11/24/08 Organic Fish & Putting it On

Organic Fish & Putting It On plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The question of whether farmed fish could be labeled organic, especially carnivorous species such as salmon that live in open-ocean net pens and consume vast amounts of smaller fish has puzzled scientists and federal regulators for years. But, now there is a possible solution. For the first time, a federal advisory board has approved criteria that clear the way for farmed fish to be labeled "organic." The standards approved by the National Organic Standards Board would allow organic fish farmers to use wild fish as part of their feed mix provided it did not exceed 25 percent of the total and did not come from forage species, such as menhaden, that have declined sharply as the demand for farmed fish has skyrocketed. Well this is Thanksgiving week and with it will probably begin the increase of the waistline. Yes, a lot of us tend to put on a few extra pounds during the holidays but Dr. Brian Wansink says there are ways to curb the calories and keep the pounds down by using the rule of two. WANSINK: This means that when you are at a party or a buffet you can take anything you want but you can only put two items on your plate at a time and what we find is this has the effect of helping people end up taking less because you don't have 67 things you're piling on your plate at once, you just have two things. And eventually you get tired of going back. He also suggests sitting farther away from the food table during the evening to keep the temptation further away and out of sight. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away and a lot of us are wondering just what to be thankful for this year. At first glance the list of things to be thankful for may appear quite short, what with the Wall Street collapse, the housing and employment slump, and the rise and fall of the almighty oil dollar. But in retrospect, we as Americans still have much to be thankful for. So often we take for granted the blessed fact that we live in a nation where we are awarded the most basic of human rights, such as the freedom of speech, the freedom to worship as we choose, the freedom to do, think and act as we please. Most of us cannot begin to imagine living a day where we don't have these rights, but millions of peoples around the globe would remind us of how grateful we should really be. They would tell us how we should be thankful for the ability to cast individual votes to elect a new leader for our nation. This Thanksgiving take a moment between the turkey and the pumpkin pie to truly take stock of what we as a nation truly have to be thankful for. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.