Even though the word “crisis” is being used liberally here at the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug Symposium, there is a great deal of focus on solutions to feeding a growing global population. The “Global Agricultural Crisis of the 21st Century” was the topic of the keynote speaker for the symposium kickoff, Sir Gordon Conway, who is chief scientific adviser …
World Food Prize Press Room
This is Justin Cremer, director of communications for the World Food Prize, at the door of the press room. Not too many media types here yet – more will be on hand for the bigger events, like the Laureate’s Forum tonight and the actual presentation of the World Food Prize on Thursday. One person who is here is Susan Carter …
World Food Prize Events Underway
The World Food Prize Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium is getting underway here in Des Moines with a couple of side seminars early this morning. The opening ceremony takes place at 1 pm central time. One of this morning’s seminars was hosted by USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service, and since we didn’t have a speaker program for that event, I was …
World Food Prize Coverage
I am preparing to head up to Des Moines today to cover the 2008 World Food Prize festivities and Borlaug Dialogue. I have never been to this event, but I am looking forward to it. The 2008 World Food Prize laureates are Bob Dole and George McGovern, who are being honored for their work in establishing the McGovern-Dole international school-feeding …
Instant Feedback
How many times have you been at a meeting and had to fill out some survey at the end giving your evaluation of how the meeting went and each individual presentation? That would be everyone. And then the people who did the meeting have to get all those pieces of paper back and add up all the responses and take …
Commodity Panel at AEM Ag Exec Forum
Three commodity organization representatives attempted to answer the question on everyone’s mind right now regarding commodity trends – where are we headed? Steve Censky of the American Soybean Association, Fred Stemme with the National Corn Growers Association and Alan Tracy of US Wheat Associates all made presentations and took questions from the audience at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers AgExecutive …
Ag Equipment Execs on AG CONNECT
A panel of six representatives from major farm equipment manufacturers took seats on a panel at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers AgExecutive Forum in St. Louis Thursday to discuss “The Next Generation of Ag Show” – AG CONNECT expo, scheduled for January 12-15, 2010 in Orlando. The executives, from left to right, were Doug DeVries, Deere and Company; Doug Griffin, …
What Would You Say to McCain?
Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain is causing quite a bit of concern among members of the agriculture and ethanol industries with his comments about farm programs and ethanol incentives. Last week in Missouri, McCain said, “My administration will reduce the price of food by eliminating the subsidies for ethanol and agricultural goods. These subsidies inflate the price of food, …
Advocate for Agriculture
Dr. Jay Lehr has the title of Science Director for an organization called The Heartland Institute, which is a national nonprofit research and education organization with the goal to “discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems.” He is also an entertaining and passionate speaker who believes in spreading the good news about agriculture to places that …
Preview of AG CONNECT
A preview of the new generation of ag show – AG CONNECT 2010 – was offered to ag executives meeting Thursday in St. Louis. Sara Truesdale Mooney has the job of show manager for this ambitious new ag show being organized by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and she says they have taken a very deliberate approach in developing AG …