Power Credits, New Tree Disease & Looking At New Varieties

Power Credits, New Tree Disease & Looking At New Varieties plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The recent snow storm that the northwest is still digging out from has left thousands without power. And while most have been getting it restored there are still those without and the question becomes...how will Puget Sound Energy handle it. A spokeswoman said that customers who are without power for five full days are entitled to a $50 credit on their bill.

Sugar beets are a pretty big commodity here in the northwest but have had some difficulties with diseases like curly top and rhizomania. Carl Strausbaugh of the Agricultural Research Service in Idaho says USDA researchers are looking at sugar beet varieties that could become resistant.

STRAUSBAUGH: Our two primary goals, and this goes across the board for most of the sugar beet locations, the research locations focused on sugar beet five novel sources of resistance to diseases or novel genes associated with agronomic traits of interest. A second primary goal is to optimize or develop innovative disease management ops for disease control.

The ODA has detected a new fungal plant disease, boxwood blight. It isn’t a threat to the state's environment since it only affects boxwoods, a plant species that is not native to Oregon. Boxwoods are commonly grown and sold by nurseries.

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

I’m confused. That’s been known to happen on occasion, ask anyone who knows me, but in this instance I think my confusion is justified. I’m referring to the recent article denoting certain college degrees as useless. Out of a top five list their number one pick for a useless degree is agriculture; they go on to also list animal science and horticulture. Strange when you consider that agriculture has been the one strong point in an otherwise failing economy. Many other reports that conflict with this one predict both the renewable energy industry and the agriculture industry as areas of strength for the American economy in 2012 and beyond. So why the dissing of ag related degrees and why would such degrees be considered useless if the related field of work is going strong? Hence my confusion. Interestingly, when reading why they consider these degrees as useless they cite stiff competition, hard work, and that applying these degrees to anything outside of their specific areas might be difficult. Guess if those interested in these degrees can be turned off that easily, they probably weren’t cut out for the ag industry in the first place.

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