04/18/07 New Farmers & Web Site

Helping the new farmer and redesigned web site plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Getting started in agriculture has never been easy and the USDA recognizes that. The future of the Ag industry though depends on new producers across the board. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns yesterday announced a number of new Farm Bill changes to directly help the new farmer. JOHANNS: Well we're doing something here quite honestly is far beyond what has ever been done in a Farm Bill for beginning farmers. We're providing $250 million dollars to increase direct payments for beginning farmers and ranchers. What would that mean? If you are a beginning farmer or rancher and qualify and you're raising one of our program crops, we're going to increase your direct payment by 20% for the first 5 years of your farming operation. Northwest Ag Information Network has a completely redesigned web present on the internet. www.aginfo.net contains stories and information regarding agriculture in the Pacific Northwest and around the globe. You can read or listen to the stories from Bob Hoff, Bill Scott, Susan Allen, Jeff Keane, Becky and yours truly. New features are also coming soon so why not bookmark the site on your computer and visit us often for the information you need most. www.aginfo.net. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. It's appalling for us in the Untied States to conceive in this era of heightened environmental awareness ivory is still a coveted commodity in Asia. In one bust, more than six tons of ivory was seized in Singapore in 2002. Unlike Global warming, where our efforts to stop air pollution fall completely on deaf ears throughout the Asian continent we are making an impact on the Ivory trade. US Scientists, funded by our Fish and Wildlife Department are fighting black market ivory by using DNA analysis. The Singapore Ivory that was seized was tracked by matching DNA samples of elephants throughout of Africa and remarkably traced to a small area centered near Zambia alerting law officials and conservationists to this trade route. It is time for strong arming through sanctions and boycotts to bring Japan (in the case of dolphins and whales) and China with a track record of exploiting a host of animals to realize the rest of the world has grown quite weary of their blatant disregard for our natural kingdom. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.