Preparing for a Farm Bill & Spending Measure

Preparing for a Farm Bill & Spending Measure plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was in San Antonio at the Farm Bureau meeting and talked about some of the many Farm Bill related programs and policies that must be implemented right away once Congress passes this legislation.

VILSACK: We recognize the need to restore disaster assistance programs. We know the crop loan rate programs need to be set and adjusted. The credit programs need to be finalized. We know it's important to get the common provisions that all programs rely on defined quickly. Putting up the new programs; the revenue protection programs. Trying to institute those as quickly as possible. And of course we need to continue to invest in rural development so we create the jobs that help to support farm families as they need second incomes. All of this will be a challenge but we're up to the challenge.

The leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees now expect Congress to approve a continuing resolution funding the government for the rest of the fiscal year by the end of next week - ahead of the recess that begins with Martin Luther King Day on January 20th. That will require a three-day extension to cover the period after the current continuing resolution - which ends Wednesday.

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

If the thought of air travel makes you cringe, whether because of the long lines through airport security or possible flight delays, you might want to take into consideration how fortunate we really are today, time wise that is, in comparison to how our ancestors had to travel. You don't have to go very far back in our nation's history to find a time when people had to schedule days, weeks or even months for travel time to and from their destination. In the late 1800's it would take someone nearly a month to go from the east coast to the west coast by train, a trip that takes a person a day now by air travel. By the time the 1930's rolled around a trip across country from Seattle to New York took a little under a week by train. Air travel was still quite new, and while one could travel across country in less time by plane, most people still preferred to go by train. Of course the thought of taking a long, perhaps even boring, trip across country does seem rather appealing. Nice thing is, today we have the choice of whether we want to take our time getting somewhere, or getting there in a hurry. Now we just have to figure out how to make our modes of transportation "greener".

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