Taxpayer-Funded Assessment & Pork Industry Loses

Taxpayer-Funded Assessment & Pork Industry Loses plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Washington Congressman and House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings has sent a letter to the head of NOAA expressing concerns over a costly contract the agency has signed with entities to conduct closed interviews with individuals about their opinions of ongoing salmon recovery activities in the Columbia Basin.  The contract is funded by taxpayer money and NOAA has provided no clear explanation of the timing, need for, or defined scope of the planning exercise.

The U.S. pork industry has lost its battle for now with Taiwan over efforts to get U.S. pork treated with leanness-additive ractopamine into the country. Farm Bureau Trade Advisor Dave Salmonsen insists the Obama Administration is not giving up on ractopamine.

SALMONSEN: The decision of whether to engage in trade talks was something obviously that the government made. I think we’ve got an enforcement approach that we stand behind in trying to put the science in there that should work. Tit-for-tat trade retaliation, I don’t know if there is a great history of that really solving anything.

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

They say change is good, but try telling that to a number of veteran lobbyists agonizing over announcements made by several “ag champions” that they will not be running again for their seats in the Senate come 2014. Some of these Senators have been around since the 80‘s, and for the most part, have generally been known to put the best interests of U.S. agriculture before political affiliations. Feelings over the loss of such sources of “agriculture expertise” within the Senate are conflicted for many within the ag community. Their departure will most certainly be felt by way of lost expertise, and good working relationships forged going by the wayside. That said, such departures are the natural order of things, which leads us right back to the old axiom that change is good. I’m one of those who believe that Senators and House members should have term limits; as there comes a point it seems when many individuals holding these positions for extended periods of time start to forget who they are really “working” for and why. Therefore, it is good to introduce new faces with new perspectives, ideals, and zeal for doing what’s best for the country and agriculture.

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