Idaho Wildfires & Obama Talks Exports

Idaho Wildfires & Obama Talks Exports plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

President Obama says he's seeking ways to help small and mid sized farms who are being squeezed in today's economy. At the town hall meeting in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, talking about farm exports being on the rise.

OBAMA: One of the pledges that I made when I came into office was, we’re going to double our exports. And a big component of that is agricultural exports. So far we’ve seen agricultural exports rise to over $100 billion dollars. That means over 800-thousand jobs all across America.

The President had breakfast yesterday with five small Iowa rural business owners so he could hear directly from them about their experiences and highlight the steps his administration has taken to assist them.

Folks in Idaho have been keeping an eye on a number of lightening sparked wild fires. At least 9 fires were ignited by a Sunday evening storm and firefighters were having a tough time making headway. So far, the fires have burned thousands of acres. They were burning outside of Boise, Bruneau, Mountain Home and Glenns Ferry. Because there are so many different areas burning, the Boise Bureau of Land Management asked several different agencies for help, including the Vale and Twin Falls BLM and the Boise National Forest.

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

Ever driven down a country lane and noticed beautiful plants thriving along the roadside and wondered what they are, and if they might not look good in a domestic setting? My husband would tell you that I do it all the time. If we leave the city limits, the first thing I’m looking for is unique native plant life. Steve Love, a research professor in Idaho, has apparently spent years doing the same thing, only he isn’t just admiring these native plants, he’s now collecting them to study and breed for use in domestic gardens and landscapes. It’s something so obvious you wonder why someone hasn’t done this before now. With everyone searching for ways to conserve our natural resources, especially water, it only makes sense to incorporate an area’s native plants, plants that often times use very little water for survival, into eco friendly urban landscapes. This doesn’t mean though that Love just heads out into the rural countryside, grabs up some native plants, and brings them back for domestication. Out of roughly eight hundred species of plants only fifty have been deemed right for domestication, but it’s a step in the right direction.

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