Biodiesel Tax Credit Fails & Cuba Looking to Trade

Biodiesel Tax Credit Fails & Cuba Looking to Trade plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Last Thursday the Senate voted against a motion to suspend the rules and accept an amendment to the Small Business Bill that would retroactively extend the biodiesel tax incentive that expired at the end of 2009. National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe. JOBE: For those that voted against it they probably need to explain that to their constituents and also explain how we're going to get it done. And there are a number of things that will continue to move through the Senate but it will continue to be challenging. Nothing really is going to be easy the closer you get to election and there's a lot of unknown variables in a lame duck session as you know. Cuba is offering a series of small but specific steps the administration of President Barack Obama can take to soften the United States' 48-year-old trade embargo, including expanding flights and establishing ferry service between both countries and dropping bank bans that keep U.S. credit cards from working on the island. Whether the list will lead to anything concrete was unclear, however. U.S. officials are likely to ignore it, especially since island leaders routinely bristle at any suggestions about economic or policy changes on the island when they come from Washington. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. In the attempt to be responsible caretakers of the planet and live greener lives a large majority of people are stretching the boundaries of their everyday routines; opting to walk rather than ride, recycle rather than trash, grow, prepare, and eat at home rather than dine out, and learning to live with fewer material possessions. My household is no exception. Over the past few years our family has gradually gone from having "a use it and abuse it" mentality to a mindset of care and concern for the world around us. To what extent this has progressed was interestingly and I might even say disturbingly apparent the other night when my hubby broached the subject with me about recycling our own waste; to be indelicately precise, our poop. Needless to say, even after months of feeling good about our greener lifestyle, his comment caught me off guard. This is an area I hadn't even entertained venturing into. After much deliberation and extensive research on the subject I still do not plan on participating in this particular "green" movement, no pun intended. Apparently I'm not quite as progressively "green", or in this instance "brown" as I thought I was. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.