Fresh Not Costly & Smokey Bear Birthday

Fresh Not Costly & Smokey Bear Birthday plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Our son recently made a discovery...buying fresh fruits and vegetables is considerably cheaper than bagged or frozen. It’s something a generation of people are beginning to discover and Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan has jumped on the bandwagon challenging the premise that fresh produce at farmers markets is always more expensive.

MERRIGAN: I could point to a particular farmer’s market in DC where it would be a lot more expensive but I could also point you to a farmer’s market in my home area where it would be an incredibly good deal. So I think that we can’t say those things flat out. You know we’re talking about dogs and ponies here and we’re also talking about how and when you buy.

He’s 67 and doesn’t look like he’s aged a day despite having helped several generations of people prevent forest fires. Smokey Bear just celebrated his 67 birthday on Sunday and dozens of families attended the birthday party held at the Idaho Botanical Garden.advertising campaign featuring Smokey was created in 1944 with the slogan, "Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires". Smokey Bear's later slogan, "Remember... Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires", was created in 1947 by the Ad Council and updated In April 2001 to "Only You Can Prevent Wildfires". Smokey Bear and his message are recognized by 95% of adults and 77% of children in the U.S.

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

I finally finished reading the first volume of Mark Twain’s autobiography; it’s taken me roughly six months, but in my defense it is a rather large volume - 663 pages, not including the reference pages. I’ve come to the conclusion that either Mark Twain as a philosopher and humorist was way ahead of his time, or we as a nation are merely spinning in circles. There is probably quite a bit of both involved! His musings on his short stint as the temporary editor of an agricultural paper is nothing short of pure belly laughing genius, although to hear him tell it the farmers of the day found nothing amusing in his writings of moulting season for cows, and tree growing turnips. But then in his defense for his rather odd take on all things agriculture he does state the obvious; that drama critiques are generally those who know nothing of good acting, most book reviewers have never written one, financial advisors to the poor have never experienced that particular state of being, and that the less a man knows the bigger the noise he makes and the higher the salary he commands. Nope, nothing much has changed in the last one hundred years.

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