05/01/08 Nowhere & Fertilizer Prices

Nowhere & Fertilizer Prices plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. There had been some hope for the Farm Bill but discussions broke off again with no indication when things will get going. Kansas Senator Pat Roberts was quite vocal on how it was being handled. ROBERTS: We have not had the open meetings to debate real policy issues that were promised by the two chairmen and I'm talking about the issues that directly involve agriculture and agriculture program policy. Let me be very clear as far as I'm concerned this so called deal that was highly publicized basically is a pretty raw deal for our producers. It's being written at the sole direction of the Speaker of the House. Ammonia fertilizer prices are heading back up according to Kathy Mathers, Vice President of Public Affairs for The Fertilizer Institute MATHERS: China has gone in a few short year from being the largest importer of nitrogen and phosphate products to now being the worlds largest exporter and what has happened over the last week or so is the Chinese government has said we're going to put export tariffs on all fertilizers in order to keep those products in the country for our farmers use and so China has now put a 100 to 135% export tariff on those products to ensure that they stay in China. That is likely to further tighten the fertilizer market. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Stupid is as stupid does. Well not anymore Forrest! A recent study states that it just might be possible to train people to be more intelligent, expanding the brainpower they were born with. Scientists have always believed that a person's "fluid intelligence", the mental ability that allows us to solve new problems without having a relevant prior experience, is inherent and not receptive to learning. But researchers have uncovered a method which improves this skill and have the proven experiments to back it up. Reportedly the method revolves around carefully structured training with working memory, the kind that allows us to memorize a number or address just long enough to use it. This type of memory seems to rely on the same brain circuitry as fluid intelligence. Remember the children's game of Concentration? Using the same principle but on a more intricate and detailed level volunteers trained a half hour daily for ten to twenty days showing significant improvement by trainings end. How long the gains will last after training stops however is unknown. Perhaps the old adage "use it or lose it" applies. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.