Promoting the Ag Industry & Pushing for a Farm Bill

Promoting the Ag Industry & Pushing for a Farm Bill plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

There has been an effort in the ag industry to make sure that our politicians who are home for the August recess hear the message to pass the farm bill. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell stopped at a wheat inspection facility in Spokane to stress that message.

CANTWELL: We need to get this Farm Bill passed by the House and the Senate and on to the President’s desk by September 30th. When the clock strikes midnight on that day, if we don’t have a farm bill some of this policy actually reverts back to the 1949 policy that was on the books. That means a 64-year old farm bill and some of the practices and policies. I guarantee you those do not allow us to compete in today’s marketplace.

Whenever you get a large gathering of people together it is an opportune time to try and promote your message. In this case it’s the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally with approximately 500-thousand attendees who will be hearing from both the ethanol industry and the pork industry. The Renewable Fuels Association is promoting the benefits of ethanol with their slogan, Ride Safe. Fuel Right. While the National Pork Board for the seventh year in a row has pork as the official meat for the rally.

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

It’s National Farmers Market Week. The name says it all “farmers market”; and frankly, where would they be without farmers. In the last two decades farmers markets have increased, grown and improved around the country. The USDA now registers more than 8,000 farmers markets in the U.S., an increase of over 3,000 markets in the last four years. The latest Census of Agriculture reported that direct sales of food products from farmers to individual consumers rose by nearly 50 percent between 2002 and 2007. Farmers and their local communities have obviously discovered that farmers markets are a win/win for everyone involved. Farmers hesitant at first to sell their produce directly to individual customers have admitted that they now feel quite differently - discovering that farmers markets gives them the opportunity to have face to face contact with the consumer. And consumers have the opportunity to meet the real “face behind the food”. Overall, farmers and their customers at the markets come away with a goodwill feeling. Combine that with the satisfaction of building a sustainable local food network, and it just doesn’t get any better than that.

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