The Great Big Idaho Potato Truck, Reviewing Air Emissions and Challenging WTO

The Great Big Idaho Potato Truck, Reviewing Air Emissions and Challenging WTO plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The EPA’s Science Advisory Board has appointed a panel of experts to review the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study. This panel will review the study along with other applicable research results and make comment on EPA’s draft air emission estimating methodologies for livestock and poultry farms.

If you happen to see a giant potato rolling down the road don’t be alarmed. This Friday, tomorrow the Great Big Idaho Potato Truck will embark on a seven-month cross-country journey to help celebrate its 75th anniversary. The truck will travel from coast to coast, raising funds and awareness for Meals on Wheels, a non-profit organization that provides over one million meals each day to homebound seniors.?
The US plans to challenge a November World Trade Organization ruling on our nation's Country of Origin Labeling policy for meat. Tim Reif of US Trade Representative's Office.

REIF: We have a standard internal procedure for accessing the pluses and the minuses and then taking a decision as to whether we want to appeal. We would be presenting the case the appeals panel in the WTO which is called the Appellate Body.

It will take a few months for a decision to be made.

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

As if pork producers didn’t already have enough to contend with after all the misunderstanding surrounding the H1N1 virus, irrigretibly called the swine flu, now there is the ongoing debate over sow housing systems. The pork industry is trying to figure out how to deal with this very complex issue that currently seems to revolve more around emotion than it does science. In response to the public uproar and numerous challenges that have surfaced recently over sow housing systems National Pork Producers Council delegates have instructed their leadership to conduct an inclusive study over the next year of current sow housing options. During the study the NPPC will evaluate existing literature from experts in animal well-being, animal science and veterinary medicine. Pork producers want people to know that they understand public concerns, and also that they feel an obligation to provide information that will help consumers understand the different and complex parameters of sow housing systems. The hope is that future decisions regarding sow housing options can be based on science rather super charged emotions.

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