ACRE Enrollment & Rain Water Rule

ACRE Enrollment & Rain Water Rule plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has announced the enrollment of 255-million base acres on about 1.7-million farms in the DCP program and the new ACRE program. While Brent Orr of USDA’s Farm Service Agency says the department believes there could have been more participation - several farms did choose to participate in ACRE.

ORR: Of the 1.8 million farms that typically enroll in DCP the number was at this point 128,642 farms chose to participate in ACRE which roughly represents 11% of the base that was available in the United States.

Here’s a funny thought. Did you know when rain falls in Washington, it's technically property of the state? The state's water resources law dates back to 1917 and it defines water resources as all the water above, upon, or beneath the surface of the earth located within the state. That translates to requiring a permit to collect rainwater. Well the Department of Ecology recognized that this was kind of silly so now you do not need a permit to collect rainwater off your rooftops and builders no longer need elusive permits to include rain harvesting systems in their building plans. 

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

It doesn’t seem that a day goes by without my seeing headlines misnaming the H1N1 virus; my local newspaper being one of the worst offenders. How are we going to get the majority of the media to stop referring to the H1N1 virus by the inappropriate moniker of “swine flu”? How about hit them where it hurts, their pocketbooks. The continuation to label H1N1 incorrectly by the media is nothing short of libel, so why not fine the offending media each time they do so. Nothing gets someone’s attention quite like the almighty dollar. The damage done by such irresponsible reporting since the onslaught of the virus last April has been devastating to the pork industry. It has been a constant struggle by pork producers to overcome the bad press and it appears they are losing the battle. Government officials have started correcting reporters during news conferences, and as late as September the U.S. Ag Secretary issued a statement against any media reporting the virus as the swine flu, but for American pork producers it’s probably too little too late.

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