a framework for future specialty crop disaster assistance.”

Photo: Glenn Vaagen

This Farm Bill Will Make It More Difficult To Fight Wildfires

Salinas added while there are some positives to the legislation, they don't make up for all the ways this bill is lacking.

“To start, my home state of Oregon is nearly 50% forested," Salinas said. "With that, comes the reality of forest fires, which are increasingly frequent and more devastating. Despite this reality, this Farm Bill would actually turn back the clock on best practice wildfire mitigation strategies by requiring the Forest Service to suppress fires within 24 hours under what is known as the “10 a.m. policy. This practice is so outdated that our own government Forest Service website calls the 10 a.m. policy a ‘strategy of the past that unfortunately helped create the wildfire crisis of today’.”

Photo: Inciweb

Salinas added rather than bolstering the wildland firefighter workforce, this Farm Bill will make the job of firefighters more difficult through outdated and rejected fire science policy.