Emerson Heading Rural Electric Coop Association

John Davis

JoAnnEmersonFormer Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson is now heading the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). The group welcomed Emerson’s wealth of experience in both the legislative and association management arenas, serving nine terms in Congress from rural Southeast Missouri and working for the National Restaurant Association and the American Insurance Association before her legislative career.

“I am so honored to be working for this dynamic association and for the more than 900 cooperatives that belong to NRECA,” says Emerson. “I am inspired by the difference these cooperatives are making in their communities every single day. I look forward to working with the great staff at NRECA to develop innovative programs to support and advocate for our members and the 42 million electric consumers they serve.”

During her tenure in the U.S. House, Emerson served on the House Appropriations Committee and she chaired the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Appropriations, with oversight of the U.S. Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service and various independent government agencies, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the General Services Administration and the Small Business Administration.

Emerson has been recognized for her work on energy issues, including being awarded the NRECA Distinguished Service Award. The NRECA represents more than 900 private, not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric cooperatives, which provide service to 42 million people in 47 states.

Energy

Farmer to Head Wells Fargo Food & Agribusiness

John Davis

RYraceburu1A man who has deep ties to farming has been tapped as head of Wells Fargo’s National Food & Agribusiness Division. This company news release says Rob C. Yraceburu, a fourth-generation family farmer who holds both a bachelor’s in agricultural business and a master’s in agricultural economics from California State University Fresno, will lead the group’s expansion to untapped markets in the Midwest and East:

Yraceburu takes on the new role after leading Wells Fargo Commercial Banking operations in Southern California since 2008. Before that, he served from 1999 as regional manager in Bakersfield, Calif., where he doubled Wells Fargo lending to agriculture in less than a decade. In that same period, he also increased the bank’s market share to become the leading financer of agribusiness in surrounding Kern County, one of the most-productive agricultural counties in the U.S. In all, Yraceburu worked over 25 years in several finance positions for the company in California’s Central Valley, a huge agriculture region where over 400 crops are produced.

“Wells Fargo has been committed to the U.S. food and agriculture industry through numerous economic cycles,” said Perry Pelos, the head of Wells Fargo Commercial Banking. “Rob and his team will leverage Wells Fargo’s national reach and financial strength to grow our support of an industry that is vital for every single person in America.”

Yraceburu believes they’ll have a great opportunity for Wells Fargo to grow its food and agriculture business in the Midwest and particularly in the East.

Agribusiness

USFRA Food Dialogues Talks BIO

Cindy Zimmerman

The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) held a Food Dialogues event in Chicago on Monday in conjunction with the 2013 BIO International Convention to address “The Straight Story on Biotech in Agriculture: The Media and its Impact on Consumers.”

Moderated by CNBC Senior Analyst and Financial Industry Expert Ron Insana, the event featured opening remarks from Congressman Rodney Davis (R-IL) and Robert Flider, acting director of the Illinois Dept. of Agriculture. Panelists included:

• Dr. Bob Goldberg, UCLA plant molecular biologist
• Emily Anthes, journalist and author, Frankenstein’s Cat
• Jerry Slocum, Mississippi soybean farmer
• Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D., freelance writer, speaker, columnist and radio host, Food Sleuth
• Michael Olson, Producer/Host, Food Chain Radio
• Pam Johnson, Iowa corn farmer
• Steve Smith, Chairman, SaveOurCrops.Org

An interesting discussion of different viewpoints – you can watch it here:

Agribusiness, USFRA, Video

What’s New on AgNewsWire.AgWired.com

Cindy Zimmerman

AgNewsWire.AgWired.comAs we announced last week at NAMA, our AgNewsWire.AgWired.com site is now THE place to go to get content you might have missed.

Since that announcement less than a week ago, here is what we have added:

Ag Workforce Coalition press conference on the Immigration Bill – audio
Fuels America press conference on sustainability from farm to fiber to fuel – audio
Becker Underwood and BASF media tour – interviews and photos
2013 Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference – interviews and photos
Chicken Media Summit – interviews and photos

All content is available for media use FREE of charge. If you want to give us credit, that’s fine, but not necessary. We just want to be your source for ag news content when you need it. Please consider subscribing to the RSS feed for AgNewsWire.AgWired.com so you will be notified by email whenever new content is added.

Media, ZimmComm Announcement

The Latest from AgFanatics

Cindy Zimmerman

agfanatics-2Check out the latest AgFanatics podcasts, for your listening pleasure

In episode #27, the AgFanatics talk with Dr. Gary Schnitkey with the University of Illinois to get his analysis on the American Farm Bureau Federation’s farm bill proposal.

Episode #28 discusses the reason behind the recent market failure. Also, is there some debate as to how much grain is actually being shipped out of South America??

The AgriVisor AgFanatics podcast is updated twice weekly and can be found on Itunes or right from the front page at www.agrivisor.com.

Agribusiness, Farming, GROWMARK, Markets, Weather

An Earth Day Message

Cindy Zimmerman

print-emailGot an email today from an employee of GROWMARK with a great message that I wanted to share for Earth Day week.

I’m sure you’ve seen email signatures saying something like “Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail!” This one is a little different.

Notice: It’s OK to print this e-mail.

Paper is a biodegradable, renewable, sustainable product made from trees and corn starch. Growing and harvesting trees and corn provides jobs for millions of Americans. Working forests are good for the environment and provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage. Thanks to improved forest and agricultural management, we have more trees and corn in America today than we had 100 years ago.

I love it! Planning to add it to my email signatures in the future. How about you? Thanks GROWMARK!

Corn, Environment, Farming, Forestry, GROWMARK

Checkoff Launches New Advertising Campaign

Talia Goes

Checkoff CampaignThe new “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.” consumer advertising campaign is premiering this month, bringing the recognizable tagline to older millennials and Gen-Xers. The new campaign, funded by the beef checkoff, will feature sizzling beef recipes, juicy details about essential nutrients and the voice of one of Hollywood’s most promising new talents.

The new “Above All Else” campaign aims to reach the next generation of beef eaters – the older millennial and Gen-Xer, aged 25 to 44 –who care about food and nutrition.

While keeping many brand mainstays, such as Aaron Copeland’s “Rodeo” music, the new beef campaign is switching up the voice behind the famous words, “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.” Sparking a new interest for the older millennial and Gen X target, Garrett Hedlund’s voice will take a starring role in the campaign’s radio spots. Garrett personally represents healthful living, and his strong, warm voice is perfect for provoking new understanding about beef.

Advertising, Agribusiness

Unleash Your Creativity

Chuck Zimmerman

Josh LinknerThe second general session at the 2013 Agri-Marketing Conference was all about “Unleashing Creativity” with Josh Linkner. Josh just happened to be walking by the ZimmComm booth in the Connection Point when I had a chance to visit with him to get a take-away message from his keynote presentation.

Josh told me that we are often faced with what seems to be an insurmountable problem. He says, “History shows us that by taking a path less traveled, by doing something that’s never been done before, we can often solve a problem in a unique way that drives far better results than the traditional and obvious solution.” He “encourages courage,” and says that companies should develop a culture that celebrate new ideas rather than punishing them.

Listen to my interview with Josh here: Interview with Josh Linkner

2013 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Audio, NAMA

What Consumers Want

Jamie Johansen

13cms-60The National Chicken Council was one of the sponsors for the recent Chicken Media Summit held in New Bern, North Carolina. The event opened the doors for media to tour the complete life of a broiler and ask questions from experts from the poultry community.

I sat down with Senior Vice President of the National Chicken Council, Bill Roenigk, after he moderated a panel with chicken company executives. He shared why this event was so important to not only chicken, but to the food industry as a whole.

“We think this event is important because we are hearing from consumers and people who follow the industry that you need to be more open and more transparent. You need to show people where their food comes from. It’s a criticism, but not a criticism just in chicken. It’s the entire food industry. We need to understand better where are food is and what is in our food. So, it finally registered with us that we need to find an opportunity to be more transparent, more open. And Sanderson Farms was very gracious and agreed to do that. They have a wonderful facility and I not only enjoyed seeing the people going through the tour, but also the questions they asked. We sit in our offices and think we know what people know, but we discovered that there really is a lot more people would like to know.”

Bill also hit on issues concerning sustainability, what our global market is demanding and the world’s outlook for the future of the poultry industry.

Listen to my interview with Bill here: Bill Roenigk

Check out photos from the event here: 2013 Chicken Media Summit Photo Album

Audio, Chicken Media Summit, Food, Poultry

Max with NAMA Conference Wrapup

Chuck Zimmerman

During the 2013 Agri-Marketing Conference we received a Frontier Focus- daily email about what was going on. This also included links to Max Armstrong doing video updates. Maybe we should call them MaxTube! Here’s his wrapup video.

NAMA, Video