Okay, this is my last post with Secretary Schafer here at the NAFB Washington Watch. While I was streaming it live, taking stills and recording audio I also shot a video clip so you can see what the room is like when we meet here in the USDA board room. I know there’s a story about the huge table that …
Political Commentary From Jennifer Duffy
NAFB members heard from Jennifer Duffy, The Cook Political Report, at dinner this evening. Jennifer says she started covering this year’s election in early 2006 and she’s going to be ready for a 3 month vacation after it’s over. I spoke to her prior to dinner and learned that her job is to analyze and try to figure out the …
NAFB Issues Forum
I really don’t think Ken Root, WHO, is kneeling at the altar of wheat here but it is a different way to do an interview. He’s one of the many farm broadcasters here at the NAFB Washington Watch who participated in this afternoon’s Issues Forum session. Various commodity groups attend with representatives who can talk about issues pertinent to their …
NAFB Leaders Watching Washington
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting leadership took a few minutes after the opening meeting of their annual Washington Watch program to talk with me about the event. Pictured here (l-r) are Randy Koenen, Red River Farm Network, Pam Jahnke, Fabulous Farm Babe and Greg Akagi, Kansas Ag Network. Randy explains what happens at a Washington Watch, which includes a …
Trusting in Farmland
This week I’m attending the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, Washington Watch program. It will kick off this afternoon as will my coverage here on AgWired. This morning I’m doing some media production training with American Farmland Trust. We’ve been talking about editing audio and video since they’re in a podcasting mode. In this week’s program you’ll hear from one …
Alltech Symposium Wrapup
The 2008 Alltech International Animal Health & Nutrition Symposium is over and Alltech President, Dr. Pearse Lyons, provided the final remarks. He summed up the key concepts that were focused on at the Symposium like the greenest generation, re-defining the industry, new technologies, new business practices, having fun and being socially responsible, supporting young people and re-defining education. Then he …
Discussion Group Dinners End The Day
This evening the Alltech Symposium ended with a series of simultaneous discussion group dinners. I went to the one on biofuels which was moderated by Dr. Mark Lyons. Here’s my table. Prior to the general discussion we ate and talked at our individual tables. At mine we had folks from the Dominican Republic, Philippines, Korea and the United States. It …
Feeding a Growing Population
The third person on the debate team for the Alltech Greenest Generation debate was Osler Desouzart, President of OD Consulting, Brazil. He is no soft spoken, hold back his feelings kind of guy and I like that. He got asked about his thoughts on how to feed the growing population of the world. My recorder ran out of batteries when …
David Byrne Speaks to Food Safety
After Mike Johanns got the first question in the Alltech Greenest Generation debate it was David Byrne’s turn. He is the former EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. He was asked if we can capture consumer confidence on food safety and how can industry and regulators work together to achieve it. Of course he has a very significant amount …
Mike Johanns on Stage Again
Our former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture is now running for the office of U.S. Senate and he’s still great talking about agriculture on stage. Here he is at the Alltech Symposium. The debate was for the most part very cordial. I think Johanns did a very good job of addressing the questions and talking to the issues in a very …