More on Cuba Trade & Unhappy Place

More on Cuba Trade & Unhappy Place plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

You’ve heard Disneyland called the happiest place on earth. Well a new article in Business Week magazine has name Portland as the unhappiest place city in America. The article entitled “Recession Takes Its Emotional Toll on Cities” presents its ranking of the “20 unhappiest cities” in American, and Portland comes out on top – or the bottom, depending on how you look at it. According to the magazine’s rankings, Portlanders were even more unhappy than those in living in unhappy cities like Detroit, Las Vegas, and New Orleans. I wonder what people in Portland have to say about that?

A House-passed spending bill to complete the fiscal year would also roll back Bush-era restrictions on ag trade with Cuba. House Democrats included bill language to prevent the Treasury Department from carrying out - this fiscal year - a rule it implemented in 2005. Reece Langley is Vice President of Government Affairs for the USA Rice Federation.

LANGLEY: The rule essentially said that it would require payment of cash in advance for any agricultural products that are sold to Cuba.

And Langley says there’s another Cuba provision that could help further boost ag sales that lost some 50-million a year to the Treasury restrictions.

LANGLEY: It also includes a provision that would allow for general travel licenses to travel to Cuba for the purpose of making agricultural sales.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

Well, they’re at it again and this time in a really big way. Animal rights activists have filed a lawsuit in Washington State asking the courts to declare unconstitutional any and all exemptions and exclusions granted to livestock owners under Washington State’s animal cruelty laws. Adam Karp, attorney for the Northwest Animal Rights Network, issued a statement to the press that “Foxes should not be guarding the henhouse.” Oh please; once again a group of over the top radicals who know nothing of which they speak are attempting to capture the imagination of an unwitting general public; and imagination is exactly what is in play here. Those in the livestock industry would not condone inhumane treatment or handling of their animals, plain and simple. Sadly, there are too few people that have even the most basic idea or understanding of animal care and husbandry. We need to help the consumer understand the truth behind animal care and welfare as it pertains to the industry, and we need to do it sooner than later.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.