Former USDA Deputy Joins DuPont

Cindy Zimmerman

The mystery about why Krysta Harden resigned as USDA Deputy Secretary was revealed last week as Commodity Classic was getting underway in New Orleans. Harden has joined DuPont as vice president of Public Policy & Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), succeeding Linda Fisher who elected to retire last month. Harden will have responsibility for leading the company’s public policy and government …

Agribusiness, Sustainability, USDA

Pollinators Part of @GROWMARK Endure Program

Cindy Zimmerman

Protecting pollinators is part of the GROWMARK sustainability initiative called ENDURE. “Sustainability is a very hot topic in the world today,” said GROWMARK Director of Strategic Agronomy Marketing Lance Ruppert. “As a company we’re trying to look at our internal actions to be sustainable as a system and get that message out.” Because pollinator health is so critical, Ruppert says …

Audio, Bees, GROWMARK, pollinators, Sustainability

Sustainability Expert Defends Big Business

Lizzy Schultz

Terms like local, organic, natural and sustainable dominate the marketplace, but what does it all mean? One of the most tangible examples of sustainability is the use of drastically fewer resources over time, something many areas of agriculture, especially the dairy industry, can say is true of their production methods. Regardless of this fact, many large-scale production operations face a …

Ag Groups, Audio, Environment, Food, Sustainability, USFRA

USDA Pledges $9M Towards Wetlands

Taylor Truckey

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced the establishment of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Wetland Mitigation Banking Program, made possible by the 2014 Farm Bill. The program will provide $9 million to help states, local governments or other qualified partners develop wetland mitigation banks that restore, create, or enhance wetland ecosystems, broadening the conservation options available to farmers and …

Environment, politics, Sustainability, USDA, Water

Indiana Dept of Ag Director Stops By #SHPSummit16

Taylor Truckey

The Director of the Indiana State Dept of Agriculture, Ted McKinney, stopped by the Soil Health Summit last week in Indianapolis to show support for the direction of the program. “[The Soil Health Partnership] is outstanding, primarily because it brings together a lot of different groups to be aligned and focused on a single purpose. One of the best things …

Agribusiness, Soil, Soil Health Partnership, Sustainability

Farm Foundation, SHP Share Common Goals

Taylor Truckey

Farm Foundation is one of the supporting partners of the Soil Health Partnership (SHP). While at the Soil Health Summit late last week, Tim Brennan, Farm Foundation, shared why the being a part of the Partnership just makes sense for their organization. The Farm Foundation started the Soil Renaissance (with the Noble Foundation) a little over two years ago to …

cover crops, Farm Foundation, Soil Health Partnership, Sustainability

Iowa Farmer Joins SHP As Demo Farmer

Taylor Truckey

Last year at Commodity Classic, John Maxwell was introduced to the idea of soil health. From there, he became excited about it and signed up to become a demo farmer with the Soil Health Partnership (SHP) to learn how cover crops could impact the soil on his farm. Years ago, Maxwell originally got into cover crops years ago to feed …

cover crops, Soil, Soil Health Partnership, Sustainability

SHP Demo Farmers Utilizing AgSolver Technology

Taylor Truckey

AgSolver had demo farmers and partner companies excited at the Soil Health Summit last week as they plan on rolling out access to their Profit Zone Manager to the demo farmers this year. Dave Muth, co-founder of AgSolver, spoke with AgWired about what they do and how that will impact the SHP. “The Soil Health Partnership is certainly working on …

Agribusiness, Markets, Soil, Soil Health Partnership, Sustainability

Latest #FoodD Talks Sustainability at Dairy Strong

Jamie Johansen

The 2016 Dairy Strong Conference was able to serve as a host for the U. S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance’s (USFRA) latest installment of Food Dialogues, a comprehensive discourse on food production between a panel of food industry experts. This group of panelists was asked to focus discussion around the controversial topic of sustainability. One panelist was Lauren Linsley, RDN, …

Ag Groups, Audio, Dairy, Sustainability, USFRA