SALEM — A new task force aimed at fleshing out the controversies over genetically modified organisms in Oregon includes members with strongly contrasting points of view.

The goal will not be to develop policy recommendations for the state’s legislature, said Richard Whitman, natural resources policy director for Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber.

“It’s not a normal task force we set up to develop a consensus,” he said during its first meeting in Portland on April 10.

Because genetic engineering is fraught with deep philosophical divisions, the purpose of the task force is to frame the issue and inform lawmakers, Whitman said.

The forum will allow members to air different perspectives “without the final struggle of trying to convince everybody in the room to go in the same direction,” he said.

The 13 members of the task force, appointed by Kitzhaber, include advocates for and against genetically engineering, as well as non-profit groups, business interests, university professors and a state government official.

The governor promised to convene the task force last year, after the state legislature approved a bill to preempt local governments from regulating GMOs.

The bill was part of a broader legislative packaged of pension and school reforms backed by Kitzhaber.

The task force is expected to draft a report to advise lawmakers about potential conflicts between GMOs and conventional and organic crops.

The first meeting was co-convened by Dan Arp, dean of OSU’s School of Agriculture, and Jennifer Allen, director of Portland State University’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions.

It’s rare to have people on different sides of the issue in the same room together, said Steve Strauss, an Oregon State University professor who studies biotechnology in forestry.

However, it remains to be seen how much they can illuminate the GMO controversy, given the large amount of attention the topic has received, he said.

“I’m concerned we may not develop new things that are tangible,” Strauss said. “I’m worried whether we’ll be able to do something consequential. I hope so.”

Frank Morton, who farms near Philomath, Ore., said he wants the task force to better define some of the language that gets thrown around in the debate.

A leading example is how cross-pollination is characterized. Organic growers view it as “contamination” while GMO proponents call it “adventitious presence,” Morton said.

“My question for people in this room is, when does one turn into the other?” he said.

The Northwest Food Processors Association wants to ensure the task force doesn’t lose sight of broader issues beyond Oregon’s borders, said Connie Kirby, vice president of scientific and technical affairs for the group.

Labeling of foods with GMO ingredients would force companies to use different packages than in other states, for example, she said.

“We don’t want to constrain interstate commerce or intrastate commerce as well ,” Kirby said.

Members of the task force are:

Barry Bushue — A farmer from Boring, Ore., and president of the Oregon Farm Bureau.

Katy Coba — Director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Connie Kirby — Vice president of scientific and technical affairs at the Northwest Food Processors Association.

Greg Loberg — Manager of the West Coast Beet Seed Co. and board member of the Oregon Seed Trade Association.

Ivan Maluski — Director of the Friends of Family Farmers, a group that opposed GMOs.

Frank Morton — An organic seed grower from Philomath, Ore.

Jim Myers — Vegetable breeding and genetics professor at Oregon State University.

Marty Myers — General manager of Threemile Canyon Farms.

Paulette Pyle — Director of grassroots at Oregonians for Food and Shelter, a group that supports genetic engineering.

Chris Schreiner — Executive director of Oregon Tilth, an organic certifying agency.

Lisa Sedlar — CEO of Green Zebra Grocery.

Steve Strauss — A professor of forestry at Oregon State University who ran its biotechnology outreach program.

Sam Tannahill — Director of viticulture and winemaking at A to Z Wineworks.

Click here for the original article at Capital Press.

Eric Mortenson/Capital Press; Published April 9, 2014

Student Travis Heiple rolls a putting green at Oregon State University’s turf grass research site.

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The legendary course at Augusta National Golf Club is so lush, it’s no wonder they give the Masters Tournament winner a green jacket.

The Georgia club is an exclusive place, with membership limited to the high and mighty — not to mention wealthy — of American business, political and celebrity circles. But as the Masters unfolds on television this week, Oregon grass seed growers and turf management students can feel a connection to the proceedings.

The incredible green of Augusta’s fairways comes from being overseeded each fall with perennial ryegrass grown in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

At least, that’s what everyone says. Augusta National is private with a capital P, even secretive, and its media handlers didn’t respond to emails asking about its groundskeeping practices. The Augusta Chronicle newspaper reported as recently as 2012 that Augusta overseeds with perennial ryegrass, however, and it’s a matter of faith in Oregon that the seed comes from the state that leads the world in production.

Augusta’s Bermuda grass is a warm-season grass, and goes dormant during the winter, explains Alec Kowalewski, director of the turfgrass program at Oregon State University. Perennial ryegrass, on the other hand, is a cool-season variety that does just fine in winter.

“They seed it over the top of the dormant grass,” Kowalewski said. “It’s one of the big overseeding grasses they use in the south.”

The result is a lush green appearance when other courses, athletic fields and lawns might look patchy or brown. Perennial ryegrass is favored on golf courses in particular because it’s deep green, germinates relatively quickly, grows upright to give golfers the fluffy lies they prefer to hit balls from and tolerates low mowing heights. Fairways typically are cut to a half-inch height, and greens to a tenth of an inch.

The conditions at Augusta, site of professional golf’s first major of the season, draw studied looks from Kowalewski and the students in the turfgrass program. It’s a niche area of study within OSU’s horticulture department, with only about 20 students, but it counts more than 300 graduates working as golf course superintendents or at athletic complexes, parks and lawn care companies, according to a program website. About 90 percent of graduates find work at golf courses, Kowalewski said.

The program’s research site is off campus at OSU’s Lewis-Brown Farm. There, students tend and do research projects on three over-sized putting greens. Groups of students are put in charge of sections of the greens for a term, and must roll it, mow it and manage the “speed” of the putting surfaces — how quickly a golf ball will roll.

“The idea is to get them into the mindset of a superintendent,” Kowalewski said.

On-going experiments include a “wear” test, in which Kowalewski and students put on spiked golf shoes and tromp around on the greens to see how they hold up. A more sophisticated project involves testing alternative treatments for a common winter pathogen called microdocium patch, which leaves dead spots on greens.

Kowalewski and Clint Mattox, a graduate research assistant, are testing combinations of a crop oil, sulfur and potassium phosphite. The work is noteworthy because regulatory agencies take a dim view of heavy fungicide applications — the current method of controlling microdocium patch. Some course superintendents believe fungicides may eventually be banned for ornamental use such as golf courses, and want to find an alternative treatment.

Such intensive management is par for the course. “When you take it down to mowing heights, it becomes more susceptible to disease,” Kowalewski said.

Even at Augusta National, considered a showcase — maybe an unrealistically expensive and time-consuming one — of golf course management.

“It’s an anomaly,” said Dave Phipps, Northwest regional representative for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Course superintendents everywhere else take their lumps when Augusta National goes on display during the Masters.

“That’s what people want,” Phipps said. “Every year at this time of year we get pounded on: ‘Why can’t we have fairways like at Augusta?’”

Click here for the original article at Capital Press.