Pork Purchase & Water Rationing

Pork Purchase & Water Rationing plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The U.S. pork industry has been asking USDA to purchase pork products to help the industry during a time of weak prices. It seems USDA is stepping up to the plate. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says USDA intends to purchase an additional 30-million dollars in pork products in FY 2009 for federal food and nutrition assistance programs. Altogether, USDA has purchased approximately 151-million dollars in pork products this year through annual appropriation and Recovery Act funding.

VILSACK: We received a number of concerns expressed by pork producers throughout the United States about the stressful times for pork producers and despite the fact this is the tail end of the fiscal year, USDA staff did a good job of taking a look at all of the accounts and try to figure out a way we could produce a sizable amount of money to make a pork purchase in addition to those we have already made.

The city of Forks, which became of tourist Mecca after the release of the vampire books written by Stephanie Meyer, is asking residents to cut back on water use because city wells are about 30 percent below capacity after a dry summer. Public Works Director told The Peninsula Daily News restrictions will end when the rains return. Forks averages about 120 inches of rain a year.

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

The biography for Cass Sunstein, the nominee for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator job shows him to be a scholar in the areas of law and behavioral economics and a prolific writer. It also reveals him to be an extreme liberal whose opinion on animal rights and meat eating, he happens to be against it, seems to be his primary focus; that and “nudging” people towards his point of view. His book “Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness” intimates that we as human beings are more apt than not to make bad choices because of our failing susceptibility to routine bias. Therefore if we just listen to him and his politically motivated initiatives we will all be able to make sound decisions, right? Wrong! Remember, this is the man that believes animals should be able to bring suit against their “caregivers”, and that “Congress will soon grant standing to animals to protect their own rights and interests”. Add all that to the mere fact that he feels we should “celebrate” tax day is enough to label him a certified loony in my book; just what we don’t need for OIRA Administrator.

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