During National Ag Day activities I visited with some big time supporters who are urging other companies and organizations to get involved. I’m going to share their thoughts with you here starting with Barry Nelson, John Deere, who is serving as Secretary/Treasurer for the Agriculture Council of America (pictured center). John Deere is one of the partner sponsors of Ag …
Alliance To Feed The Future
The Alliance to Feed the Future was announced during National Ag Day activities by Dave Schmidt, President, International Food Information Council. There are already 48 who have joined the Alliance. Their goal is “building understanding and promoting the benefits of modern food production, processing and technology.” The reason? “As misperceptions about modern food production and technology become increasingly common, a …
ASTA Meets Ag Day
During the National Ag Day banquet I met one of our sponsors for Ag Day coverage, Andy Lavigne, American Seed Trade Association. Andy says ASTA is 127 years old and was started by seed companies to promote high quality seed. Member companies produce seed from alfalfa to zucchini and everything in between. If it can be grown from a seed, …
Ag Day Essay Contest Winners
The winners of the National Ag Day Essay Contest have been announced. There are two of them, one for a written entry and one for a video entry. In the photo is written essay winner Nora Faris, Concordia, Missouri with Dr. John Bonner, Chair of Ag Council of America who presented her with her check during the National Ag Day …
Happy Trails to Derry Brownfield
“Bury Derry Day” was a day of mixed emotions for family, friends and fans who attended his funeral and celebration of life Wednesday in California, Missouri. There were many tears, but I would say that most of them were tears of laughter remembering Derry Brownfield’s life. I have not laughed so hard in a long time listening to his oldest …
Chairman of Ag Day
The Chairman of the Agriculture Council of America is Dr. John Bonner, CAST. During National Ag Day activities he was busy and had the pleasure to introduce the Essay Content winners. I’ll more on that in my next post. I spoke with him about ACA and Ag Day. John says that ACA is having a great year and points out …
House Ag Chairman Lucas Addresses Ag Day
We’ve got youth in agriculture here at National Ag Day from just about every organization you can think of including the FFA. Introducing our lunch speaker today was Victor Salazar, Connecticut FFA state president. He was introduced by Orion Samuelson and I’m thinking that alone made an impression on him. But then it was his turn to do the introduction …
A Voice For Ag Day
The man with the voice no one will forget, Orion Samuelson, WGN, emceed the National Ag Day Mix & Mingle Luncheon today. I spoke with Orion before the program got started to get his thoughts on Ag Day and learn what we’ll be doing this celebrate American agriculture day. Orion says that we’ve had Labor Day to honor labor in …
Syngenta at Commodity Classic
Syngenta held a press conference at the recent Commodity Classic to discuss challenges growers have in the upcoming season and the Syngenta commitment to make their R&D investment “local” to the grower. Getting things started was Tracy Mader, head of product marketing for Syngenta Seeds. He asked the ag media how many new technologies they had heard about, seen or …
Remembering Derry Brownfield
I just received word that my very good friend Derry Brownfield has passed away. I’m kind of in shock and will update this post when I get more information. I’ve known Derry almost all of my professional career in agricultural communications and am finding it hard to imagine a world without him. This is a photo from a couple years …