Vilsack's Busy Agenda & Ordinance Against Panhandlers

Vilsack's Busy Agenda & Ordinance Against Panhandlers plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Ag Secretary Vilsack is in Tokyo this week to work on trade issues with Japan and working on getting age limits on cattle raised. VILSACK: Getting working groups together to try to begin the process of working through all of the issues that might be created if we go from 20 months to 30 months or 20 months to some other time frame. What does that entail, what does that involve. Vilsack will set down with his Japanese counter-part today. National Cattlemen's Beef Association Chief Economist Gregg Doud says while they don't expect any major movement on the issue - Vilsack is laying important groundwork with the new political party and their ag minister. A week ago Seattle decided to crack down on smoking in city parks now they are looking at doing the same with panhandlers. An effort to put an end to aggressive panhandling has passed through a Seattle City Council sub-committee and is now moving forward to the full Seattle City Council. It could mean a $50 citation but some opponents say if panhandlers had $50 to pay a citation, they wouldn't be panhandling. Point taken. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Consider it a fad, an obsession, or a strange version of adult show and tell, people posting photos of what they consume daily has hit an all time high. Frankly, I just don't get it. Perhaps I'm out of touch or maybe I just don't consider what I eat exciting enough to be posted on Facebook or MySpace; truth be known it's probably a combination of both, either way; I fail to understand this newest internet phenomenon. Psychiatrists who specialize in eating disorders and food fixations say it's a natural way of recapturing that earliest connection we felt of food equaling love. Ok.... I guess I can understand that. I enjoy nothing more than planting a large variety of veggies and fruits in the spring, nurturing them, protecting them from the elements and predators, and watching them grow. And when it comes to harvest time I have been known to take a picture or two of my garden's beautiful bounty. So, this is actually getting easier for me to understand all the time. In fact, I think I'll start my own web diary of garden delights! Hey, have I shown you my pictures of last year's heirloom tomatoes or the one of the zucchini that was bigger than my grandson? Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.