Essay Winner & Otter on Stimulus

Essay Winner & Otter on Stimulus plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

This year’s National Ag Day Essay contest winner is a 10^th grade student from Redwood Valley High School in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. Kelly Kohler wrote an original essay under the theme of “Agriculture-Every Day in Every Way.” In the northwest, Jill Warwick from Washington was a state winner. National Ag Day is organized by the Agriculture Council of America a nonprofit organization composed of leaders in the agricultural, food and fiber community, dedicating its efforts to increasing the public's awareness of agriculture's role in modern society. Ag Day is this Friday the 20^th.

Idaho Governor Butch Otter released his recommendations of how the state should use their piece of Obama’s federal stimulus funding.

OTTER: Out of the billion two-hundred million there’s just a little over two-hundred million that is actually going to be dedicated directly to the highway infrastructure. The bulk of the money went for education and for heath and welfare.

The Governor’s recommendations are based on seven basic criteria which include creating and protecting jobs, provide for quality education for school-aged children and to provide temporary relief for Idahoans directly impacted by the global recession.

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

It was twenty years ago this year that media hype and Hollywood style sensationalism resulted in one of the largest and false health scares in our nation. It focused on Alar, a plant growth regulator sprayed on apples. Alar had been approved after years of studies confirmed its safety. There were even studies conducted after the approval that concurred with the original findings. One researcher however differed in his findings, findings that were found to be greatly lacking in scientific basis.  But, as is typical the squeakiest wheel gets the grease, and the wheels of media attention were set in motion. Actress Meryl Streep decided she herself would be the spokesperson for this particular witch hunt; a good actress in her own right, but a toxicology expert she was not. Sadly, scientific fact was no match for Hollywood and Alar was removed from the market and the apple industry suffered a severe and crushing blow. Can such a fabricated health scare ever happen again? Hopefully not. We as consumers do need to be kept informed, but that information needs to come from reliable sources; sources that do not include Hollywood.

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