27-03-2023, 11:50 AM
By ANDREW SELSKY
yesterday
NORTH PLAINS, Ore. (AP) — Aaron Nichols walked past rows of kale growing on his farm, his knee-high brown rubber boots speckled with some of the richest soil on earth, and gazed with concern toward fields in the distance. Just over the horizon loomed a gigantic building of the semiconductor chipmaker Intel.
For exactly 50 years, the farms and forests that ring Oregon’s metropolitan centers have been protected from urban sprawl by the nation’s first statewide law that placed growth boundaries on cities.
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But now, a bill being considered in Oregon’s Legislature could authorize the governor to unilaterally expand those boundaries as part of Oregon’s quest to lure chip companies and provide land for them to build their factories. The measure would also provide US$200 million in grants to chipmakers.
......
“The conversion of agricultural lands into paved industrial lands is a permanent destruction of our natural and working lands,” said bureau Vice President Lauren Poor. “Once it’s paved, the soil and its ability to sequester carbon, support our food system and generate income for Oregonians is gone forever.”
Washington County, where Nichol’s farm is located, produces more clover seed crop than anywhere else in the world, thanks to its unique soil and rainy climate, said Nicole Anderson, an associate professor at Oregon State University’s Department of Crop and Soil Science.
“I hope that science and consideration of our land resources are considered when this bill is voted on,” Anderson told the Legislature’s joint committee on semiconductors on March 13.
https://apnews.com/article/oregon-semico...20f118b576
yesterday
NORTH PLAINS, Ore. (AP) — Aaron Nichols walked past rows of kale growing on his farm, his knee-high brown rubber boots speckled with some of the richest soil on earth, and gazed with concern toward fields in the distance. Just over the horizon loomed a gigantic building of the semiconductor chipmaker Intel.
For exactly 50 years, the farms and forests that ring Oregon’s metropolitan centers have been protected from urban sprawl by the nation’s first statewide law that placed growth boundaries on cities.
......
But now, a bill being considered in Oregon’s Legislature could authorize the governor to unilaterally expand those boundaries as part of Oregon’s quest to lure chip companies and provide land for them to build their factories. The measure would also provide US$200 million in grants to chipmakers.
......
“The conversion of agricultural lands into paved industrial lands is a permanent destruction of our natural and working lands,” said bureau Vice President Lauren Poor. “Once it’s paved, the soil and its ability to sequester carbon, support our food system and generate income for Oregonians is gone forever.”
Washington County, where Nichol’s farm is located, produces more clover seed crop than anywhere else in the world, thanks to its unique soil and rainy climate, said Nicole Anderson, an associate professor at Oregon State University’s Department of Crop and Soil Science.
“I hope that science and consideration of our land resources are considered when this bill is voted on,” Anderson told the Legislature’s joint committee on semiconductors on March 13.
https://apnews.com/article/oregon-semico...20f118b576