The Recession is Over & Sage Grouse Initiative

The Recession is Over & Sage Grouse Initiative plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. NRCS has rolled out their Sage-Grouse Habitat Initiative in 11 western states including Idaho, Washington and Oregon and according to USDA Under Secretary Harris Sherman more money is being made available. SHERMAN: We have a request in under the 2011 budget for about $25-million dollars. Our intention here is to work with farmers and ranchers in protecting this very important species and allow these ranchers to continue doing what they're doing but to employ a variety of conservation measures which will help protect this bird. So if the recession is over, how come I don't feel better about it? The National Bureau of Economic Research, that's the ones who decide such things, says the "Great Recession" is over and it lasted just a year and a half. So why aren't we cheering? The statistics are familiar and grim. Since the recession began, 7.3 million jobs have disappeared. Nearly 2.5 million homes have been repossessed. Unemployment is at 9.6 percent. Since the technical end of the recession, the economy has been growing. But the growth has been painfully slow. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Wal-Mart has found itself stuck between a rock and a super box store sized hard place. With sales falling they've decided to try opening smaller neighborhood stores. To quote the CEO of Wal-Mart, they plan to "beg, borrow, and steal business concepts from smaller store formats", and put that ideal to work for the Wal-Mart chain in outlying urban communities. Hmm, this is different in what respect? This business approach was already put to work by them in rural areas. Numerous small locally owned stores have been put out of business over the last decade as Wal-Mart spread it's own brand of cheap across America. What might be different this time around is the simple fact that Wal-Mart's novelty has worn off. Most consumers have discovered they can find significantly higher quality products with affordable pricing at their local merchants and farmers markets; and the shopping experience at these places comes with a much higher degree of overall customer service and satisfaction. People are rediscovering the simple fact that you get what you pay for, and in these days of tough economic times they want their hard earned money to buy more than the Wal-Mart brand of low quality, low service. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.