The USDA now tells us that farms and agribusinesses represent less than 12% of each food dollar. When will folks start looking at the other 88% as a possible cause of higher food prices?
Monsanto is facing a legal challenge from organic farmers over genetically modified seed.
The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit this week on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, against Monsanto Company as a preemptive measure “to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed, something Monsanto has done to others in the past.”
“This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto’s transgenic seed should land on their property,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. “It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of our clients.”
Monsanto calls the organization’s allegations “false, misleading and deceptive.”
The plaintiffs’ approach is a publicity stunt designed to confuse the facts about American agriculture. These efforts seek to reduce private and public investment in the development of new higher-yielding seed technologies. This attack comes at a time when the world needs every agricultural tool available to meet the needs of a growing population, expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. While we respect the opinion of organic farmers as it relates to the products they choose to grow, we don’t believe that American agriculture faces an all-or-nothing approach. Rather we believe that farmers should have the ability to choose the best agricultural tools to farm their own land and serve their own end-market customers. We are confident that these multiple approaches can coexist side-by-side and sustainably meet the world’s food needs over next 40 years.
The United Soybean Board held a Biobased Products Stakeholders’ Workshop today at Hoover, Inc. Our featured speaker was Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan who announced the first 11 companies whose products have been certified to feature USDA’s new BioPreferred Label. “The USDA BioPreferred label assures the consumer that a product or package contains a verified amount of renewable biological ingredients.” You can hear her comments below as well as a short interview I conducted with her.
We also had soybean farmer representatives with us as well as representatives from a variety of companies that are now certified or working on it. I’ll be posting interviews with them later on.
One of the reasons this event was held in Ohio was the fact that three of the eleven companies are based here. Companies receiving the certification include:
Nutek Green, a division of Hoover, Inc., (Glenwillow, Ohio); Seventh Generation (Burlington, Vermont); Betco Corp. (Toledo, Ohio); Clear Lam Packaging, Inc. (Elk Grove Village, Illinois); DuPont Corporation (Wilmington, Delaware); ElastiKote (Akron, Ohio); Green Earth Technologies (Celebration, Florida); National Industries for the Blind Agencies (Lighthouse for the Blind, St. Louis, Missouri and Travis Association for the Blind, Austin, Texas); NatureWorks LLC (Minnetonka, Minnesota); Rochester Midland Corporation (Rochester, New York); Bio-Lub Canada (Quebec, Canada).
Deputy Ag Secretary Merrigan told us, “When consumers see the BioPreferred label in a store, they’ll know that the product or its packaging is made from renewable plant, animal, marine or forestry materials.” She also told me how happy she was that this program will help our farmers since it will continue to open up and develop new markets for their commodities.
BASF has some new resources for farmers this growing season for weed resistance management.
One is the Kixor Weed Resistance Management Guide that offers growers strategies for managing glyphosate resistant weeds as well as information about the benefits of using Kixor as a burndown and/or residual herbicide to fight resistance.
In addition, growers can tune into their local Brownfield Network affiliate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week to hear a localized report on the spread of weed resistance throughout the season. The “Weeds to Watch” Farm Report will feature weed scientists from Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Nebraska and provide an “eye in the sky” report of weeds growers are dealing with and tips for managing the problem.
Hello from “I wish it was warm and sunny” Cleveland, OH. Today the United Soybean Board is holding a Biobased Stakeholders’ Workshop and I’m on the scene to capture it in photos and interviews. I’m primarily posting onto the USB Biobased Solutions Blog and will also post some items here.
This morning we’ll have Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan with us. She will announce the first 11 companies to receive USDA’s Certified Biobased Product label including several soy products. Deputy Merrigan will then try-out some of these certified products.
We’ll also have USB Director Dale Profit talk about what Biopreferred products mean for his farming operation and representatives from companies receiving the biobased label will discuss their newly certified products.
So, we’re on location at Hoover, Inc. Yes, that’s the vacuum cleaner company. It’s very interesting seeing some of the original advertising for their products. The company is now much larger and diversified and we’ll learn more about that during a morning tour with the Deputy Secretary.
These are my beloved pepper seeds. They represent more than just the possibility of having salsa at the end of this growing season. For a couple of weeks now, I have kept them in paper towels and each day, made sure they had adequate moisture. In response, they sprouted roots. This weekend, we put 30 seeds in soil, hoping to have thriving vines to transplant into our garden once any threat of cold weather is gone.
These seeds represent a sort of emotional connection I feel to being “back home.” I’ve put down roots, and continue to feed that relationship with a community and family that have given so much to me. The people around me gave me a firm foundation – the beginning of a good root system – and continued to feed and sustain me over the years, no matter how many miles were between us.
Planting a garden this year represents the fact that I’m staying here for good, and oh it feels wonderful to take root where I belong.
USDA expects more corn, wheat and cotton to be planted this year, but slightly less soybeans, according to the Prospective Plantings report released this morning.
Corn growers intend to plant 92.2 million acres of corn for all purposes this year, up 5 percent from last year and 7 percent higher than in 2009. If realized, this will be the second highest planted acreage in the United States since 1944, behind only the 93.5 million acres planted in 2007. Soybean planted area for 2011 is estimated at 76.6 million acres, down 1 percent from last year. If realized, the United States planted area will be the third largest on record. All wheat planted area is estimated at 58.0 million acres, up 8 percent from last year. All cotton plantings for 2011 are expected to total 12.6 million acres, 15 percent above last year.
InfoAg 2009 was a terrific success. Over 650 participants shared in presentations on a wide range of topics on technology applications and data management and interpretation. As with previous InfoAg Conferences, the networking among participants was again a highlight of the experience. New relationships formed at InfoAg will lead to greater benefits and opportunities for those involved.
InfoAg 2011 will be held July 12-14 in Springfield, Ill.
Coverage of the event will be sponsored by Ag Leader.
AdFarm has hired Brandon Souza, an individual with a strong background in California agriculture and communications, to enhance the company’s credentials in its Sacramento office.
The earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan has repercussions in a variety of industries. Agriculture is no exception. Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “How will Japan disaster affect US exports?” 61% said it will increase exports while 23% said decrease and 17% said no impact. So how has this disaster affected agriculture in Japan? You can learn more in this week’s ZimmCast.
It’s mid term for the current administration in Washington, so we thought it would be interesting to get your take on how you think our U.S. Secretary of Agriculture is doing. Here’s your chance to grade him. The new poll is now live and asks the question, “What mid-term grade would you give Ag Sec. Tom Vilsack?” Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.
ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.
It’s an interesting conversation in which Brabeck-Letmathe comes off as insufferably arrogant, discussing how he and a bunch of other wealthy do-gooders like Charles Schwab, Angelina Jolie, Sharon Stone and Bono gathered for the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to decide how they are going to “give back to society.” After spouting a bunch of philanthropic gobbledy-gook he gets to the issue of child labor, something Nestle has faced criticism about. Brabeck-Letmathe calls it a “very bad issue” which is “not very easy to tackle.” In fact, he calls it “almost natural” and “almost impossible” to stop.
While Brabeck-Letmathe considers child labor on African cocoa plantations “natural,” he calls the biofuels policy of Europe and the United States “immoral.” He says that biofuels policy is using too much water and driving food prices up. “I think it is absolutely immoral to push hundreds of million(s) of people into hunger, into extreme poverty because of such a policy,” he stated. “And therefore I think — I insist no food for fuel.”
Needless to say, corn growers were not pleased with those remarks. “Perhaps if Nestle is so concerned about food prices, its board will consider putting more of their $35.7 billion in 2010 profits back into poor communities,” said NCGA President Bart Schott. “Just their profits alone represent more than half the entire farm value of the 2010 U.S. corn crop.”
In an interview with Chuck at the St. Louis Agribusiness Club meeting on Monday, NCGA CEO Rick Tolman called Brabeck-Letmathe that “crazy guy who’s chairman of Nestle” who got headlines by saying that biofuels are killing people. “Now he has no facts to back it up and the facts don’t support what he says, but that gets headlines,” Rick said.
Rick noted that he just recently returned from a trip to South Africa where they have a 200 million bushel surplus of corn. “We had much higher levels of poverty and starvation between 2000 and 2005 when we had $2 corn and we were accused then of driving farmers off their farms because our prices were too low,” he said.
You can listen to or download the interview with Rick here: NCGA's Rick Tolman
Thanks to MoFarmersCare for the production of a video that explains what HSUS really is. Missouri and other farmers do care about their animals and there are great organizations like most of your local animal shelters. Unfortunately, all of the above are being hurt by the activities of this organization.
The disaster in Japan due to the earthquake and tsunami is terrible, especially in terms of the loss of human life. Our hearts and prayers go out to the people who have lost their life or loved ones. Cindy and I had the opportunity to visit Japan when the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists held its annual Congress there in 2007. We not only stayed in the affected area but developed relationships with a number of the agricultural journalists who were participating in the event. One of the coordinators was Masaru Yamada, pictured below. I contacted Masaru yesterday to see if we could talk about how the disaster has affected agriculture and we had a nice discussion via Skype that I’m sharing with you in this week’s program. I’m happy to report that Masaru says he and his family are doing fine.
According to Masaru the amount of farm land impacted is less than one percent of the total farmland in Japan. Most of this area was being used for rice and fruit and vegetable production. He says that in some ways the worst of the situation has passed such as affected transportation. However, he fears that in other ways the worst is yet to come for Japanese agriculture. The worst may be how the rest of the world reacts to fears about radiation contamination of food stuffs and he’s hoping that accurate information will be published by journalists the world over. Right now there is a lack of information about how agricultural products and farm land are affected because of the immediate need to devote resources to the disaster itself. He says that there are estimates that more people are missing and feared dead than have already been confirmed. I find that just hard to comprehend. And then there’s the problem with the nuclear power plants themselves.
This is a situation that’s going to take some time to resolve. In the meantime Masaru says that one way agricultural journalists can provide assistance is to make sure they are reporting good, factual information. I agree with that. We’ve already seen a high level of hysteria in some non-farm reporting about radiation. The upsurge in sales of radiation treatment medication is a good example of the impact this type of reporting can have. Just do a Google News search for it! It’s an example of how sensationalist news reporting can create a manufactured crisis. That’s not to in any way suggest that the situation in Japan with the power plants is not serious by the way. Let’s just use some common sense folks!
As I noted yesterday, IFAJ is coordinating an assistance effort for agricultural journalists in Japan. Here in the U.S. the place to contact if you’d like to help is the American Agricultural Editors Association. If Masaru’s fears become reality one of the biggest problems Japanese ag journalists may face is a lack of work. Of course in the mean time they also have health and safety concerns if they’re going to cover a situation that has a danger due to the situation with the potential radiation contamination.
Learn more about how the disaster in Japan has affected the country and its agricultural industry in this week’s program: ZimmCast 297 - Affects of Japan Disaster
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, Growmark, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page
The amount consumers will be paying for food at the grocery store could jump this year, but rising farm incomes won’t be the biggest factor in that increase.
“[High oil prices] are probably the biggest reason for the year-to-year changes. The higher energy costs we’ve seen in recent months do increase the cost of transporting and processing the food. And those are a big share of the overall consumer food dollar.”
Westhoff points out that while the amount of money American farmers will be making this year will increase, still only about 20 cents of every food dollar goes back to the people who grow and raise that food.
Westhoff says crop producers should have a good 2011, with livestock producers getting more of a mixed bag. “The positive is we have seen higher prices for cattle and hogs. But they’re also facing much higher feed costs this year.”
He adds that strong international demand for U.S. farm products will buoy the ag sector with cattle prices expected to go up and tightening corn stocks, helped by advancements for the ethanol and biofuels sectors, will keep those prices higher as well.
Westhoff cautions farmers that FAPRI doesn’t have some kind of crystal ball, and producers should expect some volatility.
“If you’re a producer or someone using agricultural products, you’re going to want to be very active in risk management these days to make sure that you’re able to handle different contingencies that might come up over the course of the next couple of months.”
So is it farm broadcasting, farm publication, farm web content? The convergence of technology and platforms for distributing information are just as prevalent in ag media as anywhere else. “AgWeb.com has introduced a new on-demand Web radio program to keep farmers up-to-date on the latest news impacting today’s commodity markets. “AgWeb Market Reports” is a three-times-daily report that will tell producers what is happening in the markets and why.” So how do I subscribe to it? Do I have to go to the website to listen? I’m just asking the question that any iPod loving farmer would ask. If I missed can someone point me in the right direction.
This new program is part of a larger lineup of online programming from AgWeb.com. Regarding AgWeb Market Reports:
The program is hosted by veteran farm broadcaster Al Pell and features analysis from the nation’s leading market advisers and commodity traders. The program includes a pre-open, midday and closing marketing report. Reports in the first month of programming were accessed more than 36,000 times, proving the value of this information, as well as farmers’ desire to access information on their own schedule.
Additional programming will be offered this summer, featuring in-depth interviews and information on agriculture’s key topics.
“By broadcasting on the Web—and soon through mobile applications—we provide a new and more convenient way to access timely information,” says Greg Vincent, AgWeb editor. “Farmers have relied on radio market information for years, and ‘AgWeb Market Reports’ follows that tried-and-true format with a twist.”
U. S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, made a visit to St. Louis today. He was the keynote speaker at the St. Louis Agribusiness Club meeting and I have his comments available for you below. You’ll notice the Golden ZimmComm Microphone prominently displayed to get the best quality audio too! You can find some more photos from the event here: St. Louis Agribusiness Club Luncheon Photo Album
Following the luncheon he moved over to the National Operations Center for the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. The center is located in Overland, MO.
The new operations center will create more than 350 local jobs and reuse a federal facility while making the agency more efficient and cost effective in its work. The space is under construction so anticipation of the opening and related jobs is building.
Post Update: Now that I’m back at ZimmComm World Headquarters I thought I’d select out the specific comment Sec. Vilsack made regarding the NASS facility. He says that NASS conducts about 450 surveys every year which creates information that a lot of business decisions depend on. He says, “What we decided to do in the name of efficiency and better coordination of information is to essentially consolidate data collection from forty seven different field offices into a central integrated comprehensive and coordinated location here in St. Louis.” The photo is from the media event at the facility taken by Gene Danekas, Director, Missouri Field Office, NASS. Thanks Gene!
The fearless leader of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists is Mike Wilson, Farm Futures. In the most recent IFAJ newsletter Mike let us know that the organization is working to help out those in need in Japan. As he mentions, those of us involved in IFAJ have developed long lasting relationships with our Japanese counterparts. Cindy and I participated in the 2007 IFAJ Congress that took place in Sendai and will never forget our experience and time there.
We are all aware of the devastation that has taken place in Japan. IFAJ held its 2007 Congress in Sendai, where much of the earthquake and tsunami damage has taken place. Many of our members have built life-long relationships with our colleagues in Japan. Now we want to help. The President of Japan Agricultural Journalists Association (JAJA) has issued a statement that you can read here on our website.
We have been in touch with Japan IFAJ executive representative Masaru Yamada for the past several days as we work to develop a coordinated relief effort through IFAJ. Our organization will be collecting donations that will be used specifically to help our fellow agricultural communicators and their families. IFAJ is facilitating the collection of donations from members through electronic transfers of funds initially to the bank account of IFAJ, for onward transfer of a single combined sum to JAJA in due course.
I love doing laundry. That involves separating whites and darks, walking down the hall, throwing it in the washer and going back to doing something else for 50 minutes while it washes; tossing it in the dryer and folding it. Total time = 1.5 hours.
I have it easy.
This is an old double-faced wash board that belonged to my Grandpa’s mother. Back in the day, these cost anywhere from 16 to 25 cents each, depending on the model. To get a load of laundry “going”, she would have to go outside and pump the water into a pail by hand, carry it in the house, heat up the boiler on the stove, heat the water, and fill another tub for rinsing. Wash the clothes by hand, ring them out, then take them outside to dry on the clothesline. There was no Tide or Downy, only hand-made lye soap. But boy did it get things white.
Total time? I’m guessing at least 3 hours, and they were busy ONLY washing clothes that entire time.
Molly Connors of Richland, Wash., was re-elected to the United States Potato Board Executive Committee and Todd Michael of Urbana, Ohio, was elected chairman.
The United Fresh Produce Association applauds news from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announcing $158 million in funding for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) for next school year.
Beck Ag recently launched a website that offers ag professionals from across the country the opportunity to learn and stay connected.
The award was established by FOE “to recognize leaders that promote dirty biofuels” – especially corn ethanol – and was won last year by then House Agriculture Committee chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN). The first year it was Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant. In addition to us, this year’s nominees include Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), General Wesley Clark, and Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Here is what they have to say about us:
This dynamic duo are a pair of bloggers who lead the group ZimmComm New Media and provide a big platform for the ethanol industry’s talking points. Each day, on a series of blogs – hosted by the Zimmermans (DomesticFuel, AgWired ) or by the corn ethanol industry itself (CornCommentary) – Cindy and Chuck critique anyone who may disagree with the ethanol industry’s line while practically cutting and pasting press releases from industry lobby groups. The Zimmermans are unabashedly pro-industry, with clients such as Growth Energy, the Renewable Fuels Association, the National Biodiesel Board and Syngenta. What’s more, many of their employees are previous employees of the biofuels industry lobby groups like Growth Energy. Now — Friends of the Earth has nothing against a pro-industry website (in principle), but the problem with the Zimmermans is that on the surface they pretend to be “reporters,” when in fact they act as industry hacks.
I have never been so proud! But I would like to clarify a couple of things. First, we have no employees. We have freelance writers who contribute to our websites and other freelancers who do other work for us. One of our freelancers did work for Growth Energy, she now works for Protec Fuel and while she continues to do work for us in other areas, she does very little posting at this time. Another freelancer, Joanna, worked for EPIC when we got to know her, but she now has her own company and does work for a variety of clients, including us. And, we are really reporters. We even have degrees from the University of Florida College of Journalism in broadcasting. Our area of expertise just happens to be agriculture and we are proud supporters of this industry.
We sincerely support and believe in the use of biofuels for our country, as well as other forms of alternative energy – and even utilizing more of our country’s own oil reserves. We are diametrically opposed to organizations and individuals who criticize and attack the people who produce this nation’s food, fiber, AND fuel. If that makes us biofools, then we are proud to be! If you agree, vote for us at biofools.com!
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 
One is the 
USDA expects more corn, wheat and cotton to be planted this year, but slightly less soybeans, according to the 
It’s an interesting conversation in which Brabeck-Letmathe comes off as insufferably arrogant, discussing how he and a bunch of other wealthy do-gooders like Charles Schwab, Angelina Jolie, Sharon Stone and Bono gathered for the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to decide how they are going to “give back to society.” After spouting a bunch of philanthropic gobbledy-gook he gets to the issue of child labor, something 
The disaster in Japan due to the earthquake and tsunami is terrible, especially in terms of the loss of human life. Our hearts and prayers go out to the people who have lost their life or loved ones. Cindy and I had the opportunity to visit Japan when the 
According to Masaru the amount of farm land impacted is less than one percent of the total farmland in Japan. Most of this area was being used for rice and fruit and vegetable production. He says that in some ways the worst of the situation has passed such as affected transportation. However, he fears that in other ways the worst is yet to come for Japanese agriculture. The worst may be how the rest of the world reacts to fears about radiation contamination of food stuffs and he’s hoping that accurate information will be published by journalists the world over. Right now there is a lack of information about how agricultural products and farm land are affected because of the immediate need to devote resources to the disaster itself. He says that there are estimates that more people are missing and feared dead than have already been confirmed. I find that just hard to comprehend. And then there’s the problem with the nuclear power plants themselves. 
Here is 
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
