Lawsuit Tossed & Don't Cut SNAP

Lawsuit Tossed & Don't Cut SNAP plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says this is the wrong time to cut SNAP benefits, as some lawmakers have proposed. Vilsack told a House panel that the SNAP program helps stimulate the economy, but he hopes that soon the economy will be strong enough so that fewer families will need that extra assistance to buy food. VILSACK: When you increase the opportunities for families to buy more they in fact buy more which means that grocery stores have to shelve more, they have to truck more, they have to process more, they have to package more all of that is related in some way, shape or form to job creation and saving jobs. Depending on the multiplier we are talking about tens of thousands of jobs that are impacted by this. So I think it's important to look at SNAP in that context. Conagra is off the hook after a lawsuit by a Spokane Valley man who ate up to seven bags of microwave popcorn a day was tossed out of court. Larry Newkirk claimed Conagra and a host of other companies did not warn people about the dangers of an additive that has now been taken out of microwave popcorn. Newkirk claimed he suffered from a condition known as "popcorn lung," which some say is formed by inhaling the fumes from popcorn that had the additive Diacetyl, which is blamed for making some factory workers sick. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. The latest buzz on the street...bees don't like or tolerate cell phones, or to be more specific, the electromagnetic radiation they put out. In the frantic search to discover the cause of colony collapse disorder some researchers are grasping at anything and everything to explain why and how the honey bee is quickly becoming an endangered species. And with good reason. The honey bee's small size in no way defines their overall importance to the world of agriculture. Without the pollination services of these small dynamos much of our agricultural system would unravel. Numerous studies in the last several years have tested the theory of electromagnetic radiations effect on bees, most being inconclusive. So, two scientists in India decided to step up their testing by several degrees and actually place not one but two cell phones in a working bee hive, transmitting signals twice a day for fifteen minute intervals. Needless to say, it disrupted the hive. Does this prove anything though other than if wanted badly enough we can force conditions to get the outcome we seek? The legitimate cause of CCD is still under investigation, hopefully using responsible and reliable scientific research in order to get the answers we seek. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.