Beef Labels & Holiday Gas Prices

 Beef Labels & Holiday Gas Prices plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

How much fat or how much protein is that steak or that ground beef you just bought? Shoppers will soon be able to answer that question. Under Secretary of Agriculture Elisabeth Hagen, saying that between now and the January 2012 deadline consumers will see more and more meat products with the nutrition labels.

HAGEN: We have a voluntary guideline system out there for this type of labeling now and we have a pretty good participation rate so a lot of companies are already doing this. They’ve already made the investment so it won’t be a real change for them. But I think what you’ll see is probably gradually throughout 2011 more and more packages will display this information and then January 2012 is when it has to be there by requirement.

Idaho is seeing a bit of gas pump price relief according to AAA. For the first time in almost a year Idahoans are paying just a bit under the national average. Gas prices elsewhere across the northwest have been about steady to up a bit but sorry to say that the lower gas prices may be short lived. Expect gas prices to climb in the New Year. 

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

Many of the year’s top news stories revolved around the food industry and the farmers that provide the food we eat. Several concerned food safety, the top two being a massive recall of more than 35,000 pounds of ground beef after E. Coli bacteria were detected, and a national outbreak of salmonella after bacteria spread to nearly 380 million eggs. Stories like those paved the way for the passing of the Food Safety Bill, continued growth of the local food movement, and an overall growth in farmer’s markets, with more consumers wanting to know where and how their food was produced. Food activists had a victory when calorie counts on restaurant menus went national and major food companies agreed to cut sodium in their products. High fructose corn syrup received a face lift in 2010 being rebranded with the more accurate “corn sugar”, and of course the news was ripe with reports on the Farm Bill, biofuels, other alternative energy sources, climate change, and GM foods, all of which will continue to get top coverage in 2011, 2012, and beyond. All in all it was an extraordinary year for agriculture.

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