09/06/06 Fires Continue & Rice Testing

Fires continue & rice inspection kit. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Firefighters continued through the Labor Day weekend to battle a number of blazes across the Pacific Northwest. Twelve new large fires were reported, three in Idaho, one in Oregon, two in Washington, two in California and four in Nevada. Firefighters contained four large fires over the weekend, one each in Oregon, Montana, Washington and Idaho. Tom Harbour of the US Forest Service says even though the holiday weekend is over there is still a great need to be careful. HARBOUR: It's going to be critically important to be careful with fire not only through our traditional season but as folks are out in the woods in September and October recreating, hunting, fishing, just going to be very careful to watch those fires and keep them under control. The U.S. Department of Agriculture`s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration has verified a strip kit that detects the presence of the Liberty Link 601 protein at a detection limit of 2% sensitivity level. The test takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. This test was evaluated under GIPSA`s Rapid Test Performance Evaluation Program. For information on GIPSA`s Rapid Test Performance Evaluation Program and Proficiency Program, visit GIPSA`s Biotechnology web page at: www.gipsa.usda.gov This test was validated at the request of Strategic Diagnostics Inc. USDA is not involved in the distribution of this test for use in the marketplace. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Starbucks, like Madonna is a classic tail of reinvention. Most companies would be content to sit on their laurels and reap the financial rewards from their vast holdings, rather Starbucks continues to evolve the process of how the world drinks coffee. This fall they will introduce a downloadable audio series on the nuances of coffee drinking called Coffee Conversations. Savvy Starbucks is using the essence of wine tasting to appeal to new coffee drinkers. Through September they are offering exclusive coffee tasting seminars in the US and Canada designed to take you to the next level of coffee enjoyment. Starbucks who unabashedly calls themselves the "premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world " believes that 37 countries now enjoy their coffee one cup at a time thanks to their presence. It is staggering to think that 50,000 beverage combinations exist at Starbucks and with fall upon us favorites like Pumpkin Spice latte are in once again in the offering. Call it classic marketing, uber-marketing or mega- marketing it works! Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.