It’s a beautiful day in mid Missouri so I got out on the Katy Trail and found that there’s some field work going on. As Jeff Caldwell put it on Twitter, “Man, is that a beautiful sight to see!” #farm. Amen. I hope we have a great spring planting season and thanks to all farmers for what they do. Picture …
Happy St. Patrick’s Day From Alltech
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you. Dr. Pearse Lyons, Alltech, sent me a special holiday card which you can view online. Enjoy some happy Irish music and get a “See you at Symposium” message. I will see him at this year’s 25th Alltech International Animal Health and Nutrition Industry Symposium – “The Sustainability Principle.”
The Ag Network
I got an update from John Jenkinson about his jump starting The Ag Network next month. So keep an eye out for him since it looks like we’ll be seeing him out and about. The first official full day of programming will be April 6th. We currently have affiliates in Colorado and Oklahoma, and we are in negotiations with more …
USDA Recovery Act Website
Here’s where you can find information on how USDA is involved in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. USDA was appropriated $28 billion (3.5 percent) of the package. The Act: * Provides $19.7 billion to increase the monthly amount of nutrition assistance to 31.8 million people. * Enables expanded opportunities for broadband loans and grants to rural communities. …
Secretary Vilsack Agriculture Week PSA
Our Secretary of Agriculture has recorded a public service message to highlight National Agriculture Week. You can listen to it here: vilsack-agweek-psa.mp3 The picture is Secretary Vilsack with Cookie Monster and Broccoli at the National WIC Association and Sesame Workshop Partnership conference. I like it.
Agriculture Week According To The Chairman
Welcome to Ag Week and the ZimmCast. This week we’re all about celebrating American agriculture and thanking our farmers and ranchers who feed and fuel the world. In this week’s program I spoke with Greg Webb, ADM, who is currently Chairman of the Agriculture Council of America. He says the purpose of this week and National Agriculture Day on March …
Social Networking/Blogging Now 4th Most Popular Online Activity
That’s a long headline but it pretty much sums up Nielsen’s latest report, “Global Faces and Networked Places” (pdf). I like the way they describe it as a “global footprint.” We are communicating online globally now in ways you couldn’t imagine ten years ago and that certainly includes agriculture. Here’s some tidbits: . . . the global media and advertising …
Celebrating National Ag Week
National Ag Week has started. It’s a week long celebration of American agriculture. Actually, the big day is Friday which is the first day of spring and National Agriculture Day. Here’s some good information from the Agriculture Council of America. World Population Growth Is Creating Needs For Food And Fiber * World population is at 6.2 billion today, and is …
Agricultural Relations Council Mtg.
It sounds like the ARC annual meeting has gone very well in New Orleans. Thanks to Mace Thornton, AFBF, I got some notes about the meeting to share. Here’s what he says: An aggressive plan in place to rebuild the organization and grow membership. Now have Den Gardner managing (have not had professional management for the last 3-4 years so …
A Few Thoughts On Global Warming
I don’t know why I let things like the global warming hoax bother me but sometimes . . . It seems like lately I’ve been hearing and seeing more “news” coverage of this subject. For a while last year the term changed to “climate change” when a number of stories came out from weather reporting stations and actual meteorologists and …