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Director Coba looks ahead to Oregon agriculture 2012
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1/4/2012
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Article Content
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Director Katy Coba begins her 10th year at ODA
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Food safety & the environment among key issues this year
Oregon agriculture's role in the state's slow economic recovery may be top of mind with the director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture in 2012. But Katy Coba believes food safety and environmental issues will also continue to be important as the new year unfolds.
Director Coba's comments are part of an interview previewing the year 2012. Last week, in part one of the interview, Coba discussed the challenges and opportunities for agricultural production and marketing. In part two, she focuses on other key issues surrounding agriculture:
One of the Oregon Department of Agriculture's missions is to ensure food safety, which is important to producers and processors as well as consumers. What do you see happening in 2012 regarding food safety?
"The big question mark is the federal Food Safety Modernization Act. There are just so many questions surrounding its implementation. FDA is slowly developing rules and guidance that they will be getting out for comment. It's going to be absolutely critical that the industry pays attention to those proposed rules and comments on them so we can try to structure them in the best way to be successful. That's issue number one. Issue number two is the actual implementation. I don't see any way that FDA is going to be adequately funded and staffed to implement the new Food Safety Modernization Act as it is envisioned. That's going to pose a real challenge because of such high expectations around the act."
"Food borne illnesses seem to be in the news all the time. Just a few months ago, we had the very tragic outbreak involving cantaloupe from Colorado. So food safety is going to continue to be a huge topic for us at ODA, for the industry, and how we move forward to hopefully and successfully implement the Food Safety Modernization Act."
What do you see as top environmental issues for Oregon agriculture in 2012?
"If there is one environmental issue I would touch on, it would be water. For ODA, specifically, the key issue is water quality. During the past year, a new toxics standard was adopted for human health centered around fish consumption in Oregon, which raised a lot of concern with farmers and ranchers around the state. Frankly, I see a recommitment by farmers and ranchers to ODA's ag water quality program. There is a lot of interest in seeing that the program succeeds. Producers want to show that it is working. We are working hard to document and tell that story. I think that's going to be a real focus for us in the new year, and being able to show successes to those outside of the agriculture industry as well. There's just a lot of interest in water quality right now. Everybody wants to make sure that everyone is doing their fair share. Agriculture is determined to show it is carrying its weight."
There will be a huge need for increased food production to meet future population growth. You've said in the past that research holds the key to making that possible. Do you see advances in research and development in 2012?
"I think there is going to have to be advances in research and development. I'm a little concerned about how that's will be funded. We're seeing cuts certainly at the state level. Oregon State University is scrambling to keep support at the level it should be at for their experiment stations and extension service. The federal budget is no better. I'm concerned a lot of critical research funded with federal money isn't going to be there in the next few years. Will the private sector be able to pick up the cost of that research? In some cases, it will. In other cases, I think it will struggle. At the same time, we can't feed a projected world population by the year 2040 with our current technology and our current ability to produce food. The pressure is on, we've just got to keep paying attention to that issue, knowing that the need for research and development is only going to intensify."
What do you see happening with the Farm Bill this year?
"I think the Farm Bill is going to be very contentious. We saw a sneak preview of that with the so-called Super Committee work and the concerns that the agreement reached around Farm Bill reductions was kept secret. No one knew what those reductions were and it appeared there was an effort to push them through in a hurried fashion through the Super Committee. Even though that fell apart, there are many saying what was proposed is going to be the starting point for this year's Farm Bill negotiations. We already know there are people on all sides of the issue that are unhappy with one or more provisions. It's going to be a very difficult political negotiation, and it's an election year. Can it really be done this year? We may find come September that they are just going to have to extend the current Farm Bill and try to deal with it after the election. I think it's going to be very difficult to get a Farm Bill completed in 2012."
How is the Oregon Department of Agriculture going to do its job this year?
"Again, we face a budget shortfall. We don't know to what extent that shortfall will be. So we will go into the February session, like every other agency, looking at potential cuts. We've tried to manage to what we expect that cut level will be. We're really trying hard to move forward with programs with a budget approved for the 11-13 biennium, even though we are already facing cuts 4 to 5 months into that biennium. A lot depends on what happens in the February session and how legislators choose to balance the state budget. It also depends on Oregon's economy and if we can hold steady or if we're looking at additional downturns in revenue. I hope we can hold steady. If we see additional reductions, ODA will be cutting programs. I've been straightforward about this. There are no longer places where we can get enough efficiencies without impacting programs."
"Having said that, customers of the Oregon Department of Agriculture can still expect to get the same level of excellent service they've had in the past. Despite the challenges faced by our employees, we will continue to pride ourselves in customer service in 2012."
Full Katy Coba interview
For more information, contact Bruce Pokarney at (503) 986-4559.
Story of the Week pdf version
http://oregon.gov/ODA/docs/pdf/news/120104katy.pdf
Audio Story of the Week
http://oregon.gov/ODA/news/120104katy_audio.shtml
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