Field Notes

There's more to grocery shopping these days because of nutritional ratings, on-label claims and even in-store dieticians. 

On this episode of Harvest Public Media’s Field Notes,  grocery shopping with a guy who doesn’t really think about nutrition, and along the way we dissect the nutritional rating system NuVal. 

Whether it was thanks to the Farm Bill, MF Global's bankruptcy, vicious flooding or high land prices, farmers were in the headlines throughout the Midwest in 2011.

River flooding is expected to be a major topic at the upcoming Missouri Governor's Conference on Agriculture. (AP)

The Maytags, one of Iowa’s most famous pioneer families, are at it again.

But this time, they’re ignoring modern technology. And the surprising product is … popcorn.

The constant barrage of nutrition messages is so confusing it makes me want to go on a BBQ-potato-chip bender.

So when Harvest reporter Jessica Naudziunas pitched a story on those nutritional scores in grocery stores, I listened.    

What does it take for a food product to be labeled "Natural"?

Not much, it seems.

While that big "Natural" label on a package of meat has nothing to do with how an animal was raised, it at least has a definition: "minimally processed with no artificial ingredients.”  When "Natural" shows up on other food products -- everything from granola bars to dressings, and even soda --   the meaning is less certain.

Agricultural land value continues to soaring in the Midwest, according to two new surveys released by the Kansas City and Chicago Federal Reserves.

Nebraska has experienced exceptionally strong gains due to bumper crops, with a roughly 40 percent rise in farmland prices from one year ago, CNN Money reported.

A new U.S. Department of Agriculture report says sales of "local foods," whether sold direct to consumers at farmers markets or through intermediaries such as grocers or restaurants, amounted to $4.8 billion in 2008. That's a number several times greater than earlier estimates, and the department predicts locally grown foods will generate $7 billion in sales this year, The Associated Press reported.

While there's plenty of evidence local food sales have been growing, it has been hard to say by how much because governments, companies, consumers and food markets disagree on what qualifies as local.(Check out Harvest Public Media's reporting on this.)

That is, at least, better than their counterparts without an agriculture focus.

The Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis this fall reported that agriculture banks, like Zions Agricultural Finance in Ames, Iowa, have outperformed community banks that depend on clients who are employed outside of the farm sector.  A bank is defined as an agriculture bank if the combined agricultural production and farmland loans account for 25 percent or more of its total loans.