Agri-Pulse Open Mic this week features Sen. Kent Conrad. As a former Chair of the Senate Budget Committee the North Dakota Democrat is well versed on the country’s challenging fiscal policy. In this week’s interview Senator Conrad discusses the appropriations deadline, the debate over the debt ceiling, the advantages to a two-year budget and secure long term funding for the …
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 …
Ag Biologicals Can Play Starring Role in Productivity
Colin Bletsky, Vice President of BioAg, Novozymes was a participate in the panel discussion following the 2015 Gap Report release during World Food Prize. In an interview, he says that Novozymes came on board with Global Harvest Initiative because the company has a mission to help develop sustainable technologies. Bletsky is also passionate about this mission in his role as …
John Deere Int’l Mobile Training Unit Sees Success
During the during the World Food Prize I had the opportunity to learn about a new mobile training unit pilot program from Geoff Andersen, director, Global Citizenship and Strategic Planning with John Deere. The unit was first used in Ghana and Kenya to help more than 60,000 farmers learn how to increase productivity. Andersen was in country to work with …
New Zealand’s Trade Minister at #IFAJ2015
One of the hard news highlights of the 2015 IFAJ Congress was hearing from the man who was responsible for holding up the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement to get New Zealand’s dairy industry more access to other markets. “The fundamental reason why New Zealand agriculture is so strong is we don’t have a choice, it’s export or die for us,” …
New Zealand’s Minister of Primary Industries
The Honorable Nathan Guy, Minister of Primary Industries for New Zealand, is basically the counterpart of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in this country and he was delighted to welcome the 2015 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) Congress to “little old New Zealand.” “This is a significant event for New Zealand,” said Guy of the 33 countries represented at the …
Chelsea Clinton On Women in Ag at #FoodPrize15
The official Borlaug 101 sessions kicked off yesterday afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa with remarks from Ambassador Kenneth M Quinn who is the president of the The World Food Prize Foundation. He acknowledged the famous founder, Norman Borlaug and that this year would have been his 101 birthday, while next year will be the 30th anniversary of World Food Prize. …
#GAPReport2015: Productivity, Sustainability Must Be Priority
The global productivity of agriculture has stagnated for the second year in a row and productive, sustainable agriculture must be a priority. This was one of the main findings of the 6th annual Global Agricultural Productivity Report: Building Sustainable Breadbaskets (#GAPReport2015) released by the Global Harvest Initiative (GHI) today during the World Food Prize taking place this week in Des …
Greetings from IFAJ in New Zealand
We have seen the future and it is in New Zealand – 18 hours ahead of central time in the United States! The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) 2015 Congress is being held in Hamilton, New Zealand where we are learning a lot about this small, two island, South Pacific nation that is home to 30 million sheep, seven …
Agri-Pulse Open Mic with Rep. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin
Agri-Pulse Open Mic this week features Wisconsin Representative Reid Ribble. The 8th district Republican left the Freedom Caucus last week in the fallout from a failed attempt to elect a new House Speaker. In this week’s interview, Ribble outlines challenges the Congress faces in approving a spending plan and his efforts to bring about a two-year budget cycle. He sees …