The National FFA isn’t the only agricultural youth education organization involved with Ag Day. I visited with several more this week starting with Jessica England, President (left) and Lauren Greaves, First Vice President, Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow. I learned that you pronounce it A-C-T to start off! This college level student organization promotes leadership with agricultural communications majors. They were …
Fastline Sponsors Ag Day
One of the sponsors of Ag Day is Fastline, represented at National Ag Day activities by Matt Coniglio, pictured here with some of the attendees at Tuesday’s banquet. You might even be able to guess who they are! This was the first year for Fastline to sponsor Ag Day. Matt says that they wanted to become more involved on a …
Senate Ag Committee Views From Ag Day
The General Counsel for the Senate Ag Committee is Jonathan Coppess. He was one of the speakers at the National Ag Day lunch. Jonathan was introduced by FFA student, TJ Masker, Iowa State University. In his remarks Jonathan provided some background on the farm safety net and then talked about the current situation with the farm bill. As you would …
Ag Council Board Members Speak Out at Ag Day
During National Ag Day activities I visited with some big time supporters who are urging other companies and organizations to get involved. I’m going to share their thoughts with you here starting with Barry Nelson, John Deere, who is serving as Secretary/Treasurer for the Agriculture Council of America (pictured center). John Deere is one of the partner sponsors of Ag …
Alliance To Feed The Future
The Alliance to Feed the Future was announced during National Ag Day activities by Dave Schmidt, President, International Food Information Council. There are already 48 who have joined the Alliance. Their goal is “building understanding and promoting the benefits of modern food production, processing and technology.” The reason? “As misperceptions about modern food production and technology become increasingly common, a …
ASTA Meets Ag Day
During the National Ag Day banquet I met one of our sponsors for Ag Day coverage, Andy Lavigne, American Seed Trade Association. Andy says ASTA is 127 years old and was started by seed companies to promote high quality seed. Member companies produce seed from alfalfa to zucchini and everything in between. If it can be grown from a seed, …
Ag Day Essay Contest Winners
The winners of the National Ag Day Essay Contest have been announced. There are two of them, one for a written entry and one for a video entry. In the photo is written essay winner Nora Faris, Concordia, Missouri with Dr. John Bonner, Chair of Ag Council of America who presented her with her check during the National Ag Day …
Chairman of Ag Day
The Chairman of the Agriculture Council of America is Dr. John Bonner, CAST. During National Ag Day activities he was busy and had the pleasure to introduce the Essay Content winners. I’ll more on that in my next post. I spoke with him about ACA and Ag Day. John says that ACA is having a great year and points out …
National Ag Day Keynote Speaker
At the National Ag Day dinner in Washington, DC our keynote speaker was USDA Under Secretary Michael Scuse. He welcomed us to this day of celebration. He starts out describing his support of ariculture today by saying, “Our farmers and ranchers are the best in the world, bar none.” He has a lot of statistics that show how well American …
House Ag Chairman Lucas Addresses Ag Day
We’ve got youth in agriculture here at National Ag Day from just about every organization you can think of including the FFA. Introducing our lunch speaker today was Victor Salazar, Connecticut FFA state president. He was introduced by Orion Samuelson and I’m thinking that alone made an impression on him. But then it was his turn to do the introduction …