03/20/07 SAFE & Gestation Stalls

Senator Larry Craig of Idaho and Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota have unveiled the Securing America`s Future Energy - or SAFE - Energy Act. The bipartisan legislation is based on the recommendations of the Energy Security Leadership Council released in December. And according to Dorgan - the goals of the measure are simple. DORGAN: Protect our countries economic and energy security by using a series of approaches in public policy change that allow us to produce more, conserve more and substantially expand the opportunities for renewable energy. Oregon could be the next state to declare sow gestation stalls illegal. Arizona and Florida have passed laws making the practice of confining sows in such a manner illegal. A public hearing was scheduled for last Friday in Oregon on that state's bill. The Humane Society of the United States is responsible for the Oregon legislation. Humane Society Executive Vice President Michael Markarian says - it`s a growing trend to look at the worst abuses in factory agriculture. Smithfield Foods - says the onslaught of proposed legislation ignores what`s already occurring in response to consumer demand. Smithfield recently announced its own decision to phase out swine gestation stalls. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Since the movie Babel was one of the darlings of the academy awards, with reviews from the artsy sector calling it "brilliant, beautiful and complex", I rented it to see what all the fuss was about. What a waste of $4.00. I agree with the Wall Street Journal film critic who said. "The ultimate poor judgment: the decision to put Babel before the camera defies comprehension in any language." I have to wonder what play this movie would have received had Mel Gibson directed it as it negitively typecast hispanics while promoting acts of animal cruelty. Once again where is good old PETA? Oh they are out pestering farmers, protesting Kentucky Fried chicken and marching to remove animal agriculture from our schools while they give liberal hollywood a free pass. An actor in Babel organizes a group of little children for a chicken catching contests, a little girl brings him the bird she caught then the man graphically wrings the chickens neck and urges the children to laugh and clap at the antics of a bloody headless chicken running amongst them. Not a peep from PETA, nor for that matter all the prima-donnas animal activists clapping away for Babel at the academy awards. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.