Paradise Valley Neighbors Raising a Stink About Japanese Cattlemen

In the dry, brown hills of Paradise Valley near the Riverside County line, a clash of cultures is shaping up between Japanese cattle raisers and their rural American neighbors. The thousand or so black cattle in Paradise Valley pens are the forerunners of the 100,000 head a year that American First Beef, an Escondido-based enterprise owned by Japanese investors, plans to fatten, slaughter and ship to Japan. The aim is to capture a chunk of the Japanese beef market when import restrictions and heavy tariffs on beef imports are lifted in April, 1991.

To residents of the isolated valley, the advent of a massive cattle feedlot within sight and smell of their homes has caused concern and defensive action. Their complaints to elected and regulatory officials have triggered new laws aimed at restricting the company’s operations, and brought threats of a hefty $300,000 fine and other sanctions against the foreign firm.

Suggestions on Harassment

A sign posted in the nearby Sunshine Summit country store urges residents to continue to fight the interlopers. It offers suggestions on how to legally harass the company and evict it from the valley.

One violent incident in the range war has already been recorded: Windows in the company’s ranch house were shot out. No one was injured.

Paradise Valley residents complaining about the feedlot fear that the clustering of thousands of cattle in pens will bring noise, dust and pollution.

Dan Winne, general manager of American First Beef, said they are judging by American standards.

The Japanese, who live close to livestock because of the tiny size of their island nation, have developed husbandry methods that virtually remove those negative effects, he said.

Most of the 16 or so investors in this

Japanese-American venture are established cattle and hog raisers in Japan. The Japanese had no desire to move their lucrative industry to the United States, or anywhere else for that matter. But, when the trade barriers come down in 1991, under terms of a trade agreement between the two nations, Japan’s home-grown, high-priced beef will run into fierce competition from the cheaper imports from Australia and the United States.

So Japanese cattlemen are coming to America, where they can mass-produce and thus sell prime beef at a fraction of the cost of doing so in their land-poor homeland. They bring with them centuries of sanitation techniques and cattle management knowledge that permit them to raise cattle in confinement without the smells, flies and noise associated with most American feedlots, company officials say.

American First Beef purchased the 38-acre ranch north of Warner Springs in 1987 and has since been conducting its compact cattle-feeding with precision.

Neighbors Became Alarmed

The 50 or so residents of Butterfield Oaks, a tree-shaded mobile home park about three city blocks from the Japanese venture, were understandably concerned as they watched the construction of the cattle feedlot. Spurred by rumors that the company was planning to bring in as many as 14,000 head, Butterfield Oaks residents and villagers from nearby Sunshine Summit joined to oppose the enterprise.

Winne grew up in the Imperial Valley, where the smells of cattle feedlots are familiar. He can understand the neighbors’ prejudice against living next to a herd of close-packed cattle. But, he said, the Japanese do things differently.

To prove his point, he invited any doubting residents to the operation--to sniff and snoop and to demonstrate that the Japanese methods can turn a malodorous feedlot into a good neighbor. Few have accepted his invitation.

Winne buys cattle from area ranchers, aiming for black (the Japanese like black), short-legged (because they have no need to walk for more than a few paces), full-bodied (the better to grow beef on) steers and heifers. He places them in airy, sun-shaded enclosures surrounded by feed and water around-the-clock.

Pampered Cattle

Every so often, ranch workers trained in “gentling” procedures line up the herd and pat and pet them. Pampered cattle produce prime beef, Winne believes. Stress can darken the meat, he said, just as excessive exercise can toughen it. Gentling, which is little more than petting and soothing, is one of the secrets that the Japanese use to produce high-quality beef. It is also the only one Winne cares to talk about.

“I never thought I’d be doing a thing like that,” he acknowledged. “But I have to admit that it works.”

Special feed, meticulous management and the know-how of centuries of Japanese cattle-breeding lore have produced a product suitable for the Japanese palate in this barren Paradise Valley feedlot. It bests the famous Kobe beef of southern Japan and rivals the meat of wagyu cattle, the top prime grade of Japanese beef, Winne said.

Proof of the ranch’s ability to transplant its Japanese methods to America came recently when prime cuts from its Paradise Valley herd fetched $117 a pound on the Tokyo restaurant market. The company’s goal is to reduce that price to about $12 a pound for its American-grown beef. The lower cost, investors predict, will cause the demand for beef to mushroom on the Japanese market.

Winne concedes that there has been a clash or two within the company as each culture acclimates to the other. There are Japanese, Vietnamese and Mexican workers, many of whom do not speak English or any other tongue common to all. Winne speaks none of those languages, but he has learned to get his point across.

The company will succeed by blending American technology and Japanese quality-control techniques, he said. Its problems will occur if there is a lack of communication.

He is less adept at bridging the communication gap with the ranch’s Paradise Valley neighbors.

Keeping Close Scrutiny

Sparked by complaints from the neighbors, state and local officials have taken a close and critical look at the cattle-feeding operation. Staff from the county Air Pollution Control District and the state Regional Water Quality Control Board have become frequent visitors to inspect the feedlot and to issue citations, warnings and advice.

Water board staffers recommended that a $300,000 fine be imposed on the company--a $10,000-a-day fine for failing to obtain a federal waste-discharge permit before starting operations last August. More daily fines will be levied until the company conforms, said Ladin Delaney, executive director of the agency. American First Beef also faces several pollution control citations for dust caused by the movement of cattle.

Recently, a delegation of Paradise Valley residents complained to the County Board of Supervisors that the feedlot was being expanded, despite county restrictions. Their representative on the board, John MacDonald, has said that perhaps it is time to seek a cease-and-desist order against American First Beef, a move that could put the feedlot out of business.

MacDonald opposes the feedlot because it has riled his constituents and because it appears to have slipped through the cracks of county zoning and land-use restrictions.

He reacted by sponsoring emergency legislation that put a moratorium on any increase in the number of cattle now on the feedlot.

The emergency ordinance pertains only to beef cattle feedlots, exempting hogs, sheep, goats, dairy cattle and other large animal operations. A proposed permanent ordinance would cover hog and beef cattle feedlots but would still affect only American First Beef.

MacDonald said he has no quarrel with Winne or his Japanese bosses but contends that the Paradise Valley feedlot is in the wrong place.

“There is a lot of open territory in that area along (Highways) 76 and 79, so they don’t have to put those cows near people,” the supervisor said.

“It is not my personal ambition to shut them down,” he added.

Racial Conflict Denied

MacDonald said there are no racial overtones in the controversy, just concern about the effect of an uncontrolled feedlot near homes.

“This is not a matter of Japanese versus Americans,” MacDonald said. “That has nothing to do with it, as far as I’m concerned. If it had been Joe Blow Farmer running that feedlot, we would have acted no differently.”

MacDonald concedes that American First Beef purchased its property legally and set up its feedlot within the county’s existing laws.

But MacDonald argues that the proposed county legislation to govern cattle feedlots used to be on the books until 1979, when “it fell through the cracks” because there were no feedlots operating in the county. Now that Amercian First Beef has started a feedlot, regulations on the size of such operations should be reinstituted, he said.

Winne and American First Beef attorney Michael Pines contend that any legislation to restrict or close the feedlot represents a taking of property, or what attorneys call inverse condemnation. And that goes double for legislation that applies only to American First Beef, they said.

Kelly Larkin, a state brands inspector and a frequent visitor to the feedlot, where she checks on the condition and ownership of arriving and departing cattle, can’t understand what all the commotion is about.

“I have more flies in my back yard than they do at their feedlot. And, as many times as I’ve been out there, I’ve never detected an offensive odor,” she said.

The American First Beef feedlot is a plus for local cattlemen, Larkin said, because it opens up another local market for beef cattle, most of which are shipped to Riverside or Los Angeles to market, or to the Imperial Valley for fattening, she said. Operating a well-run feedlot “in a place so dry that even the jack rabbits have to carry canteens” is quite an achievement, she said.

Looking for Compromise

Winne, 42, would like to reach a compromise that would allow American First Beef to continue its Paradise Valley feedlot with reasonable limits on the number of cattle. Barring that approach, he said, he may run for supervisorial office against MacDonald on the next go-around because “agricultural interests in this county deserve a voice in government.”

John Braly, spokesman for the California Cattlemen’s Assn., can only shrug when asked why Winne and American First Beef are running into so much opposition in San Diego County. Other cattle operations around the state--in Gonzales, Corning, Fresno and elsewhere--have been acquired by Japanese interests, he said, “and the people welcomed them in.”

Both state and national cattlemen’s groups back the foreign investment from Japan “because it helps open up the growing Pacific Rim market,” Braly said. He knows of no other place in the state where the Japanese have run into such local opposition.

Regional Water Quality Control Board complaints against American First Beef are now the subject of closed-door talks among Winne, company lawyers, water board staff and state Asst. Atty. Gen. Jerry Blair. The group is attempting to sort out the tangle of directives that have rained down on the feedlot.

The regional agency’s chief, Ladin Delaney, said the Japanese firm is facing stiff fines because it failed to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit before opening the feedlot a year ago. Winne responds that he complied with county requirements when he began the feedlot and was assured at that time that no other governmental permits were required.

Delaney remains unconvinced that the firm was ignorant of the law and stressed that he is not about to let the company get away with “such a flagrant violation” without a sizable penalty. Perhaps, he said, there may be some reduction in the $300,000 penalty based on the responsiveness of the cattle firm to comply with state and federal requirements.

If there is no response within the next few weeks, Delaney said, he is prepared to turn the matter over to the state attorney general with orders to seek an injunction and shut the feedlot down.

Other Complaints

Water board spokesman David Barker said his agency maintains that American First Beef has taken no precautions against discharging waste from its property, endangering potable water supplies, including Temecula Creek and Vail Lake, which is the water source for fast-growing Rancho California.

Also at risk, according to the water board, are nearby wells, including the one serving Butterfield Oaks, which show high readings of nitrates.

Winne disputes the agency’s reports, denying that any discharges leave the ranch property except for manure that is hauled away and sold to local ranchers for fertilizer.

As for pollution of the Butterfield Oaks water well, Winne said: “It’s a lot more likely that their own septic lines right next to the well are the cause. Our well is fine.”

“They seem to be singling us out, trying to force us out of business,” Winne said of the local regulatory agencies. “That just isn’t going to happen.”

The Japanese investors in American First Beef already have spent $7 million to $8 million in their effort to transplant operations to San Diego County, he said, “and this is a life-and-death matter for them.”