Sec. of Ag Tom Vilsack has made a number of staff appointments including: OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY John Berge-White House Liaison to USDA. Lindsay Daschle-Confidential Assistant to the Secretary. Max Holtzman-Senior Advisor to the Secretary. Grant Leslie-Senior Advisor to the Secretary. David Lazarus-Senior Advisor to the Secretary. Sam Liebert-Staff Assistant to the Secretary. Rohan Patel-Director of Advance for the Secretary. …
Monsanto Announces Beachell-Borlaug Scholars Program
For Norman Borlaug’s 95th birthday today, Monsanto has created a $10 million grant to establish the Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars Program, which will “help identify and support young scientists interested in improving research and production in rice and wheat, two of the world’s most important staple crops, through plant breeding techniques.” Monsanto is funding the program, which will be administered by …
Corn Wipes Out Competition
Some students at Purdue University came up with a whole new way to look at corn and, umm . . . toilet paper. Glad they’re using the (Nature’s) silk. Better than the cob methinks. Three teams of Purdue University students that created new uses for corn and soybeans – melt-away cupcake liners, biodegradable cork and toilet paper – took top …
Cloudy Afternoon
I drove through a pretty impressive storm coming home this afternoon. The skies mostly cleared up and the sun came back out. It made for some interesting cloud formations like this one. I was mostly off the grid except for my iPhone yesterday and today. That’s the way it goes sometimes when the hotel internet is out, there’s a weak …
Green Field Work
I saw about 8 farm machines working in the field during a 400+ mile drive today through Missouri/Illinois/Indiana and Kentucky. Of those, 6 were green. Just in case you were wondering. I’d say that when it comes to being green (I just got another email release from another company proclaiming their green-ness) farmers and companies like John Deere have been …
Deere Landscapes
I’ll bet you didn’t know John Deere is into landscaping did you? I didn’t until I was out on a Drive Green Utility Tractor Show stop. It’s called John Deere Landscapes. John Deere Landscapes approaches the Industry from a whole new vantage point. Like you, we face the future with a healthy respect for the past. Our heritage is one …
Agencies Behind Consumers Online
This story got me fired up on a Monday morning. It’s nice to be ahead of the curve don’t you think? Hopefully, a growing number of you agrimarketers out there are jumping onto the online bandwagon. Your customers are already there. Yes, farmers too. But how many of you still can’t grasp the concept of what a blog is or …
Adelstein Nominated To USDA RUS Admin
I just noticed in Broadcasting & Cable magazine that Jonathan Adelstein has been nominated by the Prez to head up USDA’s Rural Utilities Service. He’s an FCC Commissioner currently. Adelstein would be administrator of the RUS program. The White House gave Adelstein props for “efforts to improve rural telecommunication s and broadband” while at the commission. The story says RUS …
JIF Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich
A lot of people might have stopped eating peanut butter recently but I’m sure not one of them. I’m glad to see that Smuckers continued it’s annual Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest. Somehow in all the excitement of Ag Day and spring I missed the fact that they announced the winner of this year’s contest. This sounds like a …
NE Pork Talking About Ag Day
The latest edition of the Pork Industry Report from the Nebraska Pork Producers Association is all about National Agriculture Day. You can listen to Dee explain things in this week’s program here: ne-pork-03-20-09.mp3