Global 500 has official kicked off with opening remarks by Dr. Pearse Lyons, president and founder of Alltech. He shared his thoughts on the future of farming and proudly compared farmers and ranchers to heroes. “Don’t just think it, ink it,” advised Dr. Lyons while asking us to write down five things he wanted to get us to do. Dream. …
Incoming NAAA President on Membership
The incoming President of the National Agricultural Aviation Association, Dana Ness, Ag-Air Inc., Chester, MT, talked with me about membership. He’s pretty excited to be taking on the job of President at the first of the year. When it comes to membership in the organization he says “Membership is my voice in Washington.” That’s very important when there are regulatory …
ASTA Update on The Accord at Seed Expo
Patents for the very first ag biotech “events,” as they are called, will be expiring and becoming “generic” in 2015. This creates opportunities for growers and the seed industry, but also creates challenges that must be addressed – and that is the purpose of “The Accord”. American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Vice President for Science and International Affairs Bernice Slutsky …
BASF & Becker Underwood Join Forces at Seed Expo
It was just last week that BASF finalized the deal that brought Becker Underwood into The Chemical Company’s fold, just in time for them to hold a press briefing at the American Seed Trade Association CSS 2012 and Seed Expo to outline their plans for the future. Left to right, we heard from Scott Kay, BASF Canada Business Director; Peter …
International Seed Federation President on Issues
Tim Johnson of Illinois Foundation Seeds is currently serving aS president of the International Seed Federation (ISF). “The International Seed Federation has 80 countries that are involved,” Tim said. “What we do is promote movement of seed, protection of intellectual property (IP) rights, and support of companies moving seed globally.” IP was a big focus during a Chinese-American seed symposium …
MOU Importance for China and US Seed Companies
American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Chairman Blake Curtis calls the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the US and China seed organizations Monday “monumental.” “Everything has to start somewhere and this is a great start,” said Blake, with Curtis and Curtis Seed Company of New Mexico. “China is a very aggressive force in our world today and we’re …
President of the NAAA Optimistic for Future
The 2012 President of the National Agricultural Aviation Association is Mark Hartz. Mark is a 30 year ag pilot from Arkansas. He has a two plane operation with a partner. Mark is very happy with the convention, attendance and the city of Savannah for being great hosts for the NAAA. When it comes to industry challenges Mark says they are …
Ag Aviators Dealing with Duplicate Regulations
Dealing with EPA’s NPDES and state pesticide general permits. Sounds daunting doesn’t it? Well it is for agricultural aviators. It is government regulation that duplicates already existing regulation and is something that the NAAA has been working on in Washington, DC all year and it looks like will have to continue to do so. To provide NAAA members with an …
The Women of the NAAA
The current President of the Women of the National Agricultural Aviation Association is Katy Diehl. We visited here in Savannah at the NAAA convention. Kathy is from Garden City, KS and is married to an agricultural aviator and is personally a banker. The Women of the National Agricultural Aviation Association (WNAAA) is a companion organization to the NAAA. Members are …
US and China Seed Groups Sign MOU
Leaders from the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) and the China National Seed Association (CNSA) signed an historic Memo of Understanding today to promote cooperation relating to innovation in the seed industry, said ASTA president Andrew W. LaVigne. “This agreement achieves two extremely important goals,” said LaVigne. “First, it is an important first step in providing new business opportunities for …