Wildfire Season & House Farm Bill

Wildfire Season & House Farm Bill plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

As the country faces what’s being described as yet another dangerous wildfire season, resources are notably less this year. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell met with firefighters at Boise’s National Interagency Fire Center.

JEWELL: We are prepared to fight fires. We are not as funded to take advantage of where we might be five years from now in fighting future fires and that is one of the challenges of the budget system that we face.

This year, significant fire potential is predicted to be above normal in much of the West, including almost all of Arizona, New Mexico, California, Oregon and Idaho; and portions of Montana, Colorado, Utah, and Washington.

House Ag Committee Chair Frank Lucas and Ranking Member Collin Peterson have released a discussion draft of the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013. The bipartisan bill cuts spending, reduces the size of government and makes common-sense reforms. According to Lucas - the bill is responsible and balanced. He says it addresses American’s concerns about federal spending and reforms farm and nutrition policy to improve efficiency and accountability. The Committee is scheduled to markup the farm bill tomorrow.

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

In the closely watched case of Monsanto vs Bowman the U.S. Supreme court has ruled that Monsanto can indeed use patents to prevent farmers from planting later generations of genetically engineered seeds. There are those that scream foul over the ruling, but think about it, if the decision had gone the other way, in favor of allowing farmers to save or acquire “second generation” patented seeds for replanting, there would be very little reason for companies such as Monsanto to continue research and development investments that improve agriculture. Even American Soybean Association president Dan Murphy recognizes this stating that, “Without the protection of intellectual property companies on whom my fellow soybean farmers and I rely would have no real incentive to make the investments necessary to develop new soybean varieties that yield more, resist disease, weeds, and pests, are drought tolerant, or have improved nutritional profiles.” There are reasons patent protections have been put into place, and they stand whether you’re one individual, a small independent company, or a large corporation operating on an international level.

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