Once again the smell of chocolate will permeate the Oswego County Fairgrounds the Hershey’s baking contest will be held on Monday July 3, 2006. Do you have a family favorite cookie or special chocolate dessert? Bring it down to the Fair to compete in the HERSHEY’S COCOA CLASSIC. There will be two contests — one for adults and one for youths. Registration for both of these events will take place in the Youth building on July 3 from 10 to 10:30.

The ADULT contest is open to New York State residents over 18 years old; one entry per person. You do not have to reside in Oswego County but you must be present at the awards ceremony to win.

The YOUTH contest is open to New York State residents 8 through 18 years old; one entry per person. You do not have to reside in Oswego County but you must be present at the awards ceremony to win.

There’s new nutrient data for nine cuts of pork showing that over time, there have been significant changes in the nutrient content in pork cuts, according to research done by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and funded in part by the National Pork Board.

Eight of the nine cuts were found to be leaner than indicated by previous analysis, while protein remained the same. Indiana producer and National Pork Board President Danita Rodibaugh says the research shows that pork tenderloin is as lean as the leanest part of the chicken.

“We believe that we provide the highest quality, best tasting pork in the world,” said Rodibaugh during a telephone news conference Monday. “With this study, we’re also able to show that our pork is lower in fat and saturated fat than ever before.”

At the same time, said Rodibaugh, producers know that lean pork holds health benefits for consumers.

The data came from nine common cuts of pork collected from retail food stores. These are the first nutrient analysis updates since 1991.

From brownfieldnetwork.com

Routinely feeding fish oil to farmed animals and poultry could benefit human health, research shows.

Including the oil in animals’ diets would increase levels of healthy omega 3 fats in their meat, a report in the British Nutrition Foundation’s nutrition bulletin says.

This in turn could help tackle low-levels of omega 3 consumption among people in the UK.

The “very long chain” fatty acids known as n-3 polyunsaturates are commonly found in oily fish and can help protect against heart disease in humans.

But consumption of the important fatty acids among UK adults is well below the recommended amount, according to the report by University of Reading researchers.

Only 27% of UK adults eat any oil-rich fish apart from canned tuna, the report says.

Its co-author Ian Givens, Professor of Animal Science at the University of Reading, said omega-3 enriched milk and eggs were already on shop shelves.

That concept could be extended to meat and poultry products in order to benefit human health, he said.

Prof Givens added: “The potential of enriched animal-derived foods, especially poultry meat, could be crucial in achieving increased intake of fatty acids. If successful and accepted by the consumer, this could prove to be a major advance in the health of the nation.”

In the long term, other plant-based sources of the fatty acids could be developed in order to meet demand, the report concludes.

From guardian.co.uk

In a strange turn of events, a Des Moines, Iowa, radio personality reportedly has invented no-dough pizzas, an idea spawned from a lawn-mowing accident.

The Des Moines Register said WHO’s Van Harden came up with the idea of making his pizza crusts from a cheese base after losing his desire for bread.

Two years ago, Harden got one of his feet stuck in a lawn mower and after his hospital stay he found himself without an appetite for bread, the newspaper said.

The Register said Harden’s change in appetite may somehow have been due to difficulties doctors ran into when attempting to wake him from anesthesia after his surgery.

“The doctors can’t explain it,” Harden told the Register.

Two Hy-Vee stores in Des Moines sold 221 of his new pizzas with their cheese-based crust over the weekend, with the product soon making its way into a dozen other Iowa stores.

The 12-inch pies cost $8 apiece and have been described as perfect for individuals who are gluten intolerant or on Atkins diets, the Register said.

From politicalgateway.com

San Juan Bautista — Earthbound Farm’s fields of organic baby spinach and romaine lettuce are a living symbol of the organic food movement’s explosive growth in recent years.

What started two decades ago as a three-acre roadside farm in this valley 90 miles south of San Francisco has grown into the country’s largest grower of organic produce, with more than 100types of fruits and vegetables on 28,000 acres in the United States and abroad.

Earthbound’s extraordinary growth is an example of how organic farming is changing. Small family farms created as an alternative to conventional agriculture are giving way to large-scale operations that harvest thousands of acres and market their produce nationwide.

And with Wal-Mart, Safeway, Albertsons and other big supermarket chains expanding their organic offerings, the transformation may be in its early stages.

Pollan and others worry that the expansion of “Big Organic” will lower food quality, weaken standards and hurt small family farms.

U.S. Department of Agriculture rules say organic produce must be grown without synthetic fertilizers or bioengineering and animals raised without antibiotics or growth hormones. A separate industry of government-approved organic certifiers has emerged to inspect farms and food handlers to ensure they conform. Some advocates don’t think the rules go far enough and are asking for a requirement that dairy cows be pasture-fed, not raised on feedlots.

From modbee.com