Mia Maldonado, Idaho Capital Sun

In November, Coree Carver finally signed contracts with retailers to sell her Southeast Asian-grown fruit into the United States.

The Idahoan is the founder of Grove Fruit Growers, which grows mangos in Cambodia and processes them in Vietnam. After the COVID-19 pandemic brought her business to a halt, she moved her product to the Russian market — only to have to be forced out when Russia invaded Ukraine. Then as she worked to readjust her business plans, she was in a car accident that caused a brain injury.

After years of disruptions, she finally solidified buyers in the U.S. But the Trump administration announced 49% tariffs on Cambodia and 46% on Vietnam — targeting the countries where her business operates. While those tariffs are paused until July, if implemented, Carver said it would result in the end of her business.

Carver said she supports fair trade and believes the U.S. has not “gotten a fair shake with China.” However, she said universal tariffs do not make sense.

“We don’t even grow mangos in the U.S.,” she told the Idaho Capital Sun. “So it’s not protecting U.S. industry, because it’s just been a blanket tariff put on most of the world. It really wasn’t strategically looked at to say, ‘What industries do we want to protect or support?’ It’s just thrown at mango farmers, which is so bizarre.”

A mission that’s more than just the mangos

Before becoming the owner of a 110 acre mango farm in Cambodia, Carver lived in Taiwan and owned a small food distribution company exporting nuts and grains from the U.S. into Asia, while her husband worked for Micron.

In 2018, after her children were assigned a book in school about the Khmer Rouge — Cambodia’s brutal communist regime that killed most of the educated class between 1975 to 1979 and resorted to a rural agricultural society — Carver said she was in awe that this type of genocide had happened in her lifetime. This inspired her to visit the country with her family.

Upon visiting, she noticed piles of mangos in the countryside.

“I asked why, and they said they can’t find buyers,” she said. “I have this food distribution company, so I was like, ‘Oh, I can connect them to buyers.’”

It took years of geopolitical hurdles and receiving funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development — which the Trump administration dissolved earlier this year — to get a hold on the U.S. market. She can finally sell frozen fruit to retailers, and she is in the process of meeting with dried fruit buyers from major retailers and small grocery stories alike.

Carver, who has a master’s degree from Harvard in sustainable global development, said her business is more than just about selling mangos.

“It’s about development,” she said. “It’s about bringing people out of poverty in Cambodia, but also making a business case for me.”

Retailers are interested in the mission behind her business, Carver said, but if these tariffs go into effect, then the business is done.

“I’m just so deflated,” she said. “I’ve spent so much money. We’ve spent just under a million dollars on this project, just of our own money, not only from getting grants. So, I think I might just be done.”

Grove Fruit Growers holds trainings for mango farmers to improve their practices and meet U.S. food safety standards. (Courtesy of Coree Carver)

Do tariffs work, and why Southeast Asia?

During Trump’s first term, he began setting tariffs on China to punish it for what he called unfair trade practices. So who won that trade war?

It wasn’t the U.S. or China — it was Vietnam, according to Rob Dayley, a political economy professor and Southeast Asia expert at the College of Idaho.

“Those first term tariffs merely incentivized companies to move production from China to other low-cost production countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia, countries that then were not in the crosshairs,” Dayley told the Idaho Capital Sun.

To close that loophole 2025, the Trump administration chose to implement universal tariffs on nearby countries to China. Because those tariffs were so high and disruptive in global confidence of the U.S., President Donald Trump backtracked from his “Liberation Day” tariff rates, Dayley said, adding that the broader promises of the tariff policy — reducing deficits, bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., and lowering inflation — is “just not going to happen.”

There is no historical data to support that tariff policies will produce those positive outcomes, he said.

“The idea that manufacturers of shoes, toys, clothing, and other low-skill products would somehow decide to reshore production to Des Moines or Boise because of some import tariffs was unrealistic during Trump’s first term and remains unrealistic in his second term,” Dayley said.

While it makes sense to protect national security industries, such as semi-conductors or other defense-related technologies, Dayley said it doesn’t make sense to punish fruit industries that are not grown in the U.S. If farms, like the Grove Fruit Growers, cannot make a profit, they’ll stop sending their products to the U.S. market, he said.

“If Americans only want to exclude all foreign pineapple or mangos from our U.S. grocery stores (be it fresh, canned, or frozen), then prepare to eat Hawaiian pineapple or mangos at much higher prices,” he said. “When supply goes down, prices go up. It’s that simple.”

Robert Oxarango, a former Boise hotshot crew member in the late ’80s and ’90s, is no stranger to wildfires, but facing them as a cattle rancher is a different challenge.

This year, the Paddock Fire devastated the grass on his Emmett ranch, displacing 350 pairs of calves and their mothers he owns.

The Paddock Fire, sparked by lightning on Aug. 18, burned nearly 190,000 acres north of Emmett over 12 days. At its peak, 348 personnel tackled the blaze with aircraft, dozers, and water tenders, according to the Bureau of Land Management Idaho Fire Program.

“The flames were taller than the trees, probably 30 feet tall,” Oxarango told the Idaho Capital Sun. “It was insanely hot. The fire jumped the road probably in three or four different places, spitting hot embers wherever it went.”

The severity of the fire forced Oxarango and his workers to take action. To find space for the displaced animals, they had to wean the 350 five-month-old calves off their mothers two months earlier than usual. Now, with the grass destroyed, the cows are being fed hay — an economically unsustainable solution, Oxarango said.

Lines of dirt cut across Oxarango’s ranch, marking where dozers and discs—agricultural tools used for plowing and breaking up the soil—created dirt lines to prevent the spread of the wildfire. With limited grazing land, Oxarango faces a difficult decision: find new land for his cattle or sell them.

“This year in this part of the world, it’s going to be super hard,” he said. “Because of the Oregon fires and all the Idaho fires, and there’s so many people looking for that same thing.”

Agricultural tools were used to remove fuel, creating wide barriers of dirt lines across the land to prevent the spread of fire. The Paddock Fire burned nearly 190,000 acres of land, as pictured in the photo above. (Mia Maldonado/Idaho Capital Sun)

Wildfires present strain on grazing land

Oxarango runs ranching operations on about 31,000 acres of deeded, state and BLM land.

Since some of his grazing operations are on BLM land, the agency requires time to recover after wildfires. The duration for recovery depends on factors like burn severity, vegetation type, weather and management goals, BLM spokesperson Caleb Ashby told the Sun.

In Idaho, about 11 million acres of public land are available for livestock grazing. This year, approximately 191,280 acres of BLM land have burned, most of which is expected to be within grazing allotments, according to Chris Robbins, rangeland management specialist at the BLM Idaho State Office.

Newly burned areas are especially vulnerable to water run-off and wind erosion because of a loss of biological soil crust, ground cover and plant litter which all hold the soil and protect it against the wind, Robbins said.

“While roots have little to do with runoff and wind erosion, as that is mostly dependent on above-ground biomass, re-establishing plants and new seedings requires time and ideal growing conditions for the root structures to grow enough to be resilient to grazing,” he told the Sun. “Closing these areas supports the most ideal conditions possible for plants to establish and the areas to recover.”

Wildfires to have impact on economy, Idaho Cattle Association says

In a state where cattle outnumber people, cattle ranches and grazing lands have been significantly impacted by wildfires this year.

In a statement to the Sun, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, who has a ranching background, said he understands deeply that wildfire is a part of the job and life in the West.

“Ranchers are resilient people and make the most tough situations, but the losses from wildfire, particularly this year, can be devastating,” Little said. “We know many of the ranchers affected by this year’s fires, including our own family. We are blessed to live in a state that prioritizes aggressive initial attack to keep fires small whenever possible, and we’ve led the nation in equipping ranchers and loggers with the tools and resources they need to respond quickly when fire strikes. We’ve strengthened the partnership between fire managers and the people working the land. Idaho has also stepped up to fund our fire account and increase firefighter pay and resources to ensure we’re ready, and we have good systems in place to support communities after a fire event. To Idaho’s ranching families, as fellow Idahoans we are here for you and support you!”

In August, the Idaho Cattle Association announced it is offering a Wildfire Relief Fund for those cattle producers and organizations who provided assistance to fight wildfires on grazing land.

“Cattle and calves are one of the top economic drivers to the Idaho state economy, bringing in over $2 billion annually,” Idaho Cattle Association Executive Vice President Cameron Mulrony told the Sun. “The effects of this year’s wildfire season will be felt by our industry for years to come, with the true impacts to the state economy being greater even still than just the immediate losses by producers, which are significant in themselves.”

According to a report from the Idaho Soil and Water Conservation Commission, more than 100 cattle, possibly more, were killed in the Paddock Fire.

Calves weaned from their mothers two months early eat hay in an unburned area. (Mia Maldonado / Idaho Capital Sun)

Oxarango said he’s unsure if he’s lost any cattle on his ranch.

“I can’t say we didn’t lose any for sure, because we haven’t found them all,” he said. “But we found most of them. We’ve scoured the butte, and I have yet to see a dead one.”

But his neighbors, who are fellow ranchers, have.

“It’s as painful to me as it is to them, because the poor cow didn’t deserve that,” he said. “It’s just really hard to see a cow that you’ve put a lot of time, effort and money in. It’s just hard to see.”

Wildfires are expected in the summers, Oxarango said. Since moving to his Emmett home in 2012, lightning has struck the hot, dry landscape almost every summer. But the Paddock Fire was the largest and most impactful he’s experienced.

“In agriculture, you’ll find out that you have to be an eternal optimist, meaning that next year is going to be better every time,” Oxarango said. “But I recognize that the climate is changing. There’s no question about that. It’s way different than when I was a kid. It is hotter and drier.”

Faced with the wildfire’s aftermath, he is considering his next steps.

“You may have to put your cows on trucks and go somewhere you haven’t been before,” he said. “You may have to sell some. It’s not the first time this has happened. It’s just the first time it’s happened to me. We’ll come out the other side. People in agriculture are pretty resilient.”

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and X.

A new organization focused on educating Idahoans about their contraceptive options is in the early stages of formation.

The Idaho Contraceptive Education Network launched last week, and its board members include former state Rep. Kelley Packer, former state Rep. Laurie Lickley, and former Idaho Senate candidate Tara Malek — all of whom are Idaho Republicans.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines abortion as an “intervention performed by a licensed clinician within the limits of state regulations that is intended to terminate a suspected or known ongoing intrauterine pregnancy and that does not result in a live birth.” Contraceptives are methods and devices used to prevent pregnancy. According to the network, many Idahoans rely on contraceptives not only to plan the timing of pregnancies, but also to treat endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, ovarian cysts, anemia and acne, among other medical conditions.

In an interview with the Idaho Capital Sun, the women said they launched the network with the goal of creating a safe space for Idahoans to learn about contraceptives and in the process build support for protected and expanded access to contraception to prevent unintended pregnancy. Research also shows access to birth control increases the likelihood a woman will complete education goals and stay in the workforce.

According to research from the Guttmacher Institute, nearly half of the 6.1 million pregnancies in the U.S. in 2011 were unintended, and 18% of those pregnancies were considered unwanted. Further research has determined unintended pregnancy is also associated with higher incidences of depression, higher rates of preterm birth and low infant birth weights.

Lickley, who cosponsored the trigger bill that banned nearly all abortions in Idaho in 2020, said the network is meant to educate families, young women and men about where to access contraception, promote access to contraceptive methods, and eventually enhance its availability, if possible.

“Idahoans have expressed their desire to protect our right to use contraceptives,” Lickley said in a news release. “There is nothing more pro-life than giving our families access to this important family planning resource.”

“I want to make certain that we are targeting our young men and our other male family members who are really concentrated and focused on family planning,” Lickley said. “Contraceptives aren’t just for women, they’re also for men.”

Education network hopes to differentiate abortion and contraceptives

Within the last three years, Idaho has passed multiple laws restricting and ultimately banning nearly all abortions, with criminal penalties for providers who perform the procedure. The only exceptions in Idaho’s law are to save the pregnant patient’s life and in cases of rape and incest during the first trimester, with a police report.

OBGYNs speak out: Doctors say Idaho’s abortion laws will cause harm to patients

In April, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 374, which includes language stating that birth control methods including the pill and IUDs, are not considered violations of the state’s abortion law, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.

Packer told the Sun that while those protections are now in place, discussions surrounding Idaho abortion laws sparked the idea for the education network.

“We were seeing, in the last legislative session or two, a conflation between contraceptives and abortifacients, and that’s what we want to make sure gets disconnected,” Packer said.

In May 2022, the month before Roe v. Wade was overturned, Idaho Rep. Brent Crane, R- Nampa, told Idaho Reports that he would consider holding hearings on legislation to ban abortion pills, emergency contraception like Plan B, and IUDs, a common intrauterine form of hormonal birth control Boise State Public Radio reported. Later that week, however, he said on KTVB that his answer was taken out of context, and he would not support holding hearings on legislation to ban IUDs.

Although anti-abortion advocates typically consider Plan B, an emergency contraceptive pill to be taken up to 72 hours after having unprotected sex, to be a pill that causes an abortion, there is no scientific evidence to support that claim. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said the pill prevents or delays the release of an egg from the ovary, before fertilization or implantation in the uterus would occur.

Crane could not be reached by phone on Wednesday afternoon.

The network is in its early stages, the women said, and they do not have plans to venture into the education sector, nor do they have specific partnerships in mind. And while the goal is to educate Idahoans about contraception, the group did not address a question about a strategy for handling opposition from individuals who advocate for abstinence-only teaching, including lawmakers.

Malek said she hopes the network will help debunk misconceptions that abortion and contraceptives are the same, while also serving as a resource for policymakers.

“Termination of pregnancy is not something we’re discussing,” Malek said. “What we’re talking about is each person’s right, their responsibility and their very personal choice of when to start a family.”

On the network’s website, there is a resource page with information on contraceptive options including birth control pills, Plan B, the birth control shot, Nexplanon, IUDs and others.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com. Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and Twitter.