Farmers and small business have found a crop to make them more money – clean energy. This according to a recent report from the Environmental Lay & Policy Center (ELPC) which just released “Farm Energy Success Stories” that demonstrate how a farm or small rural business adopted clean energy technologies and cut energy costs. Much of the monies that made these projects possible came from the Farm Bill’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). For example, Jim McBratney, who used a REAP grant to install a wind turbine at his Massachusetts nursery, says REAP is “…the right thing to do. It spurs industry and allows new, better technology to reach the market.”
Andy Olsen, a policy advocate for ELPC an organization that has been a public supporter of the program since its inception in 2003, said, “With the help of farmers, ranchers and rural small businesses, America can make great strides toward solving its energy problems. REAP is creating economic development, energy independence and a cleaner environment one farm at a time.”
The program has also generated new rural businesses. After Glen White slashed his energy costs by installing a solar water heating system on his Indiana farm, he began selling and installing solar energy systems on other farms and homes in the area.
Since 2003, REAP has funded over 3,000 clean energy projects, in 50 states that cover the clean energy spectrum – wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and energy efficiency. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees the program receives applications for more than three times the amount of funds available, and in February, President Obama raised the funding levels to the highest amount ever to $109 million.
David Bennett with the Western Farm Press just posted this news alert about President Barack Obama signing HR 2997, a emergency stimulus package that could benefit farmers. Here is the most recent news on the topic…
President Obama has signed legislation providing fiscal 2010 appropriations — $121 billion — for the USDA, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies.
The article says that 80 percent of the funds will go to school nutrition programs and food stamps.
Of the remaining HR 2997 funds, slightly over $23 billion will be spread among programs for agricultural research, conservation, food safety, housing assistance and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Some $290 million, aimed at helping undergird the struggling U.S. dairy industry, will fund dairy farmers with direct support. An additional $60 million will be used to purchase dairy products for food pantries and nutrition programs.
The American Meat Institute posting a press release of this upcoming event that will give food producers a better idea of the Obama administration agenda. Check it out, and let me know if you attend!
Fox News Anchor Bret Baier will offer insights on what to expect from the Obama Administration and Congress at the Washington Insider Breakfast during Worldwide Food Expo 2009, to be held October 28-31, 2009, at Chicago’s McCormick Place.
As one of Fox News Channel’s top Washington anchors, Baier has colorful anecdotes about traveling with and covering the President of the United States. With humor and insight, Baier will share exclusive, behind-the-scenes stories about trips on Air Force One, the inner-workings of the West Wing and what it’s really like to be a part of the White House press corps.
Baier is host of FOX News’ Special Report w/Bret Baier, a daily program for political news, and is a former chief White House and national security correspondent. Baier’s extensive reporting experience has brought him through the halls of the Pentagon, the war fields of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the campaign trails of elections past and present. Fresh, current and straightforward, his breadth of journalistic experience gives him the ability to offer in-depth insights and perspectives on the inner workings of government.
The Washington Insider Breakfast will be held Friday, Oct. 30 from 8-9 a.m. at McCormick Place and is part of the AMI International Meat, Poultry and Seafood Industry Convention and Exposition. Tickets for this event are $150 per person and available here.
The folks at the United Nations are at it again, this time along with the World Trade Organization. Last time it was their idiotic report about how cows and other forms of livestock are contributing so much to global warming (now calling it climate change which I believe happens naturally every year). This time they’ve moved a step ahead to try and link global climate change to trade. Give me a break. Here’s an excerpt from the WTO press release.
The scientific evidence is now clear that the Earth’s climate system is warming as a result of greenhouse gas emissions which are still increasing worldwide, and will continue to increase over the coming decades unless there are significant changes to current laws, policies and actions. Although freer trade could lead to increased CO2 emissions as a result of raising economic activity. It can also help alleviate climate change, for instance by increasing the diffusion of mitigation technologies.
The fact is that the scientific evidence isn’t clear. There is wide disagreement on this issue of GHG emissions. This is just another attempt to try to create fear in the name of accomplishing a policy objective and one that will have negative impacts on business in general and agriculture in particular. As if somehow, if we would just do what the UN wants on climate policy and what the WTO wants on a Doha agreement, all would be solved and we could sleep at night. It’s just not going to happen folks.
Here’s an excerpt from the UNEP release.
The world cannot continue with “business as usual” and there is a profound need for a successful conclusion to the current negotiations on both climate change and trade opening.
Sounds like the same old, “the sky is falling” story to me. But I’m sure this report will be quoted and pointed to by all the global warming wackos out there ad nauseum.
Post Update: Alert Twitter follower @etcattlewoman pointed me to a great piece on the Wall Street Journal about the growing skepticism worldwide of man made global warming. It’s worth a read.
It seems like there’s a new video put out everyday. Thankfully, this video entitled, Shall We Gather at the River which was produced in 2008, went pretty much under the radar. I was sent this from a friend in Washington D.C. the other day, and I thought I would share it with all of you. I think it’s increasingly important that we understand and comprehend what the media and the consumers think about the agriculture industry, and this movie definitely points fingers with us as the bad guys. Here is a brief summary on the video…
A hundred years ago one man wrote a book that changed America. The man was Upton Sinclair. The book was “The Jungle.” It exposed the scandalous rancid health conditions inside the country’s meat processing plants and led to the passage of landmark federal legislation that regulated health and sanitation in meat processing for the first time in our history.
A heart stopping new documentary, “Shall We Gather at the River” has just been released which exposes a huge health and environmental scandal in our modern industrial system of meat and poultry production. The health and environmental damage documented in today’s factory farms far exceeds the damage that Sinclair could have imagined a century ago. Some scientists have condemned current factory farm practices, calling them “mini Chernobyls.”
I don’t think this calls for action as the movie has come and gone; however, let this be an educational moment on the increasing number of individuals who don’t like the way their food is raised in this country. What can we do to earn the trust of the consumers again? Where do we start. I’ll tell you one thing…it starts with me. It starts with one letter to the editor, one positive photo, one great blog post, one conversation in the coffee shop. I’m not going to let dramatic video productions stand in my way and tell my story. It starts with me…
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 Committee and was directly involved in farming his whole life, although he’s not currently actively farming. So he’s sure got a good background on the subject matter.
I spoke to Larry this morning and we talked about why this new project has come about, who’s behind it and how they plan to help educate the media about agriculture. I found out about it this morning on Twitter. You can follow their feed here. He says HTFUS is a project of FarmPolicyFacts.org which he became aware of during last year’s farm bill efforts. One of the things HTFUS will do is respond to any and all media articles about agriculture that are not factually correct or are very biased. He says this is an outreach effort to the media to make sure real life farmers are given a voice.
This week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s a song titled, “Take My Hand”, by Dr. Mic and the Brain Ninjas. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 219 (30 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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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 what we need in our nation’s Capitol these days, passionate spokespersons for agriculture.
Mark speaks about the mixed results of the opening month’s of our new administration. He says some things are encouraging and some are troubling which you might say about most administrations. On the troubling side he mentions the environment and proposed increased rules and regulations. Climate change regulations are something he thinks should not be ruled on until a lot more questions are answered. On the encouraging side he’s pleasantly surprised at moves on international trade.
Next up in the program is an interview with Ken Hobbie, President/CEO, U.S. Grains Council. I hadn’t spoken with Ken in quite a while so I asked him to tell us what’s new with USGC. We started off talking about the potential impact of H1N1 on demand and Ken says he hopes that consumers will listen to the fact and we can move past it. Another thing that Ken says they’ve invested a lot in is distillers dried grain promotion internationally.
This week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s a song titled, “Pearls and Swine”, by Drunken Prayer. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 218 (20 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
Seth Meyer is with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI). He’s also a speaker here at the Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy Conference.
He talked to us about how biofuels policies are affecting commodity prices and trade but he says there are a lot of other factors affecting export volume. For example, he says that even though we’ve been using more corn to make ethanol we’ve still been able to increase the amount of corn we’re exporting at the same time. However, whether we have biofuels policies or not other factors will come into play like weather, the price of oil and foreign demand.
You can listen to my interview with Seth here:
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Since the new staff at USDA is finally filling out and we’ve now had a couple months of a new administration in Washington, DC I thought it might be a good time to learn about what’s going with farm policy these days. So I went to the expert, Keith Good, Farm Policy.
Keith and I chatted via Skype today and I’ll warn you that we just didn’t have a good connection or time to do it all over so the quality leaves a lot to be desired. Keith sounds way better than I do. But then that would be the case no matter what.
It sounds like the budget is high on the list of items that’s being worked on right now and there is certainly action taking place in both the House and Senate on the administration’s proposal. Agriculture spending is under review and the administration’s proposal on it is very controversial because of items like phasing out direct payments over 3 years to producers with income over $500,000. Sounds like farm lobbyists have their work cut out for them.
Keith also talks about Cap & Trade, the effort I think is potentially devastating to businesses, farmers included. As he points out, there’s disagreement over whether we even have a climate problem so why we need to talk about taxing businesses without scientific agreement on this issue is beyond me. But it’s a good example of the non-ag type legislative issues that agriculture has to be very aware of and involved in to have its voice heard.
Keith brought up a point about the image agriculture has inside the beltway and via news coverage nationally and the need for an ongoing attempt to foster a positive, informed public about farming. I sure think we need it and we included in our discussion how new media mechanisms, like the ones driving our business, can assist in this effort.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 213 (19 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
My new friend, Annie Link, spoke at the Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference in Grand Rapids, Mich. today during the Partners Program. Annie is part of a multi-generational dairy operation called SwissLane Dairy Farms that is dedicated to their cows, the community and the environment. The dairy operation consists of 2,500 cows and 23 family members living within a two mile radius, working hard together every day to produce a high quality dairy product for consumers.
Recently, Annie and her family established the Dairy Discovery Tour, an agri-tourism venture that opens up their farm for tours. Schools, churches, foreign travelers and the media have come to tour the farm and learn more about food production. Recently, the Oesch family even hosted a neighbor night, with over 600 attendants at the farm. The event included a meal, a guest speaker and guided tours. The tour is so popular that during the summer months, Annie and her family welcomed over 75 groups and 3,000 visitors to their operation. These are true advocates for agriculture, and they are doing a great job of incorporating a new marketing approach to their thriving business.
Interestingly, Dr. Wes Jamison, a professor of animal welfare at the University of Florida, thinks that farms shouldn’t clean up before visitors arrive to the farm. Jamison spoke last night, and his topic was titled, “Animal Producers from Mars, Animal Lovers from Venus: Directing Agriculture through the curves of ethics, attitudes and expectations.” Dr. Jamison’s speech entered us into the minds of our opponents to better understand the reasons for this movement that is progressively changing the face of food production. Although Jamison gives props to operations like the Oesch family’s, he thinks the industry needs more transparency and openness to survive the animal rights movement and gain the trust of consumers, once again.
“Don’t just show them the pretty side of the farm,” said Jamison in his keynote speech. “Show them death; show them dirt; show them the rough side of food production. If we try to hide these things, the animal rights activists will expose and exploit these things for us. We need to be open and honest and tell our own story.”
So, what do you think? Should I start posting dehorning, castrating, vaccinating, weaning and calving videos on YouTube? Will this transparency backfire, or is it the secret to ending this movement before it’s too late? Curious minds want to know…
I want to congratulate Keith Good, FarmPolicy.com, for his new sponsor, McLeod, Watkinson & Miller. Keith is a shining example of the new media entrepreneur. He exhibits the classic traits of what can make you successful including, knowledge of his subject, passion and persistence. Here’s what his new sponsor has to say about him and his product:
We have come to rely on the daily email reports of FarmPolicy.com as the best way to keep up with the many developments in American and global agriculture. There is no other report, either paid or free, that does as good a job as Keith Good does in FarmPolicy.com. Therefore, we were alarmed by the announcement that the reports would end on February 17th. We immediately called Mr. Good and worked out an arrangement for McLeod, Watkinson & Miller to fund the continuation of FarmPolicy.com after his arrangement with the German Marshall Fund ceases. Additionally, the daily emails of FarmPolicy.com will be posted on www.Agriculturelaw.com.
The topic of the St. Louis Agribusiness Club lunch was “Policy Outlook for Agriculture as the Political Dynamics Begin to Change.” I think the political dynamics have already changed don’t you?
Giving us his take on this was Thomas J. Erickson, Vice President, Government Affairs, Bunge North America. He says that since the incoming administration seems to have a lot of public support it will be interesting to see how elected leaders and others interact with it. So developing relationships will be a big part of the initial activity we’ll see. He’s also looking to the upcoming USDA Planting Intentions Report to provide an important signal about American agriculture that will be looked at very closely in Washington.
I wonder when our first interaction with the new administration will be. I sent an email to the transition team last week suggesting that they convert the presidential limo to run on ethanol but haven’t heard anything back on that yet.
You can listen to my interview with Tom here:
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What do you think about this new website project by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health? Their Center for a Livable Future has launched the site to “enable research on the critical links between agriculture and public health.” Do you think they understand production agriculture and have farmer’s best interests at heart? Is this needed? Who defines a livable future?
The Agriculture & Public Health Gateway is a unique information resource for journalists, public health and agricultural professionals, advocacy and community organizations, policy makers and educators. Gateway can be accessed at http://aphg.jhsph.edu.
“Public health and agriculture are intricately linked, and there is a growing interest in the complicated connections between them,” said Robert Lawrence, MD, director of the Center for a Livable Future. “The Gateway places important and reliable information about these connections in one central location and makes it easy to access. We hope all who are concerned about a sustainable food system and about improving the health of the public will benefit from this resource.”
Gateway’s purpose:
• Inform those who want to learn about the connections between public health and agriculture
• Strengthen the capacity of communities, organizations and the media to access reliable information on these topics
• Connect communities, organizations and individuals to facilitate knowledge sharing and open a collaborative dialogue
Visitors can browse Gateway by subject to find reports, peer-reviewed journal articles, relevant organizations and other research tools. The site’s database search provides access to millions of resources related to agriculture and public health and is simultaneously linked to databases from the National Library of Medicine (PubMed), the National Agricultural Library (AGRICOLA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (National Agricultural Safety Database) and the World Resources Institute (EarthTrends).
Other Gateway resources include links to glossaries, listservs and newsletters, online photos and images, and event listings related to agriculture and public health.
I just found out that I’ll be live blogging AgNite during the Republican National Convention. This is going to be very cool and a lot of fun. There’s an impressive list of companies and organizations already supporting this opportunity to showcase American agriculture to a national audience.
You can count on seeing some live video via AgWired Live TV and lots of photos and interviews. My coverage will be sponsored by the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council and AgStar Financial Services. I’m betting some additional sponsors will come on board too. If you’re interested please contact the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council.
Now that I’m going to be in Minneapolis for the convention, I’m working on media credentials for the RNC itself. This is proving to be a challenge but one I’m certainly going to continue to work on. If I’m going to be there early in the week I think it would be great to stay longer and find interesting stories about rural America and agriculture.
My coverage is planned for AgWired and Domestic Fuel primarily but I’m sure I’ll find content we can use in a variety of other outlets we contribute to as well.
I’ve just started working with the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council on logistics for the venue that AgNite will held at (The Depot) but assuming I can get credentialed for the RNC, here’s what their venue looks like (Xcel Energy Center):
Investment in Africa is spurring economic innovation and growth throughout the continent. There’s no question about that for the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer.
“Make no mistake about it,” Schafer said. “Investment in agriculture, investment in the structure of agriculture to move food to the market, is an investment in Africa’s future.”
Schafer urged private sector investors to build stronger partners and markets in Africa at the 2008 U.S. Africa Agribusiness Forum Friday. The ag secretary said in order to truly develop a successful farm to market infrastructure in Africa, the private sector must get involved. Schafer pointed out that much of Africa lacks the basic fundamentals needed for thriving agriculture markets. He said things as simple as storage, refrigeration, a consistent supply of electricity, expertise in where to sell and how to sell simply don’t exist in many African regions. (more…)
Wow. What a morning here at the BASF Media Summit. After doing some live video streaming, interviews, pictures and recordings we got to have lunch with USDA Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Bruce Knight.
Bruce talked about the farm bill of course. He used a description from a story in the Washington Post which called the current proposal “an overstuffed turkey.” When he was asked about so many farm groups coming out in support of the proposal he basically said that if he was a special interest group he’d be pretty pleased with it too. However, he said that just because a lot of groups support it, that doesn’t make it good for Americans.
Last week I had the pleasure to spend a couple of half day sessions doing some media production training with Jennifer Morrill at American Farmland Trust in Washington, DC. It worked out very well since I was attending the NAFB Washington Watch.
At the Washington Watch Issues Forum I also got to interview AFT President, Ralph Grossi. (Jennifer took the picture.) As you might guess, we talked about the farm bill. Ralph explained how AFT has been involved in the farm bill process for over 2 years. One of the things he says they’ve been able to do is bring people to the table to discuss the legislation who might not have otherwise.
You can listen to my interview with Ralph here:
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This morning NAFB members are getting fully updated on the farm bill as well as other issues here in the Russell Bldg. First up on our program was Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who was looking a little tired as he took the podium.
The Senator told us that he expects (hopes/dreams) that we’ll actually have a farm bill by today or tomorrow after the House and Senate conferees spent all day yesterday, including meeting with the Administration, on hammering out a final agreement. We’ll see. However, he did provide the group with quite a few numbers and statistics on what we should expect from the final bill.
I asked him what specialty crop producers could expect and you can hear his answer here:
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An agricultural research facility in Florida fears the 10 percent reduction in ag research funding will close its doors… and abruptly abort research on a nameless, mixed breed of cattle. The St. Petersburg Times reports:
Indeed, few people have ever seen cattle like these. Unless you’re knowledgeable in bovine research, the cross-bred calves huddled in tall grass of the pastures near the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Subtropical Agricultural Research Station at Chinsegut Hill may appear rather strange.
The animals are so new, in fact, that they don’t even have an official name yet.
Rather, research scientists at the facility refer to them simply as an F1 composite breed, a catch-all name that indicates they are the mixed offspring of several beef cattle breeds in this case American Angus and Brahma cattle, plus the South American Romosinuanos that are a product of more than a decade of genetic research.
While Coleman praised the calves’ aesthetic virtues, his hope is that they will someday lead to a tastier, more profitable breed of beef cattle.
Though that result is a long way off, Coleman fears it may never happen at all…
With the Bush Administration calling for a 10 percent cut in agricultural research in its proposed USDA budget for 2009, Coleman said this agricultural research station is one of three targeted for closing. (more…)
Pennsylvania is securing more farms under it’s nationally recognized Farmland Preservation Program. The state has announced that this year 351 farms have been protected.
“Once again, we’ve shown our commitment to the future of Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry with the preservation of another 5,234 acres of quality farmland for a total of 33,445 acres this year,” Governor Edward G. Rendell said. “In addition to safeguarding the land, we are also preserving the proud tradition of farming, our state’s number one industry.”
Pennsylvania leads the nation in the number of farms and acres preserved. Since the program began in 1988, a total of 377,910 acres on 3,339 farms have been protected.
Pennsylvania allocated nearly $40 million this year for the preservation program, including $4 million from Growing Greener II, Governor Rendell’s initiative that supports environmental programs in the state. County programs contributed $37 million in matching funds to protect quality farmland from development and non-agricultural uses. Combined, this $77 million can preserve an additional 38,500 acres or more than 300 farms.
“Looking ahead, we expect another good year for preservation in 2008 as we celebrate the program’s 20th anniversary,” said Wolff. “With the help of Governor Rendell, we anticipate reaching the 3,500 farm and 400,000 acre milestones.”
Commodity Classic took place in Anaheim, CA. You'll find all of Chuck, Cindy and Joanna's photos here.
Happy Ag Week
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
In this week's program I interview Linda Tank, CHS, Inc., who is Chair of the Agriculture Council of America, the group coordinating National Ag Day. Learn more about their activities, especially this week in Washington, DC.
David Bennett with the Western Farm Press just posted this news alert about 
I’m sure most of you know that 
One of the key individuals involved with this project is 
Up first after opening comments is Mark Maslyn, Executive Director, Public Policy, 
Next up in the program is an interview with Ken Hobbie, President/CEO, 
Seth Meyer is with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI). He’s also a speaker here at the Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy Conference.
Recently, Annie and her family established the 
Interestingly, Dr. Wes Jamison, a professor of animal welfare at the University of Florida, thinks that farms shouldn’t clean up before visitors arrive to the farm. Jamison spoke last night, and his topic was titled, “Animal Producers from Mars, Animal Lovers from Venus: Directing Agriculture through the curves of ethics, attitudes and expectations.” Dr. Jamison’s speech entered us into the minds of our opponents to better understand the reasons for this movement that is progressively changing the face of food production. Although Jamison gives props to operations like the Oesch family’s, he thinks the industry needs more transparency and openness to survive the animal rights movement and gain the trust of consumers, once again. 
I want to congratulate Keith Good, FarmPolicy.com, for his new sponsor, 
The topic of the 
What do you think about this new website project by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health? Their Center for a Livable Future has launched the site to “enable research on the critical links between agriculture and public health.” Do you think they understand production agriculture and have farmer’s best interests at heart? Is this needed? Who defines a livable future?
I just found out that I’ll be live blogging 
Wow. What a morning here at the BASF Media Summit. After doing some live video streaming, interviews, pictures and recordings we got to have lunch with USDA Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Bruce Knight.
Last week I had the pleasure to spend a couple of half day sessions doing some media production training with Jennifer Morrill at 
This morning NAFB members are getting fully updated on the farm bill as well as other issues here in the Russell Bldg. First up on our program was Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who was looking a little tired as he took the podium.
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
