New Child Nutrition Program & From Bad to Worse

New Child Nutrition Program & From Bad to Worse plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

It's called the “Fuel Up To Play 60” program. This child health and nutrition program of the NFL, National Dairy Council and the USDA is expanding into more schools. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says there are a number of reason the USDA has signed on.

VILSACK: We are currently dealing with a third of our youngsters in American today either obese or at risk of being obese. These are youngsters who will no doubt suffer serious chronic illnesses as they get older if they aren’t already dealing with juvenile diabetes. So as we deal with the concerns we have about healthcare costs this is one way in which we can significantly reduce long term healthcare costs by making sure our youngsters are better consumers of more nutritious food.

It seems that the water supply in Idaho due to snowpack is worse than expected. One expert says measurements taken late last week show the snowpack has declined since the start of the year. The Idaho State Journal reports that snowpack in the upper Snake River Basin system near Yellowstone National Park, the snowpack is at 50 to 60 percent of average. The system supplies water for 1.5 million acres in eastern and southern Idaho. The good news though is that carry-over storage from last year should get irrigators through the growing season.

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

Looks like the mayor of New York has decided to draw a line in the sand as he goes toe to toe with the some of his cities most celebrated Chefs. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has long been one of New York’s food cop “pit bulls”, expecting his constituents to rally ‘round’ his “sin” and “fat” tax agenda. Now someone has stepped up to confront this food bully on his own playground. Bloomberg’s most recent tirade comparing the use of table salt or salt used in cooking as akin to having the same cancerous properties of asbestos  has managed to anger several of New York’s finest chefs, not to mention most of the cities population. Chef David Chang stated that while “it is common knowledge too much salt can contribute to high blood pressure you need salt to draw the flavor out of food, it’s a skill we teach cooks.” Funny thing though, not all that long ago some of these very same chefs were supportive of Bloomberg’s attack on fast food places. Guess it’s all too easy to go along or feign disinterest when the “bully” is picking on some other poor soul on the playground. Bloomberg needs to go back to nutrition 101 and most importantly he needs to learn to “play nice”.

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