Turf Wars

 Forget the Jets and the Sharks, if you want to talk turf wars talk to the growers and dealers of grass seed in Oregon. The root of their disagreement lies in ambiguous and extremely complex contracts between the two. Most of us would not consider entering into a contract with someone that expected us to do work; in the case of grass seed growers that means planting, fertilizing, and harvesting seed, only to wind up at the end of the day unpaid. For grass seed growers this type of open ended and often unenforceable contract has been an industry standard due to the very nature of the business, with contracts entered into for crops harvested over several years. More akin to marketing or service contracts, they focus on the grower’s planting and harvesting the seed, with payment by dealers left floating in unknown territory. These contracts work well as long as prices are high, and both sides are seeing a profit, but when the bottom falls out, as it has in the last couple of years for grass seed, the result is growers unpaid for contracted seed that dealers find themselves unable to sell. Thankfully, this turf war will be fought out in the Oregon Legislature.