Study Points Finger at Leafy Greens & Farm Bill Update

Study Points Finger at Leafy Greens & Farm Bill Update plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released a new study that is pointing a big finger at leafy greens as the leading source of food poisoning. The study also found that while more people may have gotten sick from plants, more died from contaminated poultry. The new report is the most comprehensive CDC has produced on the sources of food poisoning, covering the years 1998 through 2008. You can access the report on their website cdc.gov.

Longtime Ag Senator Chuck Grassley sees Senate farm bill action - again - more likely this year than in the House and gives immigration reform - including for seasonal ag workers - good odds in both chambers. Grassley says last year’s failed farm bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced last week was just a placeholder that will be adjusted and refined.

GRASSLEY: Quite frankly, I have no problems with just taking up Reid’s bill and passing it like we did last June. But I suppose there will be some accommodations because the new members on the committee and particularly because of a new ranking Republican which is Thad Cochran.

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

The verdict is in, one egg a day is not bad for the heart. Harvard researchers have now released data from eight prospective studies that states “there is no evidence that eating one egg a day increases the risk of heart disease or stroke”. The final result was the same for non-diabetic women and men spanning all age groups. Since eggs first came under attack decades ago researchers have been testing and retesting to determine whether the daily consumption of eggs increases the risk of heart disease, and they’ve found that the majority of studies find no significant association between eating eggs and heart disease. Most of us have continued to enjoy eggs, taking the fear mongering over eating them with a grain of salt, which by the way is supposed to be bad for us as well. It continues to come back to the same axiom over and over again, everything in moderation. Eggs are an affordable, low calorie source of protein, minerals, and unsaturated fatty acids, which scientists say could actually lower the risk of heart disease. One of the co-authors of the study did say that “eating more than one egg a day might be harmful, in theory, but there is no data on that”. Ah, yes, I see where this is headed.

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