Jeff Simmons, President of Elanco, delivered a powerful call to action to over 60,000 FFA members on Friday, October 31 during the 4th General Session of the 87th Annual National FFA Convention & Expo. Elanco has developed a campaign to bring awareness and solutions to those facing hunger and malnutrition around the world. Those behind the ENOUGH movement, and the thousands …
National Model of Excellence Award Winner
The Ponchatoula FFA Chapter (Louisiana) was selected as the National Model of Excellence award winner at the 2014 National FFA Convention. This award is highly competitive and sought after by chapters across the country; the Ponchatoula FFA Chapter had to complete an extensive application process that included a detailed application, a speech, and a 10 min interview. Two members of the …
Make Your Message More Personal
During her presentation at the Bayer CropScience Corn and Soybean Future Forum Julie Borlaug told the audience they are not doing a good job of communicating what they are doing to the broad general consuming audience. That raised a few eyebrows. What she suggests is making message more personal and not so polarizing as we sometimes see with the GMO …
Bayer CropScience Advancing Sustainable Ag
Starting out the second day of the Bayer CropScience Corn and Soybean Future Forum was Liam Condon, CEO, Germany. The theme of his remarks was how Bayer CropScience is advancing sustainable agriculture. One of the remarks that Liam made during his comments that struck me was how the growth in demand for meat in countries around the world is driving …
FMC’s Investment in Farming’s Future
Over the past couple of years FMC has put a strong emphasis on investing in farming’s future. Here at the 87th National FFA Convention they are asking students to step into their sound booth and share what investing in farming’s future means to them. Following the convention FMC will create a mashup of the students audio to share with their …
Weather Impacts on Corn Soybean Yield & Trading
With a session topic on how environmental constraints impact crop yield and trading you’d think this would take a long time. However, at the Bayer CropScience 2014 Corn and Soybean Future Forum Kyle Tapley, MDA Information Systems, got the job done in a short time frame. The focus was on weather and Kyle made a few statements that caught my …
FFA – You are the Future
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke to FFA members in attendance for one of the opening sessions at the 87th National FFA Convention & Expo this morning. He speaks at many different venues, but said this audience is the hardest because he is following young people who are very well spoken, don’t use any notes and never skip a beat. “This …
The Best Time Ever in Agriculture
The eternal optimist, Dr. Lowell Catlett, spoke to the attendees at the Bayer CropScience 2014 Corn and Soybean Future Forum. As a futurist this was the perfect place to hear his outlook. Dr. Catlett thinks this is the best time ever for the agriculture industry and that includes corn and soybean production. This was a key take away from his …
Bayer CropScience Dedicated to Corn & Soybeans
Providing the welcome address at the 2014 Bayer CropScience Corn & Soybean Future Forum is Mathias Kremer, Head of Strategy. In his comments Mathias talks about the company outlook for the growth of the corn and soybean markets. Additionally, he says they are investing a billion euros in research and development. Listen to my interview with Mathias to hear a …
Go All Out! at the 87th National FFA Convention
The streets of Louisville, KY are flooded with FFA members from across the country here to attend the 87th National FFA Convention & Expo. The largest youth organization currently have over 600,000 members and their mission of Premier Leadership, Personal Growth and Career Success is modeled in all the organization does for the future of the agricultural industry. Day one …