Two National FFA officers and a regional director for the National FFA Foundation were among those who participated in the third annual “Science in Action: A Foundation for Dynamic Careers” Day sponsored by Novus International. Christopher Bell with the FFA Foundation said it was a good opportunity for the officers to visit an agricultural company that is making a difference …
Apply for Green Mountain College’s Summer Farm & Food Program
For those interested in becoming involved in exploring traditional techniques and cutting edge research in sustainable agriculture should consider applying for Green Mountain College’s summer program. In its third year, the 12-credit summer intensive program Farm Life Ecology: A Field and Table Intensive, runs for 13 weeks from May 23-August 19. For the first time the College is also offering …
Using Alge to Improve Ag Sustainability
Agriculture often gets a bad wrap on the sustainability scale but growers know that they aren’t going to jeopardize their livehoods and they are great stewards of the land. But for those growers who are still looking for some unique ways to be a little “greener” with their operations, they should consider algae. Kent Bioenergy has its roots in aquaculture. …
Pennsylvania Farm Show Goes Green
The Pennsylvania Farm Show kicked off a little greener this year. The Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center has some new “eco” features including a 124 kW rooftop photovoltaic solar array that were part of an energy savings project complements of the Pennsylvania Guaranteed Energy Savings Act. The new energy efficient, eco-features were celebrated during an opening day celebration …
Time For An International AgChat Foundation?
The emcee for the Global Farmer to Farmer Roundtable conducted by Truth About Trade & Technology was Bob Thomson once again. He says the participating farmers were looking at what it’s going to take to thrive in the next several years. High on their list is modern technology. He says they realize that to feed the projected population equivalent of …
Simultaneous Livestock and Ethanol Production
One of the places visited by the TATT Global Farmer to Farmer Roundtable was Couser Cattle Company. Our host was Bill Couser. Bill conducted a fascinating presentation about his marriage of row crop farming (corn/soybeans), livestock production and ethanol production! You can see a portion of his explanation in the video below. He used a long table to display all …
Biodiversity World Tour Panelists
Here’s our panel at the Biodiversity World Tour town hall mtg. with Sec. of Ag Vilsack (right). It has been a very interesting discussion with lots of questions about organic vs. traditional agriculture and sustainability. I believe you’ll be able to watch a recording of the session on the BWT website. The participants include: Rajesh Kumar, Vegetable Farmer from Tamil …
Opening Biodiversity World Tour
U. S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was an opening speaker at the Biodiversity World Tour stop on the campus of Iowa State University. It is being webcast live right now and I believe a recorded version will be available later. If you’d like to hear the Secretary’s comments I have them posted below. The theme of the town hall …
Touring Conservation In Action
I am going to find out how agriculture protects water quality and improves soil health at this year’s Conservation Technology Information Center, Conservation In Action Tour. The tour will take place in the Virginia/Maryland area and looks like it is at capacity. Yesterday was the last day to get registered but you can probably still get in if you call …
BASF and One Hungry Planet
Sustainability was the focus of the 2010 BASF Agricultural Solutions media summit held last week in Chicago and as part of that event BASF released a new survey on attitudes toward farmland stewardship, and a new YouTube video highlighting how farmers are feeding a hungry planet. I talked to Paul Rea, VP of BASF U.S. Crop Operations, about the survey …