06/18/07 Healthy Breakfast Cereal, Oregon Quake & Farm Bill Discord

Healthy Breakfast Food, Oregon Quake & Farm Bill Discord plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. It's a sign of the times. Breakfast cereals that for years have been loaded with sugar and fat are going on a diet. The Kellogg's company announced that they are raising the nutritional value of their cereals and adjust how what and how they market to kids. They will also be adding front of packaging nutrition labels. Kellogg's Company has been under attack from several groups over their marketing and products as possible causes of childhood obesity. Residents in Maupin, Oregon got a mid-afternoon wake up last week as a 3.9 magnitude earth quake rattled dishes and nerves. Maupin is 43 miles south of The Dalles. No injuries or damage was reported. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns said that during their Farm Bill listening tour that the message from producers was clear. Farmers want an equitable system that provides more predictability but that isn't what Johanns is currently hearing from Capitol Hill. JOHANNS: What I'm hearing for example is that we're going to head in a direction where our fruit and vegetable farmers or specialty crop commodity farmers are caught in a situation where the funding that they receive will be called discretionary. Discretionary funding really isn't funding at all  if it isn't made mandatory, the likelihood of it happening is pretty well non-existent. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Human parents tell their children not to cry over spilled milk so it isn't such a stretch to think that Momma bears in Calgary, Canada must be telling their babies not to cry over spilled grain. The Canadian Wheat Board vented their frustration with Canadian Pacific Railway for excess grain that continually ends up where it shouldn't; on railroad tracks. In fact it was just that scenario that caused a couple of little bear cubs to ride the rails last week and end up in quite the predicament. The bear family was drawn to an easy meal of grain left on a platform of a railroad car. When the train began to move Momma jumped off, but the twins, only a few months old were too scared to follow so were whizzed down the tracks wailing. It was a bad situation given the fact that spilled grain has caused the death many bears and other wildlife drawn to the tracks for food. Canadian Pacific Railway is promising to invest capitol to remodel railroad cars to prevent excess spillage. Thankfully this story has a happy ending, as two very angry cubs were reunited with a delighted mother bear. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.