Here We Go Again & Planting Survey

Here We Go Again & Planting Survey plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

I am beginning to believe that just about everything I put in my mouth is bad for me. Bread - BAD...Potatoes - BAD...now meat - BAD! A study released by the Archives of Internal Medicine says a daily meal of hot dogs, bacon or hamburgers raises the risk of dying from heart disease or cancer by as much as 21 percent. Shaene McNeill, executive director of human nutrition research at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, is quick to point out - the scientific evidence to support the role of lean beef in a healthy, balanced diet is strong and there is nothing in this study that changes that fact. McNeill adds that - overall lifestyle patterns have been shown to affect mortality.

The USDA should be wrapping up its survey of farmers and their planting plans this week for the highly anticipated Prospective Plantings report coming at the end of this month. Lance Honing, Chief of the Crops Branch of USDA's Agricultural Statistics Service.

HONING: Certainly for any farmer that has already begun planting, you know obviously what he’s reporting is more closely tied to reality than just an intention but if you look nationwide we’re really just getting going. The bulk of planting’s still not going to start probably even for another week or two from now

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

Congratulations to Bellingham, Washington for having one of its resurface projects be the first to achieve Greenroads certification. If you’re wondering, Greenroads is a University of Washington's sustainable roadway design and construction rating system. Just what made the project so special? It’s rather potty really. When a stretch of pedestrian walkway needed to be extended one of the men in charge of the job suggested that it could be done in a more eco-friendly way. Knowing that a local charity had replaced some four hundred toilets that were destined for the the local landfill he quickly called a concrete supplier to find out if the toilets could be crushed and mixed with recycled concrete to be used as filler for the city’s new sidewalk. The answer was yes; with the finished product containing twenty percent crushed toilets by volume, representing five tons of diverted landfill material. Given their success with the use of recycled toilets, city officials are now on the lookout for other projects which would lend themselves to using the same eco-considerate paving material. Proving in this case, it’s okay to be a little potty.

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