06/07/07 On-Again Off-Again & Beef Trade

On-Again Off-Again Beef Trade & Immigration Update plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Beef exports to Korea had been moving along nicely until a recent shipment of bone-in beef caused the Koreans to once again stop the shipments. The beef was clearly labeled and was not intended for export but the product did violate the current trade protocol according to National Cattleman's Beef Associations Jay Truitt. TRUITT: Certainly the product was safe, certainly the product presented no harm to anybody in any way, shape form or another but it does appear that there's a violation of the shipping protocol and as a result of that it would appear that we've lost some access into that marketplace for the time being. We hope this gets resolved in the next couple of days but we'll have to wait to see what the USDA's inspection turns up. It appears that immigration reform is still a ways off. A bill by Republican Senators that would have limited the number of illegal immigrants who could gain lawful status was narrowly defeated after a Democratic "rival" version gained support. That bill bars a more limited number of illegals including gang members and sex offenders. Republican Senator John Cornyn who sponsored the bill was disappointed. CORNYN: Unfortunately the proponents of this underlying bill failed to take an opportunity to help restore public confidence that we're actually serious about passing an immigration law that could actually work. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Am I missing something? Every time I turn on the TV I am bombarded by some new wait loss campaign. You know the ones, the guy with the gut that vanishes and muscles magically appear or the gal who says that says her husband thinks she's "hot" because of some diet plan that typically uses the word cort a something. Shoddy diets are a dime a dozen yet midst all the known diet scams the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine urged the FTC to pull a campaign by the National Dairy Council that suggested eating healthy dairy products and drinking milk could aid weight loss. The ads are off the air because the FTC caved to the pressures of an anti-meat activist group, one that offers a free vegan starter kit on their web site. Now "responsible Physicians" I know are more concerned with raunchy beer ads targeting teens, sugary children's cereal or getting more young girls to drink more milk&..Not banning milk advertisement . What does this say about nation when a fringe group with a known anti- milk agenda can get milk commercial taken off the air? Scary Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.