One of the issues folks in the pork industry know they have is that too many in the public don’t understand what they do. And if they don’t understand, they’re liable not to support hog farmers’ efforts. While an event like World Pork Expo here in Des Moines is important to educate producers and industry folks, there’s also great value …
American Agriculture’s Strategic National Asset
The Corn Utilization and Technology Conference concluded today with a final general session on water usage. Opening the session was Rick Tolman, CEO, National Corn Growers Association. I met with Rick before heading back to the agriblogging highway and we talked about his message of agvocating. That of course is advocating for agriculture. Rick says we have such a great …
Pork Quality Assurance Plus: Good for Consumers & Producers
One of the highlights from this year’s World Pork Expo at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines is the celebration of the Pork Quality Assurance Plus program and the milestone of having about 60 percent of all hogs in the U.S. and nearly 50,000 producers certified under the program’s guidelines. Chris Novak, Chief Executive Officer of the National Pork …
BASF Introduces Sustainability Analysis Tool
Sustainability has become a challenge to the agriculture industry because everyone seems to have a different definition of the word and ways to objectively measure sustainability are seriously lacking. BASF announced an Eco-Efficiency Analysis tool during the 2010 Ag Media Summit in Chicago today that examines the entire lifecycle of a crop to measure and manage sustainability. “When we look …
Carney: More Upbeat at This Year’s World Pork Expo
It’s a much more upbeat attitude at this year’s World Pork Expo in at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. National Pork Producers Council President Sam Carney, a pork producer from Adair, Iowa, welcomed members of the media this morning and says they are expecting much bigger crowds than they’ve seen in the last couple of years because of …
China Perspective On CUTC
The Corn Utilization and Technology Conference has international participants. We have quite a few from China. I had an opportunity to speak with Li Bin, CEO, Xin Jiang Tianda Biotechnology Co., Ltd., pictured here with Linyi Li, Novozymes China, my interpreter. Thank you Linyi! I asked him what stimulated his interest in participating. He says that corn utilization in China …
BASF Welcomes Ag Media to Summit in Chicago
Chuck is with corn growers in Atlanta, John and Joanna are covering the Pork Expo in Des Moines, while I am toughing it out with my dear friends from BASF and some of the nation’s finest agricultural journalists in the sumptuous Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago. I am seriously thinking I got the best job this week! Pictured are …
Info, Food and Fun at World Pork Expo!
It’s World Pork Expo eve (that’s a holiday, right?), and we’re here in Des Moines, Iowa to keep you up-to-date on all the news from event. This evening as producers, industry leaders and media converge on Central Iowa in anticipation of the next three days of information, I caught up with Cindy Cunningham, Assistant Vice President of Communications with the …
CUTC Encouraging New Uses For Corn
It looks like we have nearly 300 people attending the 2010 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. I sat down with NCGA President and South Dakota corn farmer, Darrin Ihnen, this morning and we talked about the need for this kind of conference. Darrin says CUTC brings out ideas that are still in the development stage while helping the industry come …
Fluidigm Introduces First Reusable Bio-Chip
Fluidigm Corporation held a joint press conference this morning with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service to announce their new reusable bio-chip architecture which is a first for the commercial market. These reusable integrated fluidic circuits (IFCs) will dramatically lower SNP genotyping costs and are designed to support accelerated sample throughput, while maintaining data quality of 99.75 percent or greater accuracy …