07/25/06 Free Trade Goes South

Free Trade goes South. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The World Trade Organization's Doha round has come to a screeching halt in Geneva. One attendee said it could be years before it could get underway again. The Director General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy saying that now the talks have been suspended there will not be time to finish technical work in time to conclude talks by years end. LAMY: The most obvious consequence at this stage is that we will certainly not conclude the round this year as we were mandate to do by ministers in Hong Kong last December. We do not have the time to complete the technical work which is required to turn agricultural and industrial¬ to speak about services into legally binding commitments and we will not be able to complete the work in all the other important areas. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns saying the U.S. will go ahead with the writing of a new Farm Bill. JOHANNS: I believe we are headed toward writing a farm bill in 2007. I believe a lot of good work is being done by the House and the Senate. We're certainly going to have our ideas. Our commodity groups have been very engaged and so it seems to me that we should avail ourselves of the opportunity to look at farm policy and the opportunity will be before us next year. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Green is becoming main stream and thanks to the generosity of Brad Pitt the rebuilding of New Orleans will provide an architectural template that will raise standards for other cities throughout the nation. Pitt is sponsoring a design contest for a sustainable apartment building that incorporates reusable resources and massive energy saving measures. Having been a Brad Pitt fan since Legends of the Fall I am impressed by this celebrities apparent selflessness, a trait utterly refreshing in lieu of the antics of the Paris's , Jessica's and Cruises . Newsweek Magazine recently honored Brad Pitts outreach and according to trend experts, Pitts passion for bringing attention to some of the world`s most desperate places, AIDS orphans South Africa, the plight of children in Haiti, and now sustainable rebuilding of New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina. is actually creating a new era of global consciousness that is being adopted by generation X'ers and younger. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.