That Noisy Bag & Former President on Ag

That Noisy Bag & Former President on Ag plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Former President Bill Clinton told USDA's Outlook Forum that people working in agriculture should be looking not just at short-term income, but also long term ability to produce the food the world will need.

CLINTON: When it’s all said and done we should be asking ourselves are we both increasing short term farm income and making life more sustainable in rural areas. Is what we’re doing good for America today and is it helping the world to feed itself so it will be good for a world tomorrow with a rapidly growing population. What happens in agriculture will shape the resolution of these issues in America and around the world.

Remember the ultra loud SunChips bag that was being touted by Frito Lay as biodegradable. While people were excited about it they just didn’t buy it. Well now they have come out with a quieter version that is still biodegradable although according to reports the degradability of the packaging is somewhat in question. Testing found that the bag, after 13 weeks in a compost pile, remained intact. The new bags are available now but only for original SunChips.

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

Nearly a year ago several US organic standard holders were quoted as saying that a crackdown by the USDA on the misuse of the term “organic” on products was not expected to come to pass any time soon. They were wrong. The National Organic Standards Board, a Congress appointed panel to the USDA, working to obtain general agreement in the organic community for informed regulatory decisions, has obviously been quite successful in recommending that the USDA get tough on the misuse of the word organic or misrepresentation of organic status by producers or companies.  The manner in which the USDA National Organic Program has decided to get tough is hitting most companies and operations where it hurts, in the pocketbook. For nearly the first time ever, hefty financial penalties are being issued in the organic community by the USDA, which will hopefully help remove the chaff, so to speak, from the industry. With this and other new operating procedures now in place for the NOP a much more effective auditing and enforcement entity within the USDA should be forthwith, and “organic integrity” should be the resulting outcome.

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