Fire Damage & Best Deal

Fire Damage & Best Deal plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Senate deal to end the ethanol blenders credit this month has removed the nearly six-billion a year ethanol subsidy and tariff on imported ethanol - with a consolation 668-million in continued help for cellulosic ethanol and blender pumps - plus 1.3-billion in deficit reduction. Renewable Fuels’ Matt Hartwig says it’s the best his industry could get.

HARTWIG: Certainly we would have preferred a longer phase down of the tax incentive in greater investment and infrastructure in cellulosic ethanol but it is better than cutting off investment in ethanol technologies cold turkey.

As summer marches on we will hear more and more about wildfires cropping up all around the Pacific Northwest. Firefighters have already had to deal with fires ignited by careless fireworks use and now we hear of a fire near Kuna, Idaho on Sunday night that managed to destroy 200 bales of hay. The fire was caused by someone burning weeds. Fortunately no one was injured but it is a reminder that extra caution is required when doing any outdoor burning.

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

Once more the potato is under attack from yet another study brandishing the potato as a leader in the nation’s problem with weight gain. The study, which is out of Harvard, claims that eating extra servings of potatoes can add to weight gain; along with extra servings of certain proteins and other starches. And here again one has to ask, isn’t the “extra” the part of that equation that is the real catalyst for weight gain. The more you eat, the more you’re going to weigh, if you don’t have sufficient counter activity. Pair the overeating of any food with how it is prepared, saturating it in butter, or smothering it in cheese for instance, will introduce weight gain. What frustrated parent of a toddler hasn’t been tempted to get them to eat their vegetables with cheese as a disguise topping? It is interesting to learn that one of this study’s main researchers, professor Walter Willett, has made it his personal goal to debase the potato. He has written several reports, and even books with an anti-potato theme. What caused Willett’s unnatural anti-potato bias one can only guess. We can only guess too how seemingly intelligent people can be so obtuse.

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