Potatoes in Schools & High Food Prices
Potatoes in Schools & High Food Prices plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.
Recommendations to reduce certain vegetables, including potatoes, were recently released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a proposed rule on Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. This proposal could have adverse effects on our children’s health and on the state of school meal plans according to Randy Hardy, Idaho potato farmer and member of the National Potato Council.
HARDY: We just don’t feel like they are looking at the true value of these vegetables they are trying to eliminate. They call them a starch when in reality they’re very high in fiber which every nutritionist will agree we need more fiber in our diet.
For more information and to send a message to officials visit the website potatoesinschools.com, Comments can be made until April 13th.
Many Americans may be wondering about the price of food these days. Food prices are up - but U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the reasons for that are not simple.
VILSACK: As food travels from farm to our tables the price we pay is influenced by a number of factors along the way. As we weather this period of price fluctuation together know that America’s farmers are working every day to provide your family with the highest quality, most affordable food anywhere in the world.
Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.
I grew up in the Midwest, the heartland of America, got married, had kids, and moved two thousand miles away to the West; and according to new Census Bureau number crunching, I will now retire in the “new US heartland. It appears the West is now quickly surpassing the Midwest in population. It’s been one hundred sixty-one years since the Midwest was knocked out of its heartland status. If you’re wondering what difference it makes where the US mean center of population is technically located you would’t be alone, but it does indeed matter. It’s the geographic balancing point for the nation’s population. Political and consumer product appeal and their influence on the majority of Americans is based on this geographical distinction, although when asked to define America’s Heartland most people associate it with agriculture and farming. Of course the center point or heartland of America has been moving progressively westward since the very first center of population was located just east of Baltimore in seventeen ninety. Even if the center of population ends up being somewhere in Arizona during my lifetime, the Midwest will always be “heartland” to me.
Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
