Recalls & Restricting Cell Phones

Recalls & Restricting Cell Phones plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Fred Meyer has recalled five types of private label wheat bread after discovering pieces of plastic in loaves delivered to stores in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.They all featured March 8 sell-by date. The bread was also sold in QFC stores in Oregon and Washington.

Potentially contaminated raw milk in Washington is also being recalled. The Washington State Department of Ag’s Rapid Response Manager, Steve Fuller says Dungeness Valley Creamery brand raw Jersey milk products are being recalled.

FULLER: Our inspector recently visited the firm on February 19th and collected three samples of raw milk products. The cream sample came back positive for a Shiga toxin E. coli which could be dangerous to the firms customers that might drink their products. So our concern is about the possible presence of this dangerous E. coli in all the firms products since that 3/2 best by date and so our advice for consumers is that they should not drink the milk.

A new House bill in Idaho is aimed at keeping dangerous distractions from young teen drivers. AAA’s Dave Carlson presented the bill to committee which would prohibit teen drivers from using a cell phone during the six-month supervised instruction permit. The measure now goes to the Idaho House floor either late this week or early next week.

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

It seems everyone, Democrats and Republicans alike, agree that the H-2A visa program isn’t working for farmers. The question is, what are they going to do about it? Earlier this week immigrant farm labor was the topic at a hearing before the House Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. During the hearing the Judiciary Committee chair stated that “the H-2A program is a bureaucratic and financial nightmare for farmers, which ultimately leaves them at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace”. He also went on to say that the farmers who do participate in the H-2A program do so as a last resort and because of their conscience; even though they realize the majority of available labor is illegal, they don’t want to break the law. His point being, he told the subcommittee, was that the large population of illegal farm workers should be enabled to participate legally in American agriculture. Every year the the agriculture industry faces an ever growing shortage of workers. Legislative reform of the current immigration policy is inevitable, because the current system does not work, hasn’t worked, and nothing short of a miracle will make it work.

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