05/23/05 Decide now? More Northwest presence

R-CALF U.S.A. wants to settle the issue once and for all. It has filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Montana, the same court that ordered a preliminary injunction to close the U.S. border to Canadian live cattle and some beef products, asking for a summary judgment in its suit to close the border. What that means is the judge would immediately consider the case without trial based on claims by R-C.A.L.F. U.S.A. that U.S.D.A. has not clearly presented facts for their implementation of their final rule to reopen the border. What is not known is how the summary judgment request affects U.S.D.A.'s appeal of the preliminary injunction. A date to hear the appeal is expected to be set next month. The agency will also have until June Eighth to respond to R-C.A.L.F. U.S.A.'s summary judgment. The Northwest could get more presence, if not clout, within the U.S. Interior Department if the U.S. Senate confirms President Bush's nomination for Assistant Secretary for the Interior for Water and Sciences. His nomination is Idaho's Mark Limbaugh. Long involved in Payette River Valley and Idaho state water issues, Limbaugh later became President of the Family Farm Alliance. He currently serves in the Bush Administration as Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, where he helped in the crafting of Interior's Water 2025 initiative. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. ALLEN: Every day I read the paper it seems that another segment of Chinese commerce is exploding. Like the US, they have Starbucks, Wall- Mart and so it would stand to reason they would want to reap the benefits of American Agriculture as well. A study recently released in the Journal of Science reported the phenomenal success of GMO rice being currently tested in China for commercial approval latter this year. Biotech rice enabled Chinese farmers to obtained crop yields of up to 9 percent more rice for every acre under cultivation. Think about the implication of that! One farmer commented to the press that if 90 percent of Chinese farmers planted the rice, it would increase China's ag income by increase by $4 billion per year. For China, growing GMO rice means considerably safer farming, due to less illness from pesticides contact. Of course, as in the case of Starbucks we Americans have been privy to GMO crops for years but while their country readily accepts this technology it continues to face opposition in the US and Europe. I'm Susan Allen and this is Food Forethought