AgWired

News From the world of Agribusiness
02.11.2012
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    • NCFC Honors GROWMARK Employees

    ncfcAgwired congratulations go out to GROWMARK System employees who were recognized at the recent 2011 National Council of Farmer Cooperatives’ (NCFC) Information Fair, a communications contest that recognizes excellence in the publications, member relations, and marketing products of farmer cooperatives.

    Earning first place honors were: Amy Bradford, corporate communications manager, and Ann Kafer, director, Corporate Communications & Marketing Services, in the Multimedia Presentation category; Dorothy Ahlenius, Corporate Communications & Marketing Services administrative coordinator, and Bradford in the Annual Meeting Promotional Materials category; and Jenny Haycraft, marketing communications manager, Karen Higgins, graphic designer, and Marty Dunton, GROWMARK FS seed business manager, in the Advertising Catalog/Product Guide category.

    Second place honors were given to: Bradford in the Internal Identity/Awareness Campaign; and Haycraft, Dr. Jeff Bunting, crop protection marketing manager, and Kevin Black, insect and plant disease technical manager, in the Advertising Catalog/Product Guide category.

    Third place honors were earned by: Haycraft, Bunting, and Black in the Advertising Catalog/Product Guide category.

    Honorable mention went to: Haycraft, Dunton, Higgins, and Lance Ruppert, FS Seed sales and marketing manager, in the Advertising Catalog/Product Guide category; and Haycraft, Dr. Howard Brown, manager, agronomy services, and Mike Scheer, manager, agronomy marketing and communications, in the Direct Mail category.

    NCFC is a national association representing America’s farmer cooperatives. There are nearly 3,000 farmer cooperatives across the U.S. whose members include a majority of our nation’s more than 2 million farmers, ranchers and growers.

    Filed as: GROWMARK /NCFC
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    Posted by Cindy • February 17, 2011 • 9:28 am

    Farmer Cooperatives Can Tell Story at Workshops

    Workshops on competition in agriculture, like the one held last week in Iowa, can allow farmer-owned co-ops to tell their story.

    ncfcAccording to the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC), Friday’s joint workshop between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) set the stage for farmer-owned co-ops to show how they promote a more competitive agricultural sector.

    “Family farmers across America have built farmer cooperatives that promote competition, bolster farm income and the rural economy, and help to bring transparency to the marketplace,” said NCFC President Chuck Conner. “While farmer cooperatives were touched on only briefly in this workshop, I hope that DOJ and USDA will use the future workshops to look more closely at how producers can use co-ops as a tool to level the playing field.

    “In addition, we continue to be concerned about rhetoric from some that equates being large in size with stifling competition. A large farmer co-op simply has more member-owners—many of whom have medium to small-sized operations—than a smaller cooperative,” Conner continued. “At the same time, the statement made by Christine Varney, the assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division, that ‘with [being] big comes a lot of responsibility’ is true and a standard that, we believe, large farmer co-ops in this country meet.”

    Friday’s workshop in Ames focused on competition issues for crop farmers, especially the issues of seed technology and livestock marketing. As the kick off event for the first of several workshops to be held this year, it featured opening comments from Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Future workshops around the countrywill focus on the poultry, dairy and livestock industry.

    Filed as: Agribusiness /Cooperatives /Government /NCFC /USDA
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    Posted by Cindy • March 15, 2010 • 9:27 am