Plastic or Paper & School Lunch Funding

Plastic or Paper & School Lunch Funding plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The school lunch program could be in jeopardy unless Congress acts before the current fiscal year ends. The lunch program could expire at the end of September but Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan is urging the passage of the Child Nutrition Act which also includes a Farm-to-School provision that helps farmers sell produce to local schools. MERRIGAN: We know that if we succeed in passing this legislation it will be the first time since 1973 that Congress will increase the federal reimbursement rate for school lunches. Everyone is concerned they want higher quality school lunch, somehow we have to find the money to pay for it and we hope this legislation will do the job. On Friday the City of Edmonds, Washington began a ban on plastic bags, the first in the state. Edmonds shoppers will need to use paper bags or reusable shopping totes. Not all plastic is banned. Plastic bags used for produce, meat, or bulk food are exempt, along with plastic bags used for takeout food from restaurants. Businesses that violate the law face a $100 fine. A few stores were proactive and have been plastic free for some time. Paper bags cost almost triple the price of plastic bags so stores will be urging shoppers to use the reusable bags more. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. We are in the dog days of summer; a time for most people to get in last minute vacations to the beach and enjoy sleeveless weather for just a brief time longer before Mother Nature changes her mind and decides to wrap us in a blanket of snow. While the rest of us are enjoying these last vestiges of summer there's a group of men and women out there who are at their busiest this time of year, putting their lives on the line daily fighting range and forest fires. There have been several fires here in the Northwest this summer, most started by lightning or accidental causes but there have also been a couple of fires, one just this last week, that burned more than twelve thousand acres of rangeland and was started by suspicious means. If I live to be one hundred and ten, I will never understand those twisted people who find a secret pleasure in starting fires. The devastation caused by fire behaves like the ripples in a pond, destroying not only the land and vegetation, but any animals, humans, their homes and personal property in its path. Tragically, this is a threat that will never go away; thank goodness then for our nation's brave and self-sacrificing firefighters. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.