Farmers Markets Get Funding & No Halloween

Farmers Markets Get Funding & No Halloween plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Farmers Markets are going to get a boost. Last week Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced to reporters that $9.2 million awarded for 149 national projects will help farmers markets in their direct marketing efforts.

MERRIGAN: Improving access to fresh, healthy foods in low income communities; that accounts for 64% of the total projects funded this year. You’ve heard a lot of people talk about “food deserts” areas where people lack access to good healthy food. There are a variety of strategies that can attend to those problems and some of them are headlined in these grants.

Yes Virginia, there is a Christmas but for many people there may not be a Halloween. A number of Portland schools have decided to not celebrate the holiday and that has a number of parents rankled. One school released a statement to parents claiming most Portland public schools would “deemphasize the celebration of Halloween” in “the spirit of equity.” According to one upset parent, “We live in America. We have the right and freedom to celebrate whatever we want.” Some schools instead are celebrating with a “harvest festival.”

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

Over the last ten years most people have ditched their land lines and gone strictly to cell phones. With all the irritants associated with being a cell phone owner, shockingly large cell phone bills that sneak up on you for one, in all fairness there are upsides too; beyond even the obvious of being able to contact nearly anyone, anytime, anywhere. In 2008 eighty percent of consumers surveyed said they would like country of origin labels on produce, over fifty percent said they would like to use their cell phones to scan bar codes to see “date of packing”. Both have now transpired, with consumers regularly scanning bar codes on certain produce items at the grocery store to find out when and where it was picked. This brings focus on The Produce Traceability Initiative, the sometimes controversial industry led effort to move the supply chain to a common standard for electronic produce traceability by the end of 2012. PTI has been designed to treat all sizes of growing operations the same. One grower states, “it could be great for smaller producers because it knocks down a barrier they would probably face for gaining market access and making sales”. Could be, only time will tell.

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