Fresh Picks – Top 5 Stories Worth Reading
Balancing fish and farms on a Washington estuary
High Country News
As environmental battlefields go, Fisher Slough seems pretty meek, with a copse of alders in the midst of a small, shallow lake, bracketed on one side by road, on the others by fields. But since Euro-Americans settled the delta in the mid-1800s, Fisher, like most of the sloughs, has been drained and plumbed with levees, ditches and tidegates, creating some of the most productive farmland in the country.
Rethinking the food bank: It’s no longer just about handing out food to the hungry
Toronto Star
Nick Saul is having another “wow” moment. Literally. In giant blue capital letters, the word seems to dance on the office wall behind him as Saul speaks excitedly about his latest plan to turn the food bank concept on its head. “I want to harness the power of food to connect, empower and create knowledge and skills — and hope and self-worth,” he says.
USDA Report Shows Healthy Food Can Be Cheaper Option
Wall Street Journal
Healthy food isn’t necessarily more expensive than junk-food alternatives, according to a government report released Wednesday that contradicts long-held conventional wisdom that it is cheaper to snack on potato chips than carrots. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently revamped nutrition rules for school cafeterias to get kids to eat more fruit, vegetables and whole grains while cutting out fatty foods.
With large PNW fruit crops forecast, enough pickers the big worry
Capital Press
Large crops and labor are forefront in the minds of many in the Washington tree fruit industry. Good bud set, a warm spring without major freezes, good pollination and increasing production from newer plantings fuel anticipation of large cherry, pear and apple crops. A record 20.9-million-box Pacific Northwest cherry crop is forecast, pears may also be close to their record at 20.9
Producers monitor impact of cage-free trend
Capital Press
Livestock and poultry producers say recent decisions by companies such as Burger King and Safeway to only buy from suppliers that are cage-free won’t in themselves have a big impact on their industries. But if the trend continues, the result will likely be higher production costs and higher prices for the very consumers who are driving the issue, they say.
