Lettuce Recall and Ag Under Secretary in Northwest

Lettuce Recall and Ag Under Secretary in Northwest plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Under Secretary of Ag, Dallas Tonsager was in Richland, Washington yesterday for a meeting on developing biofuels in the northwest.

TONSAGER: We are having a meeting of the Technical Support Committee for the Biomass Research and Development Board. I’m co-chair of a board that is a government-wide board that coordinates research and development of biomass material, especially for energy. We’ve brought them here to closely look at what’s being done in the northwest related to biofuels and biomass production.

We’ll have a more in-depth report with Tonsager on Friday’s “Line On Ag” program.

A recall of bagged lettuce has been expanded nationwide after a routine sampling detected listeria contamination. The voluntary recall by River Ranch Fresh Foods of Salinas initially included lettuce shipped to California and Colorado. The company said Monday it had expanded the recall to the entire nation. The bagged salads are sold under the names River Ranch, Farm Stand, Hy-Vee, Marketside, Shurfresh, The Farmer's Market, Cross Valley, Fresh n Easy, Promark, and Sysco. The recalled retail and foodservice salad bags have "best by" dates between May 12 and May 29. The code date is typically located in the upper right hand corner of the bags. To date, no illnesses have been reported.

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

It would might come as a surprise to most people to learn that thirty percent of all farm operations here in the United States are owned by women, and that includes active roles in the cattle and dairy industry. A large portion of these women are farmers because they have chosen to be, not because they married into farming or inherited a farm, and because farming has long been a traditionally male dominated industry they find themselves faced with not only the normal day to day challenges of farming or ranching, but the additional challenges of proving themselves quite capable of doing the job. Things have been improving for women in the agriculture industry over the last few years. In fact, according to a U.S. Census of Agriculture between 2002 and 2007 the number of female owned farms in Washington state alone shot up by nearly 44 percent. In response to the growing number of women owned rural businesses federal agencies are reaching out through rural businesswomen’s roundtables in which government officials such as Judith Canales, acting assistant undersecretary with the USDA, discuss issues that are unique to women ag producers.

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