Ag Hangout & Potato Chip Day Promotion

Ag Hangout & Potato Chip Day Promotion

Ag Hangout & Potato Chip Day Promotion plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

I remember the days when the word "hangout" meant the gas station or the soda shop. Today it's a part of social networking and that's what USDA is hoping for. Networking as Agriculture Deputy Secretary Harden will host a Google+ Hangout to highlight USDA's commitment to new farmers to build the new generation of agriculture. The Hangout is planned for this coming Monday at noon Pacific time and will launch a series of outreach and education efforts led by Deputy Harden focusing new and beginning farmers.

How would you like to win a bag of potato chips? Or better yet, 10-thousand bags? Chris Voight, Executive Director of the Washington State Potato Commission explains.

VOIGHT: National Potato Chip Day is coming up, that's March 14th and on that day we have a special Facebook promotion going on. If you go to Washington State Potato Commission and you like us and you share our post about our contest you officially get entered. And you can win believe it or not, 10-thousand bags of potato chips. And you're probably thinking to yourself, what am I going to do with 10-thousand bags but that's part of the fun of it.

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

My granddaughter is a "grazer". She likes to eat several little meals or snacks during the day as opposed to three square. Thankfully, what she eats is usually seeds and nuts, fruits, low fat dairy, raw veggies and whole grain carbs. The idea of snacking as the new way of eating has continued to gain approval from diet experts and consumers alike. In fact, a recent survey found that nearly 90% of Americans like to engage in what they call "modern snacking", where eating rules and structure are very flexible. The USDA is quite aware of the increasing trend of the American public to engage in modern snacking, so much so that the agency has provided health and nutritional information for meal and snack patterns on their MyPlate.gov website. A big plus to eating frequently is that it may help to actually control appetite, which could help to control weight. Of course, when eating frequently one needs to remember to control portion sizes and eat a wide variety of healthy low calorie foods. The experts say that the key to mini-meals is to pack each one with enough nutritional punch and fiber to sustain yourself without adding lots of extra calories and fats.

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

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