Month: January 2016

Ready-to-eat salad mixes have experienced a tremendous increase in popularity and sales over the last 20 years. A study in HortScience reports that supermarket sales of the produce increased from $197 million in 1993 to $2.7 billion in 2008 in the U.S. Looking for ways to meet consumer demand and extend the production season of popular baby-leaf salad greens in the Pacific Northwest, scientists in Washington evaluated salad cultivars for suitability as spring and fall crops. …

“This study shows that students are choosing healthier meals largely because of the increased availability and variety of fruits and vegetables in school meals. These results reinforces the need to continue, not roll back, the good work going on in schools across the country which includes offering plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables to the more than 30 million kids who rely on school meals every day. Healthy school meals help children ‘make half their plate fruits and vegetables.’ I urge Congress to maintain the strong fruit and vegetable standards in school meals as they work to reauthorize the child nutrition programs.” …

For the third consecutive year, the Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) was a major sponsor of the New Year’s Eve Idaho® Potato Drop in downtown Boise, Idaho. Seconds before midnight, against a backdrop of fireworks, a 17-foot long potato was lowered by crane into a crowd of more than 40,000 revelers …

Grown in New York State and available exclusively from Crunch Time Apple Growers, RubyFrost is expanding its retail distribution across the U.S. The 2016 RubyFrost season will launch at retail starting in mid-January and is expected to last for a limited time. …

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today released the following statement in response to a new study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation regarding the effects of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The study found that after the new standards were implemented, the nutritional value of foods chosen by students increased by 29 percent. It also found that, despite claims to the contrary, participation in the program did not differ significantly after the new standards were implemented. …