Arizona Immigration & Idaho Stink Bugs

Arizona Immigration & Idaho Stink Bugs

Arizona Immigration & Idaho Stink Bugs plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Idaho farmers and residents are being invaded by the brown marmorated stink bug. The pest is responsible for destroying crops along the East Coast and have probably hitched a ride to the northwest. Tracy Leskey with USDA-ARS out of Kearneysville, WV has been studying the bug and found something interesting.

LESKEY: One of the interesting things about this insect is that it responds to light. And so what we want to do is identify the optimal wavelength and intensities of light and see if we could bait traps with them. And so we began in the laboratory and what we found was that by baiting traps with particular wavelengths of light we can actually capture 200 to 400 times more stink bugs.

Arizona began implementing the piece of its anti-illegal immigration law that survived the Supreme Court's ruling on Monday, requiring police officers to verify immigration status during routine stops if they have a "reasonable" suspicion that someone may be in the country illegally. Officers must be careful not to stop someone for more than a "reasonable" amount of time while verifying his or her status, however, or the inquiry could violate the stopped person's rights. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says officers have been trained not to racially profile while implementing the new law.

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

Apparently Tulsa, Oklahoma didn’t receive the memo on sustainable gardening and environmentally conscious landscaping. If they had, maybe they wouldn’t have bulldozed one of the city resident’s edible and medicinal herb garden of over 100 different plants. The garden owner repeatedly told city officials her garden was used to feed her family and treat her arthritis and high blood pressure, but was told, “we don’t care”. Needless to say, the owner has since filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Tulsa. With all the press that sustainable gardening and farming is getting now days it makes you wonder how something like this can still be allowed to happen. Unfortunately, food gardening and edible yards are still considered to be in that niche hobby realm. While numerous American are trying to wean themselves away from water, fertilizer, and pesticide dependent lawns, it seems many of the nation’s city governments haven’t kept up with the change in environmental attitudes and rising participation in home and community gardening. Society’s mindset on what constitutes a beautifully landscaped yard is changing; governing entities need to keep up.

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

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