01/23/07 State of the Union & Midwest Storm Impact

State of the Union and Midwest storm impact. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The President's State of the Union address is tonight (Tuesday). Many think President Bush will call for a massive increase in the amount of fuel ethanol U.S. refiners must mix with gasoline in coming years. The President could announce a target of 60-billion gallons a year by the year 2030. That would beat targets set in legislation recently proposed by a group of Midwest senators. Energy legislation signed by the President last year requires refiners to use at least 7.5-billion gallons of renewable fuels annually by 2012. Farmers in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma are still struggling with ice and snow left by snow and ice storms. And according to University of Missouri Extension Livestock Specialist Dona Funk - the storms will have a long-term impact on the health of livestock in the affected areas. Funk says one big problem is that farmers can't get hay to livestock as a result of the ice - but cows can't get to grass either. FUNK: I'm sure we've got animals losing weight right now. We've got some animals due to calve anytime now in Southwest Missouri, a lot of our spring calving cows will start at the end of January, so these cows are probably not getting&some of them are not getting the adequate nutrition they need because people can't get to them so we're going to see a long term effect to this. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Do I detect a hint of prejudice? According to last week's newspapers it seems quite peachy if you happen to be a "fat cat." But it is another matter all together if you are a porky puppy. While Hercules, the over 20 pound kitty whose girth got him stuck in a neighbors doggy door was being celebrated as toast of Portland Oregon, an ocean away two brothers in Britain were arrested and found guilty of animal cruelty by virtue of over feeding Fido. It seems that Rusty a ten year old lab was so fat he could only walk a few steps before sitting down for a breather thus the animal welfare authorities slapped the owners with animal cruelty charge and actually took custody of Rusty until he lost 45 pounds. Rusty was recently released back to his owners under a strict three year probation period and will be removed from his family permanently if he gains more weight. Meanwhile in Portland, Hercules the cat was basking in his "fat cat" status and instead of animal cruelty charges both the cat and his owner are enjoying 15 minutes of fame . What does this tell us about life in the grand old USA? Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.