Farmers from around the globe gathered in Des Moines this week to participate in the 2009 Global Farmer-to-Farmer Roundtable, which is held in conjunction with the World Food Prize and hosted by Truth About Trade and Technology. The group honored one of their own today with the 2009 Kleckner Trade & Technology Advancement Award which recognizes a farmer for “exemplary …
Getting Ready For Start of BlogWorld & New Media Expo
The 2009 BlogWorld & New Media Expo is about to get underway in Las Vegas. Carly, Robert and I are on location (finally). I’ll primarily be writing about the conference on ZimmComm.biz but will post here too when I find something you new media farm folks might be interested in. My hope is that I can shed a little more …
CLEANmp Provides Help With Nutrient Management Plans
Helping livestock and poultry producers develop and implement plans to limit their environmental impact is the goal of a program called Comprehensive Livestock Environmental Assessments and Nutrient management plans, or CLEANmp. The program, which is managed by the Missouri-based Environmental Resources Coalition, is designed to provide services to all types and sizes of livestock and poultry production operations west of …
Climate Change is BAD Topic
Thursday is Blog Action Day (BAD) and the topic this year is Climate Change. Food production is top on the list of suggested ideas for bloggers to write about in an alert sent out by organizers. “Agricultural production around the world is responsible for nearly as much greenhouse gas emissions as all forms of transportation put together, so it shouldn’t …
Zimfo Bytes
Syngenta Crop Protection announced Callisto Xtra as the brand name for a new, post-emergence corn herbicide that will be an excellent tank mix partner for glyphosate in glyphosate-tolerant corn. Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health announced that it has initiated a multi-year sponsorship project, supporting the Shire Highlands Milk Producers Association in Malawi. Alltech’s Yea-Sacc1026, a live yeast culture based on Saccharomyces cerevisiae …
Talking NAFB With Bill O’Neill
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting has seen some significant changes in the last 4 years and the staff leader has been Bill O’Neill. Bill is stepping down at the end of this year to pursue some personal interests and I spoke with him about his decision and his years working with the organization. He says he’s going to move …
Getting To Know Fluidigm
The President/CEO and co-Founder of Fluidigm (AgWired Sponsor) is Gajus Worthington. Let’s meet him and learn about the company and how its technology can benefit agribusiness. I met with Gajus at the company headquarters in South San Francisco and asked him a number of questions to help us better understand their core technology. Before getting to the technology, he explains …
Just Saying No To Food Taxes
Americans Against Food Taxes is ramping up its campaign. See a list of the coalition members here. Dear Concerned Citizen: Thank you for joining the fight against beverage and food taxes. Because of you, many in Washington listened and agreed – a tax on beverages is not what concerned citizens like you want. In the coming week, as the health …
NAFB Executive Director Stepping Down
Just received word that Bill O’Neill, the Executive Director of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, will be stepping down. The NAFB Board has accepted his resignation effective December 31. You can hear all about it from NAFB President, Pam Jahnke, who has recorded an audio statement (mp3). Pam Jahnke, current president of NAFB said that O’Neill plans on pursuing …
2010 National Beef Ambassadors Announced
Last weekend, beef cattle industry enthusiasts flooded Fort Smith, Ark. to take part in one of the most prestigious youth agriculture programs in the nation, the National Beef Ambassador Program. I had the opportunity to be a keynote speaker, as well as a workshop presenter, and Cindy and I were both judges for the issues response portion of the contest. …