Oregon Bans Drinks & Holiday Website

Oregon Bans Drinks & Holiday Website plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. If you haven't already put the turkey out to thaw you might want to think about it. A lot more people are looking at preparing their Thanksgiving feast at home instead of out and according to Shelly Feist with the Partnership for Food Safety and Education says if you need some help visit holidayfoodsafety.org. FEIST: What we try to do there is bring together a lot of information both recipes, preparation ideas as well as the critical food safety practices and it has some kids activities. Around the holidays coloring page, just things to let the kids get involved with the meals. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has followed Washington State and banned the sale of alcoholic energy drinks in the state. The ban will be effective until May 18. In the meantime, the OLCC will discuss permanent rules on alcoholic energy drinks. The commission says it based its decision in part on a recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration declaration that the drinks cannot stay on the market in their current form. Some officials have warned that caffeine and other stimulants lacing the beverages encourage binge drinking by preventing consumers from realizing how drunk they might be. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. One of my fondest memories from childhood is of fresh raw milk being delivered right to our door by the wife of one of the local farmers in our small Kansas town. The thick layer of cream that was settled on top was the stuff culinary dreams are made of and sibling battles were waged over. My son has never had the pleasure of tasting anything other than store bought milk. With the government currently in a debate over whether dairy farmers will have the right to sell raw milk here in the U.S. he may never get the chance. Laws regarding the sale of raw milk vary from state to state, and heavy restrictions apply where its sale is legal. Pasteurization of milk started in the late 1800's and early 1900's during a time in history when dairy producers were not as knowledgeable and sanitation conscious as they are today and diseases such as typhoid were unchecked. It seems strange today that the sale of tobacco products, known to be life threatening and unsafe for humans, continues with a mere label warning. Instead of outlawing raw milk, slap a warning label on it if need be, and allow people the right to choose whether they drink their milk pasteurized or raw. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.