The Oregonian | AMY MARTINEZ STARKE | October 16, 2001 The fruit is lush and plentiful, but global market forces threaten to shut down the state's growers Oregon's pear harvest is in, and it promises to be a plump, juicy crop. It started with the shapely Bartletts (both green and crimson), followed by the russet-brown Bosc and then the sweet and aromatic Comice. Finally, the mellow Anjous. As usual, they're plentiful. Oregon grows more than 200 pears for every man, woman and child in the state -- 2-1/2 pears for everyone in this country. In the Hood River and Rogue valleys, the state's main growing regions, orchardists reach beyond this domestic market and ship their pears around the world. But growers of Oregon's No. 1 tree fruit crop are in trouble. In today's global economy, a pear grown in Chile and shipped 6,334 miles to Oregon can still be much cheaper than an American variety. "Even if it's grown in our own back yard," says Kevin Moffitt of Pear Bureau Northwest, a marketing organization. Even though there's a fruit orchard only miles away. But that orchard may be facing extinction, cut down or the land put up for sale. "It's the worse times I've seen, and I'm 52," says grower Lew Merz of Parkdale. Among Oregon's major crops, pears have taken the biggest hit in the past year. Vegetable and wheat growers and dairy farmers are also struggling. Prices to pear growers dropped more than 30 percent last year, but growers are hoping things will turn around this year. They would like to break even. It may be too late. Within five years, many growers probably will be gone. "This valley would be paved over," says Mike McCarthy, pear grower and a longtime member of 1000 Friends of Oregon, a land-use watchdog. Many things are working against Oregon growers: foreign competition; increasing production costs; worldwide market forces such as mergers among retailers that have concentrated buying power; and a strong dollar that drives up the price of U.S.-grown products. Oregon and Washington pear growers get no direct subsidies from the government. Before wind surfing, Hood River was famous for its pears. But some area growers say it's possible that one day Hood River supermarkets will carry only imported fruit -- from China, Chile and Argentina -- that some admit is now as good as local fruit. Others say the problem is not competition and overproduction but underconsumption. Per-capita consumption is flat: Americans eat only about 7 pounds of pears a year, half fresh and half canned. Kevin Moffitt, the new Pear Bureau Northwest president, who promotes 1,600 growers of fresh pears in Oregon and Washington, has one answer to the pear glut: Get people to eat more pears. He says only 20 percent of consumers ever buy pears. Growers, on the other hand, say that some of the bureau's previous marketing campaigns have been ineffective, but Moffitt's team plans to change that. Last February, when grocers ran TV commercials praising Chilean fruit during the prime domestic fruit-selling season, fed-up pear orchardists formed a tractor coalition, driving through Hood River and Salem, and Wenatchee, Yakima and Seattle in Washington to spark consumer awareness. Among the messages they hoped to convey: * America is dependent on foreign food. That may be a critical message that Americans are finally ready to hear. One pear bureau survey of 1,200 shoppers nationwide shows that "price and quality being equal," 96 percent of consumers would prefer a U.S.-grown pear. "I think we need to see to it that we don't depend on the rest of the world for food as we do for oil," says Marcus Simantel, Oregon Agribusiness Council president from 1997 to '99. Hood River pear grower Camille Hukari agrees: "We're right behind (oil) in food and that scares me even more." Many growers say that American growers have a hard time getting their pears into other countries. American markets are open to imports, yet practically every country that we export to has trade barriers. "Chile exports to this country, yet we cannot export to Chile because of the tariffs," Hukari says. "Turnabout is fair play. We're trying to get a level playing field." * Oregon growers will go under, and open space may be lost. When growers suffer, so does the community. A third of the wages and 3,000 jobs in Hood River County come from the tree fruit industry, according to Oregon State University economists. Some growers are losing their properties or facing big losses. As a result, there's pressure to change the state's protective land-use laws -- and farmland could be developed into residential lots as another source of income for growers. "The landscape will change, and it will change forever," McCarthy says. "Everyone will buy the cheapest fruit, and that's human nature," says grower Sydney Blaine of Parkdale. "But the situation is grave." "If you cut down the pear trees in the Hood River Valley, what are you going to replace them with?" asks grower Pat Kennedy of Odell. "The Hood River Valley is a very special place, and it's dominated by fruit production; and land-use protections have enabled it to stay the way it is," says Scott Exo of the Food Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable agriculture. "There's a lot of pressure for trophy homes and view lots. They've struck a very nice working balance between the tourism industry and the working landscape . . . but we're at the tipping point. We could lose that landscape very fast. That would be a tragedy. The best use of that land is fruit production, because of its soil, its climate." Another possibility is that small farms will have to sell out to large farms. * Consumers face more restricted options. There are fewer major corporate produce buyers left in the marketplace. Many farmers, ranchers and antitrust experts argue that a few agribusiness and food corporations have undue economic and political power. They say that corporate control of the food system is squeezing both farmers and consumers, and leads to excessive corporate profits. Others argue that consolidation in agribusiness is an inevitable result of technological and economic progress. They say it results in more efficient production and distribution of food and commodities. But, local produce suffers: Consumers cannot count on finding Oregon-grown pears, or tomatoes, grapes, lettuce, strawberries, or apples -- even when those crops are in season locally. Consumer choice is driving these changes, says the American Farm Bureau. "We think we have a lot of choices," says Janet Hammer, instructor and doctoral student of regional food systems at Portland State University. "But consolidation has been occurring at a dizzying pace." "The quality, the amounts and types of food will be determined by a handful of corporate giants and I just do not see that as being healthy," Simantel adds. Major grocery chains say they are doing their part. "We do a lot of business locally," says Rob Boley, Fred Meyer spokesman. "We bought more than $45 million in Oregon and Washington fresh produce and value-added products in FY (fiscal year) 2000. Our longtime policy is to support local growers wherever practical." Bridget Flanagan, Safeway spokeswoman, says Safeway has a "long-term commitment to Oregon agriculture" and is one of the largest purchasers of Oregon agriculture. It purchases more than $3 million worth of Hood River pears every year. Food safety is at risk. Some countries don't have the same environmental or pesticide restrictions that we have here, and consumers don't have the same guarantees of food safety, growers say. "There are huge, huge differences in how the food is grown, say, between U.S. and China," says Hukari. "We have many laws governing food safety, farm chemicals, working conditions, environmental regulations that affect air and water quality, and our competitors don't have the same level of regulation." * Growers get only a small fraction of the price consumers pay, while their costs are increasing. Washington state grower Richard Thomason says, "The price the consumer pays is not reflected in what the grower gets or the producer sells for." Grower McCarthy says if a consumer pays $1.29 to $1.49 a pound for pears, "We're getting 8 or 9 cents of that. We need 12 cents or 13 cents (to make cost)." Meanwhile, labor and environmental-regulation costs have increased -- tripled in the last 15 years, growers say. Oregon has one of the highest minimum wages in the country and can't compete with lower-price imports from China and South Africa. The problem with pears An old problem with winter pears, such as the Anjou, is that they are different from other fruit: They don't ripen well on the tree. They have to be harvested mature but not ripe, and the consumer has to ripen them at home. The "biggest stumbling block," says Moffitt, is getting consumers "to know how to tell when the fruit is ripe. They don't like to bite into a brick-hard pear." He wants to get grocery stores to set them out a little riper and to offer consumers taste tests of different varieties, as well as selling sliced fresh pears. "Maybe Anjou or winter pears are just too difficult," Parkdale grower Rick Blaine concedes. "They take quite a bit of knowledge to ripen them. But who has a week to figure it all out? We need to educate the public or change their habits." His daughter, grower Heather Blaine McCurdy, says, "This is a quick fast-food society, and pears have to be ripened. Put a beautiful bowl in your dining room to ripen your pears. It's very Martha Stewart." Not a simple issue Not everybody sees the problems that Hood River growers face as a crisis. "It's not a win-lose situation," says Jim Cornelius, Oregon State University agricultural economist. "With these worldwide forces at work, it is kind of water seeking its own level. . . . Pears may have to downsize by some percentage. Maybe we will yield 10 percent (of the growers), maybe from 1 to 75 percent, but the idea that the U.S. would stop producing tree fruit or vegetables is far-fetched. "We can't control this global situation even with domestic policies to restrict imports," he adds. "Free trade does (good things) but does create equity issues . . . there are definitely losers." He admits that's "cold comfort to hear those arguments." Steven Blank, a California agricultural economist and author of "The End of Agriculture in the American Portfolio," seconds those arguments. "When it's you, the pear grower, and the market is telling you you're not needed, it's very traumatic," he says. He says recent events have not changed his point that agriculture is destined to move out of the United States. "Americans rarely think much about their food, as long as it's there and it tastes good," he says. "They're surprised and a bit wary when they find out it's coming from a foreign source, but then they buy it anyway. A lot of us are now thinking 'Buy American' for many reasons, but I haven't noticed that we've given up drinking coffee." Solutions In the meantime, the state of Oregon and the pear bureau are looking for ways to increase domestic consumption. One way is value-added processing -- taking raw produce and turning it into processed goods, creating a higher-value product. Portland's Food Innovation Center, a joint venture between OSU and the Oregon Department of Agriculture, is dreaming up new uses for pears. Sarah Masoni -- who used to develop Gardenburgers -- is creating products and recipes that use pears. Among them are a pear cranberry sauce (see accompanying recipe). The Food Innovation Center is also working with Fizzyfruit North American Inc. to add carbon dioxide to fresh pears for a novelty food --carbonated fruit with an improved flavor. Also, the pear bureau is starting a nationwide public relations campaign this fall. It features cookbook author Pat Baird, who will promote pears in November for an ingredient in stuffing and pear topiary Thanksgiving centerpieces. Red and green pears at Christmastime as a tabletop display. Pears for January diets. Red pears at Valentine's Day. Pears with a cheese course. Pears on hot or cold cereal. Meanwhile, OSU's Hood River agricultural experimental station will be selling "Beaver Pears" at nine Thriftway stores in the Portland area starting in October and going through the end of the year. It will sell bags of four pre-ripened Northwest pears -- two Anjous and two Bartletts -- as well as bulk Northwest pears. Safeway and the Agri-Business Council of Oregon have formed a partnership to promote Oregon agriculture. Safeway support includes advertising and media support valued at more than $375,000. * Hood River has started a growers cooperative to try to keep prices profitable. Hukari says the majority of growers are participating. * Some pear growers are profitably selling farm-direct (at farmers markets or through farm stands or U-pick operations) so they don't need to depend on the big chains. Pear grower Lew Merz suggests that schools take advantage of growers for a novel fund-raising idea: selling boxes of fruit. He says Estacada High School sold 800 boxes of pears and raised $3,200. He sold the pears to the school for $ 4 a box, and the school sold them for $8. * Growers hope to tell their story. "In agriculture, we have been terrible at communicating with our metro neighbors," Hukari says. "The disconnect between farmer and consumer is huge. We were busy doing our horticultural stuff." What consumers can do The situation is global. Oregon produces and exports a lot of pears, and it's unrealistic to expect the state's growers to sell all 220,000 tons of its pears at farmers markets. But every little bit helps. Here's what you can do: * Buy American-grown fruits and vegetables. Ask the produce manager, "Where is this from?" (Grocery retailers would have to label fresh fruits and vegetables by country of origin under a provision attached to the 10-year, $170 billion farm bill passed Oct. 5 by the U.S. House. The labeling amendment was co-sponsored by Reps. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., and Mary Bono, R-Calif.) * When you vote on land-use issues, keep in mind your local producer/farmer/rancher community. * Eat seasonally. * Eat more fruit. * Use more pears in recipes; use pears to replace other fruits. * Buy from farmers markets, roadside stands, CSA farms (community supported agriculture) or directly from the farmer. Says grower Rick Blaine, "I don't think there are any answers. Retail is changing fast. The orchard business is changing fast. We haven't been able to adjust." Camille Hukari adds: "If I can't make cost of production, I'm going to go out of business. When you buy food in the store, you need to think about that. If not, then buy that apple from China or pear from Chile, because we'll be gone." Janet Hammer of PSU says: "Here's a very powerful thing we can do on a daily basis: With every bite, we are impacting our local economy, the environment and social justice issues. Every time we chew and swallow, we can shape the world we live in. The food you eat is the landscape that we create." Amy Martinez Starke can be reached at 503-221-8534 or by e-mail at amystarke@news.oregonian.com.The Oregonian:
