Obama On Climate Change & General Mills Says No

Obama On Climate Change & General Mills Says No

Obama On Climate Change & General Mills Says No plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

President Obama made commitments on Climate Change to the United Nations while speaking to the UN Climate Summit Tuesday. The President made a commitment to what he coined as climate smart agriculture. He is calling for global cooperation to combat climate change.

OBAMA: Today I call on all countries to join us because no nation can meet this global threat alone. It must be ambitious because that what the scale of this challenge demands. It must be inclusive because every country must play its part. And yes, it must be flexible because different nations have different circumstances.

General Mills shareholders have shot down a proposal that would have forced the company to remove genetically modified organisms from its products. During the company's annual shareholders meeting Tuesday, A tally of the preliminary vote at the meeting showed more than 97 percent of General Mills shareholders voted against the proposal. The National Center for Public Policy Research had urged shareholders to reject the resolution. The Centers Justin Danhof stated after the vote it "shows that fact-based scientific consensus can trump emotional appeals that are not tethered to science or reason."

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

My family has been composting for several years now in order to reduce the amount of garbage we generate, which in turn helps to reduce our footprint, as well as our waste removal bill. Many cities across the nation encourage their residents to dispose of food waste and compostable paper products in compost bins instead of tossing them in the trash. Seattle has now passed an ordinance that will take that one step further by placing a $1 fine on garbage bills of people who put too many table scraps in the trash. Under this new rule trash collectors can take a cursory look each time they dump trash into a garbage truck, and if they see that an individual's trash contains 10% or more of compostable material they'll leave a ticket on the garbage bin that says to expect that $1 fine on their next garbage bill. While it may sound good in theory, it also sounds like an easy way to raise revenue. Plus, Seattle residents better hope they don't tick off their trash collector who now will wield fining power.

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

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