The new senior Agricultural Counselor to the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator held a conference call Tuesday to discuss her background and her role as an advisor at EPA on ways environmental policy may impact growers and the greater agriculture community. Sarah Bittleman accepted the new position with EPA in February after serving Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack as USDA Senior Advisor …
Vilsack: “Farm to Fly” Rural Job Producer
Two members of Pres. Obama’s cabinet have signed their names to an agreement that will extend the administration’s commitment to the production of biofuels for use in airplanes, and that should be good news for the rural economy. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood have extended by five years the “Farm to Fly” program, an initiative …
Best in Agricultural Marketing
It’s time for the best in the agricultural marketing world – the 2013 Agri-Marketing Conference. It is quite literally the best since this is where you’ll see the Best of NAMA awards. ZimmComm will be there and you’ll find lots of information being posted right here on AgWired. In this week’s program we get a preview of some of what …
Elanco Invests $100M in China Animal Healthcare
Elanco is investing approximately $100 million to purchase a minority equity stake in China Animal Healthcare Ltd., one of the leading players in the animal health industry in the People’s Republic of China. The investment expands Elanco’s commitment to China, with the goal of providing innovative, safety-enhancing food production solutions to help meet the growing food demands and nutritional needs …
Get Your FarmOn
Hey folks let’s FarmOn! Now, I know that’s not real easy these days, especially for young people who want to get started. Here’s an organization that’s trying to help. The FarmOn Foundation is compiling a number of online resources while also conducting social media awareness campaigns like #FARMVOICES. We’ll learn all about it in this week’s program. I had a …
Farm Bureau Sends Up Farm Bill Proposal
The American Farm Bureau Federation sent a farm bill proposal to Capitol Hill this week that offers a diverse mix of risk management and safety net tools to benefit a wide range of farms and it saves $23 billion compared to the cost of continuing the current program. “We’ve tried to look at providing farmers a three-legged safety net stool …
Vilsack Speaks to North American Ag Journalists
After speaking to 4-H members for breakfast, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined North American Agricultural Journalists for lunch on Monday, covering a variety of important issues, including immigration and getting a new food, farm and jobs bill. “I believe we will have a bill this year because we have to have a bill this year,” Vilsack said, noting the need …
Support for Repeal of Catfish Inspection Program
There’s a whole boatload of folks who think something is fishy about the USDA catfish inspection program that was included in the 2008 Farm Bill and they’d like to see it thrown back. An effort to repeal the program apparently has widespread support in Congress and with a variety of agricultural companies and organizations. National Fisheries Institute spokesperson Gavin Gibbons …
MGEX Commentary on Plantings Report
A little more corn, a little less soybeans, more wheat and a lot less cotton – that summarizes the USDA 2013 Prospective Plantings report out today. Corn growers intend to plant 97.3 million acres of corn for all purposes in 2013, up slightly from last year and 6 percent higher than in 2011. If realized, this will represent the highest …
ARC Learns About Oklahoma Ag Priorities
I was not able to attend this year’s Agricultural Relations Council meeting in Oklahoma City but have been following along some of the social media posts like in the Ag Relations Council Facebook Group. Here’s one example of what you would find there thanks to John Blue, Truffle Media Networks. Shawna McWaters-Khalousi of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, highlights what …