It was one year ago this week – February 7, to be exact – that President Obama signed the “Swiss Army Knife” farm bill into law. “Despite its name, the farm bill is not just about helping farmers,” President Obama said at the signing. “Secretary Vilsack calls it a jobs bill, an innovation bill, an infrastructure bill, a research bill, …
Preview of CIRB Annual Mtg.
The Executive Vice President for the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau is Mike Torrey, pictured here on the right with new Chair Sheri Bane and just past Chair Greg Mills. Prior to our opening reception last night I visited with Mike to learn more about CIRB and what will take place during this annual meeting. By the time I interviewed …
Salmonella Testing at Roka BioScience
Salmonella threshold testing was the hot topic in the Roka BioScience booth at the 2015 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE). I stopped by to talk with Ted Andrew, Director of Marketing and Product Development about their new approach to bacteria detection and other new opportunities they are offering the industry. “It’s a different way to look at pathogen testing. …
Agri-Pulse Open Mic with Phillip Seng
Agri-Pulse interviewed Philip Seng, President and CEO USMEF on Open Mic this week: International trade can be a “gold mine” for beef and pork producers as well as the grain growers they rely on for feed. However, U.S. red meat exports are challenged from lower domestic production and the rising value of the U.S. dollar. In this week’s Open Mic …
Soil Health Partners Work Together
The Soil Health Partnership (SHP) was launched just shy of a year ago with seed funding in part from Monsanto and technical support from The Nature Conservancy (TNC). That may seem like a case of strange bedfellows, but everyone has the same goal of healthier soils. At the first Soil Health Summit last week in St. Louis, Monsanto Sustainability Business …
Research to Quantify Cover Crop Benefits
A common theme at last week’s 2015 Soil Health Summit in St. Louis was the need to quantify the benefits for farmers of using cover crops. Purdue University economics professor Dr. Wally Tyner is trying to do just that. “I’ve worked in a lot of different areas in economics and this is the hardest nut to crack,” he said. “Because …
Novus Shares Enzyme Research
During the 2015 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE), Dr. Jeffery Escobar, who heads up the physiology research at Novus International, headlined the Novus Forum on the protease enzyme. “Protease is an enzyme that creates proteins. It will take protein into either peptides or amino acids and is ultimately what the animals are going to use for growth and to …
Budget Proposes One Food Safety Agency Under HHS
President Obama’s proposed budget released today would combine USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies’ efforts into a single agency under Health and Human Services (HHS). Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spent much of a 45 minute press conference about the budget talking about and defending that proposal. “What the president is asking …
New “The Food Journal and Food, Nutrition & Science”
This week we’re going to learn about a new publication that has been created by a partnership between The Lempert Report and The Center for Food Integrity. I spoke with Phil Lempert, founder of Food Nutrition & Science and CEO of The Lempert Report, to learn what the target of this new publication is. He says The Food Journal and …
Soil Health Partnership Scientific Advisers
The Soil Health Partnership includes an impressive and distinguished panel of scientific advisers who are happy to be involved in an effort they consider to be critical to the future of the world. Most of those advisers attended the first Soil Health Summit held this week in St. Louis. Dr. Wayne Honeycutt, deputy chief for science and technology with USDA’s …