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  • Continuing its investment in the future of agriculture, Syngenta is proud to recognize Christian Mignano of the University of Florida as the 2013 recipient of the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association (FFVA) education scholarship.
  • A Philippine trade team will be in North Dakota October 23-24 to learn more about this year’s hard red spring wheat crop and visit with public and private wheat breeding companies.
  • DuPont Pioneer and Cargill announced they will work with farmers near Cargill’s facility in Sidney, Ohio, to grow Pioneer brand soybeans with the Plenish high oleic trait in 2014.
  • The Agricultural Marketing Service’s Fruit and Vegetable Program invites you to take part in a series of free, interactive webinars on our many programs and services.
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What You’re Not Being Told About Food Production

Chuck Zimmerman

Animal Ag Alliance ReportToday the Animal Agriculture Alliance hosted a teleconference with various third-party experts to discuss industry improvements presented in the report “Advances in Animal Agriculture; What the Center for a Livable Future, Pew Commission and Others Aren’t Telling You About Food Production.” (pdf)

Third-party experts on the call included:

Dr. Richard Raymond, former Under Secretary, Food Safety Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Dr. Scott Hurd, former Deputy Acting Under Secretary, Food Safety, USDA
Dr. Janeen Salak-Johnson, PhD, University of Illinois, Associate Professor Animal Science
Dr. John Glisson, DVM, MAM, PhD, Retired Department Head of Population Health and former Head of the Department of Avian Medicine, University of Georgia; Vice President, U.S. Poultry & Egg Association
Dr. Frank Mitloehner, Professor and Air Quality Extension Specialist, Department of Animal Science, University of California Davis

You can listen to the press conference here: Animal Ag Alliance Press Conference
Experts discussed the progress made by the animal agriculture industry in the areas of responsible use of antibiotics, environmental sustainability, and animal well-being, and they vehemently disagreed with the former Pew Commissioners’ assessment of the animal agriculture industry.

“We are providing the safest and most affordable food supply in the world,” said former USDA Under Secretary Dr. Richard Raymond. “The words—like antibiotic resistance—that groups like the Pew Commission and others toss around are meant to inflame the American public and dis-inform them.” Read More

Ag Groups, Animal Activists, Animal Agriculture, Audio, Food

Let’s Have a Boston Food Dialogues

Chuck Zimmerman

Food Dialogues BostonLet’s have a food dialogues and let’s have it in Boston. That’s my next stop. This Thursday you can watch the live stream of the USFRA Food Dialogues on the web and follow along via Twitter with the hashtag #FoodD and of course, here on AgWired.

Increasingly, consumers are hearing they should be concerned about the size of farms, and may be making purchasing decisions without understanding how food is grown and raised on farms of any size. U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance® (USFRA®) will address the differences, and similarities, between large and small farms, at its next Food Dialogues® event, which will be held in Boston at The State Room on Thursday, October 24. The event will stream live online at www.FoodDialogues.com.

Timed to Food Day, the Food Dialogues: Boston event, “Farm Size: Does It Really Matter?” will feature a panel of farmers, ranchers and food pundits, including moderator Alan Bjerga (noted food author and Bloomberg News reporter) and Michael Jacobson (Food Day founder and executive director, Center for Science in the Public Interest).

The panel will explore farm size and ownership and will explore how media and popular culture can impact how both large and small farms are perceived by consumers.

Ag Groups, Food, USFRA

NCGA Chair is TATT Roundable Alumni

Cindy Zimmerman

I was happy to see National Corn Growers Association Chairwoman Pam Johnson of Iowa at the World Food Prize symposium last week and interested to find out that she was a Truth About Trade and Technology Global Farmer Roundtable alumni.

wfp-pamPam had a seat at the global roundtable in 2010 and she was pleased to reconnect with some of her fellow alumni during the symposium. “There were 20 of us from all over the world,” she said. “We’re all still working and engaged in agriculture in some way to be a leader and to explain why it is biotechnology is so important as a tool for food security.”

Pam was also very pleased with the focus on agricultural biotechnology at World Food Prize this year with the winners all being scientists who have pioneered its development. “Biotechnology is size neutral, it’s good for everyone,” she said, adding that World Food Prize is a great place “for the personal stories and the truth to get out.” Interview with NCGA Chair Pam Johnson

2013 TATT Global Farmer Roundtable photos

2013 World Food Prize photos

Audio, Biotech, Corn, NCGA, Technology, World Food Prize

Commodity Classic and AG CONNECT Expo Join

Cindy Zimmerman

agconnectThe Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association today announced a new collaborative venture that joins two leading industry trade show experiences – Commodity Classic and AG CONNECT Expo & Summit – “to provide an even better world-class experience and gathering place for all segments of agriculture.”

Commodity Classic LogoCommodity Classic is a joint venture owned by the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association, with National Association of Wheat Growers and National Sorghum Producers participating as affiliates. The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) owns and produces AG CONNECT Expo & Summit.

The inaugural event will be held March 3-5, 2016, in New Orleans. The Commodity Classic shows scheduled for 2014 and 2015 will take place as planned. The AG CONNECT experience will join Commodity Classic 2016 and the new combined show will continue to meet on an annual basis.

Read more here.

The organizations involved held a press conference to make the announcement this morning, featuring comments from:
Bill Schuermann, American Soybean Association executive director
Charlie O’Brien, senior vice president of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers
Martin Barbre, corn farmer and president of the National Corn Growers Association
Danny Murphy, soybean grower and president of the American Soybean Association
Rob Kolb, vice president global business development, GEA Farm Technologies

Classic/AG CONNECT press conference
AEM, Audio, Commodity Classic, Corn, Events, Soybean

Kenyan Researcher Honored at World Food Prize

Leah Guffey

DSC_1615Brilliant, well-spoken and pretty as a doll, Dr. Charity Kawira Mutegi was everyone’s darling at the World Food Prize symposium last week.

The 38-year-old researcher from Kenya received the 2013 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation, in recognition of her efforts to find the cause and a solution to a deadly outbreak of aflatoxicosis in 2004-05 which killed 125 in eastern Kenya.  Her relentless research led to solutions fending off future outbreaks and securing the region’s crop of maize.

Dr. Mutegi and her team are eradicating aflatoxin, a naturally occurring mold, a major concern for farmers, and toxic to people who directly or indirectly consume it.  The way she accomplishes this is by using the non-toxic form of the fungus which has a competitive advantage over the deadly strains.  Dr. Mutegi says this is just one way to rid her country of the disease which has killed hundreds.

You can listen to a portion of Dr. Mutegi’s press conference at the 2013 World Food Prize here Dr. Charity Mutegi remarks
2013 World Food Prize photos

Audio, Corn, International, Research, World Food Prize

Australian Farmer on TATT Roundtable

Leah Guffey

wfp-tatt-andrew2Australian farmer Andrew Weidemann along with his wife and youngest son attended the Wold Food Prize with Truth About Trade and Technologies (TATT) Global Farmer Roundtable. While chatting with Andrew outside of his roundtable role, I learned more about life on his farm in Victoria.  He and his brother are in a partnership along with their families.  They are also involved with a local beer company supplying the barley for Australia’s Finest Barley.

wfp-tatt-andrew1 On the farm in Victoria, Andrew tells me that over the last decade or so they have really started to see advances in their own technologies and how the land is responding. He was one of the first to begin using  technology in his production.

You can listen to my interview with Andrew here Interview with Andrew Weidemann

2013 TATT Global Farmer Roundtable photos

Audio, International, Precision Agriculture, Technology, World Food Prize

USDA Farm to School Census

Chuck Zimmerman

USDA Farm SchoolSo more schools are buying local farm products to serve in their cafeterias according to a USDA survey. That’s a good thing I guess. As a parent I’m more concerned that my kids eat good healthy food. I know this USDA program is part of their efforts to help fight child obesity and hunger. I just don’t see that being an achievable goal when kids are not being raised to eat healthy by their parents. Schools have always done a good job providing a healthy meal for students regardless where it comes from. But the so-called obesity epidemic has grown in spite of that.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today highlighted important strides made in offering healthy, local food to millions of school children through USDA’s Farm to School program, and emphasized the program’s role in creating economic opportunity for America’s farmers and ranchers. According to USDA’s first-ever Farm to School Census, in school year 2011-2012, schools participating in farm to school activities purchased and served over $350 million in local food, with more than half of participating schools planning to purchase even more local foods in future school years.

“An investment in the health of America’s students through farm to school activities is also an investment in the health of local economies,” said Vilsack. “We know that when students have experiences such as tending a school garden or visiting a farm they’ll be more likely to make healthy choices in the cafeteria. We also know that when schools invest their food dollars in their local communities, all of agriculture benefits, including local farmers, ranchers, fishermen, food processors and manufacturers.”

Forty-three percent of public school districts across the country reported having an existing farm to school program in place, with another 13 percent of school districts surveyed committed to launching a farm to school program in the near future.

Food, USDA

American Soybean Association Names New Managers

Jamie Johansen

American Soybean AssociationThe American Soybean Association (ASA) adds two new agriculture professionals to their team. Help welcome Michelle Hummel and Jordan Lanham to the agriculture community.

Michelle Hummel joins the ASA as industry and stakeholder relations manager. Before joining the team at ASA, Michelle served as the vice president of marketing and communications at the Agricultural Retailers Association. She has almost 10 years of account service and public relations experience at Osborn & Barr Communications, with USB, Monsanto and Propane Education & Research Council being her primary accounts.

Jordan Lanham joins the ASA team as communications manager. Recently a local editor for AOL Patch.com, Jordan launched and managed a community news site. She also worked as a reporter at the St. Louis Globe Democrat and The Lincoln County Journal.

ASA, Marketing

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  • The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Board of Directors voted at its annual meeting to elect Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) Secretary Mike Hancock as the association’s president.
  • BASF has opened a new facility in the Ghent region, one of the leading centers for European plant biotechnology research.
  • Farm Journal Media announced that Andy Weber, CEO of the company, has been named to the FOLIO: 100 as one of the media industry’s 25 most influential C-level visionaries.
  • Michelle Hummel joins the American Soybean Association as industry and stakeholder relations manager.
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