New Bird Flu & Food Myth
New Bird Flu & Food Myth plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.
China announced a sixth death from a new bird flu strain Friday, while authorities in Shanghai halted the sale of live fowl and slaughtered all poultry at a market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. The mass bird killing is the first so far as the Chinese government responds to the H7N9 strain of bird flu, which has sickened 16 people, many critically, along the eastern seaboard in its first known infections of people.
USDA has released a new report on their fresh fruit and vegetable program and according to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack debunks the myth that eating healthy costs more and that when given a choice, kids will eat healthy.
VILSACK: USDA found that when students are introduced to fresh fruits and vegetables, they try them. And in most cases they enjoy these snacks. We found that students participating in the program ate 15% more fruits and vegetables that their peers. In fact when these fruits and vegetables were offered in schools almost every student tried one.
Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.
When you think of poverty do you automatically think inner city? If so, you’re not alone, most people do, but as Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has been telling people , “90% of the persistently poor counties are actually located in rural areas”. In 2010 the USDA launched the StrikeForce Initiative, a program to help local communities in poverty stricken rural areas. The program started with six states and now partners with more than 400 community based organizations. Recently the USDA added ten more states to the program. Interestingly, though the nation as a whole saw farm lending drop 10 percent between 2011 and 2012, Farm Service Agency loans in StrikeForce areas were up almost 10 percent in 2012 over 2011, program application by underserved producers last year increased by 82 percent in StrikeForce areas, and rural housing loans were up more than 110 percent in 2012. I’ve heard some people ask why we need to focus on rural rather than urban poverty. Simply put, one can’t survive without the other. It is rural ecosystems that provide us with the bulk of the goods that we as humans depend on for survival.
Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
