The United Soybean Board (USB) and soybean checkoff, through USB’s Biotechnology Initiative, announced a $500,000 investment in the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates in Des Moines, Iowa. This investment will be used to help create a kiosk in the new educational wing at the Hall of Laureates that will help educate the public on the value of biotechnology toward increasing U.S. soybean production.
The announcement was made by Richard Fordyce, team lead on USB’s Biotechnology Initiative and a soybean farmer from Bethany, Missouri. “The exciting things are what are to come – the soybeans that will be bred to increase protein, increase oil,” Fordyce said. “If we can move forward with worldwide acceptance of biotech crops, it could be a very exciting time. The potential is very good for soybeans in helping to address world hunger.”
The proposed educational exhibit is planned to utilize a conversation recorded this past year between the late Dr. Norman Borlaug, founder of the World Food Prize, and the chairman of the United Soybean Board. World Food Prize Foundation president Ambassador Kenneth Quinn said the donation from the U.S. soybean producers will benefit many. “I can speak on behalf of Dr. Borlaug who would tell you thank you as well,” Quinn said. “Not only on behalf of the World Food Prize, but on behalf of all those future generations of students who will come there and be able to hear Dr. Borlaug speak.”
The Hall of Laureates will be named after Dr. Bourlag and housed in the former Des Moines Library. Renovation of the 100-year-old building is expected to be complete by 2011.
The trade show kicked off this morning here at BlogWorld. I did a walk through video clip for you and for myself to decide which ones I want to go back and spend some time with. So if you’ve never seen what a bunch of geeks getting together looks like, now you’ll know. Video shot and uploaded with my iPhone.
Activity on the floor was great to get the show started.
Day two of the BlogWorld and New Media Expo is underway. We’re listing to Richard Jalichandra, Technorati, give a preview of this year’s State of the Blogosphere. It will be published next week.
They surveyed bloggers this past year and he’s showing us some selected statistics. He started out by saying that the blogosphere is very healthy and contrary to media reports otherwise, bloggers are blogging even more than last year. Of the professional bloggers, 40 percent have worked in traditional media. He says, “Blogs are media.” I fully agree with that.
I caught Richard on his way out after his keynote address and you can listen to my interview with him below.
After having Blog Action Day yesterday, today we have the 29th World Food Day. It’s a great time to thank a farmer for feeding you. And we can especially thank American farmers who lead the way in innovation, environmental stewardship and production.
World Food Day, October 16th, is a worldwide event designed to increase awareness, understanding and informed, year-around action to alleviate hunger.
That is a noble goal and one that the American farmer and agricultural companies and organizations work year round to achieve.
Here’s a list of events taking place today to commemorate the event.
Eighty-five students from 11 universities competed for top honors in the 2009 Collegiate Weed Science Contest. Among the challenges: Identify more than two dozen weeds on sight. Visit the Weed Science Society of America online to see whether you can identify the same weeds.
Cargill announced that five of its Nutrena brand horse feeds can now be purchased at Tractor Supply Company stores across the United States. Nutrena SafeChoice and the four Nutrena Life Design formulations are available in more than 900 Tractor Supply stores nationwide.
At the World Food Prize Forum in Des Moines on Thursday, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates spoke out in support of biotechnology to help feed the world.
“We have to develop crops, including new inputs to go with them that can grow in a drought,” Gates said. “We have to have crops that can survive a flood, that can resist pests and new diseases. We need higher yields on the same land, despite more difficult weather. And we will never get there without a continuous and urgent, science-based search to increase productivity, especially focused on the needs of small farms in the developing world.”
Gates took environmentalists to task for having an idealistic attitude that jeopardizes the ability of developing countries to grow enough food. “They have tried to restrict the spread of biotechnology into sub-Saharan Africa without regard to how much hunger and poverty might be reduced by it.”
While Gates said that major breakthroughs in the fight against hunger and poverty are now within reach, he cautioned that progress toward alleviating global hunger is “endangered by an ideological wedge that threatens to split the movement in two.” On one side, he said, there are groups that support technological solutions to increase agricultural productivity without proper regard to environmental and sustainability concerns. On the other, there are those who react negatively to any emphasis on productivity.
“It’s a false choice, and it’s dangerous for the field,” Gates said. “It blocks important advances. It breeds hostility among people who need to work together. And it makes it hard to launch a comprehensive program to help poor farmers. The fact is, we need both productivity and sustainability—and there is no reason we can’t have both.”
Let’s put this in the Blog Action Day Climate Change category under the topic of Food Production. We can have both – productivity and long term sustainability. In fact, we already do have both here in the United States. The majority of our nation’s farms are models of both productivity and sustainability for the world. We are using less land, less fertilizer, and less energy to produce more food than ever before. If developing nations are able to utilize biotech crops, we can and will be able to feed the billion people across the globe who are suffering from malnutrition, as well as the increasing global population. I’m not a big fan of Bill Gates, but I have to applaud him today for standing up to radical environmentalists who want us to move backward instead of forward.
It’s Blog Action Day. A day when apparently a whole lot of environmental extremists are joyfully proclaiming the end of life as we know it. Seems like a continuation of the Chicken Little theory. Take the Prime Minister of the UK’s blog post that says, “Climate change is the biggest threat to all our futures.” Maybe we should just all roll over and die right now? Or is it possible that we’ve got a lot of people trying to alarm and scare the public to help further their political agenda? Take a look at the photo in this post on the organizing group, Change.org’s, blog on animal rights. Yes they want you to become vegans.
I’m hoping that a lot of farm bloggers are weighing in on the subject of climate change. As Cindy said earlier this week, the organizers of this annual promotion even sent out very misleading and incorrect information about agricultural production, encouraging participating bloggers to use it in their posts.
If you’re a regular AgWired reader you know of my complete skepticism of global warming and that mankind has an impact that is changing the climate. I believe in climate change of course and that different areas of the world have changes from time to time. Take the seasons for example.
The fact is that agricultural production and the technological breakthroughs we’re seeing in precision, seed technology and better chemistry is having a positive impact on the environment and our ability to help feed the world. So let’s accept the fact that we have climate change and focus on how to deal with it instead of trying to scapegoat the very people who provide our food. Let’s realize that we’re seeing the development of crops that are drought resistant and that we’re producing more and more food on less and less land.
Yeah, this year’s Blog Action Day topic and the hysteria it’s trying to create is just plain BAD.
How do you become new media experts? Participate in conferences like BlogWorld and New Media Expo. That’s why I’m here with Carly and Robert our webmaster. In fact, Robert is in this photo somewhere. The Mac in the front row on the left is mine.
The opening session is underway featuring Laura Fitton, Pistachio Consulting. She’s challenging and inspiring us. And many need that after their first night in Las Vegas!
Part of her message so far is to be or become lucky and she’s telling her story of how she has become successful through her expertise in “microsharing.” She just said that Twitter has improved her life. Sounds silly right? Well if you don’t understand how that can happen and how a social networking utility like Twitter can improve your business or farm then you probably haven’t invested a little time in learning what it can do for you. But since you’re not here feel free to give me a call and I can conduct a social media training session for you.
I’ve started a photo album for the conference which I’ll be adding to periodically over the next couple days: BlogWorld Photo Album
Post Update: I interviewed Laura after her session. Laura says that the main message she wanted people to walk away with was “Be Awesome.” She also wanted to plant the idea of using social networking mechanisms like Twitter to connect with other people and get your ideas out in the world where they might yield awesome results.
She says Twitter has helped take her from a busy stay at home Mom to giving the keynote here, publishing a book and launching her business. She points out how well Twitter works for business since there are so many Twitter tools.
Gebisa Ejeta, Purdue University Distinguished Professor of Agronomy plant breeder and geneticist, will receive the World Food Prize for his work in developing sorghum varieties resistant to drought and Striga, a parasitic weed common on the African continent. Because of Ejeta’s efforts, sorghum yields are significantly higher in many African nations.
The World Food Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of agriculture, will be presented to Ejeta during an 8 p.m. EST ceremony in the Iowa State Capitol Building in Des Moines today, Oct. 15.
“For so many Africans, this award projects so much hope to a continent that has so much negative news,” Ejeta said. “This is a shining moment for a continent.
“The journey has been so far to where I am now, but I am so driven. Serving humanity means so much to me.”
Sorghum is an important cereal grain to Africa, but arid conditions and the deadly Striga make growing the crop difficult for farmers. Read more about Ejeta’s life and research in the fall issue of Connections, Purdue’s agricultural alumni publication.
How do you feed, clothe and fuel a world population that is expected to climb to 9 billion people by 2040? That is the challenge the folks at the Farm Foundation set out about a year ago to address six major drivers impacting agriculture’s ability to provide food, feed, fiber and fuel to a growing world. Those six areas are: global financial markets and recession; global food security; global energy security; climate change; competition for natural resources and global economic development.
On Tuesday, October 27th the ag-based think tank will host a conference focusing on those six challenging areas at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C.:
Featured speakers will be Dr. Rajiv Shah, USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, former U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter and Erik Peterson, Director of the Global Strategy Institute at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The program will also feature a panel of agribusiness, NGO and academic leaders discussing how to build the next generation of public policies. Dr. Barry Flinchbaugh of Kansas State University will moderate that discussion.
“Given the right tools and incentives, we are confident that the world’s agricultural producers and agribusinesses will meet the 30-year challenge,” says Farm Foundation President Neil Conklin. “But those incentives and tools are heavily influenced by food and agricultural policies that have been shaped by decades of abundance and declining real food prices.
“Today, consumers, environmental concerns and climate change–as well as a major global financial recession–are reshaping the public policy landscape. It is not clear that today’s policies, most of which were designed to deal with the challenges of the last century, will provide the tools and incentives needed to address the 30-year challenge,” Conklin continues.
The conference will feature the winners in Farm Foundation”s 30-Year Challenge Policy Competition, which sought innovative and promising public policy options to address the challenges outlined in the 30-Year Challenge report.
You can register for the free conference by Friday, October 23 here.
Farmers from around the globe gathered in Des Moines this week to participate in the 2009 Global Farmer-to-Farmer Roundtable, which is held in conjunction with the World Food Prize and hosted by Truth About Trade and Technology.
The group honored one of their own today with the 2009 Kleckner Trade & Technology Advancement Award which recognizes a farmer for “exemplary leadership, vision and resolve in advancing the rights of all farmers to choose the technology and tools that will improve the quality, quantity and availability of agricultural products around the world.”
This year’s honoree is Jim McCarthy, a farm manager from Ireland whose agricultural interests span three continents – Europe, South America and North America. He says it is frustrating that he is unable to use biotechnology-based crops in his farming operation in Ireland, but can in other areas. “The environmental benefit of GM (genetically modified) crops is staggering,” he said, as he made comparisons between the farm operations he’s involved with in Ireland and Argentina. He says wildlife numbers are much higher in the South America farm operation because fewer pesticides are used because of Bt traits in the crops. “We’re not using huge amounts of organophosphates, so the food chain is not being interrupted for the wildlife,” he said.
Closer to home, McCarthy is one of a group of farmers that invested in a grass-based dairy in southern Missouri. He is the third recipient of the Kleckner Trade and Technology Advancement Award, which was established in 2007 in honor of Dean Kleckner, the founder and chairman of Truth About Trade and Technology.
I’ll primarily be writing about the conference on ZimmComm.biz but will post here too when I find something you new media farm folks might be interested in.
My hope is that I can shed a little more light on how and why you and your company should be utilizing new media mechanisms like blogs, podcasts and social networks.
The program, which is managed by the Missouri-based Environmental Resources Coalition, is designed to provide services to all types and sizes of livestock and poultry production operations west of the Mississippi River. Technical assistance for the project is confidential and free to all producers. ERC is a non-profit group dedicated to water quality protection and improvement efforts and the program uses federal grant dollars from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Find out more here.
Thursday is Blog Action Day (BAD) and the topic this year is Climate Change. Food production is top on the list of suggested ideas for bloggers to write about in an alert sent out by organizers. “Agricultural production around the world is responsible for nearly as much greenhouse gas emissions as all forms of transportation put together, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the food choices we make have a big impact on the climate,” the organizers say, linking to some choice misinformation on their website.
If you are an agricultural blogger, you should sign up now for BAD, because the views of this will likely be very one-sided without you. When you sign up, you can get an idea of the ideology of the organizers. You are asked to “pick your favorite causes” from a list that includes such goodies as Animal Rights, Global Warming, Gay Rights, Global Poverty, Sustainable Food, Environment, Wildlife and Habitat, and Conflict and Response (that’s a cause?) You get the idea. BAD is “powered by change.org” which has as the top post today “Will Our Beef Addiction Destroy the Amazon?” Lovely.
If you haven’t registered and feel like airing your viewpoint on food production and climate change as part of BAD, sign up here. Or just boycott it.
Syngenta Crop Protection announced Callisto Xtra as the brand name for a new, post-emergence corn herbicide that will be an excellent tank mix partner for glyphosate in glyphosate-tolerant corn.
Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health announced that it has initiated a multi-year sponsorship project, supporting the Shire Highlands Milk Producers Association in Malawi.
Alltech’s Yea-Sacc1026, a live yeast culture based on Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain 1026, has been granted full European Union authorization as a feed additive for horses under Commission Regulation (EC) No. 886/2009.
The American Phytopathological Society, in cooperation with related organizations, will present the 2009 National Soybean Rust Symposium, Dec. 9-11, in New Orleans, La.
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting has seen some significant changes in the last 4 years and the staff leader has been Bill O’Neill. Bill is stepping down at the end of this year to pursue some personal interests and I spoke with him about his decision and his years working with the organization. He says he’s going to move on to some things he’s been interested in for a while. He mentions “being a student again.”
Highlights for him during his time with NAFB include the fact that the board of directors that was just seated when he started represented all aspects of the membership. The name of the organization changed the year he started as well. That was done to reflect how the classes of membership have changed over the years. He is proud of the fact that they implemented a strategic plan and that they’ve conducted national farm media studies in the last several years.
Bill also gives us a preview of the upcoming NAFB Convention which Cindy and I will be attending and covering on AgWired. He says that the convention will continue to provide members with an opportunity to learn more about how to cope with changes in communications technology among other things. The annual Trade Talk session is full showing strong support from agribusinesses and other ag organizations. He says that new research about farmers and their use of the internet will also be of interest.
The President/CEO and co-Founder of Fluidigm (AgWired Sponsor) is Gajus Worthington. Let’s meet him and learn about the company and how its technology can benefit agribusiness.
I met with Gajus at the company headquarters in South San Francisco and asked him a number of questions to help us better understand their core technology. Before getting to the technology, he explains how he decided to start the company one day while walking down the street and “in an instant, like being hit by a bolt of lightning” he knew his future was defined and that “what I was supposed to do was build a company that could contribute in a variety of different ways to a variety of different industries.”
The core technology produced by Fluidigm is the production of integrated fluidic circuits (IFC’s). Gajus uses the analogy of electronics where large computers using vacuum tubes were made very small by the use of a chip. That made electronics much more high performance and affordable. That innovation has impacted ag through the use of GPS in precision applications for example. He says Fluidigm does a similar thing for biology. Biology research today uses machines much like those old vacuum tube computers except they use arrays of test tubes and hoses. Fluidigm takes all that “plumbing” and puts it on a chip. For example, a single chip (IFC) can have as much plumbing as in a 1,000 room hotel! This allows for very high throughput biological research much more cost effectively and easily. This has major implications for genetics, conservation, seed selection and quality control.
Because the technology is so small it allows this type of work to move to the field in places where it couldn’t be done before, like feedlots for example. One example is a Fluidigm client, the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game, which uses their technology in the field to manage salmon fisheries. He says seeing the use of their technology in industries like agribusiness and the management of wildlife is extremely gratifying because it’s contributing to people’s livelihoods and helping the environment.
We’re going to learn more about Fluidigm systems and technology in upcoming stories that include interviews with key company representatives. Gajus provides a very good overview of what you can expect from Fluidigm now and in the future.
You can watch or listen to my interview with Gajus below:
Thank you for joining the fight against beverage and food taxes. Because of you, many in Washington listened and agreed – a tax on beverages is not what concerned citizens like you want. In the coming week, as the health care debate heads to the Senate Floor, the idea of a tax on the sodas and juice drinks you enjoy is being revived yet again. Now more than ever, it’s important that your Senators hear from you. We need your help to send another message to Congress. Please go to our simple web form by clicking below and let your Senator know that a beverage tax is the last thing you need in this economy.
In the past few weeks, proponents of a new national tax on soda and juice drinks have become more driven and vocal than ever before. We thank you for your support and ask that you match their enthusiasm at this critical juncture.
Just received word that Bill O’Neill, the Executive Director of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, will be stepping down. The NAFB Board has accepted his resignation effective December 31.
You can hear all about it from NAFB President, Pam Jahnke, who has recorded an audio statement (mp3).
Pam Jahnke, current president of NAFB said that O’Neill plans on pursuing some personal goals he’s been considering for some time. “The association is in wonderful shape financially, and blessed with a solid staff in Platte City. Bill took all of this into consideration before his announcement. The officer team is very grateful that NAFB has had his guidance and dedication for five years, and we’re even more grateful that he’s not departing until December 31.”
The executive officer team of Jahnke, Greg Akagi and Lindsay Hill has already begun work planning for the next director. They will complete formation of a search and screen committee shortly, and begin advertising the position on a national scale. Jahnke said that they’re in agreement that they will take their time, and research all options thoroughly.
“We realize the importance of this process and are consulting with members and outside resources to make sure that the NAFB has the opportunity to enjoy another 65 years of success.”
It’s hard to believe that I posted the announcement of Bill’s start with NAFB back in 2005. Been doing this a while!
Last weekend, beef cattle industry enthusiasts flooded Fort Smith, Ark. to take part in one of the most prestigious youth agriculture programs in the nation, the National Beef Ambassador Program. I had the opportunity to be a keynote speaker, as well as a workshop presenter, and Cindy and I were both judges for the issues response portion of the contest. I’m proud to announce the winners of this year’s contest, the new 2010 National Beef Ambassador Team: Malorie Bankhead (California), Rebecca Vraspir (Wyoming), Ellen Hoffschneider (Nebraska), Jackson Alexander (Oklahoma), and Mandy-Jo Laurent (Texas). Let’s meet the team, shall we?
Malorie Bankhead is a freshman attending California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo majoring in Agriculture Science Communications. She hopes to one day become an agricultural journalist or an agricultural public representative.
Rebecca Vraspir is a sophomore at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. She is studying Animal Science with an emphasis in Business and Production. She plans on joining the meats judging team during her time at the university.
Ellen Hoffschneider attends the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She grew up on an Angus cow/calf operation, and is actively involved in the Junior Angus Association on state, regional and national levels.
Jackson Alexander is a senior at Anadarko High School in Oklahoma. Jackson raises and shows Hereford cattle, and because of his dedication to the beef indusry, he was named the 2007 Oklahoma Cattlemen of the year.
Mandy-Jo Laurent attends Texas Tech and is majoring in Agriculture communications, with minors in Political Science and Animal Science. She plans to attend law school one day.
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
David conducted a presentation on delivering expert opinion via social media to an audience at the start of International Poultry Expo week. He's got some great information about who consumers trust and how you can use today's consumer behavior to help communicate your message.
The United Soybean Board (USB) and soybean checkoff, through USB’s Biotechnology Initiative, announced a $500,000 investment in the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates in Des Moines, Iowa. This investment will be used to help create a kiosk in the new educational wing at the Hall of Laureates that will help educate the public on the value of biotechnology toward increasing U.S. soybean production.
The announcement was made by Richard Fordyce, team lead on USB’s Biotechnology Initiative and a soybean farmer from Bethany, Missouri. “The exciting things are what are to come – the soybeans that will be bred to increase protein, increase oil,” Fordyce said. “If we can move forward with worldwide acceptance of biotech crops, it could be a very exciting time. The potential is very good for soybeans in helping to address world hunger.”
Day two of the BlogWorld and New Media Expo is underway. We’re listing to Richard Jalichandra, Technorati, give a preview of this year’s 
After having Blog Action Day yesterday, today we have the 29th 
Gates took environmentalists to task for having an idealistic attitude that jeopardizes the ability of developing countries to grow enough food. “They have tried to restrict the spread of biotechnology into sub-Saharan Africa without regard to how much hunger and poverty might be reduced by it.”
It’s 
How do you become new media experts? Participate in conferences like BlogWorld and New Media Expo. That’s why I’m here with Carly and Robert our webmaster. In fact, Robert is in this photo somewhere. The Mac in the front row on the left is mine.
Gebisa Ejeta, Purdue University Distinguished Professor of Agronomy plant breeder and geneticist, will receive the 
How do you feed, clothe and fuel a world population that is expected to climb to 9 billion people by 2040? That is the challenge the folks at the Farm Foundation set out about a year ago to address six major drivers impacting agriculture’s ability to provide food, feed, fiber and fuel to a growing world. Those six areas are: global financial markets and recession; global food security; global energy security; climate change; competition for natural resources and global economic development. 
Farmers from around the globe gathered in Des Moines this week to participate in the 2009 Global Farmer-to-Farmer Roundtable, which is held in conjunction with the World Food Prize and hosted by 
This year’s honoree is Jim McCarthy, a farm manager from Ireland whose agricultural interests span three continents – Europe, South America and North America. He says it is frustrating that he is unable to use biotechnology-based crops in his farming operation in Ireland, but can in other areas. “The environmental benefit of GM (genetically modified) crops is staggering,” he said, as he made comparisons between the farm operations he’s involved with in Ireland and Argentina. He says wildlife numbers are much higher in the South America farm operation because fewer pesticides are used because of Bt traits in the crops. “We’re not using huge amounts of organophosphates, so the food chain is not being interrupted for the wildlife,” he said. 
The 
Helping livestock and poultry producers develop and implement plans to limit their environmental impact is the goal of a program called 
The 
The President/CEO and co-Founder of 
Just received word that Bill O’Neill, the Executive Director of the 
Last weekend, 
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
