it dean blanchard. the largest shrimp buyer in the state of louisiana and he's our only guest in our opening segment tonight because we want to give him time to tell us what is going on in the gulf. dean, good to have you on "the ed show" tonight. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, ed, it's a pleasure to be here. >> yes, sir. what's going on? how was your shrimp business impacted by the spill? >> well, basically, i was looking at my figures before i came here. for the first 18 days of the month, before bp in 2009, we did 2,666,000 pounds and this year we did 129,000. the numbers are clear. your not doing anywhere they're in the poundage that you used to do before the spill? >> not even in the same ballpark. you know? we're down to about 4%. it's a tough situation. it's hard to just imagine getting 4% of your check and see how good you'd be doing. >> well, what is happening? what is -- is the shrimp not edible. able to bring to market? what do you see and what's happening to the shrimp? >> basically

mark blanchard -- lauren is in washington, d.c. tonight.. >> thank you very much. >> how important was this meeting today? >> it's very important as you pointed out it's the first time they have met since the fighting broke out in mid-december. and it may be the key meeting that we have been looking for. it is something that secretary kerry was pushing for. i think the devil will be in the details. of course as you pointed out, the ceasefire takes effect in about 24 hours, and then they are going to work out the details of a more permanent ceasefire. there are some regional monitors still on the ground, but they have to deploy more of them and make sure this ceasefire holds. to put it into perspective there was a cessation of hostilities that was signed back in january -- >> why didn't that work? >> it was almost immediately violated. and these two sides have been fighting basically over a number of strategic towns. state capitols, two of which are in two oil-producing states in the country. and in the course of that fighting, major atrocit

. >> miss ambassador, i'm christopher blanchard the congressional research service. i wanted to give you two opportunities, one to respond to some remarks that were made in an interview which seemed to implicate a broader group than ansar al sharia that do implicate muslim brotherhood -- >> but he's not tried to kill muslim brotherhood. >> his remarks were a bit more ambiguous i think and have obviously generated debate inside libya and are affecting how people respond. and then the other to give you an opportunity to sort of respond to questions about the continuation of not just u.s. security assistance but the sort of general plan to work with the libyan military given the questions about chain of command that are obviously being raised here. can you talk about why the u.s. government may believe that it's still important to proceed along that path or not? thank you. >> are you going to give me the wrote? because i haven't read -- >> sure. i can if you'd like. >> what's the specific quote? >> sure. let's see. he's talking about how the muslim brother had organized

. >> miss ambassador, i'm christopher blanchard the congressional research service. i wanted to give you two opportunities, one to respond to some remarks that were made in an interview which seemed to implicate a broader group than ansar al sharia that do implicate muslim brotherhood -- >> but he's not tried to kill muslim brotherhood. >> his remarks were a bit more ambiguous i think and have obviously generated debate inside libya and are affecting how people respond. and then the other to give you an opportunity to sort of respond to questions about the continuation of not just u.s. security assistance but the sort of general plan to work with the libyan military given the questions about chain of command that are obviously being raised here. can you talk about why the u.s. government may believe that it's still important to proceed along that path or not? thank you. >> are you going to give me the wrote? because i haven't read -- >> sure. i can if you'd like. >> what's the specific quote? >> sure. let's see. he's talking about how the muslim brother had organized

from his point of view, saved blanchard rather than created it as well.interesting talking about where russia goes. their economy is teetering on the brink of recession potentially a half percent at best according to many in 2015 and 2014 as well. what he has been saying, is they signed a massive $400 billion deal for long-term gas supplies. they are saying by 2020 this will be worth $200 billion a year. that eurasian trade routes will take part of that trade. and for western european gas supplies, which of course 30% come from russia, saying we could become a swing producer between europe and asia as well. very interesting of course. a lot of concerns about the fall of the ruble. the difficulty some companies have found in financing themselves. talking about the use of the yuan and rubles. he made the point they can lend money at inflation at 1%. it is a major issue at the moment. it's coming at 7.3%. what i'm going to do is hand it back to you guys. because i believe geoff is about to start a few questions to mr. paout discipline steve, thank you very m

paula, the farm is a testament to what hard work and determination can do founding fathers nathan blanchard and wallace hardison first bought the land way back in 1893 and named the ranch limoneira, which means "lemon lands" in portuguese. >> and at the time, they wanted to bring about the first full-scale commercial operation citrus ranch in the u.s. and from there, we added, throughout the year over the last 115-16 years, 3 other families have come into the fold, and that's where we've grown today to be our 7,000 acres that we are in california. >> once called the home of the lemon, it actually took 15 years before those first farmers even turned a profit at the limoneira farm. but they persevered, and as they say, they've come a long way, baby. things have obviously changed a lot over the years, but one thing that hasn't changed is the desire to explore innovative programs. the farm invests a lot of time, research, and investment into improving len production through innovation. in 2008, they completed work on a solar panel project that stretches across nearly 5 acres and can help to pow