The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has denied a petition by the governors of poultry producing states that would have waived the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and its requirement for ethanol in the nation’s fuel supply. In its decision to deny the request, EPA said Friday that the RFS itself is not causing economic harm and that suspending the standard would …
USFRA Press Conference
The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance held a press conference to allow questions from reporters about the annual meeting that took place in New York and the Food Dialogues that was conducted yesterday. It was the third Food Dialogues and is available on the Food Dialogues website to watch if you missed it. I moderated our press conference this morning …
Zimfo Bytes
Syngenta and BASF announced the signing of a global, non-exclusive agreement in which BASF will license its Clearfield Plus herbicide tolerance technology for sunflowers to Syngenta. The Global Harvest Initiative welcomed ACDI/VOCA to its growing collaboration of companies and organizations dedicated to sustainably meeting the future agricultural demand of a growing global population. Monsanto Company ranked ¬¬14 on the Top …
GROWMARK Media Tour in Iowa
Just returned from a great media tour of GROWMARK and FS Cooperative facilities in Iowa. Unfortunately, I was unable to make the last stop due to flight scheduling, but I did get to attend the majority of the tour and it was fantastic! Congrats to Karen Jones, GROWMARK Publications and News Specialist, for putting together a very interesting and organized …
Farm Bill’s Effect On US Grains
You may believe the farm bill doesn’t effect you, but you might be surprised to find out that it covers more than you think. It was a hot topic during National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Trade Talk. While sitting down with U.S. Grains Council’s President and CEO, Tom Sleight, I was reminded how intricate this farm bill is. “It’s an …
Final Panel Thoughts from USFRA Food Dialogues
Here are the panelists from the last session of today’s New York Food Dialogues. Wow. It was a long day of very interesting discussion. This panel’s topic was Biotechnology (GMO’s) and Your Food. There were some very real contrasts in what some of the panelists as well as the audience thought of various specifics. In my opinion we got a …
Faces of Farming & Ranching Announced
The finalists in the USFRA Faces of Farming and Ranching program were announced today at the New York Food Dialogues. Those finalists include: Chris Chinn (Missouri), Will Gilmer (Ala.), Daphne Holterman (Wis.), Brenda Kirsch (Ore.), Tim Nilsen (Calif.), Eric McClam (S.C.), Katie Pratt (Ill.), Bo Stone (N.C.) and Janice Wolfinger (Ohio). More than 100 applications were received from passionate, dedicated …
Second Panel From the USFRA Food Dialogues
The second panel discussion of the USFRA New York Food Dialogues has concluded. The topic was the use of antibiotics and food. Backstage I caught up with a several of our panelists. I spoke with Dr. Keith Ayoob, pediatric nutritionist, Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Dr. Christine Hoang, DVM, MPH, CPH, assistant director of the Division of Scientific Activities of …
Thoughts From First USFRA Food Dialogues Panel
Here are our first panelists from the New York Food Dialogues backstage after their session was completed this morning. I visited with almost all of them before we moved on to the next panel. They were tasked with talking about Media, Marketing and Healthy Choices. Richard is a New York vegetable farmer. He says it was a little daunting to …
USFRA New York Food Dialogues Underway
The New York Food Dialogues is now live on the web. Here’s our panel being led by Ari Velshi, CNN chief business correspondent. Just before we got started I visited with U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance board member Doug Wolf, National Pork Producers Council. This is his first visit to New York. He says the “agenda is laid out that …