Russian Crisis & SNAP Training

Russian Crisis & SNAP Training plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack sat down with the U.S. House Ag Committee to stress the importance of making employment and training programs meaningful and relevant to participants.

VILSACK: It really depends, individual by individual which is why it's important for this program to be as diverse and creative as possible. There are some folks with disabilities that still have great potential. We want to help those folks as well. Whomever's in a position to work, we want to try to be able to link them up to the work that is out there and we want them to be successful, congressmen. It doesn't do much good if we get somebody a job and two weeks into the job it just doesn't work for them or they're just not ready for it, they don't have the skills. We want to make sure this is a success.

A leader for a Russian meat association is warning Russian President Vladimir Putin the industry is in crises and in a public letter warned of an industry default without government assistance. A new report says the recent bans by Russia on imports of beef, pork and poultry have increased prices to processors by 12 to 14 percent. The one year bans were part of sanctions on Australia, Canada, the United Stated and the European Union in retaliation for those countries sanctions in regards to Russia's conflict with the Ukraine.

Now, a new report shows retail food price inflation is still outpacing inflation for other items in the economy. Gary Crawford has more.

(USDA Report)

Thanks Gary. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.