My Comments at the Economic Development Central Oregon Annual Luncheon 2.13.25

Feb 15, 2025

This week I had the great opportunity to speak to 800 business builders from the basin I live in, the Deschutes River Basin. I sat alongside 3 incredible entrepreneurs; Rita Hansen moderated our panel, Rita is co-founder and former CEO of Onboard Dynamics, a methane mitigation technology company dealing with methane leaks in the natural gas industry. Mike Wietecki is the SVP of Powin, a leading global energy storage company leading the way toward a more secure energy grid globally. Brett Stevens is the Policy Lead at Daimler Trucks who are a leading global manufacturer of all kinds of freight trucks and buses, including hydrogen powered trucks and autonomous trucks. Safe to say, these are brilliant humans and I learned a lot in a short amount of time about their fields. The panel was titled: “Innovative Companies Building A Resilient Future.” I was there representing our farm/ranch Casad Family Farms, and our approaches to using management strategies to deal with water loss, soil restoration, food production and increasingly extreme summer heat trends. While I discussed some of our farming practices, I go into the massive consolidation of our food system in America, and some local policy/ legislation that is leading to farmland loss and economic scenarios that make it near impossible to be an agriculturalist in Deschutes County. I want to highlight this, there are some critical pieces of legislation in the Senate and House right now that deal with some of the most important land use and water use issues our Basin is facing.

This is an almost near copy & paste of my notes for the panel discussion so please pardon that there is not a lot of literary flow to this one. I wanted to share this for anyone who was not there, but is interested in these topics (sustainability in agriculture, future resilience in ag, land use, farmland loss/ protection/ policy, and water. I ended with more of a spiritual plea that I hope landed with the audience. It was a fast paced panel and I didn’t get to say all of this on stage so even if you were there, there are some key points I missed touching on due to time, which are included here in this write up. I also include links to see the whole Water Package 2025 Outline that is currently in the House Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources & Water, as well as a link to more info on SB73 a piece of legislation I think is crucial for protecting farmland in the Deschutes Basin and across the state of Oregon.

If this work resonates with you, we’d love to be your trusted source for Beef, Pork and Chicken. We deliver to doorsteps in Central Oregon 2X/month and we ship to CA, OR, WA, ID. You can support our stewardship and feast on the highest quality meats raised to the highest of standards in humane treatment of animals and of ecosystems.

CasadFamilyFarms.com

Intro:

Tell us about Casad Family Farms and what technology/ strategies & practices you embrace to address resource conservation and resilience.

Casad Family Farms began with Chris on 3 acres east of Bend off of Johnson Rd in 2011, I joined the farm as a volunteer in 2014, my husband and I are both first generation farmer/ ranchers.

Today we are managing 1400 acres of land in Jefferson County north of Madras. We have navigated many large business pivots, natural disasters, and a dramatic loss of irrigation waters. We know what it takes to grow food in this region, and we know what it takes to save a farm.

Our farm has a holistic context which is to grow the most nutrient dense foods for our community, while improving the ecosystems we manage.

We are conservation farmers, meaning that we farm in a way that enhances the ecosystem through our management practices. We have data to prove this as we began Ecological Outcome Verification Monitoring in 2020.

A few key things to know about our farm:

We farm organically using holistic management and regenerative practices.
We are a closed loop farm, meaning that we do not import fertility, or feed, and we do not export our waste or our impact. We produce 100% of the feed we raise our animals on organically, we save seed from year to year, and we use our rotations of cover crops and prescriptive grazing to produce the fertility needed for all crops, livestock and wildlife to thrive.
For the first 10 years of the farm, it was primarily an organic veggie operation. We had scaled significantly and if you ever ate a French try at deschutes brewery, blue eyes or Jackson’s corner from 2015-2020 it was likely from our farm!
In 2022 we lost 80% of our irrigation waters, this is akin to any business losing 80% of it’s operating capital.
simultaneously we have been experiencing extreme early heat waves and relentless wildfire smoke which both impact the vigor of crops and animals.
Through these extreme challenges, we have had no choice but to pivot our farming model and our business model 180* and through it, we have found greater economic and ecological resilience. Today our business focused on the production of regenerative meats, as we have found it’s more beneficial ecologically in the context of this arid region and diminishing irrigation waters.

I think the terms “regenerative ag” and “soil health” can be an abstraction for most people, and this slide is one of the most tangible examples of what we mean when we talk about the opportunity for resilience through these practices. Functional healthy soils are how we will survive the climate challenges we will continue to face as a society.

Photo credit from Bunchgrass Land & Livestock, Andrea & Tony Malmberg

Healthy soils have an amazing capacity to buffer heat!! As you see in this slide here, the soil temps were taken during a June heat wave which ambient temp was 116*. Land that was managed using HOLISTIC PLANNED GRAZING (one of our regenerative practices) for only 2 years, thus the soils were still on their path of recovery, they sat at 147*. A neighboring parcel of land on the same day that had seen HPG for 11 years, thus the soils were healthy and functional, the soil sat at 89* on that same day.

I hope this example helps make the critical role of soil health tangible for you. This is not just a feel good, abstract idea. Soil heath is literally what will determine if crops make it our not, if our society can feed itself in the face of extremes.

I believe our farm has not only made it, but found greater resilience ecologically and economically by asking ourselves this question:

What are these times asking of us? What is this place asking of us?

I think this is a foundational question all our businesses will benefit from asking ourselves and our teams.

Photo credit Stark Photography for EDCO

Part 2 Given your focuses in agriculture, water conservation, food systems, what obstacles and challenges keep you awake at night?

Agriculture and our food system in America has been consolidating to a point of extreme fragility. In 2020, we saw relatively minor disruption in the consolidated food system, and in only days of major meat plants being shut down, shelves at grocery stores were empty. Remember, it was just days that plants were closed before workers went back, yet the ripples of those minor disruptions were vast. Today we are seeing egg shortages because our poultry industry is hugely consolidated as well.

Here are a few statistics regarding the consolidation that has happened:

Today, 4 corporations control over 85% of beef processing, 70% of pork processing and 54% of poultry. 4 Corporations, mostly foreign owned, control > 60% of our Seed industry. Seeds are the very foundation of life! This is not good.

I believe that natural disasters, geo-political pressures and potential super viruses pose very real disruptions to our food system that we are not ready for. Since 2020 our food system has only consolidated further, so the system is even more vulnerable today than it was 5 years ago.

What happened in 2020 for our region’s direct to consumer farms is that quickly as the facade of our global food system’s security was removed, a LOT of local residents sought out a local farm’s CSA or meat box program. All the local farms had large waiting lists and subscriptions for local food BOOMED. We collectively remembered what security is when crisis hits- local food. Then, over the years since, these commitments have waned and most of the local farms are back to the normal levels of enrollment.

I wonder, how to we shift our collective mindsets so that we commit to buying local food in the same way we do when we are in crisis? Why do our commitments fade away, when in reality the threat of major disruption is still very real and our food system is more vulnerable today that it was in 2020?

From 2022 to 2023 the USA lost ~6000 farms and 1.1 Million acres of farmland. This has been a steady trend year over year.

Farmland is A NON-RENEWABLE resouce that has so much more value than just food production. Farmland is also the critical buffer zone between our wild lands / rangelands and our densely populated suburbs and cities, they become the most defensible lands against wildfires. We have to consider that.

Every single person in this room participates in agriculture every day. The food you eat is a vote for globalized, consolidated systems, or distributed, regional resilience.

I wonder, how do we re-cultivate a sense of belonging to this system of agriculture in Central Oregon?

Behavioral psychology illuminates just how hard it is to rewire habits, our buying habits take real commitment to shift back to an older way of what once was. Buying local food, shopping at brick and mortar shops in our own, it’s how we keep our community vibrant & resilient.

It’s a delicious way to participate in daily acts of regional resilience.

Part 3 Policy; if you had the magic wand, what would you do?

I will focus on direct opportunities we all have to protect this place we love, and address some things that threaten the future of the Deschutes River Basin’s resilience:

SB73

This Bill has been introduced to stop the undemocratic SPOT ZONING which is occurring across our state. For some background, Oregon’s land use planning system is hailed as a model for preserving its unique agricultural and forest landscapes while fostering sustainable growth.

At the heart of this system is a vision grounded in protecting farm and forest lands, reducing urban sprawl, and ensuring that future generations can benefit from these resources.

Yet, despite legislation established in the 1970s to create a cohesive land use systems to protect natural resources, a troubling trend has emerged in recent years: spot zoning of farm and forest lands. This practice, which involves rezoning individual properties in a way that conflicts with a community’s long-term vision,.

Applicant-driven spot zoning of single properties allows an individual property owner’s desires to supersede the collective community vision embodied in the comprehensive plan.

In Deschutes County in recent years about 3000 acres of farmland has been lost to spot zoning.

SB73 would prohibit the rezoning of individual agricultural or forest tracts unless the rezoning is part of a comprehensive, county or regional-level planning process.

Please support SB73.

Part 4 Key Takeaway Message and Call To Action

“A healthy man wants a thousand things, a sick man only wants one”

There is no true prosperity in the future with a chronically ill society.

Heath begins in the soil. The vegetables grains and meats we eat are not healthy coming from depleted sick soils. We have first hand transitioned hundreds of acres of depleted soils and restored health and biodiversity to them, we know what it takes, and it takes more fervent support than what we are currently giving our food producers.

We have an ARMY OF SOIL STEWARDS in our farming communities who not only produce food, they also can be sequestering carbon at rates that far exceed any technological option at this point, they are preserving the critical defensible boundaries against wildfires, and maintaining intact ecosystems for all wildlife above and below the soil surface.

I’ve made my technical argument as to why every person in this room should make supporting local farms and ranches a top priority for regional resilience, but I want to end on a more spiritual note. I don’t identify as any particular faith, I just feel a deep sense of connection to the miracle this place is, and the beautiful community I have gotten to be a part of in Central Oregon. I feel a deep sense of duty to this place, my heart and mind think in 50 and 100 year terms, not year to year when it comes to this place. Just last year we planted Garry Oaks on our property, these trees take 50 years to reach maturity. We planted them for our Childrens’ children.

I please ask you to think about our role in this basin in 50 and 100 year terms.

Don’t just live here, BELONG to this place. I believe life feels so much more rich and meaningful when we choose to belong to a place. Even if Central ORegon isn’t your home forever, while you are here, BELONG to this place and let it become a part of you.

There are ~800 people in this room today, I hope that our farm may walk away with 100 new committed customers after today. That is the sort of action that could make a farm like ours feel a sense of true security so that we can keep planting Garry Oaks for our grandchildren.

Please use this link to order meats directly from our farm, we deliver to doorsteps 2x a month and we do ship to CA, WA, OR, ID.

Farmers Markets are great if you can make it to them on Wednesdays and Saturdays during the summer months. But you can shop locally year round by Signing up for a weekly box from Agricultural Connections, Shop at Locavore on 3rd street, and sign up for a CSA from a vegetable farm here in our basin.

Caroline Priebe

“We have an ARMY OF SOIL STEWARDS in our farming communities who not only produce food, they also can be sequestering carbon at rates that far exceed any technological option at this point, they are preserving the critical defensible boundaries against wildfires, and maintaining intact ecosystems for all wildlife above and below the soil surface.” Preach 🙌🙌

Expand full comment

Range Revolutions by Cate Havstad-Casad

Discussion about this post