Fatty Food Troubles & Getting Ready for the Census of Agriculture

Fatty Food Troubles & Getting Ready for the Census of Agriculture

 Fatty Food Troubles & Getting Ready for the Census of Agriculture plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

It has been a few years now since the last Census of Agriculture was done, 2007 to be exact and believe it or not, preparations are underway at the USDA for the next one according to Joe Prusacki of National Agricultural Statistics Service.

PRUSACKI: The data we are collecting is for the whole year, 2012 so that’s kind of our reference period. And I tell people, this is a big task. THink about 18 tractor trailer loads of mail leaving the facility in Jerffersonville, Indiana, We contract with the Census Bureau and they do the printing and labeling. At the end of 2011 and the first part of 2012 we have to have the print contract for the envelopes and all the questionnaires sot there’s a lot of material that have to be assembled and printed in that time.

We all know that eating fatty foods leads us to put on more weight but there is new research that adds another twist to the story. The University of Washington has released a new study showing that eating a lot of fatty foods can damage the part of the brain that tells us we are full. The fatty foods kill the neurons that send the full signal and subsequently we continue eating. The more we eat of course the more weight we gain unless there is significant exercise to offset the increase of calories. UW will now look into whether this effect is reversible.

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

Here’s something animal rights activists can get behind, humans and pigs playing computer games together. You heard right. Dutch researchers teamed up with game designers have created and produced a computer game that both humans and pigs can participate in together; its called Pig Chase. The key element of the game is for pigs to have interaction with an iPad equipped human player through a pig pen mounted light effects screen. It makes you wonder if all pigs have an “inner Einstein” screaming to get out, but in reality it works on the same principle as a cat chasing a laser pointer. In essence, the human player operates a light effect on a pig pen wall, which in turn attracts a curious pig’s attention. By moving the light effect into certain directions the game playing human can get the pig to move past certain objects and push lighted areas with their snouts. Will this eventually help livestock producers, who knows? It is an interesting concept that needs further development. So yes, technically pigs can play video games, or more accurately all animals have a natural curiosity and will follow the elusive “dangling carrot”.

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

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