04/09/08 Fruit Exports and CCD Remedy

Fruit Exports & CCD Remedy plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. 52 U.S. senators have sent a letter to the Department of Agriculture asking about further efforts to identify the cause and remedy for Colony Collapse Disorder in the nations' bee population. In the letter they note that some beekeepers have already gone out of business due to colony die-offs, and many more are struggling financially. In addition, they wrote, farmers whose crops require pollinators are faced with increased pollination fees. They say - if die-offs continue at the current rate, farmers will be unable to find enough pollinators to pollinate their fruit and vegetable crops. Last year the Pollinator Protection Act of 2007 was introduced to help improve habitat and food sources for pollinators but little has been done on the bill. Fruit growers are seeing more of their product shipped to foreign markets according to USDA Economist, Susan Pollard. POLLARD: About 20% of our supply of fresh fruit each year gets exported. It varies each year depending on the quality of the fruit and the production of the fruit. Certain industries are far more reliant on exports. The most reliant would be the grapefruit industry as demand for grapefruits in the United States has not grown very strong in the last several years and the demand for orange juice is pretty stagnant. The industry is moving more and more towards exporting and then last year about 45% of the fresh grapefruits were exported. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. I suppose it was inevitable and a sign of the times that individuals can now purchase home DNA tests. Although the "home" aspect is misleading. You can't actually perform the testing yourself in the privacy of your own home. You can only collect the sample and send it back to the company for testing. There are a growing number of companies cashing in on advanced DNA testing that makes it possible for the average consumer to do this. While the kit itself is fairly inexpensive, the cost for the actual testing can be a few hundred dollars to more than $1000. The tests are used to determine anything from paternity or fetus gender to possible tendency for serious disease, like breast or ovarian cancer. Sounds good, right? Think again. Without any consumer protections in place from the FDA it's hard to prove whether these tests are accurate and properly performed. Inaccurate results could create emotional and legal devastation. And some companies might just share your information. Talk about the ultimate in possible identity theft. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.