Earth Day Celebrations & FSA Closures

Earth Day Celebrations & FSA Closures plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Yesterday was Earth Day. Hundreds of celebrations were held across the country all aimed at bringing more awareness to the need to conserve and recycle. In our Nation’s Capital the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency held an Earth Day Festival and Open House as the agency's celebration of Earth Month draws to a close. The festival and open house gave the public an opportunity to see some of the ways EPA protects human health and the environment.

President Obama does not immediately plan to close Farm Service Agency offices as part of his latest deficit control effort. Farm Bureau Farm Policy Specialist Mary Kay Thatcher says the seven leased offices and 15-hundred USDA employees President Obama and Secretary Vilsack want to combine into one office are not FSA offices.

THATCHER: I think what we are talking about here are Washington offices that the average farmer, even the not average farmer, isn’t ever going to know about.

That consolidation is expected to save 62-million dollars over a 15 year office lease term.

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

Recently I wrote that hemp should be reinstated as a legal crop in the United States for the simple fact that it can be used in numerous products and we are missing out on an incredibly lucrative market. Now we can add food products such as hemp milk and hemp protein powder to that lengthy list. Who would ever have imagined that hemp would turn out to be a great source of protein and high in fiber to boot?  Hemp reportedly has nearly three times the number of Omega 3’s as soy milk. Apparently the Canadians have figured it out since hemp is more widely accepted there and hemp seeds can be imported from Canada. The fact that hemp oil is considered extremely beneficial for skin and joints and aids in memory retention puts it right up there with only a few other foods that are considered rather miraculous in curing what ails you, such as cayenne pepper. Just another reminder that nature has provided mankind with the necessary “tools” we need, we just have to be smart enough to make use of them.

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