Pear Decrease Offset & Washington Jobs in Jeopardy

Pear Decrease Offset & Washington Jobs in Jeopardy plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. A large pear crop from last year remains in supply, which according to USDA economist Agnes Perez, negates an estimated eleven per cent decrease in pear production in 2010. PEREZ: NASS forecasted the 2010 pear crop to be 1.71 billion pounds; this is 11% smaller than last year. Compared to the average crop size for pear production for this year it is expected to be almost the same. So far prices for pears have been strong for the marketing year 2010-2011. The Washington budget office said Tuesday that 725 more jobs would be cut from state agencies to help meet the governor's order for a 6 percent cut in spending. The cuts began taking effect Friday, although some agencies are still making plans to cut their budget, which could include more furlough days. Office of Financial Management spokesman Glenn Kuper says state government already has eliminated about 3,000 positions in the past year-and-a-half. Most of the pending layoffs are in the Department of Social and Health Services. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Planet conscience consumers are all for sustainable, biodegradable packaging; that is unless it concerns their snack food. Frito-Lay has been packaging some of their more popular snack chips in bags made of ninety percent renewable, plant based materials. This new packaging was made to completely break down into compost in fourteen weeks or less. They had hoped for an overwhelming consumer approval and acceptance for such a magnanimous move toward corporate "green" responsibility. What they didn't foresee was the undeniable fickleness of the average consumer. Frito-Lay put a lot of research time and money into the development of a compostable chip bag. In a hurry to hit the market with this innovative packaging they obviously didn't spend enough time monitoring consumer response to the new bags. Apparently when it comes to the average snack food consumer, quiet, non-biodegradable plastic packaging wins out over noisy, biodegradable packaging, no matter how environmentally responsible or friendly it may be. So it's back to the drawing board for Frito-Lay. Perhaps they should try out their next improved compostable chip bag with test consumers in a crowded movie theatre before hitting the stores. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.