West Nile Found & BCAP Sign Up

It's that time of year again. Time to protect your animals and yourself from mosquitoes and the potential for West Nile virus. Unfortunately West Nile has been found in Idaho's Payette county and was found in two mosquitoes that had been trapped. West Nile is usually contracted from the bite of an infected mosquito. This was the first West Nile detection this year in Idaho. In 2013, 40 human cases were reported in 16 counties, with two deaths.?

The latest sign-up for a farm and forest-to-fuel incentive program will include an emphasis on harvesting forest residue to reduce wildfire fuel loads. Todd Atkinson of USDA's Farm Service Agency explains the Biomass Crop Assistance Program as well as an emphasis in this latest application period on harvesting potential wildfire fuels from our nation's forests.

ATKINSON: The program is designed to provide incentives to farmers and ranchers and forest landowners to establish, maintain and harvest biomass that can be used for energy purposes. On June 11th the Department published in the Federal Register that funding would become available for a portion of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program and that portion is an incentive to help mitigate the cost of retrieval and delivery of agricultural and forest residues that remain behind in forests or remain behind in the farm field but could be used for energy purposes.

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

Vermont's new mandatory GMO labeling law has officially become the subject of a lawsuit filed by four major food players on both the national and international stage. On June 12th the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Snack Food Association, and the International Dairy Foods Association filed suit in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vermont claiming that Vermont's GMO labeling law exceeds that state's authority under the U.S. Constitution. Of course, when Vermont's Governor signed the mandatory GMO labeling law he said he expected it to be challenged in court. And really, why wouldn't he? In the lawsuit's preliminary statement it is noted that the United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organization has predicted that by the year 2050 there will be 9.1 billion people to feed on the planet, and that agricultural production will have to increase by 70% to meet their needs; with farmers having to find ways to do more with less. If not by the advances of biotechnology, then how? So far, no one has been able to answer that question.

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