Food & Farm News
Real Audio» May 12, 2006 «
CVP to deliver full water supplies
For the first time in a decade, all farmers who buy water from the federal Central Valley Project will receive 100-percent supplies. The CVP made the announcement yesterday (Thursday). The extraordinary rain and snowfall in late winter and early spring provided enough water to meet environmental needs and offer full supplies to farmers and ranchers. In recent years, supplies for CVP water customers south of the delta have averaged 70 percent of contract allocations.
Shoppers will find pre-holiday beef bargains
The lowest prices in four years will greet shoppers buying beef before Memorial Day. The California Beef Council says there's lots of meat on the market, pushing retail prices lower. For example, ranchers in some states are selling cattle because of drought. And more beef has remained on the domestic market as marketers wait for two main foreign customers, South Korea and Japan, to resume beef imports.
Markets reduce prices on chicken legs
Shoppers may also notice low prices on chicken leg quarters. Those have been popular items for export to Asian nations. But consumers in many parts of Asia have curtailed chicken consumption. So chicken leg quarters once destined for export will be sold in the United States instead. Because American consumers tend to prefer breast meat, poultry marketers say supermarkets have cut prices on the leg meat.
Study shows cherries' health benefits
Eating bing cherries may help fight the inflammation of arthritis, heart disease and cancer, according to a California-based research team. The Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis asked healthy adults to eat about 45 fresh bing cherries each day for four weeks. Blood tests on the volunteers showed that natural chemicals in cherries apparently worked selectively, to suppress production of some of the body's inflammation-linked compounds.
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