12/6/06 Naturally Raised & Bone Chip Uproar

Naturally Raised & Bone Chip uproar. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. USDA is considering the development of a voluntary standard to address livestock production practices associated with the term  "naturally raised." That`s why USDA will hold three listening sessions to receive public input on a voluntary marketing claim standard specifically for Naturally Raised Livestock. The first listening session is scheduled for next Monday (Dec. 11). The listening session will be held in Washington, D.C. Two additional sessions are scheduled for January 17th in Denver, Colorado  and January 18th in Seattle, Washington. There are suspicions among those in the beef industry that several tiny bone chips South Korea cited in rejecting two beef shipments may have been the result of tampering. USDA officials are taking those suspicions seriously. Deputy Under Secretary of Marketing and Regulatory Program Chuck Lambert confirms USDA's heard of these concerns from the U.S. industry - that the bone chips may have come from different animals than beef - namely - that the shipments were tampered with LAMBERT: Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. I caught a segment last week on Hannity and Combs where visiting consumer advocate John Stossel gave an enlightening report on how conservatives time and time again out- give liberals. Test marketing this theory he placed a salvation army Santa in front of one of the busiest stores in San Francisco while another bell-ringer received donations at a typical mid-west shopping mall. When the coins were counted the Midwesterners gave double the donations of wealthy San Francisco set. Elitist greed is also evident on a larger scale when it comes to fighting starvation in Africa. Eco-imperialists are trying to pressure Zambia to refuse desperately needed food aid because it contains internationally approved GM foods that our Ag department has deemed safe. The Investors Business Daily called the activists on their "better dead than fed" attitudes boldly citing the fact that no environmentalist can point to a single person who's been killed or even injured by GMO foods. Is there a direct correlation between the empty salvation Santa pot in one of our most liberal cities and the "let them eat cake" mentality towards Africa? Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.