Last Farm Bill & AP Bashes Ethanol

Last Farm Bill & AP Bashes Ethanol plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

The Associated Press has weighed in on the ethanol issue with a scathing report showing ethanol hasn't lived up to some of the government's clean-energy promises. And as you might think the report is drawing plenty of criticism from the ethanol industry. American Coalition for Ethanol Executive Vice President Brian Jennings says there are no new arguments in the article - and it is full of inaccuracies.

JENNINGS: The thing that we're stunned about is just how lazy the journalism is in this piece and how many facts this army of reporters that worked on it really did get wrong. Small errors from indicating that Tom Dashiel was a Senator from Iowa when he was from South Dakota to big errors like suggesting that corn prices have been $7 a bushel this year. It's riddled with a lot of errors and frankly that's why we've called on then to retract the story.

Farm bills usually pass every five or six-years - but passing a new farm bill has been a struggle for the past couple of years. U.S. Congressman for Alabama Mike Rogers is part of the farm bill conference committee - and according to the Anniston Star - he wants to get this year's farm bill right - saying it could be the last one that passes for decades. In the conference committee - Rogers says it doesn't matter whether you're a Democrat or a Republican - but he thinks future farm bill debates will only become more partisan.

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

Too much, too little, too late pretty well sums up the feelings of most Americans when it comes to President Obama's recent "apology" during an NBC interview about Obamacare. Just what is he sorry for? Well for starters he's sorry that some, which actually equates to millions, have lost health insurance policies that he has said on numerous occasions over the last several years that they could keep, he's sorry for the rollout of healthcare.gov that more closely resembled an incredibly messy rollover car crash, and he's sorry that some have been inconvenienced by the obviously inadequate crafting of the Affordable Care Act. What seemed to be missing in President Obama's apology though was a sincere feeling of regret or remorse. What he did say was that "I'm sorry that people are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me." With such an apology Obama has not restored the country's faith or trust in the government. What he has managed to do is once again prove to the masses that on too many occasions what a politician says and what he means are generally two different things all together.

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