Waiting Game & Sustainable Ag Grants

Waiting Game & Sustainable Ag Grants

Waiting Game & Sustainable Ag Grants plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Producer Grant program offers national grants on a regional level. Rob Hedberg of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture explains.

HEDBERG: (It’s) national in scope but it’s delivered on the ground in four different regions. Within these regions they can each offer a variety of grant programs but one of the ones that is offered consistently across all four regions would be a producer program. It might go by different names but each region offers this and we’re coming up on some deadlines for producers to get their applications in. These are all coming in about the same time but just a word of advice for anybody considering applying to make sure and look in your particular region and make sure you hit the exact deadline for that region.

Hurry up and wait. Everyone who has been in the military knows that axiom but the general public is now being forced to wait in the face of a looming threat, the H1N1 virus. Health officials say a vaccine shortage on the national level is affecting how many people here will be protected. Unless you're in the highest risk categories, you'll have to wait a week or two, maybe into December. That's more dangerous for some than for others. Most health officials are seeing only H1N1 cases and flu season is just getting underway.

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

In reading about the USDA’s new ruling for labeling meat from grass fed livestock I was struck by the statement that “a growing number of farmers across the country are turning to this modern approach to livestock production”.  Perhaps a more accurate statement would have been that many farmers are returning to a more traditional method of raising their livestock in pastures as opposed to confined animal feeding operations. This labeling is meant to aide consumers in choosing either grass fed, meaning livestock fed solely on grasses, hay or non-grain vegetation, or meat from CAFO operations. In all, it remains to be seen whether this will help consumers or yet be one more thing that will complicate and confuse the label reading public. There are already labels which read either “natural, “organic”, or “free range” that have consumers scratching their head in wonder and dismay. While grass fed is reported to be leaner and higher in beneficial fats the flavor of beef relates highly to the cow’s diet and past studies show nearly 80 percent of consumers prefer corn fed beef. So for consumers it seems to simply come down to a matter of taste.

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

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