12/3/08 Melamine Issues & WTO Progress

Melamine Issues & WTO Progress plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The FDA has ruled that traces of the compound melamine that has been found in some U.S. baby foods is safe. Dr. Stephen Sundlof of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition with the Food and Drug Administration explains how melamine gets into food. SUNDLOF: Melamine is approved for use as part of certain food contact substances such as packaging and equipment used to manufacture foods. Low levels of melamine are present in the environment and trace amounts may occur in certain food commodities as a result of these approved uses. Parents using infant formula should continue using U.S. manufactured infant formula. Switching away from one of these infant formulas to alternate diets or homemade formulas could result in infants not receiving complete nutrition required for proper growth and development. WTO agriculture talks' chairperson Crawford Falconer says consultations on a range of issues have shown some progress, but not  closure. While assessing the situation at the end of the latest round of consultations, Falconer said he would consult non-agricultural market access chair Luzius Wasescha and WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy. Crawford said he would wait for the outcome of Mr. Lamy's "Green Room" consultations held Sunday before deciding on what to do next. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. I can't help it. I know that it is probably not a P.C. sentiment, but I can't help thinking of the old saying, "like rats deserting a sinking ship", when I read of the illegal immigrant population returning to Mexico due to the economic crisis here in the United States. It is ironic that the continuing struggle over what to do about the large influx of illegal immigrants has been more than somewhat diffused by the ever growing financial meltdown of the past several months. At first one might think of this as a positive, but in retrospect the consequences of a mass immigrant exodus could lead to an overwhelming labor shortage once the United States economy does begin to recover. And while some U.S. workers may take those jobs that were once filled by undocumented laborers, an improved economy will no doubt prove that to be a temporary fix. Only time will tell whether the United States will once again become the land of plenty; for the documented and the undocumented. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.