09/05/06 New CCC numbers & Brazil Fights

New CCC numbers and Brazil fights rulings. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. USDA`s Farm Service Agency announced new Commodity Credit Corporation interest rates for September - and they`re down from August. According to FSA - the interest rate for 1996 and subsequent crop year commodity and marketing assistance loans is 6.125-percent. That`s down from 6.25 last month - but up from 4.875-percent a year ago. For 1995 and prior crop year commodity loans - the new rate is 4.875-percent. Again - that`s a decrease from last month`s 5.125-percent - and an increase from 3.875 in September of 2005. FSA is also lowering the interest rate for farm storage facility loans approved this month. The September rate is 4.875-percent - down from the August rate of 5.125-percent. Brazil is preparing another salvo against U.S. farm support programs. Brazil says the U.S. has not complied with WTO rulings on the cotton program. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns disagrees. JOHANNS: We feel we have complied with the WTO ruling. We are going to the WTO and do everything we can to make that case. He also says that Brazil is about to attack programs in a more general way. JOHANNS: Brazil has made it very, very clear that what they have in their sights is our marketing loan and our countercyclical program. That's very important to us because that's a common program across all of our program commodities. You impact marketing loan and countercyclical in one, and then they have the argument that there's a problem in all of them. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Traces of a genetically engineered strain of rice created to give herbicide tolerance was found in US commercial bins caused nary a comment from talking heads or water cooler conversations. Americans just aren't worried about GMO foods probably because we have been consuming them for years with out any ill effects. So it makes no sense to us why Japan would ban our rice shipments in light of the fact that both the USDA and the FDA announced there was no public health or environmental risk with GMO rice. Could it be politics? Most Americans have more pressing problems to worry about, like the burst of the real estate bubble, the price of gas or pack ten football. In the next few weeks tests will be given to make sure commercial rice targeted for export remains free from the unauthorized strain. US rice will be given a new certified- free label making our export market in the EU happy, but I will bet you all the tea in China, it won't cause much of a reaction from Japan. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.