04/02/08 Fight the Belly & Corn Planting

Fight the Belly & Corn Planting plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. I have always fought the big belly and for the moment, I have won but research is showing that men and women who carry around a large belly are at a much greater risk of developing diabetes, stroke, heart disease and now dementia. A study involving nearly 7000 men and women ages 40-45 who are now in their 70's found that those with a normal body weight but a big belly were 89% more likely to have dementia. It is unclear why abdominal fat would promote dementia but could be linked to substance that harm the brain. So watch the waist. USDA's latest planting intentions report gave new insight into the corn ethanol industry's efforts to maximize production by 2015. Most industry players have agreed - producing 15-billion gallons of corn ethanol by 2015 is doable - while still leaving enough grain for other uses. It would take about 15-billion bushels of production to get there. Renewable Fuels Association spokesperson Matt Hartwig says the prospective plantings report shows the progress being made toward that goal. At 86-million acres, the latest intended corn plantings would - if realized - produce 12-billion-plus bushels. HARTWIG: And then with the carry in of somewhere about 1.5, you're looking somewhere about 13  13.75. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Too bad the Woolly Mammoth didn't have Al Gore around to take up their cause 6000 years ago. Scientists are finally starting to come to agreement on how the demise of the Woolly Mammoth really came about. Seems that it was a combination of climate change and human hunting practices. Global warming had shrunk the mammoth's habitat to the point that when humans encroached on their territory the species were already nearly extinct. And true to human fashion, even that of 6000 years ago, we unabashedly finished them off. Global warming and cooling trends have been a constant from the time our world began. Only now we have the technology and hopefully the foresight and wherewithal not to repeat the pattern. Let's not let the polar bear, arctic fox, and many other species too numerous to mention here, go the way of the Woolly Mammoth. It has to be more than goodwill and good intentions on the part of mankind. The road to extinction seems to be paved with good intentions. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.