I’m starting out this week on the agriblogging highway attending the first Florida Industrial Hemp Conference & Exposition in Orlando. With an expectation of 200 attendees the actual number is about 450 according to conference coordinator, Gene Jones. In the photo our keynote speaker is leading the program off today. She is Holly Bell, Director of Cannabis, Florida Department of …
ASTA Events App Now Live
The all-new, year-round mobile app for ASTA event information is now live and available. Replacing our former app, this new mobile experience includes a new, often-requested feature: one-to-one messaging and appointment setting with other attendees! To download the new app, search ASTA Events in your app store. Special thanks to our app sponsor, Corteva Agriscience! Like this sponsorship? Hurry to …
New PED Talks Video Series Digs into Soil Health
You’ve heard of TED Talks. How about PED Talks? Here’s a new series of PED Talks on soil health. Soil peds are aggregated particles of sand, silt, clay and organic matter. Like their namesake, PED Talks combine soil-related topics including explanations of soil health, how we can improve it, and the progress that’s being made to ensure we have the …
33rd Georgia Peanut Tour
Like peanuts? Consider taking a tour next year in Georgia. Here’s a recap of this year’s Georgia Peanut Tour. The thirty-third annual Georgia Peanut Tour was held Sept. 17-19, 2019, in Cordele, Georgia, and the surrounding area. The tour brings the latest information on peanuts while giving a first-hand view of industry infrastructure from production and handling to processing and …
Industry Reaction to Administration Biofuels Plan
Industry stakeholders reacted positively to the Trump Administration biofuels plan announced Friday, under which the Environmental Protection Agency will propose and request public comment on expanding biofuel requirements beginning in 2020 and on actions to ensure that more than 15 billion gallons of conventional ethanol be blended into the nation’s fuel supply, and that the volume obligation for biomass-based diesel …
USDA Urged to Establish Foot and Mouth Vaccine Bank
Representatives of the National Pork Producers Council, the National Milk Producers Federation, the National Corn Growers Association and Iowa State University are urging U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to move quickly to establish a Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine bank. At a press conference Tuesday, the groups recognized steps USDA has already taken to establish the bank, but called for “expedient …
Farmers for Free Trade Rally for USMCA
Farmers for Free Trade brought its #MotorcadeForTrade to Washington D.C. Thursday to highlight the importance of ag trade with Canada and Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that Congress will consider to upgrade NAFTA. Members of Congress and farm leaders discussed how USMCA provides farmers with new market access while maintaining a zero-tariff platform, and stressed the need for Congressional …
EPA Officially Ditches the #WOTUS Rule
Agricultural organizations are celebrating the official repeal of a rule that they have been fighting since 2015 – Waters of the United States, better known as WOTUS. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Department of the Army Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works R.D. James announced that the agencies are repealing the rule and “recodifying the …
ZimmCast 622 – Future of InfoAg Conference
In this week’s program I speak with Quentin Rund, PAQ Interactive and Lara Moody, The Fertilizer Institute (TFI). Quentin has been involved with organizing and running the InfoAg Conference since it started in 1995. He talks about this year’s conference which is doing very well on attendance in spite of the challenging planting season the midwest has had. Lara talks …
Soil Health Institute Releases Progress Report
Based on data from the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture, the Soil Health Institute (SHI) has released PROGRESS REPORT: Adoption of Soil Health Systems. The analysis includes a state-by-state breakdown of changes in adoption from 2012 to 2017 for cover crops and no-till production. Cover crop and no-till practices both support biological activity in the soil. Cover crops are particularly …