Russia Reopens to Pork & Maintaining 2008 Farm Bill plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The House Agriculture Committee has given unanimous approval to a letter urging the Budget Committee to maintain funding for farm subsidy and nutrition assistance programs at levels authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill. House Ag ranking Republican, Frank Lucas said the bipartisan vote:

LUCAS: Reflects the sentiment in our letter to the budge committee which calls for maintaining the compromises of the ’08 Farm Bill and rejecting the President’s budget proposals.

Word out of Russia indicates it will gradually lift its import bans on shipments of pork from U.S. plants. This announcement follows an agreement by Washington to observe Russian food safety rules. Moscow had taken a hard line with the United States on food safety. It accused U.S. exporters of flouting Russian rules. Some critics say the bans could be politically motivated. Meanwhile, negotiations to resume U.S. poultry shipments are ongoing. Russia ranks among the United States' top five markets for pork, beef and poultry. In 2008, the United States shipped more than 1.3-billion dollars worth of these products to Russia.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

It is a known fact that mankind suffers from the ostrich syndrome. We have the innate tendency to stick our heads in the sand and pretend if we don't see it or acknowledge it, it doesn't really exist, and therefore won't hurt us. Hard fact is that the longer we stick our heads in the sand in regards to the fuel shortage, the more it will hurt us and future generations. The starts and stops that have procured in the last couple of decades with research programs designed to find a replacement for the world's fossil fuel use have been abundant. One such program involved the possibility of using algae as an oil replacement. The U.S. Government abandoned its research into algae based fuel in 1996 because they didn't feel they could reasonably compete with the price of petroleum. But with the price of oil fluctuating dramatically, and the worry over world food supply competition from the production of ethanol, the interest in algae oil production is once again coming to the forefront. And with algae oil being homegrown and plentiful, will it be the world's future? We don't know, but the need for a fossil fuel replacement is glaringly apparent and the cost for not finding and implementing a replacement is eminently disastrous.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.