Beer and a Movie & Chinese Exports

Beer and a Movie & Chinese Exports

Beer and a Movie & Chinese Exports plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

So next time you decide to go to a movie and head for the snack bar it just might be a large popcorn, some candy and glass of chardonnay. Here’s an idea that while it sounds good probably wasn’t thought through.Washington State House Bill 1001 is getting some attention as it would bring wine and beer sales to movie theatres. Eight Representatives have sponsored the bill and many people including theatre owners are saying that it would be almost impossible to enforce. The bill was proposed as a way to help theatre owners boost their business.

Even with all the trouble exporting to China, USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber says that so far this fiscal year, China has emerged as a huge buyer of U.S. agricultural products. 

GLAUBER: We continue to show very, very strong export trade to China. It looks like for the first two months alone about $8.5 billion dollars in trade. That’s up about a third from last year and largely that’s being driven by soybeans.

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

It probably come as no surprise that agricultural crime is on the rise. Farmers and ranchers across the country find themselves not only have to combat the weather and government regulations, but the growing thefts of machinery, (scrap metal prices make new and old machinery a tantalizing target), beehives, livestock, and now hay. True, the majority of thieves are no where near well enough equipped to make off with very many of the huge bales, but it won’t be long before enterprising thieves figure out a way to make off with more. And right now when a large percentage of the nation’s farmers and ranchers have been hit hard from the drought, or from wildfires $2 to $5 hundred dollars of hay gone missing can be quite an additional hardship. It’s hard to tell one bay of hay from another so some farmers are “branding” their hay, marking bales with paint, weaving ribbons through them or even putting a tracking device inside the bales. Most farmers and ranchers aren’t able to go to the expense of tracking devices however. For now, padlocking gates, marking bales, and being on guard will have to suffice against “grand theft agriculture”.

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

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