Anti-Terrorism Bill & Haitian Relief

Anti-Terrorism Bill & Haitian Relief plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The U.S. Senate has not decided yet if it will follow the House’s lead in moving a similar chemical anti-terrorism bill but the fertilizer industry already sees problems with what the House did. The House passed legislation in November that increases requirements for fertilizer makers, sellers and users. Farmers would now have to file paperwork to document their chemicals. The Fertilizer Institute’s Pam Gussain says her industry would be forced to substitute new sources of nitrogen for a proven one.

GUSSAIN: Anhydrous ammonia is used as a feedstock for all nitrogen fertilizers and most phosphate fertilizers so at the production level it would take probably take some new science to substitute ammonia in that production process.

When last week’s earth quake hit Haiti the world stood still and took notice.  Then it went into action.  Aid in many forms has been entering Haiti from sea and air from many nations around the world.  President Obama released 100-million dollars to help aid that nation.  As part of that effort, USAID will provide 14,550 tons of food aid which will help feed 1.2-million people for two weeks and is valued at approximately 18-million dollars. In order to expedite delivery, the food stocks will come from supplies already in U.S. Government warehouses. Other organizations across the nation are also contributing foodstuffs to the Haiti recovery effort. A complete list of those organizations can be found at: www.usaid.gov. 

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

Do it over and over again until you get the result you want. That approach seems to work for gubernatorial elections and now it seems that it will be the approach taken by the Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack over the results of the Forest and Agricultural Sector Optimization Model.  To put it in short form the model was developed to simulate the allocation of land over time to competing activities in the ag and forest industries that revolves around the effects of greenhouse gas emissions policy. Contrary to what Vilsack and others were hoping for the results suggest that an ever increasing amount of farm and pasture land will be converted to forest property as green house gas emission standards become stricter and carbon credits more valuable.  That changes the playing field for agriculture substantially. Farmers who now lease land for crops will find that their landlords have opted out for planting trees instead, finding it easier to sell carbon credits than to collect rent. Less land for farming equals fewer farmers, which equals less food produced in the U.S. and high food prices for American consumers due to importing. Not a pretty scenario. No wonder Vilsack is seeking a second and possibly third rosier analysis.

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