Addressing Money Issues & Better Prices

Addressing Money Issues & Better Prices plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

This season's U.S. apple crop is expected to be about on par with average years, but what about producer prices? Economist Agnes Perez says that dwindling supplies and smaller crop size will boost prices.

PEREZ: The National Agricultural Statistics Service initial forecast back in August for this years U.S. apple crop was at 9.51 billion pounds and this is up 2% from last years crop but it is just about steady from the 5-year average. Production growth will be coming mainly from higher production in central United States led by Michigan.

World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy says we need an international monetary system which facilitates international trade, cross border investment and a better allocation of capital across nations, a global monetary system which inspires confidence and offers stability. According to Lamy, - some countries believe policies on domestic currencies should be determined solely by national interests and there should be no outside interference. Other countries believe in using external forces such as trade or other types of sanctions to coerce others to change their monetary policies. He says the reality is that neither of these will work.

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

In an effort to get more Americans behind the MyPlate mission the USDA launched the MyPlate Fruits and Veggies Video Challenge last month in which teams or individuals are encouraged to submit their own videos on how they manage to make half their plates fruits and vegetables without emptying their pocketbooks. With a prize package of $9,000 dollars for the best instructive and inspiring videos in three categories, there’s more than enough incentive to get creative about eating healthy. The new MyPlate must be doing something right when it comes to getting attention for healthy eating since even the Harvard School of Public Health has released their own version titled the “Healthy Eating Plate”. The Harvard version, which touts to be healthier yet than the USDA version, is not surprisingly more similar than it is different; Harvard has simply flipped the positions of fruits and veggies, and enhanced the Grains and Proteins titles. But no matter, as they say, “imitation is the best form of flattery”. If the top schools in the nation are making the effort to do their own version of the USDA MyPlate then the USDA must have done something right.

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