Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spotlighted agricultural innovations during an appearance at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Monday. Vilsack stressed the importance of global cooperation in biotechnology innovations. “It’s in our long term best interest as a global community that we encourage appropriate science, that we encourage biotechnology, ways to grow crops with less water, less pesticides, less chemicals,” he …
Vilsack Gaining on Glickman in Office
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is within two weeks of serving longer in that position than Dan Glickman under President Clinton. “In about 15 days he will beat my record, because I was in office about 5 years and 11 months,” said Glickman during his introduction of Vilsack at a Chicago Council on Global Affairs event on Monday. “He’s doing this …
CFWF 2014 Award Winners
No conference is complete without awards and the Canadian Farm Writers Federation was no exception. Pictured here from left to right are some of CFWF’s best of the best for 2014. Alice McFarlane, Fabmar Communications received the Gold level award in the Electronic Media-Audio category; Lisa Guenther, Farm Business Communications scored Silver in the Press Editorial category; Wayne Riley, Agriculture …
CFWF Discovers PEI Products
Cheese, mussels, potatoes and preserves were just a few of the many Prince Edward Island products that Canadian Farm Writers learned more about during the 2014 CFWF conference. Bruce MacNaughton and his wife operate the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company, located in an old butter factory, which uses local produce to make a variety of tasty preserves, marmalades, jellies, honeys, …
Get to Know Verdesian
Verdesian Life Sciences is a plant health plant nutrition company. According to CEO and founder JJ Grow, from the start their plan was to create a portfolio of companies that had really good technology focused on nitrogen and phosphorous efficiencies as well as delivery systems, elicitors and innocolents. Or “things that help fixate nitrogen”. Beginning in 2011 when Grow was …
Verdesian – From the Lab to the Field
I recently had the opportunity to learn about Verdesian’s philosophy of how they take technologies and customize them to agriculture. I should take a step back and mention that Verdesian has a strong relationship with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the process of taking their defense research and “spinning it off” for agricultural applications. As Nigel Grech, executive vice …
CASE IH Connects at CFWF 2014 Conference
Beautiful Prince Edward Island (PEI) was the spot for the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation 2014 Annual Conference and CASE IH was a Russet sponsor of the event. The sponsor categories were aptly named this year in honor of PEI’s largest agricultural industry – potatoes – and Russet is the top. Two shiny red CASE IH tractors decorated the lawn of …
New Holland Clean Energy Leader at Expo Milano 2015
During New Holland Blogger Days in Turin, Italy I met Carlo Lambro, Brand President (3rd from right). Before a fantastic dinner we sat down so I could interview him via ZimmGlass. I first asked him about New Holland’s decision to be a major supporter of Expo Milano 2015 and the Sustainable Farm pavilion they are constructing for next year’s event. …
NCBA Concerns About Beef Checkoff
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack met earlier this week with the Beef Checkoff working group and reportedly told them he’s planning on implementing a new checkoff program for the industry by January, 2016. The action would be taken under the 1996 Commodity Promotion, Research and Information Act, also called the “generic checkoff act,” and would be separate from and in addition …
USDA Invests in Specialty Crop Producers
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack while in Miami, Florida announced nearly $118 million in grants to strengthen markets for specialty crops, such as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, horticulture and nursery crops. The grants were authorized through the 2014 Farm Bill as part of an effort to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops and provide resources to strengthen American agriculture. Sales of …