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And then I guess I was involved in potato, local potato growers group, also in the county, I was interested in what was going on at the experiment station here. We have a good experiment station, and so I was interested in that. One of the things, I guess it was a nice, chairman of the export, onion export committee. One of the things we were trying to determine is how to get a better container to ship overseas, especially in the Asian markets. So we'd conduct some experiments out here at the container, how to get a better box, and how to, what kind of temperatures or humidity control and that kind of thing to determine what's the best way to market them, and get 'em in the containers and get 'em to arrive in good shape.

Let's see... I remember traveling around with the onion industry, and I became chairman of that committee. I had occasion to travel to the eastern Pacific Rim countries. I went to Taiwan, and we were shipping onions there, and the arrivals weren't very good. And so I sure got my ears chewed out on that deal, but it was kind of a thing that, trying to work through ways to make arrivals better. And went over to Japan to look at their onion industry, and we were shipping some over there, too. But they were very particular, importing the kind of product they wanted. There weren't, growers in this country just weren't quite used to being that particular. And didn't have quite the right varieties, but anyway, trying to work through those kinds of things. And went to a food show in Singapore, a very interesting place. One of the most interesting things about going in, flying into Singapore is when you get off a plane and you see these policemen carrying these automatic pistols with signs in red letters: "Anybody caught with narcotics will be shot." And it grabs your attention real quick. Of course, they have real strict laws, like no cigarettes, you can't throw the cigarettes out on the street. I can't remember all the restrictions they had, but it was a different place, and it was clean. In spite of what you thought about their laws, the place was very clean. Anyway, tried to get some product down into there, and really an experience.

Another place was to go into Mexico City. It's been hard for U.S. growers to get much of a product, onion product into Mexico. Anyway, but then we went to Mexico City's produce market, and it's huge. I guess it's one of the largest in world. Anyway, one of the residents there, the markets, sometimes they'll have a million people go through the place in one day. It's just hard to imagine that many people. It's a large place. Anyway, it was an interesting place to visit because they were still rebuilding some of the places after that big earthquake they had. But it was an opportunity to visit with people from other countries. In Taiwan I had a good experience there in spite of being chewed out for having, receiving some bad onions there. But one of the fellows there was educated, went to University of Ohio -- I can't remember for sure -- but anyway, very fluent in English. And so he took me around in Taiwan, and even had an opportunity to go out and hit a golf ball. But that's one of the fun things that, in spite of all the other problems, one of the fun things I had to do.

One time I was going to Mexico, I was going to take a box of onions with me. And I got down to the customs and they wouldn't let me take them from there. So I lost that. But that's the kind of things you run into. I thought about offering the customs agent there something so I could get through, get that box of onions through, but I thought, god, if I didn't do it right, could backfire on me. So I thought I'd better mind my p's and q's and do it right. So anyway, I lost that box of onions.

Anyway, that's one of the good things I had a chance to experience. And also I was appointed to the Oregon Board of Agriculture by Governor Atiyeh. That was a great experience. One of the neat things about the Oregon Board of Agriculture is they have four meetings, generally four meetings a year, and the meetings have to be anyplace in the state where there's agriculture. And so if you haven't... once you get on the board, you have an opportunity to travel all over the state and see different areas, and a tremendous education. People in the Willamette Valley have no idea what's over in Malheur County. And I think that's one of the good things in Oregon's Department of Agriculture. One of the things I thought would be good for members of the board is there's always somebody taking pictures. And I thought as the person leaves the board, it would be nice to give them a little photo album of their years of participation. But somewhere along that line that thing died. But anyway, I think I made a motion, something to that effect. And it was approved, but somewhere along the line after that, why, it got lost in the shuffle. That was really quite an experience for anybody serving on the board to be able to travel around and see the... well, you see everything in the state that way. But anyway, I had the opportunity to serve there for eight years. I don't know.

I guess I've had... received some recognition from the Malheur Experiment Station in appreciation for the interest I've shown there. I received a little plaque. One of the things I got involved in after I retired from farming, I got involved in rejuvenating the Malheur County Noxious Weed Program. That was an old program in the county to control noxious weeds. I went to the County Commissioner, the judge, and see if we couldn't get it reactivated to where it'd be more effective. So we put a weed program together, a committee, and worked with the BLM, they have such a large area here in Malheur County, Baker, and Harney County. Anyway, we put a program together to work with the BLM, and since the county is so big, there was a problem trying to control the noxious weeds down in the southern part of Malheur County especially along the highways. Anyway, so it finally ended up that we were able to put a program together that involved the BLM and the county and the Oregon Highway Department working together so the highway would be taken care of by the Oregon Highway Department down in that part of the, southern part of the state. And I guess it was the first program like that where you get three different cooks working together. Anyway, it's worked out pretty well. And now there's a real concerted effort all over the Northwest, I think, in controlling noxious weeds. There was quite an extensive program going on, but then it's never had much priority and so the funding was never strong. And Idahoans had a real problem with noxious weeds, and now they've, in the last few years, have made a real concerted effort to make some progress and get rid of noxious weeds that are detrimental to cattle and farming. Some of the weeds that are rough on combines and that kind of thing, you have to control it, or else you lose your, you can't even farm the ground. But anyway, fortunately, making some progress on that.

Ag is a tough business. I remember at a meeting one time, one of the ag people was speaking about being in, speaking at a university in Pennsylvania, how important agriculture is. He says one gal spoke up and says, "We don't need you farmers. We can go to the grocery store to get our products." Anyway, that was back in the '60s, I think, when there was a lot of that kind of thing. I guess it maybe was the time of the Vietnam War and if they didn't like it, they'd speak their mind. But anyway, agriculture has taken its licks. I think even nowadays, if you're going to be in agriculture, well, that's a dirty job, dirty occupation. And news people see that that's why we need migrant workers, because most Americans won't work out in the fields, that kind of thing. Well, I guess they just like to imply that farming is a dirty business. Anyway, I hope we'd be able to keep agriculture a viable business in this country where people won't have to depend upon import products for everything.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.