Chinese VP Visit & Wolf Bill

Chinese VP Visit & Wolf Bill plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is among the dignitaries scheduled to visit with the Chinese Vice President as part of his week long tour of the US coming up tomorrow.

VILSACK: I think he’s using this trip to portray a Chinese leader that will be more likely engaged on a personal basis. From everything I know of him and have read about hi, he’s a people person and the fact that he’s coming back to Iowa and he’s coming back to meet the family that he visited in the 1980’s, that he’s remembered Governor Branstad and his visit as a young man I think says a lot about him and I think it’s pretty shrewd on his part to come to a state in the part of the country that is supplying a substantial amount of product to China to learn about how they’re doing it, how we’re doing it and how to obviously incorporate some of those ideas back in China so they can become more productive.

Once again the wolf is in the news. A bill to help repay ranchers for livestock losses tied to wolves has been introduced in the Idaho House. The measure would use revenue from wolf hunting tags to compensate ranchers for livestock killed by wolves. It would divert $8 from every wolf hunting tag sold in Idaho into a special account and could free up $320,000 annually for the program. Half of the money in that account would be help reimburse for livestock losses; the other half would be used on other wolf management programs.?
Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

Apparently, when it comes to medical advice some Congressmen have chosen to put their faith in television’s drama doctor in residence, Doc Oz, rather than medical professionals and researchers within their very own government agencies. Several months back Doc Oz decided to go after daytime tv numbers by revealing his startling discovery that certain fruit juices contained higher levels of arsenic than allowed by the FDA in drinking water; even though he was warned at the time by medical experts and the FDA that to do so would be irresponsible and misleading. Now, two Congressmen have introduced a bill that would require the FDA to create arsenic and lead standards for fruit juices. Inorganic and organic arsenic both occur naturally in the environment, with one key difference, only the inorganic form of arsenic is hazardous to humans. As a defense, Oz claimed at the time that he didn’t make the announcement to cause alarm, but rather to open a dialogue on the topic; reminiscent of the boy who cried wolf in order to get attention. Unfortunately, Oz was not ignored when he “cried wolf”, instead he created unnecessary fear among consumers, which has now led to the proposal of unnecessary legislation.

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