Not So Good News & Advocating Ag

Not So Good News & Advocating Ag plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Barney Visser is the CEO of Furniture Row Companies and has no ties to agriculture but according to Troy Hadrick of Advocates for Agriculture, Visser saw some of the same trends in agriculture that he’d seen in the furniture industry and wanted to do something about it. Hadrick says the goal is to put a face on those involved in agriculture and promote the importance of the industry

HADDRICK: Barney put together an incredible paint scheme for a Nascar, but has used the Furniture Row retail locations to help tell that story and so we’re still in the beginning processes of putting all these plans in place and getting them going but it’s just an unbelievable opportunity for us in agriculture to get the story out.

The good news of last week’s Mexico tariff issue has turned sour after Mexico announced that it is responding to the U.S. proposal to negotiate an end to the Mexican tariffs by not adding any more goods or changing the list. However, the Mexican government plans to continue levying a tariff on all products currently on the list. A number of political leaders have called on the Mexican government to halt all tariffs now that the Administration has released an initial proposal.  

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray. 

While most of us are still bundling up due to the onslaught of winter a group of people are hard at work to discover efficient ways to fight a summertime pest, one that causes millions of dollars in damage each year, grasshoppers.  Considering federal and state pest control agencies spend millions each year to control grasshopper populations it’s ironic they’re now finding controlled burning of rangeland and farmland can be used effectively and selectively in the battle to manage grasshoppers. This has all the earmarks of one of those “well, duh” moments. Controlled land burns are a subject of much debate, with environmental groups and farmers butting heads over the now highly controversial practice. Farmers have long used field burning to control pests and rid fields of diseases, but many have had to adopt alternatives to burning because of current strict regulations. Environmentalists however are not in favor of many alternatives to controlled burning either. While scientists admit controlled burning isn’t the lone answer to managing grasshoppers, they have gone on record to state it’s an effective and needed “tool in their arsenal”.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.