Hay Concerns & Horse Meat Burgers
Hay Concerns & Horse Meat Burgers plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.
Hay acreage, production and yields have gone down for several years and it's causing concerns about continued adequate supplies of hay. Dr. Dan Undersander from the University of Wisconsin says hay supplies have not been this low since 1957.
UNDERSANDER: And that’s of great concern especially as we head into next summer. With corn and soybean prices so high those acreages have been dramatically increasing. Farmers are saying why should I plant something I have to cut three, four, five, six times when I can go plant a corn crop and harvest it once and be done with it.
Those problems will extend all the way through the northwest for sure.
Well despite weeks of denials Burger King in the United Kingdom has finally admitted that that all-beef Whopper was not quite all beef but also a little horse meat as well. The contaminated burgers were made by the Irish-based processing company, Silvercrest, which is part the ABP Foods Group. The same company also made tainted burgers for Tesco, Asda and the Co-op, among others in the UK. Burgers in the U.S. stores were not affected.
Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.
We woke up to sunshine on February 1. Quite a shocker for us here in the Pacific Northwest this time of year. If we weren’t already feeling a strong yearning for spring, we certainly are now. I confess I’m not one of those die hard bicyclists that ride year round, rain or snow. When the weather turns nasty my bike goes into cold storage, so to speak. But after experiencing sunshine for really the first time in weeks, I’m itching to “saddle” up and ride. That also means though that I need to make sure all my safety measures are in tip top condition before I hit the rode on my two wheeler. As our city continues to grow and automobile traffic becomes heavier it is even more important to take extra safety precautions. In fact, in a recent survey a whopping 37% of Seattle’s frequent bicyclists said they don’t feel safe while riding in the city. That’s a clue not only for Seattle, but for other metropolitan areas as well, that city governments need to create a more user friendly street atmosphere for bicyclists in their communities. There are a lot of us out here that would love to commute this way, doing our part to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, all while getting some much needed exercise, but we’re held back from doing so for fear of bodily harm.
Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
