Farm Bill Deadline & Trees for Troops

Farm Bill Deadline & Trees for Troops plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Frank Lucas - House Agriculture Committee Chairman and leader of the Farm Bill Conference Committee - says farm bill leaders need to have a draft of the farm bill by the end of this week if it's to become law before the end of the year. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow expressed hope the leaders could release a framework by the end of the week or shortly thereafter. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley railed at top House negotiators for trying to undo his restrictions on payments to those not actively engaged in farming.

GRASSLEY: We need to close loopholes that have allowed non-farmers to gain the system. The longer we let this happen the easier it will be for opponents of the farm bill to argue for never having a farm bill again.

The Trees for Troops program provides free, farm-grown Christmas trees to armed forces members and their families each Christmas. This year they have plans to deliver more than 17-thousand trees to 61 military bases in the U.S. and overseas. The program kicks off this week at a tree farm in Indiana where approximately 250 trees donated by members of the Indiana Christmas Tree Association will be collected and transported to service members stationed at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan and the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing in Southwest Asia.

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

It seems that balloons won't be the only thing full of hot air this year at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. We knew the day was coming when animal rights activists would attack Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. It was inevitable really. With their track record for staging outlandish publicity stunts to garner media attention, staging a protest at one of the country's most widely loved, attended and viewed events that is steeped in holiday tradition was an obvious choice. What's all the uproar over? Why the 50th anniversary of SeaWorld float of course. Macy's representatives say the parade will go on as planned whether PETA likes the SeaWorld float or not - that the parade is about entertainment and holiday tradition, not politics. And of course a couple of Hollywood's elite have decided to get in on the fray as well, because like they say in Hollywood "there's no such thing as bad press". I found a SeaWorld spokesman's comment very interesting, that "while PETA is busy planning their latest publicity stunt, dozens of rescued animals are being treated by SeaWorld staff in preparation for return to the wild".

PETA likes to say that "together, we can make the world a better place for all beings", but apparently they don't extend that courtesy to humans.

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