The U.S. Department of Agriculture takes a wide angle view of the biobased product picture which encompasses several different segments within the agency. At the USB Biobased Stakeholders Dialogue last week in Washington D.C. we heard from a number of USDA officials about what they are doing to expand biobased opportunities. One panel featured Rural Business Cooperative Service administrator Lilian …
Millennial Views of Biobased and Sustainability
The hostess for the the USB Biobased Products Stakeholders’ Dialogue at George Washington (GW) University this week was the moderator for an important discussion about what the “millennial generation” thinks about biobased and sustainability. University sustainability director Kathleen Merrigan, who is also former deputy ag secretary, invited some current students and recent graduates to be on the panel. “What I …
Elevance Exemplifies Biobased Product Diversity
One of the many biobased product companies represented at the USB Biobased Products Stakeholders’ Dialogue this week was Elevance Renewable Sciences, which produces a wide array of materials from renewable oils like soybeans. “We make products targeted at three broad market industries,” says Andy Shafer, EVP for sales and marketing. “The consumer and industrial space where we make ingredients for …
Past and Present USDA Deputies at USB Event
The current and former Deputy Secretaries of Agriculture were together on Tuesday in Washington DC at the United Soybean Board Biobased Products Stakeholders Dialogue. It is being held at George Washington University where Kathleen Merrigan now serves as Director of Sustainability and she was pleased to host her successor Krysta Harden as keynote speaker at the event. Both Harden and …
ASTA Distinguished Service Awards
Two individuals were honored for their distinguished service to the seed industry at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) annual meeting last week. June Blalock retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in April of this year, after having served as the technology licensing program coordinator in the ARS Office of Technology Transfer for more than years. …
Secretary Vilsack Talks T-TIP in Europe
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is in Brussels today starting a week-long trip to Europe to meet with European agricultural and trade officials and other industry stakeholders. In addition to Brussels, Vilsack will visit with officials in Luxembourg, Paris, and Dublin. While overseas, Vilsack will discuss the expansion of agricultural trade, the importance of agriculture’s role in the U.S.-European Union (EU) …
BCAP Funding Application Period Opens
One energy and ag program that was saved by the 2014 Farm Bill was the Biomass Crop Assistance Program or BCAP, designed to provide financial assistance to mainly farmers and ranchers who establish and maintain new crops of energy biomass or harvest and deliver forest or ag residues to a qualifying energy facility. Farmers who harvest ag residues such as …
Ag Secretary Announces PEDv Action at WPX
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited World Pork Expo in his home state of Iowa Thursday to announce federal actions to help combat porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) and porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV). For one, Vilsack says there is now a Federal Order requiring the reporting of new detections of these viruses to its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) or …
“New Era in Conservation” Launch
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) this week launched “a new era in American conservation efforts with an historic focus on public-private partnership.” Vilsack and Stabenow announced the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) Tuesday during a visit to the Saginaw Bay watershed of the Great Lakes agricultural region. “This is an entirely new approach …
School Lunch Food Fight
A school lunch food fight is underway between House Republicans and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The House Ag Appropriations Subcommittee FY 2015 bill approved this week would establish a waiver program for schools having trouble with provisions of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) says the program is resulting in rising costs for schools …