Winter Weather & Food Safety Bill Fix

Winter Weather & Food Safety Bill Fix plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

It snowed again and it just might be a white Christmas around the Pacific Northwest. Roads are icy in some areas but the big cold weather news are our friends clear across the U.S. in the sunshine state of Florida where freezing temperatures again this winter are putting a cold bite on vegetables according to the USDA’s Gary Lucier.

LUCIER: It’s likely thousands of acres of tender, warm season vegetables, those particular items suffered severe damage with the freeze in Florida. And really the majority of mature plants that were being harvested or ready for harvest in most areas even in Southern Florida were likely destroyed.

The Senate, Sunday evening, approved by consent and sent to the House the food safety bill, which earlier had passed both the House and Senate before it was discovered it might be unconstitutional. The section of the law that caused concern would have imposed fees on importers, farmers and food processors whose food is recalled because of contamination. The Senate corrected the problem before its vote. The legislation would affect all whole and processed foods except meat, poultry and some egg products, which are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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

Remember Rodney Dangerfield saying “I don’t get no respect”.  Seems there’s a member of the vegetable family that has felt the same way for years, with good reason. Brussels sprouts have long been known as a hard sell when it comes to getting kids to eat them, and if truth be known, not a lot of adults have been sold on this particular vegetable either. But things they are a changin’, perhaps due to the onslaught of celebrity chefs out there who have pushed Brussels sprouts into the mainstream with recipes that lend a whole new image to these often misunderstood and under appreciated vegetables. Even my son, who has always had a strong aversion to any green vegetable, has come to genuinely like the little veggie on a stalk, choosing to eat his with olive oil and a sprinkling of shaved parmesan. So if you haven’t tried Brussels sprouts recently you certainly should, Brussels sprouts are the hidden treasure of the vegetable world. And yes, I do eat and like Brussels sprouts, preferring mine with just a smidgen of creamy horse radish sauce. What can I say; I like to walk on the wild side!

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