Renewing Payments & Senate Farm Bill

Renewing Payments & Senate Farm Bill plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Farmers who saw some of their farm program payments stopped back on March 4th should be getting those payments again very soon. Payments for the SURE, KNAP and MILC programs will be sent. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack explains why they had been stopped.

VILSACK: We were uncertain about the impacts of and consequences of sequester and didn’t want to create more of a situation where payments went out the door only to have folks having to refund or to return them and so beginning today we are back on line and payment will be made in a short order.

The official committee print of the 2013 Farm Bill is now available on the Senate Agriculture Committee website. According to Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow - the bipartisan 2013 Farm Bill represents the most significant reform of American agriculture policy in decades. Stabenow says the Senate’s 2013 Farm Bill strengthens top priorities that help farmers, ranchers and small business owners create jobs. With the current farm bill set to expire September 30th - Stabenow says Congress must pass legislation this year to provide farmers the certainty they need to keep driving our economic recovery.

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

If you haven’t already started a compost bin, perhaps this is the year to start. Composting isn’t hard, you just have to remember to turn it once in a while, and feed it a regular diet of compostable material, such as garden and grass clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds, leaves, dryer lint, and even hair and animal fur. You probably noticed this long list did not include meat, fish, bones, dairy products, or pet poo, all major no no’s for a healthy compost pile! The compost experts suggest feeding your compost bin with a 50/50 weight combo, balancing fifty percent green compost material with fifty percent browns by weight. But don’t be scared off by suggestions from compost experts or advocates, because they are just that - suggestions. Too many people have chosen not to create a compost pile for fear of not doing it “just right”. While making sure compost piles have exactly the right layers of material and the perfect ratio of carbon to nitrogen is highly important to professionals who are making compost for the marketplace, the average backyard composter doesn’t have to maintain that elusive “perfect compost bin”.

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