Each week we round up the latest N.C. agricultural headlines from news outlets across the state and country, as well as excerpts from the stories. Click on the links to go straight to the full story.
- “Attendance tops 1 million at NC State Fair,” WTVD-TV: More than 1 million people visited the North Carolina State Fair, for the second year in a row. The fair said Monday that attendance for the 2011 edition of the fair totaled 1,009,173. …
- “Pig waste proves powerful,” News & Observer: The old saw about using every part of a pig but the squeal now includes its droppings, which are producing electricity on a Yadkin County farm. Duke University is a partner with Duke Energy and Google in testing a system that captures methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from manure. …
- “Grocers’ ‘local produce’ deals bring farmers some security,” News & Observer: The peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins and eggplants are only some of the crops Mike Pirrone Produce, a family-owned farm in Capac, Mich., sells to Wal-Mart in Michigan. Other vegetables grown on its 1,350 acres wind up in Kroger grocery stores. …
- “4-H kids enjoy NC State Fair,” The Caswell Messenger: The fall air and sunshine were a perfect way to start out the first full day of the North Carolina State Fair. …
- “Sunburst Trout opens Waynesville store,” Asheville Citizen-Times: Fans hooked on Sunburst Trout Farms’ array of local fish products have a new honey hole. The family-owned company opened its first retail store two weeks ago one block off Main Street …
- “UK scientists grow super broccoli,” WRAL-TV: Popeye might want to consider switching to broccoli. British scientists recently unveiled a new breed of the vegetable that experts say packs a big nutritional punch. …
- “Editorial – Local oysters may soon be in high demand,” Wilmington Star-News: Mmm, oysters. The tasty little bivalve is ripe for harvest and coming to an oyster roast near you. October may bring cooler air and herald the march toward winter, but it also brings the promise of oysters fresh from North Carolina waters. …
- “Food businesses eager to get busy at PFAP,” Durham Herald-Sun: Jack Tapp had a pretty good job working for Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass as an investigator, but one day about 15 years ago, he walked into Pendergrass’ office and said he was quitting and going into the bee business. …
- “With 21 E. coli cases, Wake works to pinpoint cause,” News & Observer: What did you have for lunch five days ago? You might remember that you had a sandwich, but what was on it? Did it have lettuce? mayo? What kind of bread? …These kinds of details from patients, as minor as they may have seemed at the time, investigators are collecting by the thousands as they build a database to isolate an outbreak of E. coli bacteria-linked illness this week…