Goats Assist Firefighters & Farm Bill Now Rally

Goats Assist Firefighters & Farm Bill Now Rally plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Thanks to some weed-eating goats firefighters in the Boise area were able to get the upper hand on a Sunday wildfire. The goats are used to clear brush in many areas and the grazing reduced the amount of fuel so that the fire burned more slowly than it would have otherwise.

Tomorrow is the Farm Bill Now coalitions rally on Capital Hill. Senate Ag Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow will join more than 60 members to encourage passage of a farm bill before it expires at the end of the month. National Corn Growers Association First Vice President Pam Johnson says the Farm Bill Now group is calling on all Americans to take action by contacting their legislators, talking to their neighbors and picking up momentum again for getting the farm bill done.

JOHNSON: We don’t have to go very far to see the devastating effect that the drought has had not just on farmers and ranchers but on rural communities. It’s entirely visible out there why we need a comprehensive five-year farm bill so that farmers and ranchers and our end users can get through this year and start next year anew and get a crop in the field . There are guys out now planting wheat and buying their inputs for corn and soybeans and other crops and they need to know where they stand when they go to their bank

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

Latest numbers from the USDA show that fifty million people from 17.9 million households across the country were food insecure at one time or another in 2011. For a great number of us who are more fortunate, that seems an unbelievably high number. In reality, those numbers are probably much higher. Many people suffering from food insecurity are too proud to admit it and suffer in silence. Some of those in food insecure households are able to cope by eating diets that are highly restricted and less varied, others participate in federal food assistance programs, or receive help from local food banks. These households include 8.6 million children. Interestingly, it’s reported that these children were often protected from substantial food reductions by the adults in the household, and that households headed by single women had the highest prevalence of food insecurity. Even more interesting is that this report came out just a day after the USDA announced that a record number of people, 46.7 million, received food stamps in June, but only fifty-seven percent of food insecure households report participating in federal food programs.

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