Cantaloupes Add Another Victim & Winning with Wind

Cantaloupes Add Another Victim & Winning with Wind plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Wind energy is mostly developed on private lands - and almost all of that private development is happening on farms and ranches in America’s rural communities. That’s why American Wind Energy Association Senior Vice President of Public Policy Rob Gramlich says wind energy policies are so important to farmers, ranchers and rural Americans. He talks about one policy.

GRAMLICH: That’s a tax credit where the owner of a wind project has a reduction in their tax liability to the IRS if they produce kilowatt hours of electricity. It’s a tax incentive that’s been supported on a bipartisan basis and the only problem with it is it expires every other year so it’s time now to go back and get that extended.

Federal health officials have raised the death toll to 18 in an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday it has confirmed 100 illnesses in 20 states, including the 18 deaths. The death toll may continue to rise. Wyoming's state health department said it has confirmed a death in that state linked to the outbreak, though the CDC did not include that case in its count. Jensen Farms in Holly, Colo. recalled its cantaloupes Sept. 14 after the farm's melons were traced to the listeria illnesses.

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

Here in the United States many of us take our electric or gas cookstoves for granted; we just walk into the kitchen and flip the burner on whenever we want to cook up the family meal or snack. In developing nations around the world millions of people are dependent on charcoal for their daily cooking needs. Not only that, they are often cooking in homes without cook fans or even the simplest of ventilation, hence many families are subjected to health damaging indoor air pollution. To help these families the Danish biotech firm Novozymes has been working on a plan to create a sustainable agricultural business model for farmers in these areas in order to teach them to sustainably farm for food and for biomass, instead of relying on charcoal. In addition, a network would be set up in order for these farmers to make a profit trading their surplus crop on the open market. Yes, plans like these will benefit companies like Novozymes as well, but in its broadest sense the fundamental principles of helping farmers and communities in developing countries to rely on sustainable agriculture for food and energy needs while increasing their livelihood is a plus for everyone.

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