Supporting Local Food & Bicycling to Work

Friday May 9th, 2014 42 Views Northwest Report

Supporting Local Food & Bicycling to Work plus Trends for Organic Foods. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

USDA has again announced a couple of new programs that were included as part of the 2014 Farm Bill. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that a total of $78-million dollars would be made available for local food enterprises.

VILSACK: Today we take additional steps to institute the policies and programs authorized under the 2014 Farm Bill continuing the progress and momentum that we built following the passage of the Farm Bill.

The announcement provides a historic investment in local and regional food systems, including food hubs, farmers markets, aggregation and processing facilities, distribution services, and other local food business enterprises.

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that more and more people are taking to two wheels to get to work these days. The latest figures show a 60% increase in the use of bicycles for commuters from 2008 to 2012. Even though the total number of bikes is dwarfed by the use of autos some large cities are seeing those bike numbers doubling. Portland, Ore., had the highest bicycle commuting rate at 6.1 percent, up from 1.8 percent in 2000. In Seattle, bike commuting jumped from 1.9 percent in 2000 to 3.4 percent. Walking is up as well.

Now Rod Bain discusses census of ag trends for organic and locally grown foods.

(USDA Report)

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