One of our speakers here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference brought the discussion down to the farm level. John Miranowski, Iowa State University, spoke about the impact of biofuels on the rural economy and the farm structure. He says that their numbers indicate that increasing biofuels production will have a positive impact on rural communities and farm …
Biotech Needed to Increase Biofuels
Like the first speaker on our program today here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference, our second speaker, David Zilberman, University of California, Berkeley, says we need to increase agricultural productivity. His talk was on the distributional effects of biofeuls and he had two conclusions. The first one is that biofuels make some people better off and some …
Is There a Biofuel To Food Price Link?
The first speaker here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference is Michael Wetzstein, University of Georgia. His talk deals with two issues. One is on price volatility and the other is on food and fuel. He’s one of 22 speakers on the program and all the talks are dealing with the biofuels issue. I’ll do my best to …
Learning The Impact of a Biofuels Transition
The Farm Foundation conference, “Transition To A Bio Economy, Risk, Infrastructure and Industry Evolution” is underway here in Berkeley, CA. We’ll be hearing from a lot of people including quite a few presenting University research on the whole biofuels business. This conference is part of a series of which this is part 3. The Transition to a Bioeconomy series is …
Transition To A Cooler Climate
Here’s the scene at the DoubleTree at Berkeley Marina where I’ll be posting from the Farm Foundation, Transition To A Bio Economy, conference. Berkeley is very pretty at sunset, especially if you’re on the water. It’s a lot cooler too. Right now it’s 53 degrees. That’s a big difference from the 86 degrees in KC, MO when I took off …
Osborn & Barr News
There have been some hirings and promotions at Osborn & Barr. Sarah Yancey brings her award-winning skills to her new role as account executive on the United Soybean Board and QUALISOY accounts. Rob Petrovich serves as a senior copywriter for accounts such as Michelin Ag Tires. Rob brings several years of experience to O&B having worked for agencies such as …
How an Iowa Corn Grower Feels – Optimistic
At the Iowa Speedway yesterday, the Iowa Corn Growers Association held an outdoor press conference. They used it to help educate media about corn usage by placing banners on the side of a grain trailer showing the relative percentages of corn used for different purposes like livestock feed and ethanol. I did a short interview with Gary Edwards, ICGA board …
RaboCasting
I really like the idea of Rabobank producing an audio podcast of their news releases. (If you’d like this done for your company or organization then give the ag experts at ZimmComm New Media a call.) Here’s what the latest RaboCast is about: Since 1937 June has been Dairy Month: an annual tradition to celebrate the dairy industry. A new …
Bunge and Corn Products to Combine
Once this deal closes, Corn Products International will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Bunge. Bunge Limited and Corn Products International, Inc. today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement in which Bunge will acquire Corn Products in an all-stock transaction. The aggregate transaction value is approximately $4.8 billion, including assumption of approximately $414 million of Corn Products’ …
Farm Podcaster Tool
Okay farm podcasters. You’ve got a new choice in recording gear. You’re already carrying an iPod right? Just add the Alesis ProTrack and you’re good to go. Record stereo direct-to-iPod with ProTrack. Capture live audio anywhere and anytime with the convenience of your iPod (Classic and 5th generation) and iPod nano (2nd or 3rd generation). Just slide your iPod into …