05/20/08 Not Bio-Energy & Flooding Help

Not Bio-Energy & Flooding Help plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. With all the fingers pointed a bio-energy as the cause of high food prices today it can sometimes be hard to see the forest for the trees but according to Ag Secretary Ed Schafer, that's not the case. SCHAFER: While bio-energy generation does have some effect on prices, it is not a major effect. It is not even a big effect. And I think what is important here is we need to focus on what can be done, what can cause some relief and we can't overlook the energy side of the equation. Schafer says he has talked with some of these naysayers and they have just chosen ethanol since it seems to be an easy target. SCHAFER: What I'm going to encourage people to do is to look at the factors at hand and figure out how we can develop good public policy to make a difference in what the factors are. The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is lending a hand in parts of Idaho that may be affected by flooding. More than a dozen veteran flood engineers, environmental scientists and other specialists are working along the Pend Oreille, St. Joe and Coeur d'Alene river basins. Some teams are also in Washington and Montana as temperatures in the region have climbed and fear of snowmelt runoff has loomed. Cooler temperatures in the region have been forecast over the next few days. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. The newest Brita Water Filter ad is disturbing on many levels. I know that "shock" media gets attention, but with this ad the focus is more on the sexual innuendo than the point they were trying to get across on bottled water versus filtered tap water. And will it actually help Brita to achieve its goal? Perhaps. Reportedly, last year 16 million gallons of oil were consumed to make plastic water bottles; hence the resulting "crude" ad. I guess pushing the actual benefits of their filters and the wastefulness of one-use items wasn't getting them very far. Sadly, I am probably in the minority when it comes to being offended by this advertisement. In today's world where sex sells everything from toothpaste to can openers I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it's definitely easier to explain the couple in the toothpaste ad mutually enjoying their new "fresh" breath than it is to explain the slang sexual connotation in the Brita Water Filter ad. Oh, for the good old days when you could watch TV or look at a magazine with your kids in the same room without a set of emergency blinders or earplugs nearby! Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.