Immigration Conference, World Veterinary Year & Tobacco Mail Ban

Immigration Conference, World Veterinary Year & Tobacco Mail Ban

Immigration Conference, World Veterinary Year & Tobacco Mail Ban plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. 2011 may become the Year of the Veterinary if one Oregon lawmaker gets his wish. Rep. Kurt Schrader, a Democrat who still holds a veterinary license and ran a veterinary clinic in Oregon City for years before he was elected to Congress, has submitted a resolution calling on Congress to honor the veterinary profession in the coming year. A one-day conference and strategic planning session for employers who rely on immigrant workers and the urgent need for immigration reform is scheduled for Thursday, August 12 at the Sheraton, Seattle according to Tamar Jacoby, President of Immigration Works USA. JACOBY: Folks are coming from a variety of states and a wide range of businesses from fruit growers to bio-tech and everything in between who would like to see our immigration laws changed so that the workers they need to grow their businesses and stay in business and to be competitive can come here legally. Family and friends have suddenly found themselves blocked from shipping cigarettes and other tobacco products to American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq because of a new law meant to hamper smuggling and underage sales through the mail. The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 quietly took effect June 29. It cut off those care packages by effectively requiring that tobacco be sent with one particular kind of U.S. Postal Service shipping that requires a signature for delivery but does not deliver to most overseas military addresses. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. It can be called changing with the times, or survival instinct, but call it what you will, many farmers have realized in order to save their livelihood they need to work towards sustainability. Often times you will hear them called the "new American farmer", farmers who respect the land, their community and those that work for them. These values though are not new to the American farmer. Farmers on family farms across the nation have a long history of embracing these values and instilling them in not only their descendants but their farm workers as well. In keeping with this, farmers working sustainable farms put into practice a concern and responsibility for the environment, the animals in their care, and the communities they live in. They have learned to diversify, having a variety of crops and livestock in the same farming operation. Which in actuality was a common practice centuries before the onset of technology. So in reality sustainability is not a new concept in its entirety, it is only a revisiting and re-implementing of an age old work ethic. The American farmer remains a champion and steward of the land and its resources. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
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