“Holistic” and “durable” were two definitions for sustainable that were set forth by representatives of the food value chain, from farmers to food companies, who took part in a panel discussion at the BASF Agricultural Solutions Media Summit on Sustainability last week in Chicago. Nevin McDougall, BASF senior vice president for crop protection in North America, was part of the …
American Agriculture’s Strategic National Asset
The Corn Utilization and Technology Conference concluded today with a final general session on water usage. Opening the session was Rick Tolman, CEO, National Corn Growers Association. I met with Rick before heading back to the agriblogging highway and we talked about his message of agvocating. That of course is advocating for agriculture. Rick says we have such a great …
China Perspective On CUTC
The Corn Utilization and Technology Conference has international participants. We have quite a few from China. I had an opportunity to speak with Li Bin, CEO, Xin Jiang Tianda Biotechnology Co., Ltd., pictured here with Linyi Li, Novozymes China, my interpreter. Thank you Linyi! I asked him what stimulated his interest in participating. He says that corn utilization in China …
CUTC Encouraging New Uses For Corn
It looks like we have nearly 300 people attending the 2010 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. I sat down with NCGA President and South Dakota corn farmer, Darrin Ihnen, this morning and we talked about the need for this kind of conference. Darrin says CUTC brings out ideas that are still in the development stage while helping the industry come …
Ag Research Key To New Green Revolution
I previewed the keynote address to open the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference earlier today. Now here’s the full comments from Dr. Gale Buchanan, former USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics. Dr. Buchanan was introduced by NCGA President, Darrin Ihnen, and I’m also posting his welcome message. During the next couple days I’ll be doing …
The CUTC Keynote Will Focus On Ag Productivity
This is the welcoming committee here at the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. Actually, our keynote speaker at this afternoon’s opening general session, Gale Buchanan, former USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, just happened to be registering at the same time I was. Gale is always happy to help anyone so I got a pre-CUTC …
Syngenta Seeds Updates
VipCot™ cotton has gotten new EPA approval, and the Multi-Pest Complex will soon be ready to fight black and dingy cutworms in the Corn Belt, according to the latest news from Syngenta Seeds. Syngenta Seeds just announced that EPA has approved a natural refuge option for its VipCot™ cotton technology. VipCot* cotton contains the transgenic cotton events COT67B, which produces …
Corn Crib Baseball Makes Frontier League Commish Happy
The Commissioner of the Frontier League, Independent Professional Baseball, is Bill Lee. Here’s Bill making some opening remarks prior to the first home game of the Normal CornBelters in the Corn Crib. I spoke to him about this new franchise and what he thinks about the support of Illinois Corn Growers. Bill says it’s a wonderful thing because it’s a …
Corn Crib is Illinois Field of Dreams
It’s definitely a field of dreams, but instead of building a ball field in a corn field, Illinois corn farmers are growing corn in a ball field. As part of the landscaping at the new home for the Normal CornBelters, the Corn Crib has small plots of corn planted under the scoreboard. “We wanted to show as much as we …
ICMB Chairman Throws Opening Pitch at Corn Crib
Throwing out one of the opening pitches for the Normal CornBelters baseball home game at the Corn Crib was Jim Rapp, Illinois Corn Marketing Board. Cindy took a photo of me interviewing him as we came off the mound and you can find more photos in the photo album. I talked to Jim about the ICMB support for this stadium …