Egg Industry Under Scrutiny & Fall Is Here

Egg Industry Under Scrutiny & Fall Is Here plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Last night a little after 8pm Pacific Time was the Autumnal Equinox or the beginning of Fall. With harvest underway here in the northwest producers are keeping one eye on the weather. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says we may be seeing the beginning of a la Nina weather pattern. RIPPEY: And some of the expected impacts are starting to materialize even though it's only late September. Members of a House subcommittee showed photos of dead chickens, bugs and holes in hen houses on Wednesday as they prepared to question the heads of two egg farms linked to as many as 1,600 cases of salmonella poisoning this summer. So far, an FDA investigation appears to be focused on Wright County Egg and another company linked to the illnesses, Hillandale Farms. The two companies recalled more than a half-billion eggs related to the outbreak in August. The specific cause of the outbreak is still unknown, and the FDA is still investigating. No deaths have been reported due to the outbreak. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said this is the largest outbreak of this strain of salmonella since the start of the agency's surveillance of outbreaks in the late 1970s. For every case reported, there may be 30 that are unreported. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. With the discussion about the "potato man's" potato diet one thing continues to come up, if all he's using on potatoes are herbs and spices, what's the difference? Aren't herbs and spices one and the same? Technically, yes and no. Herbs and spices both originate from plants, but where herbs generally come from the softer parts of plants, the leaves, and can be used either fresh or dried, spices are from the dried harder parts, the seeds, roots, bark, or berries. A perfect example of the difference between an herb and a spice can be found in one plant, coriander, where the dried or fresh leaves are used as the herb cilantro, most often found in salsas, while the brown seeds of the plant are known as the spice coriander. Spices and herbs were once considered highly valuable and used as currency; anyone who has ever purchased saffron can relate to that. Now days the two have become interchangeable, with the term spice often being used to define any dried plant product used to season and enhance the flavors of food. Whether you agree or disagree that herbs and spices are two different things, we can all agree that both make the world a much "tastier" place. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.