01/30/07 Fast Track Trade & Lagging Beef

Fast Track Trade and Lagging Beef. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. U.S. industry officials say President George W. Bush will urge Congress to renew his "fast track" authority to negotiate trade deals - including the Doha round of world trade talks. Two private sources say the President will make his request this week during an address on international trade and economics. The push to extend the trade promotion authority comes as the five-year-old Doha round has begun to show fresh signs of life after grinding to a halt last year. High corn prices and lagging markets are causing problems for cattle producers. There's an abundance of cattle in the Pacific Northwest but few places to process them. The cattle that are being held over continue to eat so additional high-priced corn is being purchased. That's causing a Catch-22. The more the cattle eat, the fatter they get and processors dock the operator since excess fat has to be trimmed away. Besides the high corn prices, several processing plants have been closed and then there's the Canadian beef import market. A slow down of their processing has meant more live cattle coming into the U.S. further compounding the problem. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. I have got to give 'em credit, they just don't give up &While you and I go about the process of daily living& little "tiddly-wink" activist keep tampering with our food choices! Our lattes will now cost more after Starbucks reported they will no longer use milk or cream that contains artificial hormones because the group Food and Water Watch whined! Who are they anyway! Since Bovine growth hormones were approved by the FDA over 13 years ago as a way to keep milk prices lower by increasing milk production, there has yet to be any documented cases of illness. Odds are your family and mine helped to drink the over 14 billion gallons of this milk sold and now I am supposed to fear it in my frappachino? Isn't it interesting that the same food police that con us into paying up to $2.00 more per gallon for hormone free milk, and hammer fast food restaurants for trans fats, give Starbucks a free pass when it comes to the calorie count of say a white chocolate mocha or a maple nut scone. When are we going to stop letting a few wimpy activist dictate our food choices. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.