A recent ZimmComm poll asked the question, Does your agribusiness/operation have a crisis communications plan?” and I was surprised and honestly a bit disturbed as a former public relations person, that so many respondents didn’t believe a crisis communications plan was necessary. And this in light of the rise in undercover videos, avian flu outbreaks, meatless Mondays, (cow farts causing) …
#Ag Industry Reacts to @EPA #RFS Final Rules
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the much anticipated final volumetric rules today under the Renewable Fuels Standard for 2014, 2015 and 2016. While the RVOs (renewable volume obligations) were an improvement over the proposed rules released in May of this year, the #Ag industry is calling on the EPA to further strengthen the legislation and further increase all four …
Book Review: Red Combines
It’s Cyber Monday, and so here is another gift idea for agriculture lovers: Red Combines. Authored by Lee Klancher, the beautiful tome visually and artistically details the history of the entire line of International Harvester and Case IH red combines from 1915-2015. Other elements of the book include how the red combine has impacted both agriculture and society throughout the …
Book Review & Contest – Combines with Casey & Friends
There is a new strategy this year for “Black Friday” that I’m coining “StayFriday” where one does his/her holiday shopping from home. And today I’m offering up a great gift idea that you can purchase online for the little ones in your life: “Combines” written by Holly DuFek and illustrated by Paul E. Nunn. What better way to review a …
Beef Leader Rodney Larson Passes Away
The father of our former sales representative Dave Larson, Rodney “Rod” Larson, 86 of Webster City, IA has passed away. I did not know him but he certainly had a marvelous farming career. Here is what Dave wrote to share with the AgWired community. In 1956, Rod began his own crop farming operation, Larson Farms. It grew to be a …
Growth Energy Supports Next Gen #Ag Teachers
Growth Energy has made a commitment to support the next generation of agriculture teachers through $90,000 in scholarships over the next three years for students during their student teaching assignments. The funds were donated to the National Association of Agricultural Education who will give the “Upper Division” awards to students majoring in ag education. “Student teaching can be a financial …
Land O’Lakes Awards Students to Help End Hunger
Land O’Lakes awarded 10 U.S. college sophomores fellowships to help find ways to end world hunger. The Global Food Challenge Emerging Leaders for Food Security Program is designed to engage future leaders in the challenges and opportunities facing agriculture in the coming decades. The 2015 fellowship recipients were announced during the 2015 World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue. The 2015-2016 Emerging …
Dr. Channaptna Prakash Accepts CAST Award
This year’s winner of the Borlaug CAST Communication Award was Dr. Channapatna Prakash, who gave a keynote presentation during the award ceremony entitled, “Everything I Know about GMOs, I Learned on Social Media”. Currently the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Tuskegee University, Prakash was instrumental in establishing the prestigious plant biotechnology research and training program at …
Hunger Levels Remain High in 52 Developing Nations
The World Food Prize and Borlaug 101 Dialogues was a place for global leaders to gather and come together to solve the problems of world hunger as well as how to safely and nutritiously feed the growing worldwide population. During the event, the International Food Policy Research Institute, Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide released the 2015 Global Hunger Index (GHI) and …
Total Factor Productivity Can Increase with Precision Ag
Total Factor Productivity (TFP) is a way to measure outputs versus inputs and the key tool of the annual GAP Report produced by the Global Harvest Initiative. This year’s report, “Global Agricultural Productivity Report: Building Sustainable Breadbaskets,” was released during World Food Prize and John Deere’s Kelly Winquist provided a preview of how countries are doing with TFP. “So its …