12/14/06 Farm Bill, Exports Up and Tracking E. Col

Driving the Farm Bill & Bulk Commodities Aid Exports. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Incoming Senate Ag Chair Tom Harkin and U.S. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns met on Capitol Hill Tuesday to stake out common ground on a new farm bill. While the two men have differences on issues - including Harkin's Conservation Security Program and possible crop payments - they do agree on one thing - energy crops like corn and soybeans will drive the next farm bill. HARKIN: Now if we're ever going to be energy independent, it's going to be because of our farms and rural communities. That's where it is. Our biofuels, our biomass, that's where it's coming from. Bulk commodities, particularly soybeans, are sending export totals to record highs. USDA economist Nora Brooks. BROOKS: Most of the increase on the export side comes from belt products particularly soybeans which normally surge in the fall. But this month, at least for October, soybean shipments to China grew from about 500,000 metric tons in September to over 2.2 million metric tons in October. Federal health officials have not found the cause of the E. coli food-borne illnesses linked to Taco Bell restaurants in the Northeast. But they have not ruled out scallions - or anything else. Investigators are looking at the food chain which contains many chances for contamination - making any problem easier to spread and track down. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. NW asparagus growers could receive an early Christmas present that should help level the playing field when it comes to marketing asparagus in the United States. Our growers are waiting with bated breath hoping that congress will fail to renew the dreaded Andean Trade Preferences Act that is set to expire this month. This nasty bit of legislation has provided Peruvian asparagus growers duty free access to our market even during peak asparagus growing seasons, crippling and in some cases destroying our own growers. There won't be coal in growers stockings next year if South America is slapped with tariffs, in fact the regional out look could be rosy. Here is one case where environmentalism works in favor of our farmers as some project that new tariffs will be a result of a democratic congress because the dems as a whole, oppose free trade agreements due to labor standards and environmental impacts. DC Santa, All NW asparagus growers want for Christmas is a neat little package of South Americans tariffs tied up with a big bow. PLEASE! Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.