03/29/07 No to Drawdown & Biofuel Online Survey

The Northwest Cooperative Development Center is looking for farmers, consumers and businesses who've sought to create a biofuel or biopower cooperative business in the Pacific Northwest. The center is asking those folks to take part in an online survey. Eric Bowman says the center promotes cooperative involvement in the emerging biofuel industry. BOWMAN: People can do it if they want to. If they identify a need in their community that they think they can meet cooperatively, then it is possible. Their survey results will be published later this summer and will show what the emerging co-op ventures look like and what potential opportunities and problems could be ahead. There's no doubt about the interest in biofuels versus fossil fuels. Washington Congressman Doc Hastings is urging key federal agencies to oppose a drawdown of the John Day Reservoir. HASTINGS: Look at it from the cost of those that draw irrigation water from that reservoir  you'd have to extend them. Who would pay for that and could it be done? You have another issue on the Washington side where the river acts as a kind of a barrier of holding up the rail line. If you don't have that rail traffic down there  obviously that has an economic (impact). You also have extra costs because by drawing it down you would expose some wetlands. What would you do to try to mitigate the loss of those wetlands? Supporters claim that a drawdown will help fish, however there is no scientific evidence to support a link between travel time through the hydrosystem and salmon survival. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Our beloved pets dying of kidney failure throughout the US should serve as a harsh wake up call! The story not being told in this tragic tail of dead dogs and cats is that the wheat used in the pet food was imported from China . Imagine for a moment the backlash the US would be experiencing worldwide, had our wheat tainted pet food in China, or worse yet , Japan who put US cattlemen through the ringer over beef that never even made a human or animal ill. Where are the sanctions and boycotts! American pets are dying and China has yet to receive even a slap on the wrist for the anguish and fear they have wrought. Like so many imported food slipping subtly through our borders virtually uninspected every day, the imported wheat gluten used in pet food contained a poison that we ban in the US. What lessons should we learn about protecting the sanctity of our food supply or the stupidly of a nation succumbing to the lowest bidder?. Why would we purchase wheat gluten from China when our own farmers grow wheat abundantly . Wake up America! What happened to our pets, will happen to our children. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.