I’m not even going to try to identify these people.
These are the past presidents of the St. Louis Agribusiness Club.
Also pictured is the current president, Brett Cude. We don’t want to imply he’s “past” yet.
Gateway NAMA President
Today’s luncheon is a joint meeting of the Gateway NAMA chapter along with the St. Louis Ag Club.
Here’s Gateway NAMA President, Becky Rasmussen, Drake & Co., filling us in on our next meeting.
I don’t have the details with me but you’ll find them shortly on the Gateway NAMA website.
Honoring The Past President
The immediate past president of the St. Louis Agribusiness Club is Dean Dittmar, Ag Education Field Advisor, Facilitating Coordination in Agricultural Education (l).
He was presented with an award for his service to the organization by current President, Brett Cude, Farm Manager, Real Estate Broker, Farmers National Company (r).
Dean has agreed to take over the management of the St. Louis Ag Club and is the person who did a lot of the work to make today’s very successful luncheon happen.
Sec. Johanns on Farmer Internet Use
I didn’t get to do a one-on-one interview with Secretary Johanns after his speech here in St. Louis today. There were a number of local media here as you can see. So we just did a joint q&a session.
One of my questions I thought you’d be interested in had to do with broadband internet access. I asked the Secretary his thoughts on farmer’s use of computers and the internet and he shared a personal story about a recent farm visit where he saw the use of the internet in action.
Listen to his answer here: 
Sec. of Agriculture Mike Johanns on Farmer Internet Use (1 min MP3)
Sec. Johanns Speech
Right now we just learned that the St. Louis Agribusiness Club leader of the year award is going to Sen. Jim Talent who couldn’t be with us today. That’s too bad since he is such a big supporter of agribusiness in the state of Missouri.
So, back to Sec. of Ag Johanns. I decided to post his whole speech for you. He covered a lot of ground and I think you’ll find something of interest in there.
Listen to his speech here: Sec. of Agriculture Mike Johanns Speech (27 min MP3)
Q&A With The Secretary
We’re into question and answer here with the Secretary.
I told Mike Adams I wasn’t going to put him on the internet again but here he is with Sec. Johanns. Mike’s the emcee so he gets his picture posted.
Prior to the meeting here today Mike interviewed Sec. Johanns on Agritalk. I’m looking forward to a short private interview after we’re done here momentarily.
Sec. of Ag In St. Louis
Right now Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, is speaking here in St. Louis.
He’s talking about drought assistance. He acknowledges the need and I’ll have more details when I post his comments and get a chance to interview him later.
Gateway/St. Louis Ag Club Mtg.
Hello in real time from St. Louis and the joint Gateway NAMA/St. Louis Agribusiness Club meeting. I’m here in Clayton where we’ll have a nice program featuring our Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns. I’ll record his comments for you and try to get a private interview as well.
Here’s registration taking place in the hall outside our ballroom. I know we had 150 reservations and expect walk-ins so it’s going to be a nice crowd.
Cracker Cow Drive
This could be a dusty event and knowing Florida cowboys I’ll bet they find a way to slake their thirst.
The Florida Agricultural Museum will present the “Great Florida Cattle Drive of Ought 6” December 5-9, 2006. Registration is now under way for the event, which will begin just south of Kissimmee and end at the new Silver Spurs Arena in Kenansville. In 1995 — to celebrate 150 years of Florida statehood — a group of 600 cattlemen, historians, horse lovers and hearty adventurers drove 1,000 head of native Cracker Cattle across the state. The group also included wagon drivers, walkers, artists and local, state and national media.
Ohio Farmers Selling at the Pentagon
The United Soybean Board was the driving force behind this week’s biobased products event at the Pentagon. A couple of soybean growers were on hand to help out with their display. Pictured here are Tom Brown (l) who is a member of the USB and Dale Profit who is a member of the Ohio Soybean Council.
I got to interview each of these gentlemen while I was there. I asked them about what they had on display and why products made from soybeans are a good choice for governmental purchasing agents.
You can listen to my interview with Tom here: Tom Brown Interview (2 min MP3)
You can listen to my interview with Dale here: Dale Profit Interview (3 min MP3)
You can hear all the audio I recorded at the event here and see a selection of the pictures I too here.