Farm Bill Holdup & Dealing with the Drought

Farm Bill Holdup & Dealing with the Drought

Farm Bill Holdup & Dealing with the Drought plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says whatever House Speaker John Boehner’s reasons for holding up the 2012 House Farm Bill - they aren’t good enough. He says Boehner’s argument last week that Crop Insurance is enough to deal with the worst drought in seven-decades leaves out all of the livestock producers in the country - which he says is hundreds of thousands of people.

VILSACK: They aren’t good enough to justify delay on what has passed through the Senate and what has passed through the House Ag Committee in a bi-partisan way with bi-partisan leadership.

Meanwhile on Monday, Vilsack announced new flexibility and assistance in the USDA’s major conservation programs to get much-needed help to livestock producers as the most wide-spread drought in seven decades intensifies in the United States. Vilsack also announced plans to encourage crop insurance companies to provide a short grace period for farmers on unpaid insurance premiums, as some farming families can be expected to struggle to make ends meet at the close of the crop year. The assistance announced uses the Secretary of Agriculture's existing authority to help create and encourage flexibility within four USDA programs.

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

Yesterday, New York’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene heard public comments on the portion-size soda prohibition proposed by New York’s Mayor Bloomberg. It would bode well for Bloomberg to remember that there’s a large difference between encouraging people to eat healthy and forcing them with the power of the law; the difference between democracy and totalitarianism. And just to play devil’s advocate, if by some bizarre chance Bloomberg is able to pass a portion size prohibition on sugared drinks, what’s next? Will it be so far fetched to then have bans placed nationwide on the size of snack chip bags, movie popcorn containers, or the size of your morning caffeinated beverage of choice? If such bans become more common place than common sense, will authorities than prohibit the number of such items that can be purchased at one time? Because if someone tells me I can’t have one big item, then obviously they’re forcing me to purchase two of the same smaller sized items. If I want 32 oz. of something, I will have 32 oz. Come on folks, this is a path we don’t want to travel down. In the end, no one wins from costly, restrictive regulation.

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

Previous ReportMagic Valley's Magic & Plastic Bag Trouble
Next ReportLunch with the President & Food Price Hike