Claims Settlement Act & Christmas Trees Ready

Claims Settlement Act & Christmas Trees Ready plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. White House officials are holding a press conference today to discuss the outcome of the Claims Settlement Act of 2010. Last week President Obama said the settlement will at long last provide funding for the agreements reached in the Pigford II lawsuit, brought by African American farmers, and the Cobell lawsuit, brought by Native Americans over the management of Indian trust accounts and resources. Today's on the record press conference will discuss the next steps in securing final passage of the Claims Settlement Act of 2010. With Thanksgiving 2010 a thing of the past and the Christmas shopping season well under way Oregon Christmas tree farmers are getting into high gear according to Gary McAninch of the Oregon Department of Agriculture. MCANINCH: Shippers are cutting trees right now. They are processing those trees; they are loading trucks and sending them out of state to other states or to foreign countries. Over 80 percent of the trees that we harvest in Oregon go out of state. The reason it gets so busy is that the Christmas tree shipping season is very narrow because of the nature of the holiday. So they all pretty much ship in five or six weeks. Mexico is the number one export market for Oregon Christmas trees. Closer to home, California is the big buyer, responsible for nearly half of all trees cut and sold. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Think of it as a quilting bee and boardroom meeting combined, only with dirt. Crop Mobs are the brainchild of several young farmers who decided instead of just sitting around a table discussing what they and others like them could do to encourage other young people to take up farming they would take their discussion and incorporate it with harvesting, planting, or weeding. In their words, "they build much deeper relationships and accomplish so much more addressing the challenges and possible solutions for young farmers" while they work side by side in a field rather than sitting around a conference table. Like quilting bees of the past these Crop Mobs are work, slash social, slash therapy events; giving participants the opportunity to gather with like minded individuals for some in depth trouble shooting, while simultaneously giving them a real sense of accomplishment not often felt in the typical meeting room or discussion group atmosphere, where so often individuals walk away feeling a lot was discussed but nothing was accomplished. So the Crop Mobs, as one popular comedian is so fond of saying, really do "git 'er done". Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information