Another ag group shows a great use of a blog. This time it’s Karen Simon, Iowa Soybean Association. She just returned from a 10 day trip to China. I actually was following her progress on her Twitter feed but she kept an online journal. This is one of her photos I borrowed from her online photo set. She also posted …
Farm Fresh Blog From Iowa Farm Bureau
And another farm group blog has been born. This time it’s Iowa Farm Bureau with the Farm Fresh Blog. Welcome to Farm Fresh, Iowa Farm Bureau’s blog about the people who bring you your food, fuel and fiber and the issues they face. With so much information available to consumers today, it can be daunting to separate fact from fiction. …
Pistachio Recall Website
Food recalls seem to be fairly frequent lately and it seems like the general public really doesn’t get good information about what is actually being recalled. I would blame that at least in part to journalists trying to be “sensational” with the effect of scaring the crap out of people who then tend to over react. Okay, got that out …
New Media Soybeans
I just found out about the United Soybean Board’s podcast called, BeanCast. I had heard they were planning to produce one but I guess I missed it somehow since it looks like it started last December. It came up in conversation today. I’m glad to see another ag group taking advantage of this new media option. A couple of things …
Cellulosic Ethanol To Bridge The Gap
Commercializing Gasification/Fermentation Technology was the topic of comments made by Mark Dietzen, INEOS Bio, at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. He says that they have a practical technology that they’re in the process of implementing to be online by 2011 to produce cellulosic ethanol. He thinks that it will help bridge the gap between what’s possible …
Biotech Playing Key Role In Production Of Biofuels
I spoke with Paul Willems, BP Energy Biosciences Institute, one of our speakers at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. I had met him previously at an earlier conference in the series. Paul says the BP Energy Biosciences Institute was created as a place to apply modern biology to energy problems. He told us that from their …
Wind Farmers
Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel weren’t the only energy alternatives on the program at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. We also had a presentation on wind energy from Mark Willers, Minwind Energy. Mark says Minwind Energy was formed by a group of local farmers and businessmen in southwest Minnesota. He’d like people to understand that the …
Biodiesel Good Fit For Carbon Reduction
The legislative guru for the National Biodiesel Board is Manning Feraci. He was on the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference program. He gave us an update on the current state of the biodiesel industry and the need for stable policies coming out of DC. He says that he sees some real opportunities now as some of the …
Talking Social Media in DC
Here’s my happy group of social media students at the U. S. Grains Council office in Washington, DC. Pictured are Marri Carrow, USGC, Melissa George Kessler, NAWG, Mike Deering, USGC and Steve Mercer, U. S. Wheat Associates. We’ve been talking RSS, blogs, podcasts, Twitter, Facebook and more all morning. Like many ag groups today, these are looking at ways to …
Carbon Is New Ag Commodity
I think Joel Velasco, Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, had the quote of the day here at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. He said that “carbon is the new agricultural commodity” and that “our incentive is to produce less of it and get paid for it.” So, grow a crop, sell it and maybe earn some carbon …