12/02/08 Lame Duck & Gift Cards

Lame Duck & Gift Cards plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The first week of Congresses' lame duck session was widely heralded as being important to the life-line of the economy. But, nothing happened as efforts to pass a second stimulus package failed. The House did pass a bill that the white House and Republicans didn't like. The only bill that did pass Congress was an extension of unemployment benefits. The bill that failed to pass the Senate contained a number of agriculture-related items, including 171 million for modernization of the Farm Service Agency's computer system. The bill also contained disaster assistance for southern farmers and money for implementation of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission provisions contained in the 2008 farm bill. The past weekend saw a lot of people out in the shopping mood but one gift was not as popular, the ubiquitous gift card. Ellen Davis, with the National Retail Federation, saying that leaner economic times may be another reason for sagging gift card sales. DAVIS: People would rather buy a $75 cashmere sweater for $30 than buy a $50 gift card. Consumers are really investing a lot of time this year in making sure they're finding the best deal for the holiday season and gift cards don't go on sale so budget conscious shoppers  they're not as attractive as a category as they were a few years ago when money wasn't tight and when people may have just been looking for the convenience factor. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Johnny Depp's character in Pirates of the Caribbean has glamorized pirates for most movie goers around the world. But truth be told, pirating, which has been around since man first started traversing the globe in great wooden sailing ships, is one of the most vicious and brutish of practices. It is hard for most of us to believe that a handful of pirates off the Horn of Africa could continue to terrorize a multitude of nations in this day and age. Their bounty has included cruise ships, military supply ships, and now a supertanker hauling millions in crude oil. If left unchecked who knows what this pack of scoundrels will hold the world up for next; maybe more ships loaded with food, grain, or medical supplies. Several countries have sent ships to patrol these waters, the United States among them, but the piracy continues, although India did destroy a pirate vessel recently; kudos to them! While International Law now prohibits the most gruesome of pirate punishments of the past, such as hanging them in chains for all to see while nature takes its course, a collective show of force is going to have to be used. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.