Antibiotic Bill & Organic Dairy Farmers

Antibiotic Bill & Organic Dairy Farmers plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

When the Rural Tour moves through West Salem, Wisconsin Thursday - organic dairy farmers will hold an emergency rally to demonstrate their plight. According to the Cornucopia Institute Co-Founder and Senior Farm Policy Analyst Mark Kastel says with processors cutting the price of milk for farmers and imposing production caps - he says many family farmers are in danger of losing their farms.

KASTEL: Organic dairy is in crisis right now. 20 years have provided a better way of life for dairy producers and because of an increasing number of large industrial scale dairies with as many as 7000 cows we’ve got too much milk out there and so organic farmers are in the same crisis mode as conventional producers. This is an absolute emergency that if some farmers aren’t going to lose their livelihoods we need them to step in, in Washington right now.

The House Rules Committee held a hearing on the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009 Monday. The Act would ban certain animal health products from use in livestock. The bill asks that all critical antimicrobial animal drugs go through another U.S. FDA approval process within two years of enactment of the bill. Companion legislation exists in the Senate.

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

In one of the many periodicals I receive each month there was an interesting article pertaining to combined families living under one roof. Today’s economy that has fuel prices which fluctuate drastically from one day to the day, skyrocketing housing and food costs and the threatening specter of unemployment looming over our nation’s work force has left a lot of people trying to figure out how to make ends meet, and they’ve come to the conclusion that combining incomes and sharing a living space is a solution they can learn to live with. Around the world and in America’s not so distant past the extended family unit was not unheard of, in fact, it was considered the norm. Many of those who have resorted to combining households are finding out that after the first initial shock things are actually working out quite well. Families living in one hundred year old farmhouses in rural America, 1800 square foot town ramblers, and three bedroom urban condos are coming together in order to survive. And isn’t that really what being family is all about, helping each other survive.

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