[MPWG] Mushroom Harvester Protest in Central Oregon (newspaper article-Part 2)

[Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov]

Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.
Botanist - Division of Scientific Authority
Chair - Plant Conservation Alliance - Medicinal Plant Working Group
US Fish & Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 750
Arlington, VA  22203
703-358-1708 x1753
FAX: 703-358-2276
Working for the conservation and sustainable use of our green natural
resources.
<www.nps.gov/plants/medicinal>

----- Forwarded by Patricia De Angelis/ARL/R9/FWS/DOI on 09/28/2004 04:06
PM -----



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http://www.oregonlive.com/regional/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1096372961272561.xml


Mushroom pickers stay put to gain better price
- Harvesters, who are mostly Southeast Asians, stage a five-day protest,
but buyers blame a global glut of matsutakes

Tuesday, September 28, 2004
MATTHEW PREUSCH
Oregonian (newspaper)


CRESCENT LAKE -- Normally this time of year, Kuoy Loch would be scouring
the forest duff nearby for matsutake mushrooms, a delicacy that draws
hundreds of pickers each fall to Central Oregon for what in past years has
been one of the most lucrative forest harvests in the Northwest.

Not so on Monday.

Instead, Loch busied himself with green markers and white posters,
preparing signs for an evening picket line. Hundreds of pickers have
decided to stay off the job to protest plummeting prices for matsutakes,
which retail for $35 to $45 a pound in U.S. markets and more in Japan.

The pickers, mostly Southeast Asian immigrants, have no union. Most speak
little English. Their hope is that by withholding labor for five days, they

can turn back a global economic tide that has pushed down the price they
receive from local buyers to $3 a pound from about $30 two weeks ago.

"The prices have been going down, down, down. It's ridiculous," said Loch,
a picker who doubles as a monitor in the Crescent Lake Mushroom Monitoring
Project, which advocates sustainable harvests.

The walkout began Sunday night when a group gathered in the unofficial
meeting hall, a makeshift noodle house, at the U.S. Forest Service
campground where the pickers live. A majority voted to stop picking for
five days, hoping to increase pressure on the buyers and force prices up
again.

Only about a third of the 325 harvesters staying at the camp had gone out
into the woods to pick, according to Roger Sutton, the campground host.

A good picker can harvest anywhere from 5 to 20 pounds of the firm, white
mushrooms daily, bringing good money in normal times and small fortunes
when prices hit the hundreds of dollars a pound, as they have in years
past. Now, with matsutakes hitting record lows, pickers can't afford gas,
groceries, and Forest Service camping and harvesting fees.

It's unclear whether the walkout can make a difference.

Buyers contend they simply take their marching orders from bosses whose
eyes are fixed on the Japanese auction markets, where the global price of
matsutakes is set. A global glut of matsutakes has forced down prices, they

say. Many buyers aren't even bothering to open up buying tents this week.

"I can understand the pickers are concerned," said John Anderson, owner of
Foods in Season Inc. of Vancouver, which has buyers stationed at Crescent
Lake. "It's just supply and demand. It's not that we're trying to rip off
the pickers."

Cheap supplies of matsutakes are available from China, the Korean Peninsula

and British Columbia. Three-fourths of North American matsutakes have come
from Canada, Anderson said, though that proportion will shift as
temperatures cool to the north.

Weather has added to the Northwest glut. Summer rains followed by a sunny
early fall have led to an excellent "flush," or growth, said Allan Hamada,
produce manager at Uwajimaya market in Seattle.

Matsutakes were going for about $40 a pound Monday at Hamada's store. He
said he has more mushrooms than he knows what to do with.

"I've got six or seven people a day calling me, asking me to buy
matsutakes," he said.

The pickers' protest appears to be unprecedented, said Denise Smith,
director of the Alliance for Forest Workers and Harvesters, a Willow Creek,

Calif., group that advocates fair treatment of harvesters.

She said the pickers are drawn to the woods because they can live
independently and get paid in cash. They are not a work force given to
collective bargaining, she said. Also, they come from different backgrounds

and speak different languages.

"The fact that a bunch of them might be able to get together and pull this
off is just unheard of in this industry," she said.

Matthew Preusch: 541-382-2006; preusch at bendbroadband.com