02/14/07 Bird Flu Immunity & Celebrating Love

Bird Flu Immunity & Celebrating Love. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. A new theory suggests that some people may be able to develop an immunity to the bird flu. Research shows that mice inoculated with a human virus known as H1N1 were less likely to die when they were infected with a little bit of H5N1 -- although this protection went away after a bigger dose of H5N1. The finding suggests it is possible that some people previously infected with or vaccinated against flu may have a slight protection from H5N1 but one researchers says it's a very weak protection. They know no one has complete immunity, because flu can infect the same person over and over again. But maybe there is just enough there to keep the new infection from being deadly. Today is Valentine's Day and all over the U.S. people will go to great lengths to show their love and affection for one another. The holiday is actually named for two different Christian martyrs named Valentine and became associated with love during the Middle Ages when courtly love flourished. One tradition of the Middle Ages had young men and women drawing names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Flowers and Chocolates have come to symbolize Valentines Day when in reality roses and coffee have more in common. Nearly 90 percent of our roses today are imported, most from countries famous for growing coffee, like Columbia, Ecuador and Kenya. In fact Columbia produces more roses than all the other combined and China will be on the bandwagon before long. Sadly just like with produce US rose growers can't compete with the imports' cheap labor and lax restrictions so an American grown rose is virtually non existent While our growers face rigid pesticide standards, (California flower farms now post all pesticide amounts on the web,) statistic don't exists for the chemicals applied by South American flower farms. When they enter our country they are only required to be bug free. That's frightening because it isn't so much the residue on the roses rather the amount of pesticide exposure to impoverished workers, and the threat to the environment that begs our attention. Forgo the Rose and support U.S. flower growers by selecting the few flowers still grown domestically, like orchids, irises, lilies and tulips. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.