Loving Green & Salmon Plan Challenged

Loving Green & Salmon Plan Challenged plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

It's green! I have to have it. Some people are beginning to wonder if this isn't just a passing fad for green products in the marketplace. Many experts say that it is difficult to sell bio-based products just because they are better for the environment. Kurtis Miller with the industrial unit of Cargill.

MILLER: Green is nice, but it doesn't sell.

Scott Vitters from the Coca-Cola Company unit that makes environmentally-friendly plastic bottles says:

VITTERS: If it's positioned on an environmental attribute that often tends to be a challenge in terms of having that be a driver of purchase intent.

How about you? Do you purchase or will you pay more for environmentally-friendly made products? I'd love to hear from you.

The Obama Administrations plan to make Columbia Basin dams safe for salmon is being challenged in U.S. District Court in Portland. The challenged was filed on Tuesday and is the seventh challenge since 2001. NOAA Fisheries said in a statement that the agency has made "clear and demonstrable progress in rebuilding salmon and steelhead runs throughout the Columbia Basin," and it expects progress to continue.

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

They say if you don't vote on an issue, then you have no room to complain. I would tend to agree with that. This same thing can apply to public comment periods on major issues of concern - issues such as the EPA's proposed definition for waters of the United States under the Clean Water Act. The proposed rule has come under fire from farmers, ranchers, landowners and other stakeholders who say the proposed changes would give the EPA the authority to regulate all waters on private property, including water run-off ditches, resulting in an infringement on individual property rights. On June 10 the EPA announced that it was extending the public comment period on its proposed water rules, which was originally set to end July 21, until October 20; giving interested stakeholders an additional 91 days in which to let their feelings be known. The comment period on the interpretive rule governing agricultural exemptions that was part of the Waters of the U.S. rule has also been extended to July 7. These public comment extensions are seen as a victory for farmers and ranchers, but that can only be true if farmers and ranchers take the time to write out their comments and submit them to the EPA before the new deadlines.

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