A state budget fix approved this year may help prevent a much larger business problem for Marion County agriculture.
Oregon lawmakers set aside $1.8 million in House Bill 5204 to restart Japanese beetle eradication and monitoring work through the 2026 and 2027 crop years after the program went unfunded in 2025. The funding matters in Marion County not because the county recorded a major outbreak, but because growers here depend heavily on the kind of interstate plant and crop trade that can be disrupted when Oregon loses pest-free standing.
That is what makes this more than a state agriculture funding story. It is a market-access story…