01/16/07 New Forest Dir & Free Trade Talks

New Forest Service Director and free trade talks. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. After 6 years as chief  and 41-years overall- Dale Bosworth - is retiring from the U.S. Forest Service. His replacement is Abigail Kimbell  a veteran of the Forest Service who began as a seasonal worker - and has since filled a series of field assignments. Kimbell currently serves as Regional Forester for the Northern Region in Missoula, Montana - which includes northern Idaho - and North Dakota. As Chief - Kimbell will oversee an organization of over 30,000 employees and a budget of just over $4 billion. During a press conference, Kimbell said she is seeing a lot of hard work being done. KIMBELL: These are exciting times in public land management and in our interface with other land managers. People are working hard toward common solutions to resource conflicts more than ever before in my 30 plus year career. U.S. trade officials were in Seoul, South Korea yesterday to begin the sixth round of free-trade agreement discussions. It is not known how much discussion will be on those U.S. beef imports. A spokesman for the United States Trade Representative's office says the beef issue is not technically part of the negotiations. But  he adds - Korea knows the U.S. position that without a fully opened market for U.S. beef - Congress will not approve the free-trade agreement. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. The Chinese calendar states that 2007 is the year of the Pig but for those in the know it is really the year of the cow. When it comes to Food Trends I am delighted to report it that 2007 will be all about Steak. Naturally this is wonderful news for our beef producers especially when you have folks like the editor and chief of Food and Wine Magazine, (a "tony" publication geared towards urbanites) saying that there will be no peak to the steak craze. The steak house is back with a vengeance, course I never thought it went anywhere. Trend analysts state that while people will consume more beef they will also crave more information about it. The consumer now wants to be privy to where and how the animal was raised, how long their meat was aged and how it was slaughtered thus opening the door for even more branded beef products. When you think beef, think Starbucks. Really! The coffee dynasty has trained us all by now to purchase coffee based on country or region and to select from a variety of processing methods. In 2007 it will be the same with our steaks. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.