USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s Chris Rittgers has called Jakarta, Indonesia home for nearly a year, but is a veteran when it comes to the role of agricultural counselor. Prior to this three-year position, Rittgers worked for the USDA in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Malaysia, Iraq, Egypt and Spain. Naturally, he was the perfect person to share the role of Indonesia …
Farmers Intend to Plant Less Corn and Soybeans in 2018
U.S. farmers are expected to plant more soybean acres than corn but overall intentions are down slightly from the record year in 2017, according to the Prospective Plantings report released today by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Producers surveyed across the United States intend to plant an estimated 89.0 million acres of soybeans and 88.0 million acres of …
USDA Has No Plans to Regulate Gene Edited Plants
USDA has no plans to regulate “plants that could otherwise have been developed through traditional breeding techniques as long as they are not plant pests or developed using plant pests,” according to an announcement yesterday from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). This includes a set of new techniques that are increasingly being used by plant breeders to …
ZimmCast 578 from Ag Week in DC
Last week was a busy one in Washington, DC with National Ag Day Activities, the Agri-Pulse Ag & Food Policy Summit and American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) annual Fly-in. It was a week of crazy weather, including six inches of snow the second day of spring, but all events went as planned and were all very successful and well attended. …
Administration Shows Support for Ag Day
The Trump administration went out of its way to show appreciation for the nation’s farmers and ranchers on National Agriculture Day Tuesday, with proclamation at USDA featuring the vice president, and an address by Sec. Sonny Perdue during a Ag Day at the National Press Club. Introducing Vice President Mike Pence, Perdue commented that he was happy to be able …
GROWMARK, NRCS Partner for Conservation
GROWMARK and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) recently signed a national Memorandum of Understanding to further sound agronomic and conservation practices. Ryan White, Dir. of Agronomy Marketing and Agronomy Information Services for GROWMARK, says the MOU is about the GROWMARK system commitment to working with farmers in a profitable and sustainable way. “We both have the same customer and …
Cabinet Members Testify on Infrastructure Needs
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and four other cabinet members testified this week before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing entitled “Rebuilding Infrastructure in America: Administration Perspectives.” Secretary Perdue was joined by Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Department of Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, and Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry. …
Northey Takes Oath of USDA Office
It was a long time coming, but finally Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue administered the oath of office to Bill Northey to serve as the Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service (FFAS) at USDA. Northey has served as Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture, and is a former president of the National Corn Growers Association. “After months of waiting, I’m …
Corn Growers Care About RINs
The vast majority of people know nothing and care less about Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, the multi-digit code created under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) as a way to encourage refiners to blend more biofuels. But corn farmers both know and care what RINS are and why they are important. As U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue took questions …
ZimmCast from #Classic18
In part this week’s program was sort of hijacked by the Shark Farmer and Farmer Derek. But there is so much more than that. It is probably the busiest week of the year for the ZimmComm Team. From the Bayer AgVocacy Forum to Commodity Classic to Pork Industry Forum to Farm and Gin Show and to the American Association of …