Oregon's Shortfall & Dairy Farm Video

Oregon's Shortfall & Dairy Farm Video plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Another undercover video is hitting the airwaves this week - this time featuring an Ohio dairy farm. Joe Cornely with The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation says through his many years of experience - he knows practices like this on any farm are the exception and not the rule. CORNELY: I have not spoken to anybody since the video came out that condones that type of action. Our single biggest concern as always is that this will be portrayed as business as usual on livestock farms and we know that is not the case. Even though experts say the recession is over the State of Oregon is facing a $562 million shortfall for the current biennium which runs through next year. Gov. Ted Kulongoski ordered across-the-board cuts in state spending and said that state spending would be trimmed 9 percent for the rest of the current budget period. Last week a task force called the Reset Cabinet appointed by Kulongoski released a report saying the state will confront a decade of multibillion dollar deficits unless lawmakers control state spending. The governor said the magnitude of the budget problem must be understood by the public and decision-makers alike, and there isn't just one solution. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Why is it we as humans feel the need to impose our likes or dislikes onto our fellow human beings? This annoying human trait can pertain to anything as simple as preferring strawberry over chocolate ice cream to sports team affiliations, or whether or not to eat only organically grown foods. Who can honestly say one is better than the other. A recently published review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition states there is no scientific evidence proving organic food is any healthier than conventionally grown food. Now, before those of you who prefer to buy only organic food come after me with tar and feathers consider this; in a world where a large percentage of the population faces starvation is it really practical to expect the entire world to go organic? In reality, organic agriculture can not feed the world. The United States alone would require additional livestock numbering in the millions to supply manure and an additional billion acres at best for forage crops. There goes the lid on greenhouse gases. There is room however for both organic and conventional grown food in the consumer marketplace. If you can afford and prefer organic, more power to you, if not that's okay too, really. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.