1/12/09 Potato Expo & Salmonella

Potato Expo & Salmonella plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Last week, San Antonio was the home of the first ever Potato Expo. Up until this time each of the various sectors of the industry had held their own meetings so this was unique in that all aspects of the potato industry, chip, processed, fresh and seed spent time together. Nearly 900 participants spent two days attending meetings and seminars that included a lot of information. This year's theme was Achieving A Sustainable Future. Keynote speaker on Thursday was former Congressman, Charlie Wilson. Forty two states combined have reported nearly 400 cases of salmonella in an outbreak being investigated by government agencies. Laura Reiser of the Food Safety and Inspection Service says they are attempting to gather information. REISER: Right now CDC and the states are collecting and reviewing information from case patients that's starting to try to match up this outbreak with a product so FSIS is looking at the information provided by the CDC and the states to determine if a regulated product might be the source for the outbreak. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. The lyric in one of my favorite songs states, new or different isn't the definition of wrong. As the "mature" generation of farmers and ranchers passes the torch and are introduced to the up and coming generation they will need to be careful not to dismiss new ways of producing our nation's food and other farm products. Environmental, sustainable, and conservation are not alternative words for "wrong". Many conventional farm practices already embrace these ideas, and have for decades, as in water and soil conservation. Agriculture practices have already changed dramatically since WWII due to new technologies. Some of the farm practices that are considered tried and true today were also quite new and different once and all but dismissed by our Grandfather's generation. The farmers of the future will continue to discover new ways to farm that will be economically, environmentally and socially responsible while embracing the fundamental principals of farming. There is hope for the future of farming. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.