Oregon pauses farm regulation changes after widespread outcry

Quick Take:

Oregon's Department of Land Conservation and Development proposed rules changes that would have restricted non-agricultural activities on farms. The vague language sparked fierce opposition from farmers who rely on diversified income streams. After the outcry, Gov. Kotek directed the agency to pause the rulemaking process.

Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) in early July announced proposed rules changes that would have affected the activities that are allowed on farms. The proposed changes created an uproar in the farming community.

The changes were proposed with the intention of protecting farmland and defining farm uses to ensure that farms prioritize crop cultivation and livestock raising as their main activities. The rules aimed to clarify what activities and products qualify as part of farm operations.

Instead, the rules introduced new definitions and requirements that could have drastically altered current practices. While some low-impact activities, such as free educational tours and temporary farm stands, would have remained permitted, more permanent or frequent commercial activities would have required additional permitting. The proposed changes would have also restricted farm stands to selling products made from products grown or produced on the host farm and nearby farms within a 50-mile radius — meaning a farm stand in Lane County could no longer sell wine from Benton County, for example.

As a public comment period drew to a close on July 25, the DLCD issued a statement that it was pausing implementation of the ruling.

“The comments DLCD and the Governor’s Office have received are clear, Oregonians care deeply about this complex issue and any potential unintended consequences of changing existing rules,” the statement read, in part. “Farm stands and the opportunity to learn about farming, support farmers, and maintain Oregon’s agricultural economy are values shared across the state. Rulemaking Advisory Committee (RAC) members have provided invaluable guidance on concepts that will help inform any formal state agency rulemaking on this subject.”

Outcry in the farming community against the proposed changes was swift.

Leah Moore and her husband, Brian Moore, are farming with his parents, Scott and Mary, at ME & Moore Farm on Seavey Loop Road. They are the third generation to enter the family trade.

“My philosophy is always that we should be making it easier for small farms to survive and incentivizing younger and incoming generations to take over,” Leah Moore told Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “Anything that makes it harder or more restrictive or more bureaucratic is a very bad idea.”

Most young people don’t have the up-front investments it takes to get into farming, Moore said. The financial barriers are compounded by farming’s inherent challenges: hard work, difficulty finding laborers, narrow profit margins, and unpredictable and uncontrollable factors such as weather and pests.

While farmers have always dealt with these uncertainties, she argued that “adding additional layers of regulatory control makes it that much more of an uphill battle for farmers.”

“There has to be a way to achieve the goal of the DLCD’s rulemaking board — which I think is to ensure that farms remain farms and don’t become theme parks and gift shops — while also leaving room for alternative revenue streams,” she said.

Moore said that additional revenue streams from activities such as selling other people’s goods in their farmstands in addition to their own farm products, hosting farm-to-table dinners and events, or hosting B&Bs, might be the only thing keeping other farms afloat.

“We should be encouraging farmers to remain farming and if you take away these other opportunities, many small farms will simply disappear simply because a job that is already extremely hard will be even harder,” she said.

Wyatt Johnston, owner of Eugene’s Ezer Grace Farm, along with his wife, Alyssa Johnston, worried the regulations would eliminate important opportunities for income diversification. Johnson explained that his quarter-acre market garden relies heavily on consignment sales from other local producers — including baked goods, honey, and artisan products — which make up 30% to 40% of their farm stand income.

Johnston noted unclear definitions around what qualified as acceptable products or activities. While live music was not specifically mentioned in the ruling, the proposed restrictions on farm activities led to an impression that musical acts might not be allowed.

“For small farmers like us, being able to diversify our income sources, especially when you’re working on a quarter, even a half acre, even an acre of farmland, you don’t survive unless you [can be] diverse,” he said.

Johnston described the policy as particularly harmful to new farmers, suggesting it would force many to abandon agriculture and return to traditional employment because farming alone on small acreage doesn’t generate enough income to make a living.

“Small people like us are going to realize, maybe that was kind of a stupid idea to try farming after all, maybe we should just go back to what we were doing,” he said, using himself and his wife as examples, because Alyssa quit her graphic design contracting job earlier this year to farm full-time while helping to raise their baby.

“I want to believe that their mission is (that) they really value Oregon agriculture and they want to protect it. That’s so good,” Johnston said. “But … when it comes to overarching, very impactful policies with ambiguity in the terms, that makes me feel very vulnerable. I feel as if I’m being put into a powerful hand who can squeeze me when they want to squeeze me and not squeeze me when they don’t want to squeeze me.”

Johnston expressed relief that the governor announced a pause on the rule implementation. Kotek released a statement with the announcement, that read, in part:

“I want to reassure farmers who have been anxious and frustrated about how proposed changes to existing rules regarding farm stand operations may affect their businesses that I hear you and am paying attention.”