Our Northwest Economy

The Drop in Milk Prices: a Look at Northwest Dairy Farmers

(Flickr photo by icatus)  

“It’s bad,” remarks Mike Roth, an Idaho dairy farmer who owns and manages 10,000 cows on two farms in Jerome County. “This is a 1 in 40 year event,” he says, characterizing the dramatic drop in milk prices from their peak of $21.38 per hundredweight (100 lbs) in July of 2007 to a low of $9.31 this February. “This isn’t a single year loss”—one that dairy farmers will quickly recover after a few good years—“it’s going to take decades to get back what the industry lost.”

Food Scientist Stephanie Clark on Dairy Processing

(Dr. Stephanie Clark) 

Intro:

Recently, Northwest Public Radio aired a profile about a family dairy as part of a series on the Northwest economy.  It resulted in a flurry of comments from representatives of the dairy industry, and it spurred questions about the practices of pasteurization and homogenization. Mary Hawkins took the opportunity to speak with leading dairy expert, Stephanie Clark.  Formerly with Washington State University, Dr. Clark is now an associate professor at Iowa State University, specializing in food science with a focus on dairy foods. She shared her views on common perceptions and misperceptions about the dairy industry and the processing of milk.

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WA Promises College Scholarships to Low-Income H.S. Grads

(photo: Ferrucci Jr. High student Donovan Fuselier and counselor John Frazier (rear) discuss the College Bound Scholarship. Courtesy of Tom Banse.)

PUYALLUP, WA - Word is getting out about a remarkable guarantee Washington State is making to foster children, welfare kids, and other low income 7th and 8th graders. The promise is this: If you stay in school and stay out of trouble, the state will provide a four year scholarship to college. More than forty-three thousand students have signed up for that deal and counting. However, there's possible trouble on the horizon. The Washington Legislature hasn’t set aside much money to cover its mounting obligation.

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Scholarship Fund Started for Slain Police Officer's Children

OLYMPIA, WA - Some 20,000 mourners are expected at today's memorial for four murdered Lakewood police officers. Meanwhile, efforts continue to raise enough money to pay for college for all nine of the officers’ children.

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Head of EPA Says Stimulus Creating Clean Jobs in Seattle

OLYMPIA, WA - The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says the stimulus money given to Washington state will help create clean jobs. Lisa Jackson was in Seattle Friday to follow up on the $16 million in federal funds that state agencies have recently received to lower diesel emissions.

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WA Gov Says Taxes Necessary To Solve Budget Shortfall

OLYMPIA, WA - Washington Governor Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, ran for re-election last year on a no-new-taxes platform. But with the state facing another $2.6 billion shortfall she now says taxes will have to be raised. Gregoire says she can’t in good conscience rebalance the current two-year budget with cuts alone.

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Spokane's Family Farm Dairy

Editor's note: we got a flurry of responses and a lot of questions regarding the processing of milk. We decided to post a companion article to this post called Food Scientist Stephanie Clark on Dairy Processing. Also note our dairy industry article called The Drop in Milk Prices: A Look at Northwest Dairy Farmers.

Host intro: “Spokane’s Family Farm” dairy is working to bring clean, unadulterated milk to the Inland Northwest. Mary Hawkins reports why “Spokane’s Family Farm” is an unusual dairy operation on “Our Northwest Economy”:

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How to Curb Impulse Spending and SAVE

(Flickr photo by ES)

Lead:  Black Friday shoppers may have been thrilled with their discounts, but may not be so happy when their credit card bills arrive.  Sueann Ramella speaks with a Professor of Psychology about impulse spending for Our Northwest Economy.

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Characteristics, Costs, and Issues for Organic Dairy Farming (Report)

This exhaustive report was release November 9th, 2009 by the United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service (USDA, ERC). The survey was conducted by the National Agriculture Statistics Service.

"This report attempts to shed light on the structure of organic milk production, factors affecting whether a dairy becomes organic, and the relative costs and returns of conventional and organic milk production." -- William D. McBride and Catherine Greene

Report Conclusions:

Buying Local

 

(Banner art from Rural Roots)

Host intro: On today’s “Our Northwest Economy” feature, Mary Hawkins and WSU’s Andrew Cassey discuss the Buy Local movement.

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Two Depression Era Stories: Joan Harris and Leonard Davies

(pictured: Joan Harris in the 1930s)

Recently most Americans were hit with a financial setback - either the value of retirement funds, a loss in home value or the loss of a job. But what if we were hit with the kind of poverty common during the Great Depression? Sueann Ramella spoke with two people who were children in the 1930s - about the life lessons they learned during that challenging time.