Soy Gets Boost & Nursery Crop Insurance

We grow a very wide variety of ag products here in the northwest, maybe more than anywhere else but one staple crop is just beginning here and that is soybeans. Producers here may want to take note that according to USDA Economist, Joe Glauber, soy may get a big acreage boost this year.

GLAUBER: We've been looking at a soybean/corn price ratio on futures of around 2.5 for the last month or so - even higher if you were to go back to January and before so I think this certainly explains a lot of the move into the soybeans that we've seen here.

Well USDA's Risk Management Agency is reminding Pacific Northwest nursery growers of the May 1, 2014, sales closing date for 2015 Nursery Multi-Peril Crop Insurance coverage. New policy applications may be filed at any time, however, all applications, including those for new or amended coverage, are subject to a 30-day waiting period before coverage begins. Current nursery policyholders may request changes in coverage and/or obtain the Pilot Nursery Grower's Price Endorsement (NGPE) in Oregon and Washington before the May 1 sales closing deadline. 

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

Farm women across the Midwest as well as New York and South Carolina have come together to create CommonGround, a volunteer group that shares their stories about life on the farm and how food is grown and produced. They also answer questions about modern agriculture production, letting consumers know that "we don't have to fear our food". One of the CommonGround volunteers is Joan Ruskamp of Nebraska who's demonstration using M & M's to help explain the presence of hormones in foods has gone viral. Ruskamp stresses that hormones are a natural part of life and are in many of the foods we eat. Her presentation of canning jars with M & M's in them representing the number of hormones found in several different foods, from beef to peas to potatoes to eggs, is very interesting indeed. The jar representing the amount of hormones in a serving of beef has the least number of M & M's in it. To find out more about the CommonGround program visit findourcommonground.com. Hopefully this very important group will continue to grow and be represented by every state in the country. It's through volunteers and groups like this that consumers will hear the real story behind agriculture and the foods they eat.

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