10/11/06 Stuck on Immigration & Carbon Credit

Getting stuck on immigration & Carbon Credit Program. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Five people trying to sneak into the United States from Mexico became trapped in a narrow tunnel and had to be rescued Tuesday after the largest of them, a nearly 200-pound man, got stuck trying to climb out through a storm drain, authorities said. Firefighters used jackhammers at the city`s border with Tijuana to widen the opening and free the man, who had become stuck at the hips, said James Jacques, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. National Farmers Union is going to put additional dollars in the pockets of producers through its Carbon Credit Program. Launched Monday - the program gives ag producers and landowners the opportunity to earn money for adopting farming practices that promote environmental stewardship. Sue Beitlich is President of Wisconsin Farmers Union. She says a number of U.S. farmers are already using practices on their operations that help store carbon and reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Now - through this program - she says Farmers Union can enroll producer acreages of carbon into blocks of credits - trade them - and put dollars in producer pockets. BEITLICH: What's happening is, the Chicago Climate Exchange will buy and sell carbon credits. And Farmers Union now has become and aggregator meaning we can accumulate metric tons of carbon, and when we have enough then we can trade it on the Chicago Climate Exchange and pay farmers for doing that. So for example, no-till farming; if someone would be doing that practice, if the price stayed what it is now about $4 a metric ton they could get about $2 an acre. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. It is so easy to take for granted the fact that we have food in America. Hang out in a Wal-Mart parking lot and it is obvious that obesity is more of a concern than starvation. On that same note we give nary a thought to the fact that most of us have access to a bathroom. In the African country of Chad only 9 percent of the population even utilize a pit latrine, in Nigeria the percentage is a bit better at 13 percent. UNICEF is one organization that has under taken dramatic efforts to improve sanitation throughout the world citing the fact that 1.5 million children die each year from diarrhea caused by lack of proper sanitation. As disgusting as it is for western society to fathom a lack of proper toilets can spread terrible intestinal worms. UNICEF's work in both Malawi and Senegal has resulted in nearly 75 percent of the population receiving hygienic sanitation along with the majority of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Kudos' to UNICEF for taking on the unpleasant task of improving the world's sanitation. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.