Rural America is Underinsured & Exports Expected to Decline

Rural America is Underinsured & Exports Expected to Decline plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

A report issued by the Center for Rural Affairs confirms what most in agriculture already knew. Rural Americans are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured than urban Americans. With an economic foundation of small businesses, self-employment, and low wage work, rural communities are not well served by a health insurance system that relies on employer-based coverage. Many more rural families are forced to purchase from the individual insurance market where they all too often wind up underinsured, with coverage that costs too much and provides too little. Those who cannot afford the significantly more expensive individual insurance packages must go without or rely on public insurance.

As the world economy sags, the U.S. is pulling out all the stops in promoting agricultural exports. Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture, Bud Philbrook says they are working on it.

PHILBROOK: We are aggressively pursuing our exports. We expect this year for U.S. exports to decline over last year by 20% in part because of the increased value of the dollar and the decreased commodity prices and in large part to the economic global situation.

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

The panic that ensued over the outbreak of the swine flu, now known as H1N1 virus, has left many of us shaking our heads. From the closure of hundreds of schools across the U.S. to the killing of thousands of pigs in Egypt the reaction to the swine flu bordered on hysteria. Members of the media have admitted to overstating the number of deaths reported from the disease in the onset, which helped spread the hysteria. While precautions were definitely needed in fighting the H1N1 virus, the reaction of most of the world’s population went far beyond merely cautionary. Some airports went so far as to use thermal cameras to detect whether passengers had fevers. Sounds good in theory but in practice not so good. The camera cannot differentiate between an ill traveler and one who has sprinted to catch their flight or has one of many other non-viral conditions that can affect human body temperature. Interestingly researchers are now stating that the H1N1 virus is more akin to the seasonal flu we are all more than familiar with. Well, better late than never, and I guess, better safe than sorry.

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