The First Kentucky Malt Whiskey

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Pearse Lyons Presents to the GovernorAlltech does so many things it takes a while just to list them and understand them. A new venture is the production of “Lyons Reserve,” the first ever Kentucky Malt Whiskey.

Here’s Alltech President, Dr. Pearse Lyons, presenting the first bottle to Kentucky Governor, Steve Beshear. I’d say the Governor did well at today’s Nutrigenomics Center ribbon cutting!

Dr. Lyons also told me something about a new Alltech coffee which I’ll be sampling over the next several days. I’m looking forward to that.

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Agribusiness, Alltech

Alltech Founder Dr. Pearse Lyons

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Pearse LyonsAlltech’s founder and President, Dr. Pearse Lyons, is holding up a gene chip. It’s what the company’s new, first-of-it’s-kind Nutrigenomics Center is all about.

Dr. Lyons says that when he started his career he could only dream about the type of laboratory that the researchers here will be working in.

“I, along with everyone at Alltech, am very excited about the potential of this incredible facility, the first of its kind anywhere in the world,” said Dr. Pearse Lyons, president and founder of Alltech. “The ability to comprehend nutrition at the most basic level – gene expression – really makes us stand apart and will give us a much greater understanding of the nutritional needs of our animals,”

In addition to Nutrigenomics, the facility will house the company’s research initiatives at its global headquarters, including the study of Functional Glycomics, Solid State Fermentation, Rumen Function and Ecology, Aquaculture, Organic Trace Minerals and Biorefining.

You can listen to Dr. Lyon’s remarks here and watch them on video: alltech-symposium-08-nutrigenomics-lyons.mp3


Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Agribusiness, Alltech, Audio, Technology, Video

Alltech Hosts Kentucky Governor

Chuck Zimmerman

Kentucky Governor Steve BeshearKentucky’s Governor, Steve Beshear was on hand this morning to cut the ribbon to open the Alltech Nutrigenomics Center. He says that he’d love to see a facility like this in every county in the state.

He wants Kentucky to project an image of a state that encourages technology, industry and engineering as well as race horses and good bourbon. He calls the Nutrigenomics Center, “agriculture of the most advanced kind.”

He says that Kentucky is proud to have helped Alltech by not only providing a $1 million grant for this facility but also an $8 million grant for the new biorefining facility that was announced yesterday.

You can listen to Governor Beshear’s remarks here and watch them on video: alltech-symposium-08-governor-speech.mp3

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Agribusiness, Alltech, Audio, Technology, Video

Alltech Opens Nutrigenomics Center

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Nutrigenomics Center Ribbon CuttingToday Alltech opened the first ever Nutrigenomics Center at its headquarters in Lexington, KY. This state of the art facility will be employing 80 researchers doing cutting edge research in nutrition and genomics. Nutrigenomics is the study of the relationship between diet and gene expression.

To officially open the center, a ribbon cutting was held this morning with Alltech President, Dr. Pearse Lyons and Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear.

I’ll be posting interviews with them soon but caught the ribbon cutting on video too. That’s part of that whole “new media reporter” thing you know. I’m loading video from the Alltech Symposium onto their YouTube account just so you don’t get confused.

You can also keep up with all the Alltech Symposium happenings in pictures: Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech, Research, Video

Go Gator NAMA!

Cindy Zimmerman

Gator NAMA WinnersWe already told you about the University of Florida Gator NAMA team winning the student NAMA Marketing Competition, but we’re so proud of them (being Gator alums ourselves) that here’s a little more about it.

The team was so happy to win after three consecutive years of making it to the finals and not winning, especially team captain Alicia Taylor of Myakka City, who is a senior. She was thrilled to be able to finally get that win before she graduates this year and starts law school at UF. Their product was a vegetable-based milk marketed to children with a Disney partnership.

You can listen to a somewhat over-modulated but brief interview with Alicia here:
nama-08-gators.mp3

Watch the kids celebrate here:

Audio, NAMA, Video

Alltech Receives DOE Grant For Ethanol Plant

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech SymposiumThe Alltech Symposium agriblogger has arrived in Lexington, KY, still just a little bit NAMA lagged (kind of like jet lag). I’m in the Radisson right across the street from the convention center. There’s going to be lots of news from here and on the Alltech Symposium Blog. But we’ve already got news.

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded grants for three small-scale biorefinery projects this week in Maine, Tennessee and Kentucky. Alltech is one of the companies to receive a grant.

In announcing the grants, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said, “These projects will help pioneer the next generation of non-food based biofuels that will power our cars and trucks and help meet President Bush’s goal to stop greenhouse gas emissions growth by 2025.”

Among the projects is a grant of up to $30 million to help pay for a $70 million cellulosic ethanol plant to be built in Springfield, Kentucky.

The plant will be built by Ecofin LLC, a subsidiary of Alltech, an international company headquartered in Lexington that is primarily focused on animal nutrition. The plant will utilize cellulose, such as switch grass, corn cobs and corn stover, at raw material levels of up to 30 percent to be converted to ethanol and other value-added products. The facility will also have the capability to produce algae for biodiesel production.

Dr. Pearse Lyons, president and founder of Alltech, said in a statement, “With commodity prices reaching an all time high and with ethanol production forecast to account for 30 percent of the U.S. corn harvest by 2010 we must focus our attention on a sustainable path to alternative energies.”

I’m sure I’ll be finding out a lot more about this over the next couple days. There’s lots to come.

Alltech, Energy, Ethanol

NAMA Bombers Hit The Highway

Chuck Zimmerman

NAMA BombersThe NAMA Bombers apparently had a good ride this year.

It certainly wasn’t as long as last year though. Here’s a couple of them. I’ll let you identify them.

Thanks to Jerry Povenmire for sending along a few photos. They have been added to the Conference photo album.

2008 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

NAMA

Feedback for the Future of NAMA

Laura McNamara

One of the primary goals of the NAMA Agri-marketing conferences is to listen to NAMA members and find out what’s working well, as well as determine where there is room for improvement. One of the newest members of the NAMA staff will be doing just that. Debbie Brummell (pictured left) says she has listened to feedback from various NAMA chapters and has identified some of the challenges they seem to be facing. Her goal will be to meet those challenges.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Debbie here:

nama-08-debbie.mp3

Also pictured are Kathi Conrad, Jenny Pickett and Penny Graham.

2008 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, NAMA

NAMA Wrap-up

Laura McNamara

In the words of NAMA Executive Director Jenny Pickett (pictured right), organizers of this year’s “Leading the Charge” Agri-marketing Conference “knocked it out of the park.” This was Jenny’s first conference as the Executive Director, though she has been a part of NAMA for a long time. Jenny stepped up as executive director last year when the previous director, Eldon White, left.

Chuck interviewed Jenny just as the event was winding down. You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Jenny here:

nama-08-jenny.mp3

NAMA President Patty Travis (pictured left) says this year’s attendance was the highest attendance the NAMA Agri-marketing Conference has had in almost a decade. She says this year’s conference also picked up 80 first-timers. Patty, with 5MetaCom, says the ag business is strong right now and there is probably no better time than now to be in the industry. She says NAMA is planning to throw new things into the mix for the spring conference and the fall agri-business forum.

Chuck also interviewed Patty just before the close of the event. You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Patty here:

nama-08-patty.mp3

2008 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Advertising, Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, Ethanol, Farming, Media, NAMA, Technology

Sticky Notes

Cindy Zimmerman

Dan Heath NAMAThe first general session at the National Agri-Marketing Association conference featured Dan Heath, the co-author of “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.”

Heath told attendees some of his theories on ideas that “stick” and methods for making ideas stickier, such as violating schemas, using the Velcro Theory of Memory, and creating “curiosity gaps.” He also explained the “Curse of Knowledge” that many of us in agriculture sometimes fall victim to when trying to get our message across to the general public.

Check out the “Made to Stick” website and listen to a short interview with Dan here.
nama-heath.mp3

NAMA