Saving the Farm & No Drilling Ban

Saving the Farm & No Drilling Ban plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has been busy looking at ways to structure the 2012 Farm Bill and believes that one thing that can help save the farmer is off farm job opportunities. VILSACK: If you are getting a $4-thousand dollar check from a direct payment, that's not going to keep your operation. That's not going to pay your healthcare bill. But you got a job that pays 30-thousand dollars, 40-thousand dollars and it's got benefits, now all of a sudden you can hang on to that hundred, two-hundred acre operation. You can actually make ends meet. About 20 West Coast lawmakers are backing legislation that would permanently ban new offshore drilling in federal waters near California, Oregon and Washington. The lawmakers are citing the oil spill in the Gulf Coast as an example of why the legislation introduced Wednesday is necessary. President Barack Obama recently committed to maintaining a moratorium on offshore drilling and exploration along those states. He took that step even as he proposed expanding oil and gas production in other waters off the East Coast and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The lawmakers, all Democrats, say the legislation written by Rep. John Garamendi of California would be extra insurance. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Could it possibly be true, are some farmers really profiting from smut? The answer would be yes, and that would be corn smut. A disease of corn caused by a plant fungus corn smut has caused grief for farmers here in the U.S. for years and millions of dollars have been spent trying get rid of it. That is until now. Scientists recently revealed that corn smut actually has nutritional value consisting of minerals and proteins not found anywhere else. Latin cultures have eaten corn smut for years considering it a delicacy, describing its flavor as earthy, woody, savory and sweet all at the same time; culinary descriptions most often used when discussing the taste of mushrooms. By persuading some organic farmers to allow the fungus to infect their corn crops, then harvest and sell it, scientists were able to determine that ears of corn having the fungus sell for nearly ten times the amount of regular ears of corn. While it still hasn't caught on with American farmers who regard it as a blight, high end restaurants and famous chefs are beginning to create a demand for it. The Latin name for corn smut, Huitlacoche, is hard to wrap your lips around so some restaurants have tried renaming it the Mexican Truffle. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.