Ag Scam Warning & Sagging Imports

Ag Scam Warning & Sagging Imports plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Well they are at it again and the Oregon Attorney General John Kroger is warning about a scam by phony U.S. Census workers seeking personal or financial information. U.S. Census workers will not ask for a Social Security number, banking information or credit card number. And real Census workers will not contact you by e-mail or ask about past debt, solicit money or ask about finances. Census workers carry identification and will only ask questions about age, gender, race, marital status, type of employment and related information. If someone approaches you and says they are from the Census Department you should immediately contact your local authorities.

Ag import products are sagging in the latter part of 2009 according to Nora Brooks, USDA economist.

BROOKS: Imports are currently at 67.9 billion which is about 7% below 2008 level but pretty much on trend with earlier year levels. The drop is mainly a result of large declines in the values of live animals, fruit juices and rubber. Shipments of sugar and related products are about 17% higher than 2008 but lower prices dropped the value by only 13%

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

Do cattle suffer from “Seasonal Affective Disorder”? Apparently the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs in the UK think so. They have slapped a whopping 150 pound fine, (that’s roughly $240 American dollars), on a local farmer for failing to meet the “psychological needs” of his cows. No, this isn’t a joke. It really happened. To top it all off they ordered the poor man to trim the bushes and wash the windows so the cows would have better light. The farmer who has provided a clean barn, water, and food for his livestock for the last thirty plus years was stunned by this bizarre legal action issued under the guise of animal welfare; as I’m sure most rational thinking people are who hear about it. Granted, he doesn’t have electrical lighting in the barn, but then he doesn’t have electricity in his house either! I just don’t know how our ancestors survived before the invention of electricity. I guess it’s a good thing there wasn’t someone around back then to tell them how hard they and their “critters” had it, otherwise a goodly portion of them just might not have made it into the 20^th century.

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