Want to know where your food comes from? Sure you do. Here’s a resource I just found out about – Dinner Starts Here. This is an effort by some young Canadian farmers who are using social media to share their stories about the food they produce. Great idea! Through this website you’ll meet a group of young farmers from Ontario, …
Shuanghui International to Purchase Smithfield Foods
We’re talking a lot of pork in this deal. See the full release here. Smithfield Foods, Inc. (NYSE:SFD) and Shuanghui International Holdings Limited today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement that values Smithfield at approximately US$7.1 billion, including the assumption of Smithfield’s net debt. Shuanghui International is the majority shareholder of Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development …
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 …
2014 International Year of Family Farming?
During our weekly AgChat session last night several folks interjected messages about a United Nations sanctioned initiative called the 2014 International Year of Family Farming, Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth. So I had to look at it and can’t say I like what I see. If you click around their website you’ll see some pretty mixed messages. There …
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 …
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 …
Social Media Use in Czech Republic
I thought this information from ACDC (Agricultural Communications Documentation Center) was interesting and wanted to share. Social media usage in the Czech Republic (pdf). Would you have thought this to be the case? Looks like companies are slow to adopt but their customers are not. This is from two years ago so I would assume there has been more of …
2012 Global Farmer Roundtable at WFP
This year’s Global Farmer Roundtable at the World Food Prize hosted another great group of producers from around the world. Participants at this event included 17 producers from Canada, Honduras, India, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, South Africa, Swaziland, United Kingdom, Uruguay, US, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. This annual roundtable is organized by Truth About Trade & Technology (TATT), a nonprofit advocacy …
UN Secretary-General at World Food Prize
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the big ceremony last night at the World Food Prize and stuck around to also speak at breakfast this morning for those not able (or willing) to attend the gala at the state capitol. During his brief address at breakfast, Ban talked about how making sure everyone in the world has enough to eat …