Wine Grapes Are Slow & Ethanol Tax Credits on the Line

Wine Grapes Are Slow & Ethanol Tax Credits on the Line plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Ethanol opponents in the U. S. Senate are going after the blenders’ tax credit again…and even some allies are seeking changes. Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn and California Democrat Dianne Feinstein would repeal by June 30th, the 45-cent a gallon ethanol blender’s credit and the ethanol import tariff. Among the bill’s supporters, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association…NCBA’s Colin Woodall.

WOODALL: We are really concerned what it’s doing to our industry. We have long been the largest or were the largest user of corn until ethanol came in and we don’t have any problem with ethanol but we think with all the support they’ve already received though, they should be in a situation where they can move on and be a market based commodity.

Last year’s cool, wet spring seems to be having a rerun this year and that means a lot of northwest crops are running late including cherries and grapes. Vineyard owners are reporting that bud break or when the flowers open is about 2 weeks late. I can attest to that with my own vine in the back yard. Whether this will translate into a significant crop decline is anyone’s guess. What growers want now is days of dry weather with temperatures reaching 70 degrees or higher.

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

There’s nothing quite as dangerous as misinformed and misguided do gooders. This can be demonstrated by voters across the country passing what they thought would be protective legislation for farm animals; not realizing they’d been duped by sensationalistic journalism at its worst. Doctored video images of supposedly mistreated farm animals blasted across the internet are all the rage now, hence the need for legislators in several states to now be considering bills that would make the popular methods used to acquire these “undercover” video creations illegal. Before you scream foul, consider these videos are staged publicity stunts, acquired fraudulently. If these self proclaimed fairy godmothers of animal agriculture really and truly cared about any possible wrong doing in the care of these animals, they would immediately report any abuse to the proper authorities; instead they wait several weeks or months before disclosing their information, proving that Photo Shop and Final Cut Pro aren't that easy. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of time and energy to get something to look and sound just they way you would like.

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