Rural Business Grants & Raising Kids

Thursday Aug 15th, 2013 30 Views Northwest Report

Rural Business Grants & Raising Kids plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that USDA is seeking applications for grants that will be awarded to organizations to help rural businesses create jobs and spur economic development. USDA is making $5.6 million available through the Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI), a program that generates economic activity in rural areas. Vilsack said that the funding will help local and regional organizations as they assist small and emerging businesses.

The old axiom is that it takes a village to raise a kid. That may be true but one thing is for sure, it takes a lot of money to raise a kid to age 18. Ag Department Economist Mark Lino says the total may surprise you.

LINO: It’s about $241-thousand dollars and that doesn’t even include college costs. Food, 16% of the overall expenses, transportation was 14%, healthcare 8%, clothing 6%.

That’s for a child born in 2012. Add another 8% for miscellaneous items like toys and sports equipment. Housing was by far the biggest at 25%. These latest figures were up about $7000 from 2011 figures.

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

The ongoing battle of the sexes has gone green, and I’m not referring to that green eyed monster known as jealousy. I’m talking green as in environmentally conscious. It has been touted in numerous surveys and studies that given the choice women will make considerably “greener” based decisions in the business world than their male counterparts. With “green” now being good for business and a business’s image this could open up a whole new area of employment opportunities for women. Just what makes women more environmentally conscious decision makers than men has also been tossed around a lot in the blogisphere. Blogs on the subject range from meanderings on the ability to give birth to rather inane rantings about remote control clinginess and a daily tally on toilet flushing. In the grand scheme of things this too seems to be yet another pointless survey subject that does nothing more than create even more discord between the sexes. He's and she’s alike shouldn’t loose sight of saving the forest for the trees.

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