Blocking Imports & Russian Problem

Blocking Imports & Russian Problem plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Two months ago the United States and Taiwan signed a bilateral agreement that expanded the list of U.S. beef products Taiwan would accept as imports. But now, Taiwan's political parties have agreed to ban ground beef, offal and possibly bone-in beef from any country found to have BSE in the past 10 years. If these beef import restrictions are voted into law next week, the new ban would effectively revoke the October agreement. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says this shows the sensitivity of the relationship between the countries.

GRASSLEY: This is something that is so sensitive that from time to time I have the ambassador from Taiwan come to my office or phone and give me updates on what’s happening.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food in Moscow has confirmed to the World Organization for Animal Health new outbreaks of pandemic influenza A H1N1 in Russia. The outbreak was confirmed in a pig herd in the Republic of Chuvashia. In the herd of just over 10-thousand animals, 45 pigs were found infected. The Ministry said no pigs died or had to be culled.

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

Wikipedia describes FarmVille as a real time farm simulation game on Facebook that allows members to manage a virtual farm. FarmVille has only been around since June of 2009 and has already become Facebook’s most popular game application. It’s not surprising in this day and age of the virtual game world that they would create a game about farming, what is surprising is that it would become a world, yes world, favorite. People who play FarmVille can tend to various crops and animals, most of which are based on real life counterparts, and some not, as in pink cows and alien goats. While the popular farming game isn’t what you could declare as realistic it does offer players the chance to gain an appreciation for where their food really comes from. FarmVille does have it’s fair share of detractors who claim that playing the game amounts to little more than an on-line chore, or that staring at a wall would be more productive. My guess is these are the die hard gamers who need blood and guts for their games to be entertaining. As for me, I’m perfectly happy with my little plot of virtual land and if there happen to be a few pink cows giving strawberry milk all the better!

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