Watching for Radiation & Wheat Market Shaken

Watching for Radiation & Wheat Market Shaken plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Last weeks massive earthquake and tsunami has had far reaching concerns including fall out from the two nuclear explosions. Due to prevailing winds officials along the coast are monitoring air samples for traces of radiation. So far there have been no reports of contamination. Officials did not expect to find any elevated levels but are monitoring just as a precaution.

The earthquake will more than likely have other far-reaching fall out such as the U.S. wheat market. Some 60-million bushels of wheat have been sold to Japan. Jim Peterson, Marketing Director for the North Dakota Wheat Commission says more than a quarter of those bushels still need to be shipped.

PETERSON: You always fear for the worst but hope for the best and I think in this case Japan’s been a very strong, loyal customer. The U.S. is going to be committed to helping them recover and over the long-haul sometimes that leads to actually more shipments. Whether it’s food aid or some other kind of assistance.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

They’re at it again. Food activists have decided to once more campaign for a nationwide ban on serving chocolate milk in school cafeterias, stating that chocolate milk is a large part of the nation’s obesity problem. Never mind that public health officials and pediatricians have not established a concrete connection between chocolate milk and childhood obesity. Apparently that doesn’t matter to this particular breed of food activists. In fact they would prefer that parents give their children calcium in pill form rather than chocolate milk; heaven forbid anyone should actually enjoy their food. If they are successful in removing chocolate milk from school cafeterias, what is next, ketchup, kids like it and it has added sugars. Maybe additional salt, butter, mayo, syrup, jellies, barbecue sauce, the list could be endless. Stands to reason that if food activists are triumphant in banning chocolate milk, all of the afore mentioned will be fair game. If the next step for parents is to have to send their children with bagged lunches instead of paying for school lunches, will the banning of certain foods on school property be all that far behind?

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