01/11/07 Johanns Japan Meeting & Immigration

Johanns meets Japanese Counterpart & Immigration reform. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. U.S. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns is meeting with Japan`s Minister of Agriculture Thursday. Johanns is expected to discuss the Doha Development Agenda and bilateral issues. He says that includes asking Japan to allow imports of U.S. beef from cattle over 20-months of age. JOHANNS: He is new to his post. He's only been there the last few weeks and he requested an opportunity to meet with me and I'm anxious to do that. I had a great working relationship with his predecessors and I look to establish that here. Needless to say from my standpoint we will make the case that we make with Japan and that is that we want them to move to the international standard. Immigration reform is making legislative headlines according to Washington Growers League's Mike Gempler. GEMPLER: Well we just started a new Congress so that means a lot of the bills in the last Congress have to be reintroduced and yesterday a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would cover all industries and everybody was introduced. There was a news conference with Senator Kennedy. Today at 9 o'clock eastern time we had the introduction of Ag Jobs or the reintroduction of Ag Jobs. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. While the cost of gas continues to hover at just the perfect price point to deter movement towards alternative fuels, ( imagine that ) some investors are looking at renewable energy options other than soy beans that could help reduce the cost of biofuel allowing it to be competitive with petroleum products. In the heart of Missouri's croplands a couple of forward thinking investors have pooled funds to build a new Biodiesel plant called Global Fuels. Global Fuels was strategically located by a Tyson poultry plant to take advantage off the oodles of left over chicken fat that can be had for a mere 19 cents a pound, compared to 33 cents for soybeans. That savings and the fact that soybeans now account for 90 percent of all Biodiesel fuel stock has been a wake up call for the meat packing industry. Tyson Foods, and several competitors are all adding renewable energy divisions and the word on the street is that within five years half of the Biodiesel fuel in the US will be made from animal fat. This could be bad news for farmers hoping for a shot in the arm growing crops for Biodiesel. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.