New Idaho Yogurt Facility & Census of Ag

New Idaho Yogurt Facility & Census of Ag

New Idaho Yogurt Facility & Census of Ag plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

It is time for the Census of Ag forms to begin arriving and Renee Picanso of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service talks about the Census of Agriculture and the deadlines.

PICANSO: We do have a due date of February 4th for people to get their questionnaires back but a lot of people need a little extra time to work on the questionnaire with their tax records that they don’t usually have available until mid-April. So we’ll be collecting data through may.

Twin Falls, Idaho has something to celebrate. Monday was the grand opening of the new Chobani yogurt manufacturing facility. The New York-based company broke ground on the 200-acre site in December 2011. More than 300 people are employed at Chobani Idaho and more are expected to be hired in the next several months.The first Chobani yogurt cups hit store shelves in 2007.  The facility in Twin Falls is expected to produce 4.2 million cases of Greek-style yogurt a week. Chobani has invested $450 million to build the state-of-the-art facility and it is now America's number one selling yogurt brand.

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

This time of year brings out the best and the worst in human nature. Many people find joy in being able to help those less fortunate than themselves. And a large number of people are quite ready, willing, and able to take advantage of that fact. Mailboxes are full of requests for donations from local and national charities. Phone lines are abuzz with the same kind of requests. How does one go about protecting themselves from bogus charity groups without becoming a complete and total scrooge? One good way is to know your non-profit. A common practice by many scammers now days is to give prospective donor victims a name that sounds like a well known and respected charity. Before giving to a group claiming to be a non-profit check them out. Many states have an outreach campaign to educate donors in the ways of “giving wisely”, offering videos, brochures, handouts, and checklist tablets for telephone solicitations. These resources are free and usually available on-line or can be mailed to your home or business. By all means give to those in need this holiday season, but remember, “give wisely”.

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

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