The Heat Is On, Food Recall & CRP Opens Up

The Heat Is On, Food Recall & CRP Opens Up

The Heat Is On, Food Recall & CRP Opens Up plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Hot weather again has landed in the northwest with heat advisories in place for many areas along with cautions for increased risk from wildfires. Red flag warnings have been posted throughout central and western Oregon. After years of waiting, landowners will soon have another chance to sign up their land for the Conservation Reserve Program. Under Secretary of Agriculture Jim Miller explaining how much land is expected to be accepted. MILLER: The 2008 Farm Bill passed by Congress revised the total maximum acres allowed in the Conservation Reserve Program to 32-million. There are currently 31-million acres enrolled in the various CRP programs including continuous sign-up programs and the Conservation Reserve Enhancement programs, however at the end of this fiscal year on September 30, 2010 about 4.5 million acres will be expiring. A San Francisco food company, Quong Hop & Co. has recalled hummus, salads, sandwiches, wraps, burritos and stuffed grape leaves branded with the Rachel's label. A number of items that could be tainted with listeria. The products were sold to stores on the West Coast and in the Midwest. The company has stopped manufacturing and is investigating the source of the problem. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Unemployment is still at a record high, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is doing the back stroke after firing U.S. Ag official Shirley Sherrod for being refreshingly honest, Arizona is still taking flack over their crackdown on illegals while farmers struggle to find a "legal" workforce, the majority of Americans do not have health insurance and will not be able to afford it even with the health care reform, gasoline prices are on the rise again, and President Obama says "It could be worse". Not really words of encouragement for a nation that is just barely keeping its head above water right now. At the same time, we need to remember that it is always easier to say how something should be fixed when you're not the one having to do the fixing. It has been a long and bumpy road getting to the place we are today and I'm not sure anyone could really pinpoint the exact moment in time this proverbial snowball started its downward descent. Bottom line, we as a nation are still better off than the majority of our global neighbors. We have the freedoms of speech, religion, assembly, and the press. We also have the freedom to change our government officials every two to four years. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
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