Pearl Harbor & Preparing for an Outage

Pearl Harbor & Preparing for an Outage plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

The northwest has been stuck in the deep freeze as of late and there has been considerable amounts of snow from the coast eastward. Are you prepared in case of a power outage? Kathy Bernard with the Food Safety and Inspection Service has some tips to keep your food safe.

BERNARD: You can freeze items like milk and leftovers - lunch meats and things. Go ahead and freeze them because then you will be able to keep them longer if they are in the freezer. Group your foods together in your freezer or your refrigerator.

And consider using a cooler with ice.

BERNARD: And the that way you can go in and out of the cooler and get those items without having to open the refrigerator and freezer because you want to keep those doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature.

This last Saturday was the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was a major historic milestone that we will never forget. But each generation seems to have their own tragedy. My son in his late 20's knows the significance of Pear Harbor but the events of September 11 have more meaning since it was a contemporary tragedy. In my lifetime it was more the assassination of both John and Bobby Kennedy and of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. It is important that even though there are these generation divides that we never forget any of them or the importance to America.

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

Food service research and consulting firm,Technomic, has released a report identifying restaurant food trends for 2014 based on visiting restaurants in cities across the nation, backing it up using data from its extensive MenuMonitor database. What is the number one emerging food trend surfacing in restaurants across the U.S.? They say it's that consumers want to know that what they are eating is real. We want the details - what are the ingredients, where did the food come from, and how was it prepared. Technomic also says that carbs are coming back in the forms of flatbreads, artisan breads, rice bowls, and pastas made with unusual ingredients. It comes as no surprise that chicken will again be high on the list for 2014, due largely in part to the rising commodity costs for beef, but pork seems to be quickly creeping into the number one spot for protein as a penchant for ethnic fare and barbecue has become more prevalent. And don't forget the beverages, which Technomic says are becoming more revolutionized by the minute - with barrel-stored cold-brewed coffee sent through repurposed beer taps, keg-wine bar concepts, and RFID-card-controlled self-serve beer-tap walls at high-tech pubs.

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