Gebisa Ejeta, Purdue University Distinguished Professor of Agronomy plant breeder and geneticist, will receive the World Food Prize for his work in developing sorghum varieties resistant to drought and Striga, a parasitic weed common on the African continent. Because of Ejeta’s efforts, sorghum yields are significantly higher in many African nations. The World Food Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of …
Truth About Trade and Technology Honors Irish Farmer
Farmers from around the globe gathered in Des Moines this week to participate in the 2009 Global Farmer-to-Farmer Roundtable, which is held in conjunction with the World Food Prize and hosted by Truth About Trade and Technology. The group honored one of their own today with the 2009 Kleckner Trade & Technology Advancement Award which recognizes a farmer for “exemplary …
International Breakout Dairy Discussions
After the morning sessions and lunch the Global Dairy 500 participants sit at discussion tables. These breakout sessions are very lively and interactive and on many different topics. I followed along with one led by Brent Lawrence, Alltech. Brent handles the southeast territory of Florida and Georgia. At his table were dairy farmers from the USA, Germany, Korea and the …
Common Problems For Dairy Farmers Globally
The Global Dairy 500 Conference is a truly international one. There are farmers here from all over the world which requires a lot of translators who are working very hard in their booths at the back of the conference presentation rooms. One of the groups I ran into early is from Germany. They were all enjoying an early sample of …
Grains Council China Corn Tour
The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) is blogging and Flickring through this year’s China Corn Tour, taking place right now. These great photos and many more have been posted on the USGC Flickr account by Erick Erickson, special assistant to the president, who has also been blogging about the trip on The Grain Board. In one post Erick wrote about the …
Talking Precision With International Visitors
Someone mentioned to me the other day that because there are more farm shows being developed in other countries and due to the shape of our economy we probably will see fewer international visitors to shows here in the U.S. However, at this year’s Farm Progress Show I saw lots of them. While I was in the Ag Leader Technology …
New Holland Seeing Pink in Australia
New Holland is brave enough to wear pink. New Holland compact tractors in Australia that is. New Holland, the global agricultural and construction equipment maker, commissioned Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) to paint five of its new compact tractors pink as part of the equipment maker’s drive to raise funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Australia. The WWL team dissembled, …
IFAJ goes Country
The International Federation of Ag Journalists kicked off the 2009 Congress events with an all American rodeo and some sweet southern cooking at Billy Bob’s Texas in the historical Fort Worth Stockyards. Billy Bob’s is home to the “world’s largest honky tonk,” where international visitors enjoyed a wonderful time of dinner and refreshments. Afterward we moseyed on over to their …
Students Share Experiences of Grain Mission Trip
The U.S. Grains Council’s 49th Annual Board of Delegates Meeting luncheon on Monday featured two college seniors who shared their experiences as participants of the recent International Collegiate Agricultural Leadership (I-CAL) annual mission to Vietnam and China. Amy Berry, senior at the University of Wyoming, and Michelle Euken, senior at Iowa State University, told more than 300 attendees of their …
Army in Afghanistan Helping Plant Seeds of Hope
Wherever we can find a positive story about our military in action we should let others know. You’re sure not going to find it on mainstream media. This one is from the Army’s own website. This has also been done in Iraq and other countries. I think it’s good to point out how important agriculture is to a country and …