Connecting Farmers and Chefs & Staged Video

Tuesday Apr 26th, 2011 37 Views Northwest Report

Connecting Farmers and Chefs & Staged Video plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

A recent video of animal cruelty at the E6 Ranch in Texas has been shown to be a staged. There is clear evidence that the undercover investigator with the animal activist group Mercy for Animals was a knowing participant. Kirt Espenson is the ranch owner.

ESPENSON: I take full responsibility for what happened here. My employees should have been trained better, my employees should have been above reproach and that’s what I am hoping to have happen. The Mercy for Animals employee is on video with a hammer euthanizing calves.

Espenson says they have taken steps to ensure that this never happens again.

Farmers grow the food while chefs prepare it for consumption. Often times they two never meet but theTreasure Valley Farmer-Chef Collaborative pairs buyers and sellers to facilitate one-on-one discussions to match buyer needs with available local products. The event is held May 10th in Boise and is fashioned after the popular speed dating events and allows farmers, ranchers, and chefs the unique opportunity to discuss ways to source fresh, local agriculture to local foodservice venues.

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

Well, it sounds good, at least there’s that. Last week when Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack said “as children learn more about the nutritional value that’s available to them they’re going to make the smart choice and the wise choice”. On the perfect day, at the perfect time, on a perfect world this could very well be the case. On this normal planet we call home it’s pretty much just wishful thinking. To insinuate that all parents, teachers, and schools prior to this particular moment in time have failed to inform children about good nutrition and the importance of physical activity for their overall health and well being would be a great injustice. My husband and I, like our parents and their parents before them, did our best when it came to providing our children with healthy food choices. The fact remains, “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”. Yes, we should still make every effort to provide nutritional school lunches, and inform our children about the health benefits of keeping active. Will this guarantee that they will always make healthy food choices? No, but as every parent can attest, the hope that our children will be wiser and stronger than we were is an ongoing state of mind.

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