Increased Prices & Grants Being Awarded

Increased Prices & Grants Being Awarded plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

An over seven per cent increase in the prices producers received for their commodities was recorded in USDA's October Agricultural Prices Report according to the USDA’s Rod Bain.

BAIN: Most of the over 7% increase in prices received from September to October originated from the crop sector up almost 8%. Prices received for wheat, corn and soybeans were up from September, yes, but the biggest gainer was commercial vegetables up 27% due to gains in lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and cantaloupe. While meat, poultry and egg prices were down from the previous month the big catalyst for the overall increase in livestock was dairy prices.

Universities across the country have been awarded more than 19-million dollars in grants to solve organic agriculture issues through research, education and extension projects. Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan made the announcement Friday. She said the grants are an important part of the new ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ initiative. Merrigan notes organic agriculture is one of the fastest growing sectors of U.S. agriculture. Since the late 90s - organic production in the U.S. has more than doubled - and the consumer market has grown even faster.

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

Telephone and internet scammers can hit anyone, anytime, anywhere. They tend to prey on the elderly, but their not too picky, they’ll cheat anyone willing to fall for their scam. One of the more popular phone scams has the caller identifying themselves as a favorite grandson or granddaughter; the unsuspecting callee jumps in with the favorite’s name and the scammer then asks for money to be wired to them. Sadly this scam has worked numerous times and wiped out savings accounts in the process. An internet scam that involves the buying or selling of farm machinery is becoming quite popular in rural areas. These scams will impersonate a reputable company by falsely displaying a company’s name, logo or trademark. Their goal is to deceive you into giving them personal information such as your social security, bank account or credit card numbers. They have even been brazen enough to ask for user names and passwords to accounts. Remember; do not give out any personal information over the phone, ever! If you do find yourself on the receiving end of one of these calls or e-mails just hang up or hit the delete button.

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