WTO Regrets & H1N1 Terminology

WTO Regrets & H1N1 Terminology plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The discovery of the novel H1N1 virus in late April resulted in an almost constant battle over terminology.  Too often, the term ‘swine flu’ was used, rather than the proper H1N1 language.  According to Pork Checkoff Vice President of Communications Mike Wegner, more media outlets are now using the correct terminology.

WEGNER: There’s a ways to go. I think some of the major networks still tend to either switch the use of the two terms or rely more heavily on the term “swine flu: than we tend to be comfortable with.

World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy expressed regret that the peaceful protest march organized by well meaning members of non-governmental organizations had deteriorated into a confrontation which resulted in destruction of property and several arrests. Meanwhile Lamy, in opening the Seventh WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva, urged members to follow the proverb “unity is strength”, and expressed the hope that “we come out of the next few days stronger, more united and with clear determination to conclude the Round in 2010.”

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

Do as I say, not as I do has never been the rhetoric of good parenting and it doesn’t bode well for countries either. This past July the G-8 leaders, consisting of the U.S., the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada, approved a $20 billion, three year agricultural development aide package in order to help farmers in poor countries learn to produce their own food for their own people. The failure of this year’s U.N. Food and Ag Organization summit in Rome made a complete mockery of that decision. For starters, all but one of the G-8 leaders failed to even show up for the summit while the other representatives of the 192 participating countries unanimously turned down the U.N.’s appeal for financial aide for developing agriculture in poor countries. Several then proceeded to get down to their seemingly more important matters at hand, shopping and partying. To say that such a lack of commitment by our world’s leaders is a disappointment is an understatement. To say that it is a disgrace and comes as no real surprise is sadly all too accurate.

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