HB 2844 – Making it Easier for Farmers to Process Their Crops: HB 2844 limits the ability of counties to impose additional restrictions on small-scale processing facilities in EFU zones.
In the late 90’s, OPOA was successful in adding processing plants to the list of uses allowed in EFU zones, so that farmers could process the commodities grown on their land without having to haul them into town into a processing plant. At that time, we had to compromise on the bill by allowing counties to have some authority over the siting of the processing facilities. HB 2844 eliminates that county authority for small processing facilities. This bill was a partnership effort with the Oregon Farm Bureau.