Gleaners Take Their Turn & Banks Supporting Farmers

Gleaners Take Their Turn & Banks Supporting Farmers plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Despite this year’s severe drought - farmers and ranchers who have partnered with their banker on financial decisions have a steady foundation from strong performance throughout recent years. American Bankers Association President and CEO Frank Keating says the banking industry recognizes how important agriculture is and wants to help farmers and ranchers in the best way possible.

KEATING: Sit down with your banker and make sure that you talk about your plight. I mean there are opportunities for crop insurance, there are opportunities renegotiating of loans, adjustment of loan payment terms, rescheduling or deferral of payments. This is what bankers do and if you have an ag bank you are dealing with that’s how they stay in business.

As a kid in the midwest I knew a Gleaner as a brand of combine. But gleaner’s are much more. When farmers harvest a field or orchard there is usually some crop left over due to being difficult to reach or not being a desirable size or color. The extra is left to rot. In many place gleaners or people who will take the time and physical effort are allowed to comb these fields and orchards for whatever they can find. It’s hard work but well worth it. Be sure and check with the owner before gleaning.

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

Most of us are getting pretty tired of all the political mumbo jumbo and candidate backstabbing right about now, and we still have almost two months to go until the November election. The continual media barrage about what each candidate’s significant others are wearing or not wearing, who smoked what when, and who slept with who in college has done nothing but muddy the waters and distract voters from what really matters, finding solutions to this country’s mounting economic problems. Let’s hear less about what each man said in a speech twenty years ago, or political whining about which party actually got the gigantic snowball known as the American economy rolling down hill, and more about what each of the candidates plans are for economic recovery. I think this year more than ever America, especially rural America, needs to hear the plain hard facts about how the next possible president of the United States plans to help this nation recover. The nation has been in triage long enough now. It’s time to quit sifting, sorting, and finger pointing, and get down to the business of problem solving. The candidate who can do that will more than likely get the votes.

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