Health Care Hurdle & Declines for Christmas Trees

Health Care Hurdle & Declines for Christmas Trees plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Christmas Tree farmers were optimistic that this holiday season would be a better one for their business but according to Chris Mertz, with the USDA's Agricultural Statistics Service in Portland, Oregon, the prices many Christmas tree growers have been getting for their trees have declined recently.

MERTZ: We’ve seen out here that the price of trees have declined in Oregon and I would expect nationwide. To give you an example in 2003 for all operations that average price of a tree was $17.06 while in 2008 the average price was $15.01.

Yesterday the U.S. Senate voted along party lines for cloture on the health care reform bill. By a vote of 60 to 40, health care reform moved one step closer to a final vote expected Christmas Eve. Two more procedural votes on Majority Leader Harry Reid’s revised package are necessary before it can be sent to a House-Senate conference committee. Washington insiders say those conference committee negotiations could last into January.  Missing is the government-run public insurance plan.  The most recent cost estimate for the bill is 871-billion dollars over the next decade.

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

Survival of the strongest and the fittest just won’t cut it any more; especially it seems if you’re an owl. The very timid and government protected Spotted owl has put up with the highly aggressive and larger Barred owl for just about the last time. Looks like “big brother” is going to step in and “take out” the barred owls.  Just how the Feds plan on doing this hasn’t yet been decided; they’re studying on how to proceed. They say they may trap and remove the barred owl bullies or they may just shoot them. If you’re like me that last choice of removal made me cringe. I’ve never been one to tolerate bullies and I have the scars to prove it, but to permanently remove one species of owl in order for another to survive makes me wonder if we aren’t going to end up doing more harm than good. Is the situation between the dominant barred owl and the fearful spotted owl a fully natural progression? So far the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services are proceeding with an environmental study and are asking environmental groups for their opinions on the matter. Hope they’re prepared; there will probably be a lot of feedback on this one.

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