During this morning’s opening session at the Alltech Symposium former EU Commissioner, Dr. David Byrne, was presented the Alltech Medal of Excellence. Normally it is presented to a scientist but this year the company decided to make the presentation to someone who has demonstrated serious leadership in the agriculture industry. Dr. Byrne, shown here (center) with Alltech’s Dr. Karl Dawson …
Dr. Karl Dawson Opens Alltech Conference
The Alltech Symposium got started with an opening general session this morning. If you didn’t follow along live then don’t despair. I’ll be posting our presenters starting with Alltech’s Dr. Karl Dawson here. He started out with a definition of sustainability, “Economic, social and management practices that allow a system to meet current needs without compromising the ability of future …
You Can Park Unsold Cars; Can’t Park Hunger
One of the speakers at the opening session of the World Agricultural Forum was the former Prime Minister of New Zealand and current Chairman of the World Ag Forum, the RT Hon. James B. Bolger. He told the group that while you can park unsold cars, you can’t park hunger… drawing parallels to the bailout of the US auto industry …
Alltech International Dinner
This evening we had a wonderful dinner courtesy of Alltech and Dr. Pearse Lyons. He got our international dinner started tonight by introducing our entertainment which included the singing voices of the Alltech competition which is managed by Dr. Everett McCorvey, Professor of Voice, University of Kentucky Opera Theatre. On of the performers was Julie who sang, “I Could Have …
New Media Opportunities for Beef Industry
Kendal Frazier with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is on the road this year meeting with beef cattle organizations around the country to help them take an objective look at the challenges and opportunities facing their industry. Last week, Kendal spent a day with the board members and staff of the Missouri Beef Industry Council (MBIC). Not surprisingly, the top …
Telling The South Dakota Ag Story
The Executive Director of Ag United For South Dakota is Steve Dick, pictured here at the NAFB Washington Watch Issues Forum. Steve says that AUSD is a coalition of 5 farm groups that include corn and soybean growers, pork producers, cattlemen and SD Farm Bureau. They were set up to educate the public about agriculture and particularly livestock production in …
Farmers Growing Media Support – HTFUS
I’m sure most of you know that The Hand That Fees U.S. is the American farmer. But not everyone understands that in the media and the consuming public. For that reason HTFUS was announced today. One of the key individuals involved with this project is Larry Combest, former U. S. Representative from Texas. He was Chairman of the House Ag …
Legislative Issues For Corn Growers
There are two big issues for corn growers this year in Washington, DC, climate change and higher blends for ethanol. I spoke with two representatives of the National Corn Growers Association at NAFB’s Washington Watch Issues Forum about them. Unlike the weather, not only is everybody talking about climate change, but they are trying to do something about it – …
What’s Up In Washington
Hello and welcome to another ZimmCast. This week I’m going to feature a couple of the interviews I did at last week’s NAFB Washington Watch Issues Forum. Up first after opening comments is Mark Maslyn, Executive Director, Public Policy, American Farm Bureau Federation. He’s seen here getting all fired up in an interview with Tricia Braid Terry, RFD Radio. That’s …
United Soybean Board Supporting Animal Agriculture
Rick Stearn is chairman of the production committee for the United Soybean Board. He was attending the NAFB Washington Watch Issues Forum. The United Soybean Board was a major sponsor and had people on hand like Rick to address issues like animal agriculture and the impact of animal rights groups. The reason for this Rick says is because domestic animal …