Wet Weather for the NW & Successful Conference
Wet Weather for the NW & Successful Conference plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.
Harvest is over and ag producers are prepping for the 2015 growing season. The one thing on their holiday wish list is moisture. Ho!Ho!Ho! Santa is going to deliver. California is set to receive the heaviest rain and snow they've had in years and that "Pineapple Express" storm should also bring substantial amounts moisture to the northwest. The on-shore flow will deliver a steady stream of moisture over the next couple of days. Northern California residents are also in for heavy winds along with the moisture.
The 2014 Far West Agribusiness Winter Conference wrapped up yesterday in the Tri-Cities, WA. This years theme was "Applying the Information" and Far West's Executive Director, Jim Fitzgerald says it's been a good conference and a good year.
FITZGERALD: Well we've had 4 or 5 good commodity years and that really helps the industry and so people are willing to reinvest, take capital, buy new equipment, buy monitoring systems, precision ag offers a lot of the latest gadgets that have really proven them to give them a return on their investment. They're actually able to utilize products more efficiently so they don't have to buy as much and so that's been good.
Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.
As you're checking off items on your gift list hopefully you'll be checking off a donation to your local food bank; that can be a donation of food, cash or time spent volunteering. At a local food bank nearly 60 thousand pounds of food was distributed last holiday season, and the amount this year is expected to go up substantially. There seems to be an ever increasing demand, with many of the nation's food banks reporting that they're supplying families that they haven't helped before. A main source of donated foods to food banks continues to be from growers and processors. Farmers Ending Hunger, a non-profit created in 2004, supplies food for the needy, working directly with the farmers who are growing and harvesting food, and have created a very efficient and effective system. Thankfully there are numerous organizations such as this nation wide working to feed the hungry, both during this "giving season", and all year round.
Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.
