Posts Tagged: vegetables

USDA's nutrition advice doesn't align with spending

According to the USDA's dietary recommendations - which are represented in the MyPlate infographic - half the food Americans eat should be fruit and vegetables. However, the same agency allocates under one-half of 1 percent of agency funds to specialty crops like fruits and vegetables, reported Helene Bottemiller Evich in Politico.

For the story, Evich spoke to Glenda Humiston, vice president of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR), the research and outreach arm of the University of California. UC ANR extends science-based agricultural production and nutrition information to California farmers and communities. Humiston said California agricultural industry leaders have made it clear that they don't want traditional subsidies, like price supports.

"They want help with the infrastructure to do their jobs better," she said, including more funding for research labs and data collection that can help industry solve problems.

It isn't clear whether subsidies would reduce the cost of fruits and vegetables, nor does the potential of lower-cost healthy food ensure that people will eat it, the article said.

Many consumers also lack the time or the skills to prepare and cook their perishables. And some don't care for the flavor of healthful produce like kale, kohlrabi and rapini, to name a few.

The top fruits and vegetables consumed by Americans are potatoes (french fries) and tomatoes (primarily driven by ketchup). Only 14 percent of Americans consume 1.5 to 2 fruits and veggies per day, according to State of the Plate, a 2015 study on Americas' consumption of fruit and vegetables. (See below.) The USDA's dietary guidelines recommend 9 to 13 servings of fruit and veggies per day.

 

UC CalFresh gets kids to try healthy fruits and veggies

UC CalFresh educators took part in a field trip for fourth-graders in Fresno where the children tasted a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, reported Dale Yurong on ABC 30 Action News.

"We encourage them to try it and then they try it and wind up liking it," said UC CalFresh nutrition educator Kristi Sharp. "That's a saying that we say - you can't judge it unless you try it."

Fresno Unified School District is the state's largest recipient of funds from the fruit and vegetable program, Yurong reported. In addition to including fruits and vegetables at meals, the district is serving grab-and-go fruits and vegetables everyday at recess at 45 elementary schools.

The UC CalFresh Youth Nutrition Education Program, part of UC Cooperative Extension, provides support and resources to pre-school through high school teachers in low-income schools to deliver nutrition and physical activity education in their classrooms.

Local kids learn benefits of eating healthy
Brook Borba, Turlock Journal

The City of Turlock has launched an After School Education Safety program with the Turlock Unified School District and in conjunction with the UC Cooperative Extension and AgLink.com to provide a farmers' market opportunity for local students.

Turlock students learn where food comes from, what types of fruits and vegetables are grown locally and interesting facts associated with food. At the end of the presentation, students are provided with shopping bags to pick out an assorted selection of fresh fruits and vegetables to eat or take home for their families.

Demand increases for Asian vegetables

Rising demand for Asian vegetables in urban areas of California is creating an improved market for produce grown by the San Joaquin Valley's Asian farmers, reported Yu Wei in the San Francisco-based China Daily.

Richard Molinar, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Fresno County, told the reporter that demand is driving increased cultivation of Asian vegetables in Fresno County.

"We have around 50 to 75 Chinese farmers here in Fresno County and over 2,000 acres of Chinese crops selling locally as well as nationwide," Molinar said.

The article noted that UC Cooperative Extension offers advice and services to these growers.

"In addition to providing them with technical support, we also help those farmers to find new marketing opportunities," Molinar said.

Consumers to pay more for winter veggies

Last week's rain storms are pushing up prices of vegetables typically grown this time of year in California and Arizona's southern deserts, according to a story in Western Farm Press. Writer Cary Blake's article blames El Niño.

Last Friday through Sunday, “We exceeded our annual rainfall in about 12 hours,” the story quoted Kurt Nolte, director of the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Yuma County. “We had a massive rainstorm between noon and 6 p.m. Thursday.”

Over the weekend iceberg lettuce prices increased to about $12 per 40-pound carton, up from about $8 last Wednesday. Iceberg prices Monday were about $15, almost double since before the storm, Blake reported.

Besides harming crops, the storm created a thick layer of mud in agricultural fields that trapped vegetable harvesting equipment.

Khaled Bali, irrigation-water management advisor and acting director of University of California Cooperative Extension in Imperial County, told Blake that about 60 percent to 70 percent of the county’s heavy clay soils have a slow water infiltration rate.

And, according to the article, Bali said rain water has a slower infiltration rate than irrigation water.

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