04/23/08 World Trade & Killing Cancer

World Trade & Killing Cancer plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. With all the focus on the 2007 Farm Bill the World Trade agreement has taken a bit of a back seat but it appears progress is being made. WTO agriculture negotiators have asked for at least a week to build upon the progress they have been making in their recent Consultations. Last week's meeting was an informal agriculture negotiations meeting of the full membership. USDA researchers are excited about recent findings in which certain phytochemicals found in some fruit and spices killed cancer cells in test tubes. Susan Zunino of the Western Human Nutrition Research Center. ZUNINO: I was specifically interested in a compound; it's a phytochemical found in grapes. It's called resveratrol and it's found in the skin of grapes. The paper that was published in the magazine science showed this substance had anti-cancer activity. I was working with infant leukemia and I tested this pytochemical on the leukemia cells and it was indeed able to kill the leukemia cells. Zunino says that another chemical, quercetin, is found in many fruits and vegetables and is known to kill cancer cells in the test tube. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. You knew it was inevitable, that they would somehow find a way to make even your leaving this world a step towards the "green" thing to do. Never mind that the whole process in the end is about as "organic" as we are all ever going to get! I do have to admit a rather strange curiosity in checking out the "How to Green Your Funeral" guide. Did you know there are actually "green" casket suppliers out there? Ecoffins, USA are makers of biodegradable coffins made from willow, banana, bamboo, jute and other materials. They also offer urns that have been impregnated with tree seed to make sure of the "return to nature" cycle. A "green" funeral, one minus the embalming and concrete vaults, isn't a new idea, it's just being revisited. In the United States up until around the time of the Civil War, when embalming became popular, green was the only way to go. The present day concept of a "green" burial began in the UK in 1993 and there are now several organic burial grounds in the UK and the U.S. And really, when you think about it, perhaps choosing a "green" burial is the most natural thing to do. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.