05/09/07 Wine Pioneer Passes & Now Fish

First dogs & cats, then pigs & chickens&now fish. The USDA announced yesterday that farmed fish have been fed the same contaminated feed that has caused pet food recalls and no small amount of concern for the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. David Acheson with the FDA says the contaminated protein products were made into fish food but the FDA doesn't believe the consumer should worry. ACHESON: We do not believe that this poses a significant human health threat. This is a new finding; it's a very active part of the investigation. Our investigators are getting out to the establishments where we know this was received and will be doing some analysis and getting more samples and determining the status of the fish that may have been fed this. Another of the Washington state wine pioneers has died. Les Fleming was 93 when he passed away this last Friday. He was a major part of the growth of the wine industry in the state and spent a lot of his time experimenting with irrigation, trellis and pruning techniques. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. A short time ago I spoke with a hay farmer Ross McCreary from Quincy who was frustrated about the cost of fertilizer and I didn't have any encouraging words. Summer looms wrought with high fuel prices meaning the cost of nitrogen has risen in some cases 20 to 40 percent. Nitrogen, by virtue of its dependency on petroleum products is directly tied to the price of fossil fuel. That, coupled with high price of corn, one of our nations' most fertilizer dependant crops means an equation sure to keep fertilizer prices high. As farmers work to whittle away at their overhead to attempt to make crops and livestock pencil, the fact that the largest publicly traded fertilizer manufacturers' had record-breaking first quarters is enough to make even the most composed farmer gnaw his eraser. The big four which includes, Mosaic, Potash, CF Industries and Terra were up 24 percent and posted net incomes of $332 million compared to 12 million during the same period last year. Farmers in part caused their success by virtue of planting acres and acres of corn coupled with high application rates. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.