The Colorado Farm to School Task Force has received a $105,000 grant from the Colorado Health Foundation to help schools, local farmers and communities bring fresh local food into K-12 school meal programs.“Farm-to-school is a promising strategy for addressing the rising tide of childhood obesity in Colorado,” said Chris Lindley of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. As more Colorado schools replace highly processed foods, the opportunity for “scratch” ingredients to come from Colorado farmers is significant. Information: coloradohealth.com.
Colorado’s agricultural exports up more than 25 percent
Colorado’s agricultural exports increased more than 25 percent in the first two months of 2012 versus 2011. Meat exports grew over $30 million. Dairy exports increased 80 percent. Colorado remains the number one U.S. exporter of beef to Canada and the third largest exporter to Mexico. Colorado is the No. 2 exporter of beef to Japan. Egypt and Chile are both new purchasers of Colorado beef during the last year. Ninety-two percent of Colorado’s dairy exports went to Mexico.
Grass-only organic milk on the shelves
Reuters reports that Organic Valley, the largest provider of organic milk in the U.S., has introduced milk from cows that primarily eat grasses, but never corn, soybeans or other supplemental grains. In the United States, most of the corn and soybeans fed to livestock are genetically modified. Grassmilk is being test-marketed in Colorado as well as California, Utah, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico.
Sustainability not his job, says French Laundry chef
“With the relatively small number of people I feed, is it really my responsibility to worry about carbon footprint? The world’s governments should be worrying about carbon footprint. I think about quality, not geography.”
– Chef Thomas Keller