Gift of Wind Power & Food Prices Continue to Fall

Gift of Wind Power & Food Prices Continue to Fall plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The turbines used to power the first commercial wind farm in Idaho will be donated to a state college and university for training programs. The small Lewandowski wind farm, between Boise and Mountain Home, is giving one of the turbines to the College of Southern Idaho and two will go to Idaho State University's Energy Systems Technology and Education Center. The schools will use the turbines to train technicians, and the state university in Pocatello will refurbish one of the windmills to generate power near the eastern Idaho campus.

Retail food prices continue to fall, but one expert says there are signs of a possible reversal in that trend. USDA Economist Ephraim Leibtag says right now retail prices for dairy products are 5% below this time last year, and milk is selling for 13.5% less.

LEIBTAG: Definitely the biggest category in terms of importance that’s going down in the dairy category. If you look at what’s happened in the farm price of milk and how much that’s dropped over the last 6 to 9 months it’s not surprising that not only milk but cheese and other dairy products have all been falling for about 6 or 7 months now following those declines.

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

The debate over genetically modified foods continues to rage on. A recent report showing the over all benefits biotech crops have had for farmers by way of increased farm income due to lowered production costs and increased output, and for the environment with the lowering of pesticide use by seventeen percent was received favorably by most of the ag industry but raised more issues for those opposed to biotech crops. Two of the main concerns being that insects will become resistant to crops that have been genetically modified to produce their own pesticides; and that plants engineered for herbicide tolerance will cross breed with weeds, in turn creating “super weeds”.  With the scientific breakthroughs already realized in genetically modified foods there has to be a way for a “meeting of the minds” in finding solutions to these proposed risks. The world’s population is expected to double in the next fifty years, meaning well over twelve billion mouths to feed. Biotech crops could mean the difference between a starving planet or a well fed one.          

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