Potato Boycott & Fewer Melons

Potato Boycott & Fewer Melons plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Those of you who love melons may be seeing a bit higher price at the grocery store this year. According to USDA economist Gary Lucier melon growers have planted fewer acres this year.

LUCIER: This year we’re expecting slightly fewer acres of three leading melon crops. We’re going to have lower acres for watermelon, honeydew but a little bit more for cantaloupe. Our cantaloupe area is fairly steady in California where they thought that maybe there was going to be a problem because of water but growers were able to work through those issues and growers in the southeast, Georgia and South Carolina planted more area and they accounted for all the gain.

A Connecticut-based animal rights group angry over Idaho's planned wolf hunt aims to punch the state in its tuber. Friends of Animals is urging foes of the hunt, today, to boycott potatoes grown in Idaho, a state where potatoes are such a big deal they're on the license plates. Idaho and Montana wildlife officials counter they have responsible wolf management plans. A hunt in neighboring Montana, due to start Sept. 15, targets up to 75 of the big predators.

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

With a new food scare hitting the news practically everyday the “Farm to School Program” makes enormous sense. Created to connect local growers, distributors and educational institutions the program offers an opportunity for locally grown produce to be served to our children in their school’s cafeteria. Since most school districts spend thousands of dollars annually on fresh produce, programs such as these will allow those dollars to be spent supporting local agriculture. The Farm to School Programs also allows school food service directors to “think outside the box”. In contacting their local producers many directors find that these producers are more than accommodating in as far as meeting prices and supply demand. An added bonus is the knowledge that locally grown produce served to students is generally far superior and brings peace of mind to not only those serving our children’s school lunches, but we as parents can feel more secure knowing where our children’s food is coming from. Having one less thing to worry about as a parent is monumental.

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