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Don’t sleep on the WPS

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During the administration of Barack Obama, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expanded the rules for agricultural operations to protect workers from pesticide exposure. These rules make up the Worker Protection Standard (WPS). With a new administration, the same rules apply. While not passed by Congress, these rules are very real and the nursery and greenhouse […]

Move forward on immigration

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I’d be willing to bet most folks in our industry don’t have an elaborate tie collection. I myself own three. They rarely come out except for the occasional wedding or funeral, but this past May, I packed all of them up and headed to our nation’s capital to do some politicking on behalf of our […]

Farwest 2018 Keynote Speaker immigration advocate Ali Noorani offers new approaches to the Immigration Debate

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At the 2018 Farwest Show, August 22-24, in Portland, Oregon, Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, will deliver the keynote address on one of the most explosive issues for agriculture and the country — immigration. Noorani’s speech, “Leading the Way: A New Approach to American Immigration,” opens the show on Wednesday, August […]

Finding common ground on immigration

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The immigration system has been broken for more than three decades. Building an immigration reform package in a vitriolic political environment remains a huge challenge. Oregon’s agricultural industry is united in seeking a solution to the perpetual labor crisis. Getting from there will demand that we reconsider what a solution could look like. Washington, D.C. […]

Our mission is to serve

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The Oregon Association of Nurseries wouldn’t have lasted for over eight decades without changing with the times, but the pace of societal change feels like it is accelerating. We must keep up.    All across the country, trade associations have struggled to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) to their membership. They’ve presented a wide […]

New immigration bill would create ‘chaos for farmers’

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In January, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a new bill to reform immigration laws. But according to OAN Executive Director Jeff Stone, the bill as presently constituted would leave agriculture sectors, including nurseries, far short of the workers they need. Among its requirements, the bill would force all employers to implement the […]

OregonSaves is now open for enrollment

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The State of Oregon has opened enrollment for OregonSaves, a new and voluntary retirement savings plan for workers across the state. According to state treasury officials, the program was created in response to research showing that 1 million Oregon workers — more than half of the workforce — lack access to a retirement savings plan […]

Going big on transportation

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As Oregon’s largest agricultural sector, the nursery and greenhouse industry depends on an integrated transportation system so product can get to market. Nearly 75 percent of the nursery stock we grow ends up leaving our borders, with more than half ticketed for markets east of the Mississippi River. As a trade association, we have supported […]

Delivering the goods

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Transporting nearly a billion-dollars’ worth of Oregon-grown plant material takes trucks and trains — and lots of them. Droves of railroad cars, dry and refrigerated (refer) vans are needed to move shipments of plants across the state and to faraway places across the continent. Growers ship their plants to market with the help of transportation […]