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A program devoted to providing information on tree fruits as well as vegetables will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 13, in the Adams County Farm Bureau basement, beginning at 9 am, Two Rivers FS will host the program. The morning program will focus on fruit production, concentrating on apples. The afternoon will focus on vegetables, primarily on pumpkin and sweet corn production (fertility, variety selection, insect/weed/disease identification and management). Lunch will be provided. Contact Don Henning at 217-653-0969 for more information. Speakers from U of I Extension and the industry will be featured.

Paper or Plastic? We have all become accustomed to this phrase and many of us have stood in line trying to decide which is the better choice. The answer is neither. By taking along your own reusable shopping bags you avoid the choice while making a difference for the environment. U of I Extension has a new cloth shopping bag available that also promotes the Locally Grown message.

According to supermarket industry estimates, the average consumer uses 500 disposable paper and plastic bags a year. And that's only from grocery stores! Add in other stores and one consumer could easily obtain over 1,000 bags a year. Grocery bags are not made from recycled paper and plastic bags are a product of the petroleum industry, a non-renewable substance. Very few plastic bags are actually recycled. Plastic bags end up in landfills, or along roadsides, rivers or in trees.

According to the Wall Street Journal, an estimated 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are consumed world-wide every year. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil are required to produce the 100 billion consumed annually. Additionally, retailers spend an estimated $4 billion on their plastic store bags, passing the costs on to consumers. Paper isn't any better. According to the American Forest and Paper Association, in 1999 the U.S. alone used 10 billion paper grocery bags, requiring 14 million trees to be cut down.

By using reusable shopping bags you can cut back on hundreds if not thousands of those paper and plastic shopping bags that are harmful to our environment. The bags area available at the U of I Extension office at 330 S. 36^th St. in Quincy and 111 W. Main St. in Mt. Sterling and Tri-State Nutrition in Quincy. The cost is $8 per bag and proceeds benefit the Locally Grown program.

If you would like more information on supporting our local food system be sure to visit the Locally Grown webpage.