The Growing Problem of Food Waste

Chuck Zimmerman

Food waste is a growing problem. That was the message from Kai Robertson, Director, Food, Beverage & Agriculture Practice, BSR, during the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum. I visited with Kai right after her presentation. She startled many of us attending when she presented a statistic from EPA (estimate) that more than 67 billion pounds of food end up in a land fill each year. To put that into perspective, that’s enough food to feed four meals a day to all the 47 million people in the United States at or below poverty level for a year! Clearly there’s a need to do something about it.

Kai says there are a number of things we can do and pointed to the EPA “Food Waste Recovery Hierarchy” which can be thought of as the 3-R’s of food, “Reduce, Recycle, Reuse.” She says consumers can be more cognizant of what they do with food leftovers. In the food distribution chain there needs to be a system to collect perfectly edible food that’s leftover. She says it would also be helpful to have some regulatory policies set to address this situation.

You can listen to my interview with Kai here: Interview with Kai Robertson

2012 Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer, Food

Welcome From Bayer CropScience

Chuck Zimmerman

One of our first speakers at the 2012 Ag Issues Forum is Dr. Mathias Kremer, Head of Global BioScience for Bayer CropScience. He says he wanted the takeaway message from his welcoming remarks to be an understanding of what Bayer CropScience stands for which is “an organization which sees itself as one of the solution providers to the global problems we have and food supply and problems for the farmers in the field. And everything is driven by innovation.” He says the products and innovation they have “have the right team and right spirit and passion behind it.” I asked him about worldwide acceptance of biotech crops and he says there are areas with large areas of adoption but he’s not optimistic the resistance in Europe will change soon.

You can listen to my interview with Dr. Kremer here: Interview with Dr. Mathias Kremer

2012 Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer

Bayer CropScience Gathers Ag Journalists

Chuck Zimmerman

The Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum is underway. We’ve got a full house of agricultural journalists of all “types” here. This is my first time at the event and it is a very broad spectrum (sounds like a herbicide) “media” event. It’s always interesting to see the publication folks shooting video and the broadcast folks taking notes. Hmmm . . . I’ve seen a lot of interviews going on (photos in album below) so I expect this event will generate a lot of stories! I’ve got some interviews of my own coming up shortly.

Photos are online for your viewing pleasure of course: 2012 Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer

Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum

Chuck Zimmerman

The Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum starts today in advance of Commodity Classic. Cindy and I are on the agriblogging highway and this will be our first stop today upon arrival in Nashville.

Topics for the forum include: Food Waste: A Growing Problem; The State of Ag: Domestic and Global Trends; Global Food Security: Thinking Beyond Yield Growth; Feet on the Ground: Sustainability in Action; The Weeds Are Getting Smarter: A Problem Nobody Wants and Hands in the Dirt: First-hand Grower Experiences. It will be interesting to how our speakers define sustainability and if they have a common definition.

Follow the tweets from this event with this hashtag: #AgIssues12

Agribusiness, Bayer

NAMA Announces 2012 Leadership Award Winners

Chuck Zimmerman

National Agri-Marketing AssociationThe National Agri-Marketing Association has announced this year’s Leadership Award winners.

2012 Agribusiness Leader of the Year

The National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) has named John Becherer, CEO of the United Soybean Board, as the 2012 Agribusiness Leader of the Year. This award, which is NAMA’s highest honor, will be presented at the Opening General Session of the 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference, “Acres of Innovation,” April 19, 2012, in Kansas City, Missouri.

The award honors outstanding leaders in agribusiness, education, government service or other agribusiness-related areas who exemplify excellence in agribusiness by their significant contributions to the industry.

For nearly 18 years, John Becherer has guided the Board of more than 60 volunteer U.S. soybean farmer-directors through times of growth and change as it evolved from its inception in 1991 to 2011, when the Board marked its 20th anniversary. Soybeans have seen a 140% increase in global demand for the two decades of USB’s existence and Becherer helped build this growth at a pace that has outperformed global demand for any other major U.S. row crop. For example, soybean prices set an all-time record in 2008 and have remained strong ever since, despite the downturn in some of the other U.S. agricultural sectors and the general global economy.

2012 NAMA Marketer of the Year

Greg Guse, President, Paulsen Marketing, has been named the 2012 NAMA Marketer of the Year. The NAMA Marketer award will be presented during the Second General Session of the 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference, “Acres of Innovation” on Thursday, April 19 at 11:00 a.m. in Kansas City, Missouri and is sponsored by Agri Marketing magazine.

Greg Guse’s many accomplishments span a 35-year career that has always focused on agriculture; from his early days as a communications assistant at GTA Feeds, as a young account guy at Martin Williams, starting his own agency, Gregory Scott Communications, and his fortuitous arrival at Paulsen Marketing in 1995.

Beginning in 2009, Guse’s leadership steered Paulsen to move beyond traditional agency roles to create a consistent ag marketing research program. The result is a number of thought papers and articles released to the industry including: interviews with producers, research in farm communities and outreach to ag companies. These papers generate significant discussion within the industry including numerous requests to present research findings to industry associations, clients and more.

NAMA

Trading Grain Via Pioneer DPP

Chuck Zimmerman

During the Pioneer Media Event Chet Hollingshead visited with Tonia Carpenter, Pioneer Sr. Marketing Manager and Jason Tatge, CEO, Farms Technology.

Tonia says they have a new program to add value to growers, DPP grain desk. She says that after talking with growers the focus always goes back to grain marketing and finding a way to “jump on the volatility of the markets.” That has been accomplished in conjunction with Farms Technology. Tonia says grower adoption of this electronic trading platform has been good. She says once the first sale is made it gets easy and more acceptable. The DPP grain desk (formerly MarketPoint® resource) is an enhanced electronic grain marketing platform that can help growers maximize their profitability in today’s volatile markets.

Jason says one example of how growers can connect with buyers is to visit the website of a participating ethanol plant and the information on how to access the DPP will be front and center. You basically create an account that you can then manage via a mobile app.

You can listen to Chet’s interview with Tonia and Jason here: Interview with Tonia Carpenter & Jason Tatge

Agribusiness, Audio, Pioneer

First USDA Planting Guess

Cindy Zimmerman

Our ZimmPoll question this week is about what you think will be planted this year (just for corn and soybeans, with our apologies to the wheat and cotton growers), and USDA’s Chief Economist gave his answer at the 2012 Agricultural Outlook Forum last week.

“We’re estimating corn plantings at about 94 million acres, the largest plantings since 1944,” said Joe Glauber at the forum. “We’re projecting soybean area at 75 million acres. That’s very similar to last year’s levels.” Last year, actual planted acres totaled 92.3 million for corn and 75.2 for soybeans, so if Glauber were voting in the ZimmPoll, his answer would be “more corn, less soybeans.”

USDA is also predicting wheat acres to increase 3.6 million acres to 58 million and cotton lower at 13 million acres.

This is just USDA’s guesstimate at this point. The planting intentions survey of farmers is being done now and results will be released at the end of March. What do you think the answer will be? Vote in the ZimmPoll and let us know!

Corn, Cotton, Soybean, USDA, Wheat, ZimmPoll

Submit Your Farm or Ranch To Agriculture’s Lasting Heritage

Chuck Zimmerman

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture is expanding the articles and videos featuring century farms via their interactive website, Agriculture’s Lasting Heritage.

Century farms are those farms that have been in operation under the same family for more than 100 years. Appropriately named “Agriculture’s Lasting Heritage,” this website tells the story of American farm and ranch families who have shaped the history of our nation. The AFB Foundation for Agriculture is currently seeking recommendations of century farms to be considered for feature articles and videos.

Agriculture’s Lasting Heritage commemorates more than the proud tradition of the American farm and ranch family, according to American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman, who also serves as president of the foundation. If you would like your farm or ranch to be considered, please go to www.agricultureslastingheritage.org/profiles and click “Submit Your Own Profile”. You may also email inquiries to alh@fb.org.

Farming

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Craig Colonno of Anderson Erickson Dairy, Des Moines, Iowa, was elected President of the National Ice Cream Mix Association.
  • U.S. agricultural equipment exports increased 23 percent in 2011 compared to the previous year for a total $11 billion of machinery shipped to other nations, according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.
  • The sophisticated food demands of newly affluent consumers in China and other developing nations are likely to cause major change in U.S. farming and food production, Asian food policy and world trade, according to Food 2040, a new study of emerging food trends in Asia by the U.S. Grains Council.
  • Liesel Olson has joined Bader Rutter & Associates as a social media specialist.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Historic Gathering of Agriculture Secretaries

    Cindy Zimmerman

    This is one Agricultural Outlook Forum I really wish I could have attended just to see most of the past and present Secretaries of Agriculture gathered on one stage together to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    Pictured here are the eight secretaries who took part in a panel at the forum last Thursday moderated by current Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Top row are Clayton Yeutter (1989-1991), Dan Glickman (1995-2001), Mike Espy (1993-1994), and John Block (1981-1986); bottom row are Senator Mike Johanns (2005-2008), Vilsack, Ann Veneman (2001-2005), and Ed Schafer (2008-2009). The only living agriculture secretary not present was Bob Bergland who served under Jimmy Carter from 1977-1981. But all were included in a USDA video shown at the event “Secretaries of Agriculture – 30 Leaders, 150 Years.”

    “Nine Secretaries of Agriculture, representing 35 years of service, in one place at the same time was an incredible opportunity to learn about USDA’s contributions to the strength and health of this nation with an eye for the impact the department can have in the future,” said Vilsack. “As we reflect on the department’s 150 years, this historic gathering will help us guide how we transform USDA into a more modern and efficient service provider.”

    Watch the USDA video below:

    President Lincoln established USDA because he recognized the potential of America’s farmers and ranchers to provide a safe, ample food supply for our nation and the world. Throughout 2012, USDA will recognize important events, such as President Lincoln’s signing of an Act to establish the Department of Agriculture on May, 15, 1862 and the July signing of the Morrill Act to establish public land grant universities.

    See more photos of Secretaries Day at the USDA on the agency’s Flickr photo album.

    Here’s a couple of stories the USDA’s Rod Bain had on the newsline from the event:
    Historic Gathering Future of Agriculture

    Audio, USDA, Video