Halting Imports & Banning Ethanol

Halting Imports & Banning Ethanol plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The New Hampshire House has passed a bill that would ban the sale of corn-based ethanol in the state on the grounds that this was how the state could send a message that the ethanol mandate raises prices on our gas and is a windfall profit for the corn growers and the big agri-farms in the Midwest. Matt Hartwig with the Renewable Fuels Association sees it differently.

HARTWIG: I think the State House, the House of Representatives there in New Hampshire may be a little bit misinformed as to the role of ethanol in the fuel market. Ethanol in fact is the only thing that is putting any downward pressure on the price of gasoline and on the price of oil. If you look at it today a gallon of ethanol is less than a gallon of gasoline on the wholesale market. SO when you are blending 10% ethanol you’re seeing a savings of anywhere between a nickel and a dime

Late Tuesday, the U.S Food and Drug Administration said it will halt imports of dairy products and produce from the area of Japan where a nuclear reactor is leaking radiation. Those foods will be detained at entry and will not be sold to the public. Other foods imported from Japan, including seafood, still will be sold to the public but screened first for radiation. Japanese foods make up less than 4 percent of all U.S. imports, and the FDA said it expects no risk to the U.S. food supply from radiation.

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

Eminent domain, the act of taking private property for the public good, with or without the permission of the owner, generally with just compensation, is something most private property owners will never have to face, and thank goodness for that. On occasion eminent domain can be definite necessity, as in the case of schools, hospitals, fire stations and other public good purposes, but more and more often this law is being misused and abused under highly questionable validity and impropriety where it benefits specific individuals rather than the public. Private property owners that fall victim to this more often than not are farmers and ranchers; as is currently happening now in Idaho where two bills are currently being considered by the legislature that would ban the use of eminent domain for the taking of private property for the sole use of recreational purposes. The current trend of using an expansive and twisted version of eminent domain for personal gain needs to stop. In fact, perhaps the very concept of eminent domain needs to be reevaluated since it so obviously contradicts the very principle of property rights.

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