It might be a first. An AgWired shirt proudly displayed over Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan.
Showing off is John Davis, one of the long time editors who has posted mostly on our Domestic Fuel website but also on AgWired. He’s helping develop a radio journalism/production program and I’m sure we’ll get some updates from him from time to time. I saw John briefly in Washington, DC Reagan Airport. I was flying out and he was flying on. Glad to see he made it safe and sound.
It’s Drive Green Challenge time again this weekend. Today I’m in Clifton Park, NY visiting with Hudson River Tractor Company. I spoke with one of the owners, Tory Northrop, who gave me some background on how the company came together. He’s in the group photo of the family members out here for today’s event.
Tory says the merger that made what is now Hudson River Tractor Company happened in 2005. They serve a combined ag/consumer market with consumer now counting for over half of their business. The territory includes the Albany, NY metro area, northern New York City area and Chatham area. He says the Drive Green Challenge helps bring a lot more attention to all the products that John Deere offers and is a big draw. He says compact tractors and anything to do with improving their landscape seems to be of high interest right now. You can listen to my interview with Tory here: Tory Northrop Interview
You can see photos from the event in the Hudson River Drive Green Challenge Photo Album.
Since May is World Trade Month, you would think it would be a great time for Congress to pass those pesky pending Free Trade Agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama that have been awaiting approval for years. Several of the nation’s largest agricultural organizations who testified before the House Agriculture Committee this week on why it is so important to get those agreements operating think so. Actually, most would say that last May World Trade Month would have been better!
Among those testifying was National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president Bill Donald of Montana. “Each day that goes by without implementing these agreements is another day we risk losing American jobs by losing market share to other countries. With 96 percent of the world’s consumers living outside of the United States, future growth of the U.S. economy depends upon our ability to produce and sell products competitively in the global marketplace,” said Donald. May is also National Beef Month, coincidentally.
National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman told the committee that passing the FTAs and developing new markets for our country’s agricultural products will help our sector lead the nation in economic growth and international competitiveness. “The United States is the largest corn producer and exporter in the world, and exports of corn and corn co-products are essential to producer income,” Tolman said. “Our members want to maintain current export markets and significantly increase demand for corn through opportunities in value-added corn products.”
The committee also heard from American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman, which you can see on the AFBF website. “These trade agreements are not only important to the bottom line of America’s farmers and ranchers but the economic health of our rural communities and the overall U.S. economy,” said Stallman. “There is a long supply chain made up of American workers who get products from the farm gate to foreign consumers.”
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also noted the importance of the FTAs for jobs in this country. “”These three trade agreements will create jobs. Through agricultural exports alone, they will yield over $2.3 billion in sales and help support more than 19,000 American jobs in agriculture and related industries,” said Vilsack.
Some progress has been seen recently on moving the FTAs forward and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk indicated to the committee that all three agreements will be submitted to Congress with a view to having them considered this year.
I don’t think he makes his living shooting baskets. He’s Josef Newgarden, Indy Lights driver. He was also one of the competitors at the Iowa Corn Growers Join The Team promotion at Iowa Speedway. Josef gets pumped up, about competing and about corn. I think you’ll hear his intensity in my interview with him.
Josef called our event a “prep rally” for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 race weekend coming up in June. It will be his first time racing at the track. When it comes to Iowa Corn Growers he says, “Corn growers are cool!” He loves the unique way they are promoting their product.
You can listen to my interview with Josef here: Josef Newgarden Interview
We’ve got a lot of initiatives going to help consumers better understand where their food is coming from. I’ve had several discussions lately with people about this. Topics include inter-organizational coordination, competition for funding, differences in approaches and membership. What do you think about all the different groups trying to reach the non-farm public about farming? The more the merrier? A ZimmPoll we conducted had the largest percentage saying there are too many. We’re hearing a lot of talk about unity in agriculture in the face of increasing urbanization and regulation. I’m just wondering if the proliferation of groups attempting to do what appears on the surface to be the same thing sends a different message. I applaud everyone who is trying to tell agriculture’s story. This is not an easy task. Farming is not an easy thing to explain to those who have never been exposed to it. Forget about the complexities of policy and foreign trade. All right, got that out there. Would be interested in your thoughts.
I was prompted to post these questions after receiving an announcement today that the American Farmers for the Advancement of Conservation and Technology has joined with the Alliance to Feed the Future. The Alliance was announced during National Ag Day activities. Their goal is to “help tell the story of modern farming from the heart of the family farmer.”
The Alliance currently has 63 members and continues to grow. All sectors of the food value chain have come together in the alliance – including professional societies, commodity groups, farmer organizations, industry and academia. Membership in the Alliance will help multiply the effects of their individual and joint efforts to tell the true and balanced story of modern food production. The Alliance to Feed the Future website is home to an assortment of resources and information regarding modern food production from farm to fork.
It is great to see so much effort being put into telling the farmer’s story. But collectively, what is the budget of all the groups trying to do this? I know I haven’t mentioned others. You probably know who they are. I think that if all the groups trying to reach the consumer could somehow actually pool their funds and create a coordinated campaign they might just reach the budget of a very large extremist group that wants to end production agriculture. Do I sound pessimistic? Probably. But I think all these efforts need to be done. And beside them we need farmers themselves to do what they can. Let’s all “agvocate.” It’s what we can do regardless what our budget is.
Giant sweet potatoes could help South Carolina get into the ethanol game and provide an alternative crop for farmers to replace tobacco.
At the recent International Biomass Conference and Expo in St. Louis, Dr. Janice Ryan-Bohac attracted a lot of attention carrying around a sweet potato the size of a newborn baby.
She’s the president of CAREnergy, Carolina Advanced Renewable Energy, located in South Carolina and dedicated to the development of dedicated energy crops for the southeast, such as the eTuber™ sweet potato and sweet sorghum. “We are looking at feedstocks for ethanol and other fuels for the southeastern states because corn is not a crop that does well in the southeast. So, what we want is a very efficient crop for water, nitrogen, very high yielding,” she said, and the eTuber meets those qualifications. “These are very dry sweet potatoes, these are not in the food market, it would be a dedicated energy crop,” she explained. “We would like to build or takeover a corn ethanol plant to show that these feedstocks work, in combination with sweet sorghum, which does very well in the southeast. We want to get in the ethanol game and create clean, green jobs in one of the poorest areas of the United States.”
Janice says the tubers can grow to be over 20 pounds, which would translate into enough starch to produce 1500-1800 gallons of ethanol per acre. “The longer you grow them, the bigger they get. This crop never dies until the frost kills it.”
Listen to or download my interview with Dr. Janice Ryan-Bohac here: Dr. Janice Ryan-Bohac, CAREnergy
Former Iowa Hawkeye and NBA basketball player, Ryan Bowen, was a master of the remote controlled cars at the Iowa Corn Growers Join The Team promotion at Iowa Speedway. Ryan, who is now the video coordinator for the men’s basketball team, was there to celebrate the recently announced partnership between Iowa’s corn growers and the state’s two major universities in the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series.
“I don’t think you can think about Iowa and not think about corn, the University of Iowa and Iowa State,” Ryan said in an interview during the fun event, which featured pedal tractors, cornhole toss, corn shucking, remote controlled race cars and more. Ryan, pictured here in the yellow shirt, got his remote car through finish line way ahead of other team!
You can listen to my interview with Ryan here: Ryan Bowen Interview
Iowa State head football coach Paul Rhoads got competitive during this week’s Iowa Corn Join The Team Promotion at Iowa Speedway. Here he is with his rendition of “Gentlemen, start your engines.” You can hear it in the video I made from the event.
Coach Rhoads says his team gave an “exhaustive effort” at the promotional event. He says the opportunity to get together with corn growers, Indy Car drivers and other university people is “the state of Iowa.” People get excited about these opportunities. You can listen to my interview with Coach Rhoads here: Coach Paul Rhoads Interview
Pedal tractor racing, corn shucking, cornhole toss. They make for a fun team event and that’s what the Iowa Corn Growers did along with Indy car drivers and representatives from the University of Iowa and Iowa State University. I was shooting still photos but also caught some of the action on video. Craig Floss, CEO, Iowa Corn Growers, introduces the team and guides them through the events. I hope you enjoy it.
