Hotter Summer & Where Does Your Food Come

Hotter Summer & Where Does Your Food Come From plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Where does your food come from? According to Joe Reilly of the National Agricultural Statistics Service the new Census of Ag is both a resource tool full of information, but one that can educate as well.

REILLY: From the farm operators and the farm population that does represent less than 2% of the population in this country. One of the important things in developing ag policy and processes in the future is educating the rest of the American public, not on the consumers and the individuals themselves but our legislators and those that are developing agricultural policies.

Some folks in the midwest had to contend with snow over the Mother's Day weekend. Yes, snow. Fortunately that was not the case here in the Pacific Northwest and if the forecasters are correct an El Nino weather pattern could bring a hotter and more humid summer. That could also mean more thunderstorms with increased lightning due to the humidity. But one meteorologist says that doesn't necessarily mean more rain. Interesting. El Nino patterns usually drive the warmer, milder winter weather but a gradual warming of the waters off the northwest coast could drive the hotter and more humid conditions this summer.

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

Now that Vermont's Governor has officially signed into law a bill that will require the labeling of all foods containing ingredients from genetically modified crops by July 2016 litigation battles will more than likely follow. That's why the bill also comes with a built in legal defense fund. Other states have passed bills requiring GMO labeling but have put them on hold until other states pass similar labeling laws. According to the Center For Food Safety 34 state bills have introduced GMO labeling bills this year. In fact, the same day Vermont's Governor was signing the GMO labeling bill for his state the Oregon Supreme Court announced that it has certified a proposed 2014 ballot initiative on GMO labeling, which means that the Oregon Right to Know group will soon be pounding the streets gathering signatures to be able to qualify the initiative for the November ballot. Their deadline for collecting the needed 87,313 signatures is July 3. Another interesting twist to all this is the increasing conflict over organic labeling versus non-GMO labeling, but that's another Food Forethought all together.

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