04/01/08 April Fool & Finding More Acres

April Fool & Finding More Acres plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. I had thought about leading off this report by saying we had a brand new Farm Bill as an April Fool's prank but that would just be too cruel. But on the upside, lawmakers are back in Washington with the Farm Bill on the top of their list. While congressional leaders continue to bang out detail of how to fund the bill and offsets, Ag producers continue sweating. Farmers are bringing out more acres overall to plant to major crops according to Joe Glauber, USDA Chief Economist. GLAUBER: If I look at the total acreage of the 8 major field crops, that is the feed grains, wheat, rice, cotton and soybeans; if you look at that in 2007 we had about 247 million acres planted to those crops. The intentions would show somewhere around 252 million, so in total I think the numbers about where we were anticipating. That is, we expect these high prices would bring in land that hadn't been in production for those 8 crops. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. As I have stated before, it's not easy being green, especially if it's a thin veneer of green! The Aurora Dairy Corporation and some of the large chain retailers across the nation that they supply with "organic" milk product are finding that out the hard way. The hard way being under the loud bang of a courtroom gavel. Lawsuits have been filed against Costco, Safeway, Target and Wal-Mart claiming consumer fraud for marketing suspect organic milk. The lawsuits are widespread, representing plaintiffs in over 30 states from Seattle to New York. The USDA has found Aurora at fault for 14 violations of National Organic Program regulations. This is going to be a legal battle to keep our eyes on. Should businesses that claim organic products be held responsible in meeting set standards and regulations, most definitely. But I'm afraid our already clogged and bogged down judicial system is in for the ride of its life. Perhaps it took the USDA this long to decide how to proceed with enforcement action against Aurora for this very reason. In righting this blatant wrong, we may very well have to open Pandora's Box. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.