Senate Farm Bill & Food Service

Senate Farm Bill & Food Service

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

This is National Summer Food Service Program Week. What does that mean? Government and private groups are joining together to help get more healthy meals to more low income children this summer. Under Secretary of Agriculture Kevin Concannon gives information on the places kids may be able to get healthy meals this summer in their area.

CONCANNON: There are nearly 39-thousand local sites across the U.S. that will be providing summer food service but that compares to during the school year more than 101-thousand sites when school is in session. If folks are uncertain where such sites might be in their area to take advantage of a hotline that has been established nationally. 1-866-3HUNGRY or 1-877-8HAMBRE

The 2013 Farm Bill has passed the Senate and is being sent on to the House. The bill stalled last year in the House after bitter arguments broke out over the extent of cuts to food stamps for the poor. The House will debate on their version coming up later this month. The House bill would make the deepest cuts to food stamp funding in a generation - a step resisted by many House Democrats and rejected soundly in a Senate vote.

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

Bad news/good news, they always seem to go hand in hand. Take the data release controversy with the Environmental Protection Agency. When the EPA oopsed big time and gave numerous environmental groups access to over eighty thousand American farmers’ and cattle ranchers’ personal information it was difficult to see that anything good could come out of the situation. Now however, there are numerous livestock industry spokespeople that say some good can come out of the situation after all. How so you may wonder. As of yet, no criminal activity has ensued with the release of the personal information, which included names, e-mail addresses, home and cell phone numbers, home addresses, and even next of kin, and the major fallout surrounding the EPA’s release of personal producer information seems to have changed the tenor of the debate in D.C.. Indeed, a prime example, Amendment to the 2013 Farm Bill #1011, submitted by Senators from Indiana and Iowa, would protect farmers and ranchers  by prohibiting the Environmental Protection Agency from disclosing their private and confidential information to the public.

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

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