Pushing Potatoes & Wheat Fallout

Pushing Potatoes & Wheat Fallout plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Now that South Korea has joined Japan in boycotting wheat from the Pacific Northwest due to the discovery of a small amount of genetically modified wheat in an Oregon wheat field the issue is creating ripples all across the U.S. A Kansas Wheat farmer is suing Monsanto alleging that he and other wheat farmers have been hurt financially by the discovery. The Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Director, Katy Coba released this statement.

COBA: There are many questions at this time, and I am hopeful that the investigation will find the answers quickly. In the meantime, the Oregon Department of Agriculture will do all it can to work with our important wheat industry to keep export markets open.

Two Idaho Senators are pushing an amendment to the Farm Bill that would reinstate fresh white potatoes as eligible for purchase under the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. The USDA excluded fresh white potatoes on the basis that potato consumption levels were adequate without a need to encourage additional purchases. Chris Voight with the Washington Potato Commission.

VOIGHT: We’re cautiously optimistic about this. We’re still very early in the process so it’s very much a work in progress but we’re just excited that we’re finally seeing science brought back to the discussion where some people have stepped forward to really try to correct something that’s wrong.

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

Today is World Environment Day and the theme is Think, Eat, Save, an “anti-food waste and food loss campaign encouraging everyone to reduce their foodprint”. In keeping with that the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency have collaborated to reduce food waste by launching the U.S. Food Waste Challenge. Anyone “with a stake in the U.S. food chain” can be an FWC participant. That means producer groups, processors, distributors, retailers, manufacturers, industry groups, food service, state, county and city governments and other Federal agencies. While only organizations such as these will be considered formal participants, the overall goal is to raise awareness among individual consumers as to the vast amount of food wasted in our country on a daily basis, and what each one of us can do to reduce, recover, and recycle food waste. It will be interesting to see what groups participate in the Food Waste Challenge. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all put a huge dent in world hunger within our lifetimes, so that perhaps by the time our children’s children have children world hunger is something only read about in the history books.

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