01/29/09 Humane Raid, Training Fire & No Digital Delay

Humane Raid, Training Fire & No Digital Delay plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The Idaho Humane Society and Ada County Sheriff's Deputies are seizing more than 100 cows and bulls from a farm, saying the owner is guilty of animal neglect. The owner did not properly take care of the animals on his beef farm. Animal control officers and sheriff's deputies arrived at the farm early Wednesday and began removing more than 130 cows and bulls from the farm. The animals are being loaded on trailers and taken to an undisclosed location where they will be fed and cared for in coming days. A number of dead animals were also found on the property. A training fire at a series of old buildings in downtown Boise flared up into a real event. Crews were methodically burning a set of old Forest Service buildings at Front and Broadway downtown Monday  but early Tuesday morning the fire flared up, catching firefighters off guard. Congress has turned down a move that would have delayed the scheduled Feb. 17th conversion to all digital TV signals. Bart Forbes with the Commerce Department talks about how to avoid losing TV service. FORBES: The best thing for them to do is to go out and purchase a converter box at full price or they can buy a digital television or they can subscribe to cable. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Everyone eats. Sounds very reminiscent of a children's book with a similar title doesn't it. In this instance the book's title should read "Large Food Manufacturing Companies Eat Crow". The uncovering of several food manufacturers as the source for an anti farmer publicity campaign during the rapid rise of retail food costs this last year has left a bad taste in just about everybody's mouth. At the same time that these companies were working so diligently to convince the American public that ethanol production and farmers were the reason for higher food costs they were lining their pockets with record high earnings. While farm families are able to eat some of what they produce, they are still out their shopping and paying higher food prices with the rest of us and feeling the same pinch in their pocketbooks. Sadly the damage done to the American farmer's image by those food manufacturers isn't as easily reversed. Hopefully the American public won't be so quick to believe false blame in the future. Fool us once shame on you mega food companies, fool us twice, shame on us. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.