Fire and Ice & Decisions Needed

Fire and Ice & Decisions Needed plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Wildfires continue in a number of areas although cooler weather has been helping and some light breezes have helped air quality in some places. A few areas have lifted their burn bans. But in kind of a weird twist, parts of the northwest have received their first snowfall, although it is comes from a snow gun and it is aimed at getting the skiing season up and going. Sun Valley has begun cranking up their snow machines as temperatures have been dipping in to the teens. Truly a sign of the end of the season.

The first Presidential debate hit key themes for agriculture and a farm bill though not directly. Food stamps, energy, regulations and deficit reduction were all front and center during the first debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney. Perhaps key to the farm bill stalemate is food stamps and deficit reduction. American Farm Bureau Federation Deputy Director Dale Moore says after the election - Congress will have to make some tough decisions on food stamp cuts.

MOORE: We’re going to have to make some decisions whether it’s the $4-billion dollars in the Senate, the $16-billion dollars in the House - how those numbers reconcile in terms of the number of dollars reduced from the SNAP Benefit program, that’s got to be resolved. That’s part of the issue that’s held us up.

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

Agflation is defined as “an increase in the price of food that occurs as a result of increased demand from human consumption and use as an alternative energy resource”. In 2008 a shortage of the staple grains wheat and rice caused worldwide panic. Now, with the worst drought hitting the U.S. in decades affecting feed intensive crops such as corn and soybeans, prices for meat and dairy products are expected to reach record highs in 2013. According to a report by Rabobank’s Food and Agribusiness Research and Advisory group last month agflation is set to return, but "the impact on the poorest consumers should be reduced this time around, as purchasers are able to switch consumption from animal protein back towards staple grains like rice and wheat.” Currently, these commodities are thirty percent cheaper than they were at their 2008 peaks. The report also goes on to say that it’s a distinct possibility that stockpiling and export bans will go into effect the end of 2012 and 2013 as governments attempt to protect consumers from rising food prices, but that such actions could ultimately lead to even higher commodity and food prices.

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