Big Changes For Meat Industry & Summer Kicks Off

Big Changes For Meat Industry & Summer Kicks Off plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says major meat companies have too much market power over their growers and he is proposing rules to redistribute that power. Vilsack says he's proposing a ban on packers buying from other packers. VILSACK: We think that there ought to be a prohibition of packers buying and selling from other packers. When they are allowed to buy and sell from each other it creates the circumstance where markets can be manipulated and competition can be impacted and affected in a negative way. Summer officially arrived yesterday. The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year with some 15 hours of sunshine...that is if you could find any across the northwest. Temperatures were ranging 5 to 10 degrees below normal with cloud cover obscuring that sunshine. There has also been an abundance of moisture across the state even though last year we tied the record for the driest spring. Guess we can't have it both ways. The forecast for the remainder of the week do appear to be a bit more on the normal side but still one can't help and ask...is this what climate change is all about? Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. From the stories circulating around you would think that the giant Palouse earthworm was the stuff made of legends; a body length of at least five feet, leaving trails and holes in the earth that would swallow medium sized dogs or small children. None of that is true of course and in fact pictures of the giant Palouse earthworm show it to be not nearly as impressive as some night crawlers we used to dig up back in Kansas. The picture provided by the University of Idaho of an adult worm showed it stretched to its full length of ten to twelve inches. What a disappointment. The federal government obviously felt the same when they denied environmental groups an endangered species listing for the giant Palouse earthworm. Environmental groups are upset and will probably pursue the matter but for now farmers and ranchers can rest easy that the business of agriculture in the Palouse region can continue on as usual. And the giant Palouse earthworm? It will probably continue on as usual also, fifteen to twenty feet underground, unaware of the "giant" legal battle that has been waging on in its behalf. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.