Interior Director Gets Busy, More Research on Climate Change & Fire Season

Interior Director Gets Busy, More Research on Climate Change & Fire Season

Interior Director Gets Busy, More Research on Climate Change & Fire Season plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Climate change may get some more scrutiny thanks to the USDA's proposed fiscal year 2014 budget. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack explains.

VILSACK: It has been a long-standing commitment on our part through the global research alliance to be focused on this so we would anticipate and expect to see more activity. It’s also the RMA, Risk Management Agency that’s basically taking a look at ways it can reduce barriers that exist to multi-cropping that is a strategy for dealing with climate change. So there is a whole series of things that we are looking at.

The 51st Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, has jumped in with both feet. She was sworn in on Friday. Jewell has already began holding meetings on energy development, conservation, Indian Affairs and youth engagement.

Fire season in the northwest got underway officially yesterday and it could be just as bad or even worse than last year. The majority of wildfires are caused by human hands with things like campfires, vehicles and smoking.

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

You asked for it, you got it. Easier to understand labels on beef and pork will soon be seen at the grocery store. Supported by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the National Pork Board, and recently cleared by the USDA, this new labeling system standardizes common red meat cuts. These changes will simplify choosing meat cuts for consumers by adopting descriptions of cuts that people are familiar with from what they’ve heard on cooking shows, or seen on restaurant menus. For example, “beef under blade boneless steak” will be labeled now as a “Denver steak”, the “pork loin top loin chop” becomes the “porterhouse chop”, and “beef shoulder top blade steak” will be labeled as a “flatiron steak”. Don’t worry though, the old names will still be listed below the new names for clarification. Consumers will also notice that some of the new pork cut names will be the same as the beef cut names, and that labels will now provide the number one way to cook that particular cut of meat. Pork and Beef industry representatives say the new cross-industry labeling is an effort to build consumer confidence when it comes to buying and preparing beef and pork, and “keep meat on the center of the plate”.

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

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