04/21/08 Reopening Trade & Eating Disorders

Reopening Trade & Eating Disorders plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab is welcoming the agreement to fully reopen South Korea's market to U.S. beef exports. She says the agreement with the South Korean government opens the door to all U.S. beef and beef products from cattle of all ages. National Cattlemen's Beef Association CEO Terry Stokes says this is a tremendous breakthrough. With South Korea importing over 800-million dollars in U.S. beef in 2003 - Stokes believes Korea can quickly grow into a one-billion dollar market annually. STOKES: Our goal has been to resume trade with South Korea based on World Animal Health guidelines. And that was the goal, and that's what they accomplished. It's a huge win for U.S. cattleman as we look at a business that is over a billion dollars a year. A study of U.S. high school students provides additional evidence that eating disorders may be contagious. Researchers found that binging, fasting, diet pill use and other eating disorder symptoms clustered within counties, particularly among female students. Based on their results, the researchers think it may be more effective to target eating disorder prevention efforts to counties or schools where they are more common, rather than individual students. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. The cost of food has skyrocketed, gasoline is liquid gold and house values have gone to heck in a hand basket. We have it really bad, right? Our ancestors would probably say, "Shame on you"! And I'm not even talking about those robust and determined pioneers who struggled their way across this nation to make a new life for their families; how about those here in America that suffered through the total collapse of Wall Street and the Depression era just a scant seventy to eighty years ago. Ask a few of them. They could tell us what real hardship is all about. Most of us, no matter how tight things may get, will still have a roof over our heads and food to eat. We may struggle through foreclosures but will still land in rental housing. We may have to eliminate a few luxuries, like our daily triple shot espressos, or 300 channel cable packages; and we'll have to get creative with the grocery budget, but we will be okay. And in the long run probably stronger and better for it. Life is still grand. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.