04/16/08 World Food Woes & EPA Transparency

World Food Woes & EPA Transparency plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The oil industry says its corn prices, the ag industry says it's the oil prices but regardless of which side of the fence you are on, the losers are the consumers. The fallout is going beyond our shores as developing nations that depend on imported foods are being squeezed by the rising costs according to Stacy Rosen an analyst with the USDA. ROSEN: The food share of their household expenditures has risen so much and these people are already living at a subsistence level, again what is that squeezing out? Money to pay for school for their children; some basic expenditures might be squeezed out because food is a necessity. The Environmental Protection Agency is making federal environmental regulation more transparent. Using Action Initiation Lists the agency will notify the public about new rules and other regulatory actions. AILs will be posted on the EPA Web site at roughly the end of each month; each will describe those actions that were approved for commencement during the given month. Formerly, the public had to wait six months to learn about new regulatory actions. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Ever driven around and around while the family tries to decide where to have dinner? Well, there seems to be a scientific reason for your family's inability to pick either steak or seafood. A new study has determined that when people are faced with numerous choices, either good or bad, they find it almost impossible to stay focused. Rather like a computer that when asked to do multiple tasks at one time will occasionally "lock" or seize up. Today's world is a plethora of choice overload; from whether to have green tea, a grande skinny double shot latte, or the fresh squeezed juice bar as your refresher, to trying to pick out that Friday night movie at the local video store. Which by the way shouldn't take longer than the movie itself! But having choices is typically a good thing, right? Perhaps not, when all those choices can cause extreme mental fatigue and low productivity. Maybe Grandpa had the right idea, always having coffee, one egg, toast and fruit for breakfast everyday for fifty years! Perhaps there can be too much of a good thing. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.