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May 21, 2010
· US fruit and veggies actually in short supply
· Lettuce E. coli testing finds different strain
· Soggy Tennessee farmers ponder ‘Plan B’
· EU and Central America reach trade deal
· Say what? A bra designed for growing rice
US fruit and veggies actually in short supply
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
And Americans also overestimate how much they exercise, another barrier to fighting two of the biggest known cancer risks, researchers at the National Cancer Institute said.
"If everyone wanted to eat healthily, there would not be enough," Susan Krebs-Smith of the cancer institute told reporters.
Many studies have shown that people who keep a healthy weight, exercise regularly and eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables have a lower risk not only of cancer, but heart disease, diabetes and even Alzheimer's.
The administration of President Barack Obama is looking at ways to help Americans eat a healthier diet and exercise more to reduce obesity.
Krebs-Smith and colleagues knew Americans do not come even
close to meeting those goals. They checked to see if the
It cannot, Krebs-Smith told reporters.
"The fruit in the food supply is about half what it needs to be, but we have plenty of calories from fat and added sugars," she said.
The NCI team worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture
to calculate how much food the
Fast-food outlets, junk food makers and snack companies are well supplied, they found.
"The food supply does supply enough meat and beans," Krebs-Smith said. But only half the vegetables needed for everyone to get what they should are grown or imported.
EMPTY CALORIES
Other studies have shown that Americans underestimate how many empty calories they take in. An average American can eat about 2,000 calories a day, she said -- and once the recommended foods are accounted for, this leaves just 270 "discretionary" calories a day, or just over 11 percent.
The average American actually gets 38 percent of calories from unneeded sugars and fats.
A second major factor in cancer is a lack of exercise and Dr. Rachel Ballard-Barbash found Americans come up far short there, too.
When asked, anywhere between 30 percent and 40 percent of Americans estimate they get enough exercise.
But a study of 6,329 people who wore a device called an accelerometer showed that in fact, fewer than 5 percent got the recommended minimum of about a half-hour of moderate exercise a day.
The cancer institute says obesity and physical inactivity account for 25 to 30 percent of colon, breast, endometrial, kidney, and esophageal cancers.
In 2002, about 41,000 new cases of cancer in the
Diet and exercise can also help people survive cancer, Ballard-Barbash said.
Her team looked at breast cancer survivors and found women who ate the healthiest diets and exercised the most had a huge reduction in the risk their cancer would return.
"This suggests about an 89 percent reduction in the risk of death over a 1-year follow-up period," she told reporters.
The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 1.5 million Americans got cancer in 2009 and 560,000 died of it.
Lettuce E. coli testing finds different strain
(Dispatch.com) – When Ohio laboratory workers ran tests as part of an investigation of an E. coli 0145 outbreak linked to romaine lettuce, they found another rarely identified contaminant.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have determined that the strain of bacteria was Escherichia coli 0143:H34, said Ohio Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Kaleigh Frazier.
The E. coli in the bag of lettuce tested in
The second type of E. coli was found in shredded lettuce
from food-processor Freshway Foods in
U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials have said they think the contamination started at the farm, but they have refused to name the farm as they continue to look for the root cause of the outbreak.
Contaminated leafy greens discovered in recent weeks and implicated in more than two dozen previous outbreaks help illustrate the importance of food-safety reforms pending in Congress, said Donna Rosenbaum, executive director of the Illinois nonprofit Safe Tables Our Priority.
Now, recalls are issued only by companies and shared with the public by the FDA after those companies agree to the recall. The proposed legislation would put recalls in the hands of the FDA and help speed up the publicizing of the information, Rosenbaum said.
Another critical aspect of the proposal is more-rigorous inspection requirements for food producers based on the level of risk associated with their product, she said.
Clusters of sick people in
The primary symptoms of E. coli infection are cramping and diarrhea, which is sometimes bloody.
No one is sure of the full scope of illness because milder cases often go unreported and most laboratories don't routinely test for
E. coli other than the most common form, 0157.
Dr. Mary DiOrio, assistant state epidemiologist, said the Ohio Department of Health has looked for evidence of illnesses associated with the 0143 strain of E. coli found in the lettuce.
"We went back to see if we might have missed anything," she said. "We haven't uncovered any clustering or anything that would suggest that there is another outbreak."
Federal authorities haven't reported anything elsewhere in the country that could be linked to lettuce contaminated with E. coli 0143.
Soggy Tennessee
(commercialappeal.com)
– While May's flood waters are receding into memory for most Memphians, they
remain a stark reality for many
These growers still have fields under water or too wet to plant, planted acres wiped clean of seed, fertilizer and topsoil, and still-broken equipment and supply lines on their property.
Many are taking a wait-and-see approach to what they will plant as their prior expectations were washed away by what some call a once-in-a-lifetime weather event.
"This is by far the most devastating flooding we've
ever seen here," said Robert Hayes, director of the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture's West Tennessee
Research and
Hayes said a dollar estimate on the damage is hard to know now. Some damage -- such as broken fences or lost crop acreage -- is easy to quantify, while other damage -- such as long-term effects of siltation in bottom lands or the shifting of crop-friendly organic matter -- isn't easy to count now or ever. New damage figures continue to roll in, he said, and a good, base estimate might not be known until fall.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that 8 percent of the state's crops -- including corn, wheat, hay and livestock -- had "severe" storm damage.
East Tennessee districts, though, reported no severe corn
crop damage, but
UT Extension agent Steve Glass reported "still-flooded
fields" across
"Farmers are very discouraged (and) have stopped planting crops and are working their cattle," Glass said.
Meanwhile, Extension agent John Wilson reported that
"rain-free days" in East Tennessee's
Nearly 40,000 acres are under water in hard-hit
"We had a pretty wet situation last year, and this is much worse," Miles said. "People are just waiting to start planting, hoping that these fronts will stop coming through."
Cotton was commonly expected to make a comeback this year in
Miles said about 350,000 acres were now expected to be planted, which is down from the 500,000 acres that were expected before the flood.
But now, soil saturation will likely dictate what goes in the ground.
"If it dried out quickly, then some farmers would've even replanted corn," said Hayes. "Then it got too late for corn, and then they said they'd try to plant cotton, but if it gets too late for that, they'll probably plant soybeans."
That's the case for Jimmy Moody, who farms in
Farmers like him will be feeling the effects of the floods all year, Moody said.
"We'll be dealing with it when we go to the bank this winter," he said.
Flood waters also damaged the CSX rail line that runs from
Linda Stanford, who owns Jackson's R&J Feed and Supply Store with her husband, Jimmy, said things are slowly getting back to normal after one foot of flood waters wrecked most of their inventory.
"It was just a total disaster here," Stanford said of her store.
Most of the $100 million from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency tagged for
More information on the loans can be picked up at Disaster Recovery Centers set up across the state.
The Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation and Monsanto Co. have donated $50,000 to the Tennessee Disaster Response Fund, which is managed by The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Monsanto also said it will implement a program to give farmers free replacement seeds for what they may have lost.
EU and Central America
reach trade deal
(Wisconsinagconnection.com) – The European Union and Central American states reached an agreement on Tuesday to liberalize trade and cut import tariffs.
The European Commission, the EU's executive in charge of the
27-nation bloc's trade policy, said the deal would formally be concluded by EU
and Central American heads of states at a summit in
"The trade ministers of
The EU and
The European Union is Central America's largest trading
partner after the
Central American states export mostly agricultural products
such as coffee, bananas and other fruits to the EU and import machinery,
chemicals, vehicles and fuels from
Say what? A bra designed for growing rice
(Reuters via MSNBC) – Female urban farmers keen to keep their agricultural hobby close to their heart can now grow their own rice in a special bra designed by Japanese lingerie maker Triumph.
Triumph, makers of other eccentric, gimmick bras that include one with a sushi set and another that comes with solar panels, said it came up with the "rice bra" because of the growing popularity of farming among city dwellers in Japan.
Growing concerns over food safety and the environment, and
the ideal of a laid-back rural lifestyle, are attracting more urbanites to
agriculture, once the mainstay of
"Over the last year, young Japanese women have taken a tremendous interest in agriculture. We wanted other women to experience farming as well," Triumph spokeswoman Yoshiko Masuda told Reuters at a Wednesday event.
"Home kits that allow people to grow their own rice are very popular online. We thought that it would be fun if a bra could give people the same experience," said Masuda.
The bra, made of recyclable plastic, can be tied together to create pots that also double as the cups.
These are then filled with soil, and rice seedlings, that are watered through a hose that also doubles as a belt that goes around the wearer's waist.
The bra also comes with gardening gloves.
"The bra fits much better than it looks. Wearing it puts me in such a fun mood," said model Reiko Aoyama in the lingerie.
Like other Triumph concept bras, the rice bra will not go on sale, with the company saying it was another way to generate interest in its brand.
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