Swarming Bees & Ethanol Incentive

Swarming Bees & Ethanol Incentive plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The Obama Administration opposes a straight repeal of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit as well as efforts to block programs that will give consumers more access to biofuels. With respect to incentives, the Administration is open to new approaches that meet today’s challenges and save taxpayers money. Washington Congressman Doc Hastings.

HASTINGS: There are a number of ways to determine an outcome; you can mandate it or incentivize whatever that outcome is. I’m very much in favor of incentivizing and the way we tend to incentivize on the federal level is through tax code and so forth. That’s been the case with ethanol. But I’ve also said in the long run that at some point whatever it is that you incentivize has to be ready for the market and be able to compete. And I think the whole ethanol debate is getting to that point.

A swarm of bees seemed to take over a MAX stop in Portland last Thursday but according to beekeepers, the bees were just doing what comes naturally. Passerby’s used cameras to capture the unusual sight. When a hive becomes over crowded a new queen takes over and the old queen will leave, taking a significant amount of workers with her. The bees clustered together on a branch of a cherry tree appearing about 1pm and finished their business and moved on by 5.

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

Move over Steampunk, “Farmpunk” is here. No, it’s not farmers with pierced body parts, sporting chains, leather, and spiked hairdos. “Farmpunk” is the brainchild of American furniture designers, Unite Two Design, and utilizes recycled farm materials; everything from rustic barn beams to cattle watering troughs, old axles, sprockets, and discarded silo parts. Ingenious really in design, Farmpunk furniture manages to look centuries old while at the same time futuristic. Imagine sitting on a bench made from two hundred year old beams, steel wagon wheels, retired traffic signs, and twisted silo bands. While perhaps not for everyone, whether because of the eclectic design, or the price, which can be a tad bit high, those looking for unique, out of the ordinary furniture design will be smitten with Farmpunk furnishings. And one thing’s for certain, using recycled and reclaimed materials to create new and useful items is definitely a trend that is here to stay. Recycled furniture no longer has to mean stained couches or lumpy chairs grabbed from the curbside, now we’re talking fully functioning, environmentally friendly works of art.

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