Food Prices & West Nile Found

Food Prices & West Nile Found plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Well it was nice while it lasted. The Consumer Price Index had been fairly level through the month of June but through July it started on its way back up again. Economist Annamarie Kuhns says they are up a third of a percent and 2.5% year over year. Beef prices went up a half of a percent.

KUHNS: And they're now up 10/4% since this time last year.

As Betty Davis said, better fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture is reporting that an unvaccinated horse in Franklin County is the first in our state to contract West Nile virus this year. The horse is showing progressive neurological signs, including rear end paralysis. It was not immediately known if the horse had traveled outside of the state recently. West Nile virus is spread by mosquitoes that have fed on infected birds. WNV is fatal to horses in about a third of the cases. Acting State Veterinarian Dr. Paul Kohrs noted Washington had two confirmed cases of horses with West Nile virus last year. Oregon had six equine cases and Idaho recorded 10 cases last year.

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

We've all heard the old saying "what goes around, comes around". Well, it looks like things are "coming around" for extreme animal rights groups such as PETA, and even the HSUS. To date 2014 can not be considered a winning year for either of them. PETA's we're doing our rah rah in the nude routine has become, shall we say blasé, and HSUS lost it's lawsuit against Feld Entertainment to the tune of $16 million, which led in part to their non-profit charity group rating taking a nosedive when the charity rating group Charity Navigator slapped them with a "donor advisory" marker. PETA has recently had yet another of their "undercover" videos called on the carpet for being fraudulent in their attempt to smear manure all over a small North Carolina dairy farm. Inspectors from both that state's Department of Agriculture and county animal control found no evidence to support PETA's claims of animal abuse at the dairy. Asking PETA to retract the claim is not enough. What needs to be done is to slap PETA with a massive fine for wasting state and county officials time, along with a lawsuit filed against them by the dairy for defamation of character.

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