Books About Feeding the World

Cindy Zimmerman

The moderator and one of the participants on the opening panel at the World Food Prize symposium Borlaug Dialogues have authored books aimed at increasing awareness of world hunger and how we can feed a growing population.

Sir Gordon Conway’s book “One Billion Hungry – Can We Feed the World?” basically is the long version of his simple answer “Yes.”

“But there’s lots of ‘buts,'” Conway clarifies. “Very simply it says that the routes forward to food security are through appropriate innovation, markets that connect small holders, through people – particularly the half billion small holders in the world, and finally through political leadership.”

Sir Gordon notes that animal protein is important for healthy young people, “but the bigger question is to what extent can we produce enough grain to feed the massive growth in livestock production?”

Listen my interview with Sir Gordon here: Sir Gordon Conway interview

Roger Thurow is Senior Fellow with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and former Wall Street Journal reporter who dedicated his life to raising awareness of world hunger after doing a series of stories on famine in Africa in 2003. “What I saw there basically changed my career, changed my life,” he said. “Instead of moving from story to story, place to place and country to country, this is the story I really need to cover. So, now I write books about it.”

Thurow has written several books on the topic of hunger, his latest being “The Last Hunger Season” which details a year in an African farm community. The Hunger Season refers to the time between when food from a previous harvest runs out and the next harvest begins. It is actually being made into a documentary and you can find out more about it on TheLastHungerSeason.com.

Roger made a great comment when I asked him about the role of GMO crops in places like Africa, noting that is important for those countries to be able to make up their own minds on the issue. “There’s a great African saying that ‘when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled’ … the elephants are the U.S. and Europe and the grass is Africa.”

Listen my interview with Roger here: Roger Thurow interview

View the World Food Prize Photo Album here.

AgWired coverage of the World Food Prize is sponsored by Elanco
Audio, Elanco, Food, World Food Prize

9th Annual LPC Royal Gala

Chuck Zimmerman

It’s time once again for a Royal Gala. A Livestock Publications Council kind of Royal Gala.

The funds raised during the annual LPC Royal Gala are used for the ongoing activities for LPC with the focus on the LPC Heritage Center at the American Royal in Kansas City, MO. This will be the 9th year for the Gala.

Here are the details:

When: Friday, November 2, 2012, 7-11pm
Where: American Royal Headquarters, 1701 American Royal Court, Kansas City, MO

At the event there will be the unveiling of the 2012 Hall of Honor inductees. Seating is limited. Send your ticket donation of $50/person asap since the deadline is tomorrow! At this point you may want to email Megan Crudup.

LPC, Media

DeLaval New Company Vision

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 370DeLaval has a new vision. I learned about it at World Dairy Expo from Christian Poggensee, Regional President, North America. Simply put it is, “We make sustainable food production possible.” Christian says it’s not a target but rather something the company wants to be perceived as. DeLaval became a sponsor of the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards earlier this year.

The company launched their sustainability initiative several years ago. New products development keeps four things in mind: Environment, Animal Welfare, Social Responsibility and Farm Profitability.

One of the more fun products by DeLaval that accomplish this are their Swinging Cow Brushes! These were on display in the DeLaval exhibit at World Dairy Expo.

The DeLaval swinging cow brush SCB is designed to improve cow health, comfort and welfare. The swinging cow brush SCB, which starts to rotate on contact, is a revolution in cow care and cow comfort. The unique brush which rotates at an animal-friendly speed, swings freely in all directions, smoothly up, over and alongside the cow to provide comfort all around.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast to learn more about what’s new with DeLaval: The New DeLaval Vision

2012 World Dairy Expo Photo Album

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong and Monsanto, Roundup Ready Plus, for their support.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

Agribusiness, Audio, Dairy, World Dairy Expo, ZimmCast

Panel Sets Stage for Borlaug Dialogue

Cindy Zimmerman

A panel discussion to set the stage for the Borlaug Dialogue at the 2012 World Food Prize symposium in Des Moines considered the question “One Billion Hungry – Can We Feed the World Sustainably?”

The panel moderator was Roger Thurow, Senior Fellow, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and participants in the discussion were:

Sir Gordon Conway – Professor of International Development, Imperial College London
Gebisa Ejeta – Distinguished Professor of Plant Breeding & Genetics & International Agriculture, Purdue University
Susan Godwin – Smallholder Farmer, Nigeria
Jane Karuku – President, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
Roger Thurow (Moderator) – Senior Fellow, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Conway started this informative discussion by simply saying that the answer to the question is “Yes.” Susan Godwin related her personal experience as an African farmer, which was really interesting.

Listen to or download the whole conversation here: Setting the Stage Panel

View the World Food Prize Photo Album here.

AgWired coverage of the World Food Prize is sponsored by Elanco
Audio, Elanco, World Food Prize

Auction of North Dakota Oilseed Processing Facility

Chuck Zimmerman

Looking for a good deal on some oilseed processing equipment? Maas Companies is managing a sale next month where you might find a bargain!

Maas Companies of Rochester, MN will liquidate the former Northwood Mills Oilseed Plant, a state of the art oilseed processing facility located outside of Grand Forks, North Dakota at a Sheriff’s Foreclosure Auction on November 27. The auction will be conducted on-site at the plant, 530 35th Street NE, Northwood, North Dakota. Here is some more information:

Northwood Mills opened its doors in 2007 but struggled with the economic conditions and volatile pricing for its products. The 40 Acre plant operated for approximately two years, the equipment is pristine and ready for a new owner. The auction offers the plant for sale as one lot including all real estate, process and auxiliary equipment, storage and completed furnished office space. Originally the plant was used for soybean crushing but later crushed canola, sunflowers, corn germ and flax with outputs ranging from 200-300/tons per day. The plant offers excellent access to transportation for both raw materials and finished products via highway and rail with expansion availability for a 30 car rail spur on the BNSF line.

Maas Companies Inc, a company specializing in the selling of commercial and industrial assets of Rochester, Minnesota will conduct the auction. Tyler Maas, Sales & Marketing Director states, “the sheriff’s foreclosure sale offers the plant to a new buyer at a significant savings over the approximate $10.2 million dollars that was spent to design and build the facility. In this economy, an auction offers new buyers a great economic opportunity.”

Check open house dates after the break. Read More

Agribusiness, Equipment

Is Whetting Considered Working?

Melissa Sandfort

I had an English teacher tell me one time: “There are two kinds of people in this world. Those that read and those that don’t.” She then went on to explain that people who liked to read would read anything – the ingredients label on a candy bar before they ate it, knowing that it wasn’t good for them in the first place, but curious to read anything and everything. And then there were those who didn’t like to read and she just couldn’t imagine why.

My grandfather falls in the category of “those who like to read.” And I’ve always told him he needs two things on his bucket list:
1. Go on Wheel of Fortune (he claims he’d freeze up!) and,
2. Be an editor of a newspaper.

Not only does he love to read, his vocabulary is incredible and his knowledge of proper grammar is, too. So when he told me this story from the past, I had to assume whet was spelled “whet” and not “wet”. I’m forever expanding my vocabulary just by visiting with grandpa.

Listen to grandpa’s story about whetting as he takes us on another AgWalk.
Listen to Grandpa explain

Now admit it – did you have to look on dictionary.com?

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Bread for the World on Elections and Hunger

Cindy Zimmerman

2010 World Food Prize Laureate Rev. David Beckmann says hunger in America is a key issue that should be addressed in the 2012 election.

“About one in five of our children live in households that run out of food,” said Beckmann, who is executive director of Bread for the World. “On the other hand, I think the safety net programs have worked remarkably well in this economy.” Beckmann notes that hunger in the U.S. has not increased since 2008 even though unemployment and poverty did increase, thanks to programs like food stamps, WIC, Medicaid, and tax credits for the working poor.

Bread for the World would like to see those programs continue because they work, which is why they called on President Obama and Governor Romney to state what they will to do to as president for the hungry and poor, and both responded. “Both of them affirmed the idea of a ‘circle of protection’ around hungry and poor people, both stressed jobs, both affirmed charity, both said government programs are important,” said Beckmann who added that the agreement between the two is important on maintaining U.S. safety net programs in the current fiscal situation, “because in the end, we’re going to have to have a bipartisan budget agreement.”

You can see videos of both candidates addressing the topic on the Bread for the World website, www.bread.org.

David also talks about what he calls the “commonality between agriculture and people who are hungry” and has this interesting and quite beautiful perspective. “Farmers feel food, they understand food, and it gets under their skin when they know a lot of people are hungry and it doesn’t need to be,” he said. “So there’s also kind of a spiritual bond between people having a hard time putting food on the table and farmers in the middle of the field where there’s an abundance of food.”

Listen to or download my interview with David here: Rev. David Beckmann at WFP 2012

View the World Food Prize Photo Album here.

AgWired coverage of the World Food Prize is sponsored by Elanco
Audio, Elanco, Food, politics, World Food Prize

Elanco Part of Global Harvest Initiative

Cindy Zimmerman

The Global Harvest Initiative (GHI) is a private-sector voice for productivity growth throughout the agricultural value chain to sustainably meet the demands of a growing world. The initiative, established in 2009, includes agricultural industry stakeholders such as DuPont, John Deere, Monsanto and now Elanco.

“This is the first time for Elanco joining this effort,” said GHI board member Claudia Garcia, Elanco Senior Director Global Corporate Affairs. “Elanco is very invested in technology. We truly believe that we need to do more to produce more food, not necessarily adding more animals, but becoming more productive because we’re concerned about the environment. But we cannot do it alone.”

GHI released its 3rd annual Global Agricultural Productivity Report (GAP Report) at the World Food Prize in Des Moines Wednesday and Garcia says the report puts the data in perspective and breaks it down to make it more manageable. “This year we decided to put an emphasis on regions, because if you keep talking the world, the world – it’s too big,” she said. “This is also the first year that we’re including the importance of animal production.”

The year 2050 seems like a long time away to have to worry about how we will feed a population of 9-10 billion people, but Claudia says it is not too early to work on it. “2050 is really now and we have to start working now to ensure that all of the production is there so that at the end there is going to be safe, affordable, abundant food on every table, regardless of how much you make or who you are,” she said. Well said!

Listen to or download my interview with Claudia here: Elanco's Claudia Garcia at WFP

View the World Food Prize Photo Album here.

AgWired coverage of the World Food Prize is sponsored by Elanco
Audio, Elanco, Food, Livestock, World Food Prize

Nestle’ Chair Addresses World Food Prize

Cindy Zimmerman

The 2012 World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue kicked off in Des Moines Wednesday with an address by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of the Nestlé Group, who gave his broader view on food security and nutrition.

Brabeck said that as per capita income increases in developing countries, people are no longer satisfied with a bowl of rice a day. “No, they want to have a little bit of meat, whether it’s beef, chicken or perhaps lamb on top of it,” he said, noting that current meat consumption in developing countries is 69 grams per capita per day, which is expected to increase by at least 9 grams per person every ten years.

On the subject of genetically modified crops, Brabeck said the impact of increasing yields is obvious, but food crops can also be modified to provide needed micronutrients, such as vitamin A in rice to help children who suffer blindness from a lack of it. “The introduction of GMO rice however, seems to fail mainly due to opposition to what I call “well-fed” people in some industrialized countries and I just wonder whether these people will ever be held accountable for the damage they are causing to the most vulnerable,” he said to applause.

You can listen to Brabeck’s remarks here: Nestlé's Peter Brabeck-Letmathe at WFP 2012

View the World Food Prize Photo Album here.

AgWired coverage of the World Food Prize is sponsored by Elanco
Audio, Elanco, Farming, Food, World Food Prize

Global Food Security Index Adds New Feature

Joanna Schroeder

During events at the 2012 World Food Prize taking place in Des Moines, DuPont announced an enhancement to the Global Food Security Index that was commissioned by DuPont and developed by the Economist Intelligience Unit (EIU). The tool was designed to capture the impact of changes in global food prices at the national level. In response to the rising cost of food, the Index recorded a slight decline in global food security.

“This tool increases the chances of creating sustainable, science-based innovations that target specific challenges, collaborating with others on solutions and bringing know-how to the people and places that need it most,” said DuPont Executive Vice President James C. Borel. “Knowing where the impact is the greatest can help focus our collective efforts where they are needed most.”

The World Bank estimates that global food price spikes in 2008 pushed 44 million people below the poverty line globally, most of them in poor countries. In the United States, almost 15 percent of households experienced food insecurity in 2011, up 11 percent before recent price jumps. Today, the driver of price increases were the U.S. drought and other global weather issues.

“Many factors affect food prices, from rising demand in emerging markets to abrupt changes in the weather,” said EIU Global Forecasting Director Leo Abruzzese. “The new Price Adjustment Factor tool will assess, quarterly, the impact of price changes on a country’s ability to afford food. High and volatile prices can impact food security by limiting consumers’ purchasing power and calorie consumption.”

The Global Food Security Index addresses the underlying factors of food insecurity in 105 countries and points to areas for improvement and reforms. Features include:

  • Ability to capture the impact of changing food prices on each country’s ability to afford food.
  • Analysis of key findings.
  • Definition of 25 global indicators that measure specific aspects of food affordability, accessibility, availability, nutritional value and safety.
  • An interactive heat map of overall scores and detail of category results.
  • Adjustable weightings to allow for scenario planning.
  • Ability to compare multiple countries simultaneously and adjust rankings by indicators.
  • A country details page that allows a food-security drill down into individual economies.

View the World Food Prize Photo Album here.

AgWired coverage of the World Food Prize is sponsored by Elanco
Elanco, World Food Prize