12/31/08 Ag Year In Review Part 2

Ag Year In Review. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. As the end of the year quickly approaches we are taking a look back at what 2008 threw at us. Food prices were a big topic as things like milk and dairy products were at a premium. Elvin Hollon an economist with the Dairy Farmers of America had one idea. HOLLON: The economy is slowing and when the economy slows the out-to-eat sector of the economy slows and a lot of dairy demand is on that out to eat menu . A relatively new word, bioterrorism, was in the news as a number of food contamination issues arose during the year. Vance Bybee Food Safety Division Administrator with the Oregon Department of Agriculture said we needed to watch imports BYBEE: A lot of our food and our ingredients that go into food are coming from other countries. So it's important that we have outreach to make sure that those products are safe as well. And that import market was scrutinized as China saw a major contamination issue with something called melamine. Here in the U.S. it was salmonella and the culprit was thought to be tomatoes. The tomato industry took a big hit at its peak as grocery stores and restaurants pulled everything that contained fresh tomatoes. Of course eventually the tomato was exonerated and jalapeno and Serrano peppers from Mexico were suspect. The FDA's Dr. David Acheson talked about working with the Mexican government. ACHESON: We have added a number of firms, importers, brokers to our import alert. So that is continuing and we are working closely with the Mexicans to try to limit this further and to understand what problems may be going on in Mexico around peppers. Other issues from 2008 included the fight to get the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization done. It will be an issue carried over to the New Year. Country of Origin Labeling known as COOL came into being, the immigration issue was pretty much ignored since the Bush Administration was on its way out and no one was interested in committing the time and effort to create a guest worker program. And speaking of George W. After 2 terms and 8 years in the White House, the Republicans were replaced in November as a little known Senator from Illinois won the November election. American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman talked about President-Elect Barak Obama STALLMAN: I think he's very supportive of American agriculture. He's was supportive of the 2008 farm bill so that means he sees a role for domestic farm policies. He's supportive of renewable fuels which are very important for agriculture. If he follows through with that sentiment in the people he picks for these appointed positions, I think it's going to be very positive both from having an effective administration but also in terms of moving America forward. And finally in late December former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack was nominated by Obama to be the new Secretary of Agriculture. We'll keep our eye on 2009. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.