Ban the Bag & Benefits of Farmers Markets

Ban the Bag & Benefits of Farmers Markets plus Checking the Carbon Footprint.. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

It's been a while since we discussed the plastic bag ban in Oregon. You know all those super thin shopping bags that wind up blowing through the air on windy days and getting stuck in trees. Bans on the bags go into effect in October for Ashland which will join Portland, Corvallis and Eugene. A statewide ban failed in the legislature last year and a campaign to get the bags banned in other cities has basically fizzled out due to the lack of community support.

We eat a lot of fresh produce in our house. Fruit and veggies from the local farmers market are by far the best buy. Carolyn Dimitri, professor of food studies at NYU Steinhardt says farmers markets are only a part of the solution to helping low-income families eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

DIMITRI: I thing that people would be better off having a combination of new farmers markets and new food stores that had like a wide range of food as opposed to small convenience store which you often see in underserved neighborhoods that sell basically junk food and maybe there is some produce but it doesn't look very good.

Now, farmers, ranchers, scientists and others now have the tools they will need to put solid numbers on a farm's overall carbon footprint and how various farm and conservation practices would affect that footprint. Gary Crawford has more.

(USDA Report)

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