12/5/06 South Korea Frustrates & CCC`s Rate

South Korea Frustrates and CCC's Rate. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. South Korea`s rejection of a U.S. shipment of beef has frustrated USDA officials and leaders of beef industry groups. USDA Deputy Under Secretary Chuck Lambert and U.S. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns both expressed disappointment with the rejection. Despite an agreement to resume trade with the U.S. - Johanns has stated that the U.S. is finding the South Korean market isn`t even close to open. And according to Jay Truitt - National Cattlemen`s Beef Association Vice President of Governmental Affairs -says NCBA is writing a letter to the White House to ask the President to intervene at the highest levels in South Korea on this deal. TRUITT: It's unfortunate that it has become a political issue at this point but we know the negotiators have done frankly about everything they probably can and at some point somebody pretty high on the ladder is going to have to start asking the kind of questions that frankly is it ever going to be possible to send beef into Korea. USDA`s Farm Service Agency announced the Commodity Credit Corporation interest rates for December on Friday. At five-percent the figure is again unchanged from November. According to FSA - the interest rate for 1996 and subsequent crop year commodity and marketing assistance loans also remains unchanged at six-percent. After lowering the interest rate for farm storage facility loans in November - the rate for those approved this month will remain at 4.625-percent. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. If you have listened to Food Forethought for any length you time, you know I am a fan of Milk. Study after study continues to prove that milk is just plain good for us. Now new research, soon to be presented to the Radiologist Society of North America, is reporting that whole milk is also good for medicine. In a recent study completed by Dr. Jeanne Baer a radiologist at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, out 168 radiology outpatients 106 were given whole milk to replace the traditional miserable - tasting barium sulfate traditionally used in CT scans. The remaining 62 patients suffered through the Barium and results showed the CT scans were the same as patients that drank milk. Some wily radiologist must have come to the realization that milk might work as well as Barium sulfate by remaining in the intestines long enough to get good CT scans, this "ah-ha" moment stands to make the CT scan a lot more pleasant! If one is in your future order it with milk, at $1.50 a person it not only tastes better, but it is a heck of a lot cheaper. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.