03/27/08 Snowfall to Earthquakes & Pushing FTA

Snowfall to Earthquakes & Pushing FTA plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The Pacific Northwest seems to be shaken but not stirred as several small earthquakes rattled through part of Federal Way and into Anacortes, Washington. No damages or injuries were reported from the 2.1 to 2.4 magnitude quakes. In the same breath, Mother Nature delivered a very early Spring blanket of snow to parts of the Seattle area from Hood Canal, Shelton on up to Bellingham. Even Eastern Washington has seen the word "snow" in the forecast. The Bush administration intends to submit implementing legislation for the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement as early as next month - regardless of support from the Democratic leadership. Under Trade Promotion Authority - Congress would then have 90 days to act on the trade deal. Former USDA Trade Adviser Paul Drazek says the White House was on the verge of sending the Colombia deal last week - and predicts it will probably still call the Democrats' hand on the agreement if they continue to add demands. DRAZEK: I think it's still an option for them to simply go ahead and introduce the legislation, call their hand and see what they're prepared to do. Are they prepared to reject this trade agreement or are they prepared to  are the Democrats prepared to vote their conscious and that's what the administration is kind of hoping for. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Green software? Even with everyone jumping on the green bandwagon this one seems a bit farfetched. Mozilla Firefox has recently touted their software as "organic". And just how is software considered organic? Good question. This is where the term organic appears to have been modified to fit a "branding" term. In other words, it sounds cool. In today's consumer culture the term organic is a safety hot button. If it has organic in the name it must be better, right? To most of us organic means all natural and chemical free. The only part of this organic definition that applies to Mozilla's software is the word free. Free software is software designed to give the user the freedom to share, study and modify it. It is called free because there is no cost involved and the user is free of the corporate giant. So by all rights Mozilla can claim that their software is safe, user friendly, and sustainable. As far as being organic, well I guess that is all in the mind of the consumer. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.