Heaven and Earth & Organic Food Strike

Heaven and Earth & Organic Food Strike plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

We just don’t seem to be hearing a lot about progress on the farm bill and a lot of people are asking whether or not there will even be time to get one done and in place before the 2013 growing season. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack.

VILSACK: At the end of the day the system is about give and take. And unfortunately in this town there has been too little give and not much take. We will do everything we can to move heaven and earth once Congress does its job, we will do our job in a timely way. And we will do what we can to ensure programs that Congress instructs us to create will be created in a timely fashion. It obviously depends on at what point in time when they get their work done.

Some 165 grocery workers and truck drivers in Western Washington have gone on strike which just may cause shortages for organic foods in the area. Union employees that work for United Natural Foods, Inc. in Auburn say they have been treated unfairly during labor negotiations with the company and their pay is 25 percent less than other companies their size. There are no plans for either side to return to the bargaining table, although union leaders say they’ve extended an offer to negotiate.

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

Ever wonder if certain self proclaimed “food experts” don’t just sit around a conference table trying to decide which food item they should attack next in the media. The dialogue plays out something like this in my head, “What do you think, we’ve done the meat is bad thing to death, does anybody really pay attention to us on that anymore? What about junk food, is it still a viable victim? Yes, but attacking junk food is like telling everyone that nazis are bad, it’s just a given, if you eat too much junk food, you get fat. So what’s left for us to rake across the media coals? I know, let’s go on the Dr. Oz show and say that wheat is essentially a poison, and that even Doc Oz has it wrong about whole wheat. That should get us some attention, since wheat has been a synonym for life itself, and is used in so many different food products. Eureka, I think you’ve got it”. Of course, that’s exactly what did happen last week on The Dr. Oz Show when author William Davis was the guest. Does Davis’s rant on wheat make any nutritional sense? Nutritional experts so no. But there is one thing for certain, making wheat out to be “poison” makes for good daytime television ratings.

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