Let’s hope Oregon agriculture survives better than this tractor, seen off Ellingson Road in May 2024.
Thirteen Democrats in the Oregon legislature, most of them from the Portland metro area, want to make the life of Oregon farmers even more difficult than it already is.
Nine members of the House and four from the Senate have signed on to HB 2548. The bill would establish a state agency to regulate the employment of farmworkers. It would be called the Agricultural Workforce Labor Standards Board, to be appointed by the governor.
Here’s a summary of the bill, from the measure itself:
“Establishes the Agricultural Workforce Labor Standards Board. … Directs the board to establish minimum working standards for agricultural workers. Provides remedies for agricultural workers alleging a violation of the minimum standards established by the board. Requires the board to conduct a biennial comprehensive review to determine whether to adopt new minimum standards or revise existing standards. Directs the board to establish uniform training requirements for agricultural workers, supervisory and nonsupervisory employees and establish a process by rule for certifying worker organizations to provide the training to agricultural workers. Prohibits employers from terminating an agricultural worker unless the termination is for cause. Sets forth the conditions that must be satisfied in order to determine the existence of cause. Provides remedies for agricultural workers alleging a retaliation or a violation of the for cause standard. Declares an emergency, effective on passage.”
The House Committee on Labor and Workplace Standards held a public hearing on the bill on March 12. Dozens of people submitted testimony in opposition. Support came from representatives of farmworkers who submitted statements in Spanish, with English translations, with a common theme: Farm work is hard, conditions can be bad, workers get no respect, and the pay is not enough.
The committee plans to vote on the bill on April 7. There’s a proposed 18-page amendment, which leaves the main provisions intact.
It’s not as though Oregon farmers don’t have enough on their plate, even without counting the vagaries of the weather and markets. Farmers never know if they’ll break even from year to year.
And again and again they get hit by the politicians in charge of Oregon’s one-party government. As Rex Watkins of Albany said in his written statement to the committee:
“Add in legislation like the phase-out of our powerful diesel-powered equipment, XXL-sized buffers for any body of water, or the reporting and control of soil amendments and pretty soon it looks like the farmers can rent the land they own from the State of Oregon so long as the farmer only does exactly what the State wants. What is the sense?”
And Dwight Haley of Lebanon wrote:
“Owning and living on a small farm for 44 years in this area, I know we need less legislation, less controls and more liberty to make a living without our being taxed out of business. How about the Oregon legislature removing controls instead of adding more! Many small farmers are barely making it now. How about you telling us how you are going to help us.”
Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, has been trying to rally support in her efforts to prevent what she called this “bureaucratic takeover of Oregon farms.”
Let’s hope there is enough sense among the legislature’s supermajority Democrats to realize how much it would hurt Oregon to pile more regulation and expense on the farmers we have left. (hh)
I suggest these 13 D’s from the great big city of Portland go visit *any* family farm in Oregon and see the lifestyle of these folks they dont seem to be able to understand, and then put on some overalls and get to work. For all the reasons listed in this article, and personally knowing several farmers myself, this is a gross over reach by the government trying to get involved in things where it dont belong. Government is supposed to help folks, not make it impossible for people to make a living. This bill wont help farmers and for sure wont help the farm workers that need help, but not like this!
I agree with you and where does it stop ?
Make them wear your shoes with this bill . Why can’t they help you and this bill won’t either . Your the backbone of the United States.
Good comments. The feds already watch to m labor things pretty close.
Search HB2548 testimony page (https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1/Measures/Testimony/HB2548) for Rep. Boshart Davis’s excellent report outlining programs already in place for ag worker health and safety. That said, the sponsors will argue, with some persuasion that the efforts are fragmented and without central oversight to determine or enforce effectiveness.
Quite likely, based on the turnout of opposition, it is that HB2548 is not a viable solution and this is not the session. A reasonable starting point for Oregon ag worker protection would be to harmonize state oversight with the rules finalized by the Federal Department of Homeland Security(DHS) in the H-2A (temporary ag worker visa) program. Imagine, state and federal immigration policy that is cooperative, seamless, functional. Oh, what a world it would be.
Get government out of farming. Unless you’re the one out there plowing the fields, slopping the hogs, harvesting the crops, you have no sense in how to regulate them. Help them, don’t hinder them with more senseless rules, laws, whatever.
One of the unfortunate realities of living in Oregon is how very Blue the state is.
Oregon: Where stupidity reigns supreme. Act blue, act stupid.
The sad fact is that our political system has turned in to a litmus test for intelligence and if you come up blue…you flunked.
Oregon isn’t really ‘blue’…the vast majority of the counties are actually ‘red’, it’s just the three counties in the Portland Metro area along with the counties for UofO and OSU (and one other). But unfortunately…because there are more people in those counties than in the rest of the state, they rule over the rest of the state and WITHOUT any consideration that the rest of the state is NOT the Portland Metro area or a college town.
I believe Russia implemented this system. It was called The Holodomor.
I just want to explode with explicatives so badly here. Another layer of BS bureaucracy to kill a thriving business enterprise. Can we just have these people exported out of this state and country…p l e a s e…
The problem is these Oregon government politicians keep making sure they stay in office.
I was born here. We spent our best life on the farm.
That’s Oregon. We fish, we hunt, we farm. We keep our neighbors close. We help. We feed others.
If those in power do not understand who and what it means to an citizen of the Oregon farming community, They shouldn’t be in power. .
Farm workers deserve rights too. With how much farmers use government welfare they should be able to treat workers decently at the very least.
Farm workers should have the right to protections in the workplace and decent living conditions if they live on the farm.
Vote out all Democrats and Republicans and replace them with independents who think and act according to the best interest of Oregonians. I bet these 13 are former Californians who think that by making us like them they are doing something good for us instead they will be taking kickbacks from the farmers to allow them to pass this stupidity as all Democrats and Republicans are corrupt and in the pocket of those who support them and by voting them out each election is the only way we will take back Oregon.
If you read the testimony submitted by the Democrat lawmakers, their justification for this bill is “racism”. This law is being pushed by social justice warriors. They are calling all Oregon farm operators racist for employing people! Not only is this disgusting, it is ILLEGAL. In fact, Democrat politicians using race to justify a law is DISCRIMINATION and is a violation of our state constitution. These 12 democrat legislators need to be censured and removed from government for violations of state and federal anti-discrimination law.
Why are they trying to break the farmer! With out them every one would starve to death! Help farmers out not punish them for feeding our Country!
Once again the Oregon legislature/government is only looking at a blue agenda. We have laws and rules already in place why more over sight over the farmers but to limit the food from being grown and sold at reasonable prices. More regulation is going to make it harder for small farms to survive making Corporations the only food grower available. When the farmer stops growing we will have limited supply and prices will be sky high from produce bought from other countries that do not have the regulation. Farmer’s have been farming their own land for years- leave them alone! They have so many things to worry about: Their income is not guaranteed, it is a roll of the weather, water and everything else. You want us to buy from foreign Countries? You are forcing us to do so.
It’s understandable why rural Oregon which is mostly dependent on agriculture is considering the Greater Idaho annexation.
and what does that get them? Abortion ban. Jesus Christ what kind of hellscape do we live in.
They can drive to Salem if they want an abortion.
Funny that you seem to think Jesus Christ would support abortion.
Drive the small farms out of business so they are bought out by the LARGE FARM CORPORATIONS. Once the hard work is done, combining the small “pieces”, the govt. THEN takes over those giant farms and we now have our Communist State as the Left intends. Think about how the govt. can easily step in and control your electrical use now that we have digital meters. You plug in your car at a charging station. Your “chip” is read to see if you are a political undesirable and the Govt. decides how much power you can have. Of course the “OFFICIALS” get a preferred/free rate.
IF we forced our able bodied “native” citizens to work instead of FREELY giving them Govt. assistance such as Food Stamps and other forms of WELFARE, we wouldn’t need foreign workers and the whole issue would be MOOT!
Nasdaq and S&P 500 both down more than 10 percent since new tariffs unveiled
wrong article
So? See where it’s at in 6 months before you claim the sky is falling.
Yes Farmers live on a thin margin, they are poorly supported and small farmers are not making it very well. This is a perennial problem going back centuries. The money many, but not all, make is largely supported by hiring low wage immigrants and these are people who also have rights and deserve to make a living wage.The average citizen will not do this work, so the system is inequitable and has been since before Oregon statehood. The low wage system has existed for too long, and something needs to be done to help both farmers and workers. The bill seems to make changes too fast, and as always appears to be an unfunded mandate, which is common for the Oregon Legislature. It would be better to have a series of conversations, negotiations, to determine what needs to happen to fix both problems.
Trump’s federal government is a far more serious threat to farmers in this country. China bought over 24 billion dollars worth of US farm goods last year, mainly soybeans, corn, beef, chicken, and sorghum. A 34 percent tariff on US farm goods in retaliation to Trump’s tariffs on China will hurt American farmers greatly. Unless Trump bails farmers out they will be hurt badly. Midwestern and Great Plains farmers will deeply regret their support of Trump. Remember too that over 95 percent of wheat from the Pacific Northwest is sent to Asia. Pacific Northwest farmers won’t escape Trump’s madness.
Not to mention the cuts & “reorg” planned for the USDA.
“Farm subsidies are costly to taxpayers and can distort planting decisions, induce overproduction, and inflate land values. The programs discourage farmers from innovating and cutting costs, and they steer resources to households with incomes much higher than average U.S. incomes.
The bipartisan debt-ceiling deal that passed in early 2023 reflected a new congressional focus on spending restraint. Legislators should extend that restraint with cuts to agricultural subsidies.”
People on this site want the Government out of farming altogether. So it’s time to shut down all the Extension Services. Shut down the government price supports and purchases of crops and other foods for school lunch programs. Might as well get rid of the Farm to Market roads that the government built. And certainly get rid of targeted fuel subsidies and all other supports that farmers get, not to mention the Weather Service. And keep the Chinese and other countries from buying their crops.
That’s what they want, .. or is it they just have been raised to hate the government by their parents and the Republican Party.
Support came from the workers, but if the workers are treated fairly then how will the employers survive? If there’s enough sense the supermajority will allow the continued exploitation. Solid, great, love to see it. Wanna know what’d be great for businesses? Surely the inverse of protecting the workers will be great for everyone.