House Farm Bill Goes Down in Defeat

Cindy Zimmerman

lucasDespite an impassioned plea by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas to “move this bill forward” the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013 (FARRM) failed on a vote of 194 to 234, with 60 Republicans joining the majority of Democrats to defeat the House version of the farm bill.

“If it fails today, I can’t guarantee you’ll see in this Congress another attempt,” said Lucas. “If you care about your folks, if you care about this institution … vote with me on final. If you don’t, when you leave here they’ll just say it’s a dysfunctional body, a broken institution full of dysfunctional people. That’s not true!”

Sorry, Frank – it appears it is true.

Listen to Rep. Lucas urging his colleagues to vote for the bill Rep. Frank Lucas on the House farm bill

Link to Roll Call vote – take note of who voted against the bill for future reference!

Audio, Farm Bill

Government Taking Away Privacy

Talia Goes

Before we get to our new Zimmpoll let’s look at the results of our latest one which asked the question, “ What is your opinion of Senate immigration bill?” From our poll results it looks like you want to see changes to the immigration bill.

Our poll results: Forty-one percent said Border Security First! Sixteen percent said Bad Deal Overall, Fourteen percent said Needs Improvement, eleven percent said Will Never Pass House, eight percent said Great For America, and six percent said Good For Agriculture and Other. Not many are happy with the immigration farm bill as it stands. We will see what changes are made as it advances to the next level.

Untitled

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “How concerned are you about the government having your private data?” Recent information privacy scandals with the EPA and NSA have brought the issue of privacy to the forefront. A lot of agricultural information in digital form is being collected by various services, including the government. How do you feel about it now? Let us know.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by New Holland Agriculture.

ZimmPoll

Hershey…..Not the Candy Bar

Melissa Sandfort

20130603_074722Another school story, but this one is about a young boy’s dedication to caring for his bucket calf. Oh, those 4-H projects that became family members…

I had gone to school early one morning and was enjoying the quiet – mentally preparing for the day. The phone ringing in my room interrupted thoughts of how to creatively teach simple division.

The mother of one of my students was on the phone, explaining that her son’s bucket calf was missing. He had gone out to take care of his calf, Hershey, and the calf was nowhere to be found. She was sending her son to school, but wanted to give me a ‘heads up’ that he was terribly upset.

Yes, this third grade boy had a horrible time concentrating on much of anything that morning. We did our best to try and make him feel better, but the worry was there.

The secretary did not interrupt our classes with many phone calls unless there was an important message. I told her the situation and asked that she call my room if there was news of Hershey. When the phone rang, I crossed my fingers that it was good news about Hershey. Now, to some of you that may not qualify as an important message, but if you would have seen this young boy’s face light up when he got the news they had found Hershey, you would think differently.

The next day in math class, we divided Hershey…Yes, the candy!

(Melissa here) This is a picture of our friend’s bucket calf. Her name is (oh boy are you ready for this?) Cinderella Baby Calf. Before Vacation Bible School one morning, the kids gathered around and “helped” Matt with the morning feeding. Now some may call it bribery when you use an innocent bucket calf to get your kids up and out the door in the morning, but I think it’s healthy to see them excited about agriculture.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Food Dialogues Transparency

Chuck Zimmerman

June 2013 Food Dialogues Yesterday’s Food Dialogues topic was, “TRANSPARENCY AND FOOD: OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO TODAY’S CONSUMER.” This was part two of the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance panel discussion in Chicago on the topic. The event took place at Kendall College School of Cullinary Arts.

Panelists included Ellie Krieger, moderator, RD, host of Food Network’s Healthy Appetite, and New York Times best-selling cookbook author View Full Bio; Bo Stone, Farmer, P & S Farms, Rowland, NC; Gene Kahn, Former President and CEO of Cascadian Farms; Brad Nelson, Marriott International Corporate Chef and Vice President of Culinary; Kathleen Merrigan, Former Deputy Secretary Dept. of Agriculture; David Fikes, Food Marketing Institute Vice President, Consumer/Community Affairs, Communications; Lynn Martz, farmer, Martz Family Farm, Maple Park, Ill.; Jayson Lusk, Oklahoma State University agriculture economist and author, “Food Police” and Jim Riddle, Organic Research Grants Coordinator, The Ceres Trust, and owner, Blue Fruit Farm.

You can still watch the event via the recording below.

Ag Groups, Food, USFRA

ASTA elects first woman to officer team

Maggie Seiler

asta-1-demasiRisa DeMasi was elected as the second Vice Chair of ASTA at the 130th ASTA annual meeting. This election is marks a memorable moment for ASTA as DeMasi is the first woman to be elected an officer. She will serve a three year term in which she serves as the second Vice Chair in 2013-2014, the first Vice Chair in 2014-2015 and the Chair in 2015-2016.

As a member of the officer team, DeMasi hopes to focus on creating open and effective dialogue across the diversity of the seed industry. “I’m really looking forward to facilitating more conversations on behalf of my sector,” DeMasi said.

DeMasi is on the sales team at Grassland Oregon, which specializes in turf grasses, forage grasses and cover crops.

Listen to my full interview with DeMasi here: Interview with Risa DeMasi

ASTA Annual Meeting Photo Album

Agribusiness, ASTA, Seed

Bayer Supports Project in Honor of 150 Years

Jamie Johansen

bayer-150-6As part of Bayer’s 150th Anniversary celebration the Bayer Care Foundation has donated $790,000 to 150 projects from around the world. Nine of them are from the United States and three of them are based out of Bayer CropScience’s home state of North Carolina.

The projects were chosen based on employee volunteer projects from across the country. The North Carolina recipients include The Shepherd’s Table Soup Kitchen, Passage Home and the North Carolina Botanical Garden.

  • The Shepherd’s Table Soup Kitchen of Raleigh is awarded $3,300 to support the feeding of men, women and children of every faith and ethnicity, serving more than 300 people each day.
  • Passage Home is awarded $3,300 to fight poverty and homelessness in Wake County, and provides children in Southeast Raleigh with year-round educational enrichment through its Safety Club.
  • The North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill, which is part of the University of North Carolina, is awarded $1,600 to support programs that inspire understanding and appreciation of plants to advance a sustainable relationship between people and nature.

Chuck spoke with Adrian Percy, Global Regulatory Affairs at Bayer CropScience and Tamara Gregory, Executive Director for Shepherd’s Table, about their partnership and commitment to community support.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Adrian and Tamara here: Interview with Tamara Gregory & Adrian Percy

Audio, Bayer

FuSE program grows future ASTA members

Maggie Seiler

asta-13-fuseThe Future Seed Executives (FuSE) program was initiated as a branch of the ASTA Management Skills Committee in 2004. According to Liz Pestow, immediate past chairman of the FuSE initiative, “The focus of FuSE is to provide educational and networking opportunities to those in the industry with seven years or less experience,” Pestow said. Members involved in FuSE range from those who have recently graduated college to supporters and mentors for the program that are upper executives, CEOs and presidents of companies.

The Campus Connections program, the college student branch FuSE, was present at the ASTA annual meeting. Students in their junior year of college have the chance to apply for a scholarship to attend the ASTA national meeting. While at the convention, they are mentored by executives attending the meeting for their companies. They sit in on many sessions and committee meetings to get a real world perspective of the seed industry.

Pestow was a product of the FuSE program. Her background is marketing in the automotive industry. She got involved in FuSE in 2007. She said that it gave her an opportunity to really learn about the industry and especially to network with colleagues.

Listen to an interview with Pestow courtesy of Meghan Grebner, Brownfield Ag News, here: Interview with Liz Pestow

ASTA Annual Meeting Photo Album

Agribusiness, ASTA, Seed

IFAMA Student Competition Winners

Cindy Zimmerman

ifama-13-winnersA team of MBA students from Santa Clara University won first place in the IFAMA Student Case Competition Wednesday at the World Forum in Atlanta.

The competition consists of teams representing universities worldwide who simulate a fast turnaround analysis and presentation which they make to a panel of senior management judges on a corporate hot topic. This year there were 22 teams and two different cases. “We had about eight hours to read it, analyze it, suggest solutions to the business management problem in the case, make a power point presentation and then present it the next day,” said student Ngoc Dao, who is getting her MBA in Supply Chain Management. “I wanted to learn more about supply chain in different industries.”

The rest of the team, consisting of Alvin Chen, Tina Cosentino, Michael Billikopf and Zach Wise, all are specializing in the food and agribusiness areas. These are great future leaders for the industry.

Santa Clara Student IFAMA Competition Winners


IFAMA 23rd World Forum Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Education, Video

DuPont Exec Talks Food Security at IFAMA

Cindy Zimmerman

ifama-13-dupontFood security was the topic for an address Wednesday to the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) World Forum by DuPont Executive Vice President Jim Borel.

“We need a new generation of food visionaries who can see the tremendous opportunity made possible by the simple fact that people have to eat,” Borel said.

The DuPont executive talked about the need for local solutions, information transfer, sustainability in a broad sense, and collaboration. His best quote was about technology. “There’s more technology in a kernel of seed corn than there is in an iPhone,” and even more than that, there’s more hope to feed the world.

The IFAMA forum also included a workshop on the Global Food Security Index, developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by DuPont to facilitate dialogue about measuring food affordability, availability, safety and quality on a country-by-country basis.

Borel encouraged the IFAMA attendees to seriously consider the question “How will you help feed the world?”

Interview with DuPont Exec Jim Borel


IFAMA 23rd World Forum Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Food

Georgia Ag Commissioner Welcomes IFAMA

Cindy Zimmerman

ifama-13-blackGeorgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black was very pleased to have the International Food & Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) host its 23rd annual World Forum in the Peach State.

“Thank you for choosing our capitol city to be the host for this wonderful meeting,” Black said in welcoming the group on Tuesday. “It’s a great opportunity to celebrate what we all have in common – the future of agriculture.”

Black says agriculture is still the number one industry in Georgia, which ranks at the top in several commodities. “Five billion dollar poultry industry, still leading the nation in combined poultry for meat and eggs,” he said. “We lead the nation in pecan production, pulp for paper and wood products, and we’re still number one in peanuts.” But, the ag commissioner is quick to note how much the state has diversified. “We’ve just had the first harvest of olives on the eastern coast of America,” he said proudly and the state’s fruit and vegetable industry is worth over a billion dollars a year.

Tonight’s gala banquet will be held at one of the world’s largest food industry companies, Coca-Cola, proudly headquartered in Atlanta since its founding in 1886.

GA Ag Commissioner Welcomes IFAMA Interview with Gary Black
IFAMA 23rd World Forum Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio