03/21/05 The official appeal; Little relief

U.S.D.A. has now made an official statement. They will appeal. The U.S. Justice Department on behalf of U.S.D.A. filed a request with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to over turn a U.S. District Court's preliminary injunction to delay implementation of U.S.D.A.'s minimal-risk regions rule. That's the rule that would allow Canadian live cattle thirty months of age and younger, and some beef products from such cattle, back into the U.S. The appeal comes one day after schedules for trial were to be filed before District Court Judge Richard Cebull in Montana. A U.S.D.A. press release says the agency is confident that the rule combined with other health and safety measures already in place in the U.S., will provide utmost protection to U.S. consumers and livestock. The next three months will be dry in the Northwest. That is not necessarily news, but just an official word from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as it released its spring forecasts for various regions in the U.S. The forecast calls for about normal spring rains yet warmer than normal temperatures between April and June. Couple that with the dramatic decrease in snow pack in the region over the last month and a half, and N.O.A.A. officials say that the Northwest will see only limited relief from a drought from this spring going into the summer months. N.O.A.A. also joined the growing list of federal and state agencies, and land owners who are increasingly concerned about the threat of wildfires in the Northwest. Now with today's "Food Forethought", here's Susan Allen. ALLEN: The egg is considered by artists to be one of the most beautiful foods because of its elliptical shape. But I would hazard to guess that round and rosy in the form of an apple would be a top contester for one of the most perfect foods. Apples, a fruit so plentiful we often take them for granted, contain a dose of special nutrients each sphere. Gold's Gym apple a day program was instrumental in promoting what most of us inheritably knew, apples are just plain good for us. Now it appears apples could be getting even better. Food Scientists working at Cornell University have completed a soon to be published study that show apple consumption could help fight breast cancer. Their research was conducted on rats whose tumors were significantly reduced when the rodents ate one, three or six apples a day over a six month period. The scientist attribute this to the fact that apples, like other fruits and veggies are packed full of antioxidants and antioxidants are considered to be mighty cancer fighters. Is it a coincidence that a rosy colored fruit, the color that symbolizes breast cancer awareness, could help in the fight against breast cancer. I'm Susan Allen and this is Food Forethought