Endangered Species Transparency & Beef Recall

Endangered Species Transparency & Beef Recall plus Plant Zones. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

When is it appropriate to list something as endangered? That is what is being asked of U.S. Fish and Wildlife. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings says that decisions on the Endangered Species Act need to be more transparent. The Obama Administration is being accused of forcing regulatory actions that shut out Congress, states, local communities, private landowners—even scientists who may dispute the often sketchy or unverifiable data used for these decisions. 

HASTINGS: You have to bring the issue to the American public’s mind so that you can therefore enact legislation to make the necessary changes and that’s why we’re having these hearings. That’s why I’ve formed this nationwide working group that will have hearings in other parts of the country just to bring issues like this to the front. We’re now finding, at least in the bladder-pod issue what appears to be a big, big hole in the process by which listings are made.

National Beef Packing Co. out of Liberal, Kansas has voluntarily recalled over 50,000 pounds of ground beef after a strain of the bacteria was found in one 10-pound sample. The products in question were produced July 18 with a use by/freeze by date of August 7 and shipped to retailers, wholesalers and food service distributors nationwide. No illnesses have yet been reported. This is the second beef recall from National in 2013. E.coli infections can occur after coming into contact with raw or undercooked meat that has been contaminated. Symptoms include bloody diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting.

Now plant hardiness zones are becoming much more popular. Susan Carter has more.

(USDA report)

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