Idaho Food Stamp Increase, Pushing Healthier Meals & Tualitin Company recalls Cheese

Idaho Food Stamp Increase, Pushing Healthier Meals & Tualitin Company recalls Cheese plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The Idaho state Department of Health and Welfare plans to ask Idaho lawmakers to increase the asset limit for people seeking food stamps. Idaho last year waived the requirement that people have assets less than $2,000 to be eligible, not wanting to force the newly unemployed to unload assets at pennies on the dollar just to qualify. Lawmakers in the 2010 session approved a proposal to temporarily keep the waiver. The Secretaries of Agriculture and Education teamed up Monday at an elementary school in Washington, D.C. to urge passage of a bill to give children access to healthier meals. VILSACK: What we're asking the House to do regardless of what mechanism it is, is to get it passed and get it passed as soon as possible because we'd like to get to work implementing it as soon as possible. We do believe that this has strong support in the nutrition community, in the education community, even in the military and certainly in the healthcare community so there's support across the spectrum. Mauri Gorgonzola cheese is being recalled because of a positive test for E. coli. DPI Specialty Foods of Tualatin, Ore., cut, packaged and distributed the cheese to Costco Wholesale stores in Colorado only. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. This past week I had the pleasure of attending the 85th annual Washington Cattlemen's and Cattle Women's Associations Convention. A number of important issues were on the agenda, covering topics such as animal identification and traceability, endangered species issues and the challenges faced by ranchers regarding Washington's wolf plan, the rising price of corn, and untaxed farm fuel; and that just scratches the surface. Even with all these highly charged issues being at the forefront I was struck with the fact that here was a group of people without pretense, real people who are truly passionate about what they do; and while obviously working hard to promote their industry, are at the same time reaching out to not only educate the consumer but help those in need through such programs as Beef Counts, where the Washington beef industry supplies much needed protein to the hungry by way of nutritious beef donated to the Second Harvest Foodbank network. Too often we hear negative press about cattle ranchers. What we don't and should hear is that these are dedicated men and women who not only care about their product but about the people who buy that product as well. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.