Agritourism & A Verbal Flogging

Agritourism & A Verbal Flogging plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

More and more people are discovering that spending some vacation down on the farm is really nice. Ellie Rilla of University of California - Davis Extension says the need to bring more money onto the farm and ranch is drawing more operators into agritourism ventures.

RILLA: To me this phenomenon of agritourism that is sort of sweeping the country and I subscribe to a Google alert for the word agritourism and I probably get 15 Google alerts every day for some form of agritourism. Either the Indiana legislature is just passing a liability release law around agritourism or somebody is talking about starting up something in another state so I think it’s partially a phenomenon just based on the fact that farmers are really looking for other venues to increase or diversify their revenue.

Last week Senate Democrats called top executives from the five biggest oil companies before a congressional hearing to flog them verbally for high gasoline prices, big profits and generous tax breaks that Democrats would like to end but don't have the votes to stop. The five companies booked profits totaling $36 billion the first quarter of this year. The Democrats say that with profits that high, the big oil companies wouldn't miss tax breaks that average $2 billion a year.

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

Can you say “hypocrite”? Good, because it perfectly describes Mexico’s President Calderon’s illegal immigration views. Calderon has made hypocritical criticism of Arizona’s new immigration law loudly and regularly since the law went into effect last year. Most of the public uproar over Arizona’s immigration legislation stems from the law stating that law enforcement officers can check on immigration status of an individual after a lawful stop, arrest, or detention for “any other law or ordinance of a county, city, or town, or this state”, and only if they have “reasonable suspicion” that the person is an illegal. Simply put, the law makes it a state crime to be in Arizona illegally. Sounds reasonable enough when compared to Mexico’s illegal entry laws, which makes illegal entry a crime punishable by imprisonment for up to two years, a fine of five thousand pesos, and deportation. Repeat offenders may receive up to ten years imprisonment. Also Mexican police can perform verification visits, demand from foreigners proof of legal presence in Mexico at any time, or cause foreigners to appear before immigration authorities

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