Idaho Power Cuts & Beef Trade Deal

Idaho Power Cuts & Beef Trade Deal plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Idaho Power officials say the utility is reorganizing and eliminating up to 40 positions from its new customer division. The company has notified 165 employees that they are eligible for voluntary severance, with a goal of reducing between 30 and 40 positions. The action is a response to the poor economy and low revenue growth but the reorganization won't affect any electrical services offered by the company. Idaho Power, the state's biggest utility, has 2,100 employees and serves more than 487,000 residential customers.

The U.S. Trade Representative Office has announced the United States and European Union have reached a tentative deal on their long-standing dispute over beef produced with growth promotants. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Chief Economist Gregg Doud says this is a deal in principle to allow more hormone-free U.S. beef into the EU - but duty free.

DOUD: I believe the terms are beginning July 1 an additional 20-thousand tons of duty free access for non-hormone and after 3-years in a phase one then we kick it up to 45-thousand tons which if you do – roughly speaking if you do 5, 6, 7-thousand dollars a ton we’re talking ultimately about somewhere in the neighborhood of $2-$3-hundred million dollars of beef.

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

My Dad used to love eating mustard sandwiches, no meat or other toppings, just two slices of bread slathered with mustard. He used to tell me it would get rid of whatever ailed you. Dad must have had an inkling about the power of mustard that the rest of us didnt. Researchers have found that the compound that gives mustard its sharp taste can actually kill or at least restrain the growth of certain weeds or invasive grasses. Organic farmers in particular are highly interested in this discovery which could provide alternatives to such labor intensive methods of weed control as hoeing or hand pulling. While the mustard seed application does not work well on all plant types the success rate for use on peppermint, a crop in Washington State which produces 2.7 million pounds of mint oil annually, is nearly 90 percent Other plants that respond well to mustard seed weed control are ornamentals like potted rose, creeping phlox and coreopsis. The power of the mustard seed to kill weeds proves once again that great things can come in small packages.

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