Richard Holcomb is a third-generation Oregon farmer and rancher. Rich and his brother have cattle, sheep, timber and prunes for drying on 700 acres on the Umpqua River in Douglas County. Their dad is still farming 240 more acres nearby. Rich frets about what all the development under Measure 37 will do to Oregon agriculture, farming infrastructure and the Oregon way of life. So, he supports Measure 49.

"Measure 49 will put some dampening effect on what Measure 37 is doing," Rich says, "It is the best compromise with the best potential for fairness for individuals who want to put a home or two on their property," Rich says.

One of the many things Rich is worried about is Oregon's agricultural infrastructure. "As you have fewer and fewer players in the ag community, there is less ability to keep up the necessary infrastructure such as the community livestock scale and corral for shipping livestock," he says. "Already in Douglas County we don't have a ram or bull sale anymore. That is not totally due to development, but development does not help." If fewer farmers are growing fewer prunes, "there is less incentive for people to maintain the prune dryer," he says. "You take out a few key players and it is much more difficult to maintain this infrastructure."

Rich has bottom land on the Umpqua River, which transforms into gentle rolling hills for grazing and then steeper Coast range timber lands. He and his brother have 500 ewes, 700 cows and acres of prune trees and forests. Each time area where the Holcomb's farm loses agricultural acreage, “we would lose economies of scale and it would take away the opportunity from young farmers."

For all these reasons and more, Rich supports Measure 49 because "it clears up a lot of the significant issues with Measure 37 that negatively impact agriculture and Oregon."