Your support of local food producers strengthens your local food system. Strong local food systems provide fresh food for their communities; foster the connection between cities and countryside; keep local money in the community, strengthening the local economy; reduce pollution and oil dependence; reduces potential food safety problems; and much more.

Eating local foods is a great way to get good nutrition, help the planet, and support your local economy. It’s easy and tastes great, too! To find a Farmer’s Market near you try using the USDA’s Farmer’s Market locator.

More information can be found on our previous Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food post!

Our office receives many food safety related calls at this time of year. Most of these calls are about the star of the Thanksgiving meal – the turkey.

Today I will share with you a great website that provides the answers to these types of questions. It is the FoodSafety.gov site. The home page includes podcasts and video instructions on preparation, stuffing and cooking your turkey.

Written instructions and much additional information can be found off the home page or by following this link.

Safe guidelines for storing leftovers can be found off the home page or by following this link.

More about the FoodSafety.gov site can be found on a previous post.

I will be out the remainder of this week but will post a new article when I return Monday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last month, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the creation of the new National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The institute will be the research arm of the USDA. Secretary Vilsack began his speech by saying,

"The opportunity to truly transform a field of science happens at best once a generation. Right now, I am convinced, is USDA's opportunity to work with the Congress, the other science agencies, and with our partners in industry, academia, and the nonprofit sector, to bring about transformative change. We can build on recent scientific discoveries - incredible advances in sequencing plant and animal genomes, for example. We have new and powerful tools -- biotechnology, nanotechnology, and large-scale computer simulations -- applicable to all types of agriculture.”

He outlined what the USDA focus of resources will be to accomplish the hoped for outcomes to improve human health and protecting the environment. They are:

• USDA science will support our ability to keep American agriculture competitive while ending world hunger. At a time when disruptive climate change threatens production of some of the world's staple foods, some of the biggest gains we can make in ending world hunger will involve development of stress-resistant crops.

• USDA science will support our ability to improve nutrition and end child obesity. At USDA we want to take the nutrition and food choice insights we have gained from our science to test out some new approaches to school lunches, breakfast and our other nutrition assistance and education programs.

• USDA science will support our efforts to radically improve food safety for all Americans. Each year in the U.S. alone, food-borne pathogens like E. coli kill 5,000 people and sicken 75 million more; the cost to the economy from these infections exceeds $35 billion.

• USDA science will secure America's energy future. President Obama has set ambitious but achievable goals for securing America's energy future from new domestic sources, including 60 billion gallons a year from biofuels by 2030. We plan to focus specifically on rapidly improving the amount and quality of plant-based feedstocks that will be the source of biofuels.

• USDA science will make us better stewards of America's environment and natural resources. We believe that research in this priority area will identify agricultural operations in the United States that, within 10 years, will be net carbon sinks.

Secretary Vilsack ended his speech by saying, "I am asking today for a commitment of will and energy to bring about our generation's new era of agricultural science. I look forward to charting a course together to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery in the agricultural sciences, speed the application of new knowledge to address challenges facing US and global food and agriculture, and translate new knowledge into tangible benefits for the American people and the world."

The speech can be read on the USDA’s website.

The Federal Government has recently launched a new food safety website, FoodSafety.gov. The sub heading is, Your Gateway to Federal Food Safety Information. It is a great site, not only full of wonderful information, but arranged in an easy to navigate layout with easy to follow language.

The home page features ‘ask a question’ and ‘report a problem’ in the upper-right-hand corner. You can also subscribe to alerts and email updates as well as listen to podcasts and view videos. In addition there is a ‘recalls and alerts’ area that gives information about food recalls. The recalls and alerts information, like everything else on the site is easy to follow and written in an easy and concise manner. There is a feature called ‘get food safety widget’ that allows you to add the recall and alerts section to other websites or blogs.

Other options for additional information include: keep foods safe, food poisoning, inspections & compliance, news & events, multimedia & educational materials.

The site can be found at http://www.foodsafety.gov/index.html.