01/04/07 BSE Breakthrough and Safer Greens

A South Dakota company has had a break through. Hematech of Sioux Falls has knocked-out the genes that create prions in cattle. Prions are a natural protein that are present in all animals. Most of them are good  but some can go bad and cause a number of fatal disease. In cattle bad prions cause mad cow disease or BSE. The company has developed a dozen cattle that should be immune to bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The company's study indicates that bulls of two years of age - by all parameters - are perfectly normal and completely healthy. The government and the produce industry are scrambling to make leafy greens safer even before the spring planting season. New industry guidelines are due in April on how to prevent contamination throughout the food chain. In California - where most of the nation`s green leafy vegetables are grown - farmers are poised to approve new labeling by March - for farms that follow stricter practices for raising greens. In New Jersey - where small family farms were hurt by a nationwide spinach ban right at the start of September`s harvest  the state has set up a task force to improve produce safety. Since September - two produce industry groups that represent thousands of U.S. growers  processors  distributors - restaurants - and supermarkets have worked to hasten revised guidelines for preventing contamination of leafy greens. The goal is to tell farmers - before spring planting - and then consumers about the new safety guidelines. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. We are only beginning to understand how much and how early the onset of Alzheimer's in my husband 75 year old mother has impacted her relationship with family members and her ability to function in society for many years. It has been tragic to realize that while she began to show signs of the disease in her early 60's, we failed to recognize them. It is also sobering, especially in light of the shifting dynamics of the parent/ child relationship that is currently occurring with my husband and his mother to realize that Alzheimer's is hereditary. But there is hope, and it is coming from here in the Northwest. A new study from the Group Health Center for Heath Studies in Seattle involving 2200 people over the age of 65 for a period of 12 years concluded that individuals who kept physically fit delayed or prevented the onset of Alzheimer's and dementia while those in poor shape may actually increase the risk of the disease. This good news gives my husband and I even more incentive to get off that couch. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.