Wine Making in Sweden

Chuck Zimmerman

Wine making in Sweden? You betcha. During the 2012 IFAJ Congress some of us toured Blaxsta Vineyard. We also sampled a merlot while we were there. The grapes for this particular wine came from Canadian vineyards of French stock.

Blaxsta Vineyard is located near Stockholm and is about as far north as you can grow grapes to make some good wine. The specialty as you might imagine is ice wine and Blaxsta has been a world competition winner with their’s for years. We got to sample that at the Saturday night closing banquet. You can learn more about the vineyard and how they grow their grapes in the video.

2012 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2012 IFAJ Congress is sponsored by DuPont Pioneer
IFAJ, International, Video

It’s Agvocacy Time

Chuck Zimmerman

It’s just about time for the 2012 AgChat Foundation Agvocacy 2.0 Training Conference. Things will kick off tomorrow with a board meeting of the AgChat Foundation followed by an Agtastic Tweet-Up which the attendees of the NAMA Boot Camp are invited to. Then the program kicks off in high gear on Thursday morning. Jamie Johansen and I will be on location during the conference. I’m conducting a session titled, “Media Creation, Storytelling & Publishing” on Friday morning.

Judging by the amount of posts onto the event FB page there are some pretty excited folks getting ready to head to Kansas City, MO. Jamie and I will be sharing some stories and photos from there as we enjoy some great fellowship with farmer agvocates who are gearing up to tell their story to the world.

Ag Groups

Organic Pig Farming

Chuck Zimmerman

Here’s something you don’t see everyday. A group of agricultural journalists from many countries playing with some organic pigs. This is on the Asbergby Farm during the 2012 IFAJ Congress. We met Olle and Catharina Linder who are organic farmers raising pigs and cattle. You can see how they keep their pigs in the video.

What do you think of this type of pig farming? Would it work in the U.S.?

2012 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2012 IFAJ Congress is sponsored by DuPont Pioneer
Animal Agriculture, Farming, IFAJ, Media, Video

2012 Citrus Expo

Chuck Zimmerman

I remember attending Citrus Expo early in the ZimmComm agriblogging history and getting to know my first Nikon DSLR. This was back in 2006, an eternity in the advancement of technology, especially for agricultural communications. You can still see my photos from back then.

Now, it’s seven years later and Southeast AgNet blogs it’s own show. Facebook is now an integral part of what they’re doing with lots of photos and interviews online. It looks like this year’s show was a good one.

Citrus, Media

EcoTek Highlights Young Scientists at USB Event

John Davis

A group of young scientists got to show off what they have learned in their lab during the recent USB Biobased Products Stakeholders Workshop in Dearborn, Michigan. “My focus is on innovation and how to use science as a way of improving society,” explained Keith Young, the founder of EcoTek Lab… a Detroit-based program for students from 2nd grade through high school. Young started the project back in 2005 and has 30 students in his current program with connections to 1,500 more through partner schools.

Young says they are working on projects as varied as bio-plastics to biofuels to growing stem cells in the laboratory. Ecotek starts with an understanding of international policy, focusing on the United Nation’s Millennium Goals. “There’s those eight goals the world has to solve by 2015, and one of those goals deals with sustainability,” adding that he brought the students to this USB event so they better understand the time it takes and the payoff at the end of research. “It makes it easier for me to explain the benefits and opportunities down the road.”

Young also points out that the Ecotek program has a practical side of making sure the students understand that there is a tie to value creation. “Making sure they understand innovation really ensures that they understand that value creation is necessary and is tied to the sciences. The more you know, the more you control.”

You can hear more of Cindy’s interview with Keith here: Keith Young, Founder of Ecotek Lab

And you can see a video of the students’ bio-plastic and here some of them explain how it works here: Ecotek Lab Students Explaining Bio-plastic

Check out the photo album below and the SoyBiobased.org website as well.

2012 USB Biobased Products Stakeholders Workshop Photos

Audio, Soybean, USB, Video

Swedish Beef Cattle Farm – Stenhammar Estate

Chuck Zimmerman

During the 2012 IFAJ Congress we split up into eight different tour groups. My group (Meat Wagon) visited Stenhammar Estate, a beef cattle farm run by the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf. He was not available but his farm manager, Anders Frederiksson was. Anders gave us a tour around the old and new barns and talked about the farm. I captured some of that on video. Our lunch was a BBQ with hamburgers, pork chops, steak and sausage! Yep, that’s a meal fit for a tour group called The Meat Wagon!

2012 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2012 IFAJ Congress is sponsored by DuPont Pioneer
IFAJ, International, Media, Video

Looking Ahead With IFAJ

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 362Wow. The 2012 IFAJ Congress was fantastic as usual. I recommend that any American ag journalists take advantage of this opportunity to make good contacts internationally while expanding your horizons.

In this week’s program you’ll hear from new IFAJ President Marcus Rediger, Managing Editor, Agricultural Information Center in Switzerland. Here’s Marcus passing the IFAJ flag forward to Argentina which will be the site of the 2013 IFAJ Congress.

Marcus and I spoke prior to the closing banquet on Saturday night in Stockholm. He gives us a look ahead for IFAJ during his term.

Next in this week’s program you’ll hear from Maria Mosquera, one of the organizers of the 2013 IFAJ Congress. We’re going to start out in Buenos Aires and then move to Rosario and that’s about all I know except that it will be BIG. The dates are September 1-5 so get it on your calendar.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: Looking Ahead With IFAJ

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.

2012 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2012 IFAJ Congress is sponsored by DuPont Pioneer
Audio, IFAJ, ZimmCast

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The Farm Progress Show, Monsanto and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation have teamed up to help feed Iowa’s hungry with the America’s Farmers Food Drive.
  • Dow AgroSciences announced the launch of POWERCORE™ in Argentina to control major pests in corn.
  • Register now to attend the NAMA 2012 Smart Marketing Trends webinar, Sept. 13 at 2 pm EST.
  • The Louisiana Farm Bureau Radio Network is merging its farm broadcasting operations with the Louisiana Radio Network’s agrinews division, creating one of the largest farm radio networks in the South.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Ford Works with USB to Develop Soy-based Materials

    John Davis

    Ford Motor Company is working with the United Soybean Board to help research, develop and implement soybean-based materials into their products to take the place of petroleum-based materials and improve the sustainability footprint of their operations. At the recent USB Biobased Products Stakeholders Workshop in Dearborn, Michigan, Deb Mielewski, Technical Leader of Plastics Research at Ford, talked about the development of biobased foam being used in every Ford vehicle manufactured in North America. “Automotive foam has to have fantastic compression. It has to rebound back in the field for 15 years under heat and humidity,” she explained.

    Mielewski credits Ford’s work with the USB that started about 10 years ago that has helped the company perfect the foam and make other products, including many of the plastics in vehicles, from soybeans. “We have received [about] seven grants from the USB, so it’s been a really strong partnership,” she says. And she’s been pleasantly surprised by how much the board has helped in some of the issues during development. “When we had technical issues, we would come to the table with USB representatives, and they knew more about their crop, [so] they could help us get past those technical hurdles.”

    During the workshop, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) even got the chance to make some of the soy-based foam. “That was the first time we actually had someone else make the foam, so we were really excited about it,” Mielewski said.

    You can hear more of Cindy’s interview with Deb here: Deb Mielewski, Technical Leader of Plastics Research at Ford

    Check out the photo album below and the SoyBiobased.org website as well.

    2012 USB Biobased Products Stakeholders Workshop Photos

    Audio, Soybean, USB

    FAPRI Looks at Farm Bills’ Differences, Impacts

    John Davis

    A new analysis of the two Farm Bills out there … the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012 that passed the full Senate in June and the House’s Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2012, which made it out of the House Ag Committee last month … shows some similar impacts of the two bills, especially when it comes to direct and counter-cyclical payments. Pat Westhoff, Director, Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI), which did the report, says both bills mark a fundamental change away from those payments that were tied to historical yields on farms. “Instead, the new policies would create policies that would make payments only tied to what farmers tried to produce in a given year,” adding that they would also be tied to market conditions. “A very different world that what we’ve been used to.”

    Westhoff says the elimination of those payments means less predictability in payments. “You may get a very large payment if you have a drop in prices or yields, but there may be other years where you get nothing at all,” he said. Even though things could change by the time the House bill is brought before the full chamber and both versions are worked out in committee, the end of direct payments is likely a done deal. “It may or may not happen for 2013, but I do think it is likely that we’ll see the end of direct payments in the not-too-distant future.” He added that while it might not mean that much for corn and soybean growers, other crops, such as peanuts and rice, could see a bigger impact.

    The report also highlights the importance supplemental insurance coverage will play. “That’s something that’s in both the House and Senate bills,” Westhoff says. “We found what you assume about participation in that possible new program is incredibly important in trying to estimate what it will mean for taxpayers and farmers. That’s one that’s been kind of a sleeper out there that may become front and center of the farm policy debate in the next few weeks.”

    Listen to my conversation with Pat here: Pat Westhoff, Director of FAPRI Read FAPRI’s report here.

    Audio, Corn, Farm Bill, Insurance, Peanuts, Soybean, USDA