DDG's Listed, H1N1 Retreat & Let's Move

Wednesday Feb 17th, 2010 62 Views Northwest Report

DDG’s Listed, H1N1 Retreat & Let’s Move plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

First Lady Michelle Obama has announced a new program called “Let’s Move” designed to help combat childhood obesity.

OBAMA: We also plan to double the number of schools in the Healthier U.S. Schools challenge. This is an innovative program out of the Department of Agriculture that recognizes schools doing the very best work to keep kids healthy.

CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, has announced the launch of Distillers’ Dried Grain agricultural commodity futures contracts, scheduled to begin trading April 26. These contracts are listed with the Chicago Board of Trade. DDG’s are a byproduct of corn-produced ethanol, is used for animal feed, including livestock and dairy cows.

Some 57-million Americans have contracted the H1N1 flu virus but today, indications are the H1N1 virus is in retreat. Two million cases, and just over 500 deaths, occurred between December 11 and January 16. However, officials have not ruled out the possibility of another outbreak this winter.

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

I found the recent article about the family from Miami, Florida lured to rural North Dakota by free land and cash only to find that it wasn’t just the weather in North Dakota giving them a frigid reception interesting. I was raised in a small farming community in Kansas and know for a fact that there are pros and cons to living in a rural community. For the most part everybody knows everybody and their business, and if they don’t, they make it their goal to find out. That sounds like a bad thing but in reality it can work out to be beneficial for most in the community. Neighbors watch out for neighbors. In reading the whole story, the family from Miami didn’t really make an earnest attempt to become “good neighbors” or an active part of the community, other than a failed attempt at a bistro next to the local coffee shop. By their own admission they kept to themselves and had little to do with the locals. That may be perfectly normal behavior for Miami, but it doesn’t generally go over well in a small rural community. Sadly, they are leaving rural life to move back to a city with high taxes, a high crime rate, and high traffic.