11/9/06 Political Shift & Vietnam Approved

Political shift and Vietnam approved. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The Democrats needed 15 seats to gain control of the U.S. House. Early Wednesday - the party had taken 27 seats from Republicans. The Democrats also gained seats in the Senate. It will take some time before it can be determined what the change will mean for agriculture. After 11 years of preparation and eight years of negotiation - the World Trade Organization`s General Council has formally approved Vietnam`s membership agreement. That paves the way for the Southeast Asian nation to become the 150th WTO member. According to WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy - Vietnam`s efforts in this bid for membership should serve as inspiration. He says Vietnam has demonstrated that anchoring domestic reforms in the WTO can yield impressive results. Vietnam must now ratify the agreement. US Agricultural Attache John Wade says Vietnam wants to epand their export market. WADE: They're already a big exporter to the United States like cashews, the rubber, aquatic products; they're already exporting a lot of those products to the United States in large amounts. And so they don't want to ruin that, they want to see it grow further. They get into the WTO, get things formalized then they see that, quite correctly I think, as being in their long term interest. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. I grew up with Kentucky Fried Chicken, it was a special treat for family, it meant my mom had a night off and that we kids had a finger lickin good indulgence. And&I always picked original recipe. Today the "food police" have dictated that the colonel's famous recipe must go, it is deemed unhealthy, due to the trans fat content. Funny how families have been enjoying Kentucky Fried chicken for as long as I can remember, (that's a long time,) and in the past societal obesity was never an issue. Why blame it on KFC, why not Starbuck Grandes? Recently Americans have gotten big, in a big way, so certain food labeled bad must go. Food that often defined not only my generation but my parents and my grandparents, like hamburgers fries and now Kentucky Fried Chicken& So why must those of us who are disciplined diners suffer because others over eat? The Center for Science in the Public Interest, (again I want to ask whose!)Sued KFC over their trans fat content in chicken, and it doesn't stop with KFC, the "food police" are now working to ban trans fat from all New York City restaurants. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.