It’s time again for the American Farmland Trust, Dine Out for Farms event. Dine Out for Farms week (Oct. 16-22) celebrates the connection between restaurants and the farmers they source from, while raising money to save farms and farmland. The deadline for restaurants across the country to enroll in Dine Out for Farms is Sept. 30. Please visit www.farmland.org/dineout for …
Illinois Commodity Groups Support Evans Endowed Chair at U of IL
After just seeing Jim Evans last week at the 2011 IFAJ Congress it was nice to see this large gift to the James F. Evans Endowed Chair in Agricultural Communications at the University of Illinois. Five Illinois agriculture groups jointly announced today a more than $28,000 award to a University of Illinois joint initiative between the College of Agricultural, Consumer …
Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale Enters China
This is how you handle foreign relations. By raising a glass of Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale for a toast. Pictured left to right are Deane Lin, chairman and director of Dxcel and Dr. Pearse Lyons, president of Alltech, owner of the Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company. They’re toasting Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale’s expansion into Shanghai and Beijing. Dxcel is handling …
GROWMARK Helping Cultivate Master Farmers
Rick Nelson is not just a farmer from Paxton, Illinois – he’s a Master Farmer – and as such, he is helping to cultivate other master farmers in the state. I talked with Rick at the Farm Progress Show in the GROWMARK tent, since Rick is also Vice Chairman of GROWMARK, and we talked about the Cultivating Master Farmers program …
Zimfo Bytes
Honda Power Equipment announced a new agreement with John Deere to sell Honda premium power products at participating John Deere dealerships in the United States. Producers and veterinarians looking to make more informed decisions to advance genetic progress in their herds have a new educational resource from Pfizer Animal Genetics. Cargill introduced Vitex AYS stabilizers, a customizable functional system that …
Biodiesel Falls Under Minnesota Ag Marketing & Development
Fields of soybeans surround the newly re-opened Renewable Energy Group REG Albert Lea biodiesel plant in southern Minnesota, serving as a reminder of where the renewable fuel is rooted. Christina Connelly with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Ag Marketing and Development Division attended the grand re-opening Monday of the 30 million gallon a year plant, which was shut down in …
USFRA Food Dialogues Now Live
The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, Food Dialogues, is now live for your viewing pleasure. You can watch live on the Food Dialogues website or by using the Food Dialogues app on Facebook. That’s where I’m watching. You can interact by signing in and post your comments and questions. This is what USFRA is looking for and hoping there will …
Lightsquared Solution To GPS Concerns Not Well Received By Industry
Yesterday Lightsquared announced a “solution” to concerns over interference with GPS systems from it’s proposed wireless broadband network. LightSquared™, a wholesale carrier building a nationwide wireless broadband network that will create consumer choice and industry innovation, has signed an agreement with Javad GNSS Inc. to develop a system that will eliminate related interference issues for high-precision GPS devices. The Javad …
USFRA Releases Consumer/Farmer Survey Results
Today the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance released the results of a survey they conducted in July/August. They surveyed 2,417 consumers and 1,002 farmers/ranchers, both on a nationwide basis. The graphic below shows a comparison of the top five things consumers want more information about with the top five things farmers/ranchers think are most important to educate consumers about. You …
Apple Pie for Cheaters
My grandmother can cook and bake about anything. You give her your shopping list with all fresh ingredients from the garden and she can make at least eight different goodies. That was one of my biggest fears when I got married: how in the world was I going to come up with a healthy, hearty meal every night of the …