02/23/05 Bills for view; No merger

Northwest ag interests might want to keep an eye on some bills introduced in Congress recently. One is another attempt by two Senators to impose tighter farm program payment limits. The effort by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan is similar to the measure introduced by President Bush in his proposed fiscal year 2006 budget. Another is the Risk Management Enhancement Act, which would expand crop insurance alternatives for farmers and ranchers, while reducing the need for disaster aid packages in the future. Another measure would give ag retailers, distributors, and manufactures a fifty per cent tax credit if they chose to implement security measures. The Agricultural Business Security Tax Credit Act would help participating businesses gain the financial resources needed to address security risks. Then there is Iowa Congressman Steve King's bill which would increase the number of young farmers by increasing the amount of credit available for beginning farmers through banking institutions. A plan to consolidate the "big three" of the U.S. wheat industry may have to wait until this summer's meeting of the U.S. Wheat Associates. That is when the organization could reconsider this week's vote to not join with the National Association of Wheat Growers and Wheat Export Trade Education Committee. While U.S. Wheat's board of directors did approve consolidate, its membership vote of the issue barely failed to garner the two-thirds majority needed for approval. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. ALLEN: I'd call this hypocrisy!! I happened to catch the tail-end of a radio talk show outside of Walla Walla heading towards the Palouse. A guest on the Bill O' Reilly radio program was the infamous environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the conversation was, Coincidently, (since I had driven past a skyline doted with endless wind turbines), wind power. Seems Mr. Kennedy is in favor of wind power as an alternative energy source and believes that it will play a critical role in fighting the treaded "g" word (global warming). But in typical elitist fashion, he would rather wind combines be in someone else back yard than his pristine Cape Cod coast. Mr. Kennedy is quite content to keep wind turbines in places like Eastern Oregon. Of course, O'Reilly recognized the hypocrisy of someone who could be support wind power, as long as he didn't have to look at it. If wind power can reduce the use of fossil fuels, than maybe only the regions that support it, should have access to it. Come to think of it, it sounds like the same mindset that wanted to remove our dams. I'm Susan Allen and this is Food Forethought.