No Water For Pot & Bison Industry Booming

No Water For Pot & Bison Industry Booming plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

The bison industry is a bright spot when it comes to the livestock industry. Dave Carter is the Executive Director of the National Bison Association and says they have seen a 12% increase and that wasn't in price but in number of bison processed and the weight of the animals was also up. Carter says even then it has been difficult getting more producers into the business.

CARTER: It does make it a bit of a challenge to go talk to somebody about maybe transitioning to getting into bison production when they are saying, well gosh, I'm making some good money doing what I'm doing right now.

Well the battle over the legalization of marijuana continues to be a sordid affair. With both Colorado and Washington State legalizing the recreational use the feds keep confounding the business. Now the feds say growers cannot use irrigation water from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to grow their crops. Since under federal law the growing of marijuana is illegal, the use of federal water would also be illegal. The policy announced yesterday has been deemed a "temporary policy." 19 states including the District of Columbia have legalized the medical use of marijuana.

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

Remember more than a year ago when former co-defendants with HSUS, the special interest group American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, had to fork over $9.3 million as a settlement to Feld Entertainment, producer of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus? Now the Humane Society of the United States along with other remaining co-defendants have to pay Feld Entertainment $15.75 million over the same lawsuit filed under the Endangered Species Act, which claimed that Feld Entertainment was abusing their elephants. This ends over a decade of litigation between the groups and will hopefully be a strong deterrent to similar frivolous lawsuits such as this being brought in the future. With the U.S. District Court ruling that this lawsuit filed by the animal rights groups was "frivolous, vexatious, groundless and unreasonable from its inception" it's a pretty sure fired bet that it will be. The settlement also marks another historic moment as it's the first time in U.S. history that it's been ruled a defendant in an ESA case is entitled to recover 100% of legal fees incurred while defending against the lawsuit due to its frivolous nature.

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