USB Biobased Stakeholders’ Workshop

Chuck Zimmerman

Hello from “I wish it was warm and sunny” Cleveland, OH. Today the United Soybean Board is holding a Biobased Stakeholders’ Workshop and I’m on the scene to capture it in photos and interviews. I’m primarily posting onto the USB Biobased Solutions Blog and will also post some items here.

This morning we’ll have Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan with us. She will announce the first 11 companies to receive USDA’s Certified Biobased Product label including several soy products. Deputy Merrigan will then try-out some of these certified products.

We’ll also have USB Director Dale Profit talk about what Biopreferred products mean for his farming operation and representatives from companies receiving the biobased label will discuss their newly certified products.

So, we’re on location at Hoover, Inc. Yes, that’s the vacuum cleaner company. It’s very interesting seeing some of the original advertising for their products. The company is now much larger and diversified and we’ll learn more about that during a morning tour with the Deputy Secretary.

Soybean, USB

Putting Down Roots

Melissa Sandfort

These are my beloved pepper seeds. They represent more than just the possibility of having salsa at the end of this growing season. For a couple of weeks now, I have kept them in paper towels and each day, made sure they had adequate moisture. In response, they sprouted roots. This weekend, we put 30 seeds in soil, hoping to have thriving vines to transplant into our garden once any threat of cold weather is gone.

These seeds represent a sort of emotional connection I feel to being “back home.” I’ve put down roots, and continue to feed that relationship with a community and family that have given so much to me. The people around me gave me a firm foundation – the beginning of a good root system – and continued to feed and sustain me over the years, no matter how many miles were between us.

Planting a garden this year represents the fact that I’m staying here for good, and oh it feels wonderful to take root where I belong.

I know. They’re just seeds.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

USDA Releases 2011 Prospective Plantings Report

Cindy Zimmerman

USDAUSDA expects more corn, wheat and cotton to be planted this year, but slightly less soybeans, according to the Prospective Plantings report released this morning.

Corn growers intend to plant 92.2 million acres of corn for all purposes this year, up 5 percent from last year and 7 percent higher than in 2009. If realized, this will be the second highest planted acreage in the United States since 1944, behind only the 93.5 million acres planted in 2007. Soybean planted area for 2011 is estimated at 76.6 million acres, down 1 percent from last year. If realized, the United States planted area will be the third largest on record. All wheat planted area is estimated at 58.0 million acres, up 8 percent from last year. All cotton plantings for 2011 are expected to total 12.6 million acres, 15 percent above last year.

Read the whole report here.

*POST UPDATE*
Listen to commentary about the report from Brian Hoops on Midwest Market Solutions who participated in this morning’s Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) Crop Report Conference Call.

MGEX Commentary with Brian Hoops
Audio, Corn, Cotton, Soybean, USDA, Wheat

Join us at InfoAg 2011

Melissa Sandfort

InfoAg 2009 was a terrific success. Over 650 participants shared in presentations on a wide range of topics on technology applications and data management and interpretation. As with previous InfoAg Conferences, the networking among participants was again a highlight of the experience. New relationships formed at InfoAg will lead to greater benefits and opportunities for those involved.

InfoAg 2011 will be held July 12-14 in Springfield, Ill.

Coverage of the event will be sponsored by Ag Leader.

Ag Leader, Events

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • AdFarm has hired Brandon Souza, an individual with a strong background in California agriculture and communications, to enhance the company’s credentials in its Sacramento office.
  • CRYSTALYX has launched their newly designed, reorganized website.
  • With the current issue, Drovers becomes Drovers/CattleNetwork.
  • Blount International, Inc., announced that David A. Willmott has been elected to the newly created position of President and Chief Operating Officer.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Japan Disaster May Benefit U.S. Exports

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan has repercussions in a variety of industries. Agriculture is no exception. Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “How will Japan disaster affect US exports?” 61% said it will increase exports while 23% said decrease and 17% said no impact. So how has this disaster affected agriculture in Japan? You can learn more in this week’s ZimmCast.

    It’s mid term for the current administration in Washington, so we thought it would be interesting to get your take on how you think our U.S. Secretary of Agriculture is doing. Here’s your chance to grade him. The new poll is now live and asks the question, “What mid-term grade would you give Ag Sec. Tom Vilsack?” Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.

    ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

    ZimmPoll

    Corn Growers Challenge Nestle Exec Comments

    Cindy Zimmerman

    The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has taken issue with comments made last week by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the billionaire chairman of Nestle, during a “CEO Speaker Series” moderated by Time editor Michael J. Elliott at the Council on Foreign Relations.

    It’s an interesting conversation in which Brabeck-Letmathe comes off as insufferably arrogant, discussing how he and a bunch of other wealthy do-gooders like Charles Schwab, Angelina Jolie, Sharon Stone and Bono gathered for the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to decide how they are going to “give back to society.” After spouting a bunch of philanthropic gobbledy-gook he gets to the issue of child labor, something Nestle has faced criticism about. Brabeck-Letmathe calls it a “very bad issue” which is “not very easy to tackle.” In fact, he calls it “almost natural” and “almost impossible” to stop.

    While Brabeck-Letmathe considers child labor on African cocoa plantations “natural,” he calls the biofuels policy of Europe and the United States “immoral.” He says that biofuels policy is using too much water and driving food prices up. “I think it is absolutely immoral to push hundreds of million(s) of people into hunger, into extreme poverty because of such a policy,” he stated. “And therefore I think — I insist no food for fuel.”

    Needless to say, corn growers were not pleased with those remarks. “Perhaps if Nestle is so concerned about food prices, its board will consider putting more of their $35.7 billion in 2010 profits back into poor communities,” said NCGA President Bart Schott. “Just their profits alone represent more than half the entire farm value of the 2010 U.S. corn crop.”

    In an interview with Chuck at the St. Louis Agribusiness Club meeting on Monday, NCGA CEO Rick Tolman called Brabeck-Letmathe that “crazy guy who’s chairman of Nestle” who got headlines by saying that biofuels are killing people. “Now he has no facts to back it up and the facts don’t support what he says, but that gets headlines,” Rick said.

    Rick noted that he just recently returned from a trip to South Africa where they have a 200 million bushel surplus of corn. “We had much higher levels of poverty and starvation between 2000 and 2005 when we had $2 corn and we were accused then of driving farmers off their farms because our prices were too low,” he said.

    You can listen to or download the interview with Rick here: NCGA's Rick Tolman

    Audio, Corn, Ethanol, Food

    What HSUS Really Is

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Thanks to MoFarmersCare for the production of a video that explains what HSUS really is. Missouri and other farmers do care about their animals and there are great organizations like most of your local animal shelters. Unfortunately, all of the above are being hurt by the activities of this organization.

    Animal Activists, Video

    Agricultural Impact of Disaster in Japan

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 297The disaster in Japan due to the earthquake and tsunami is terrible, especially in terms of the loss of human life. Our hearts and prayers go out to the people who have lost their life or loved ones. Cindy and I had the opportunity to visit Japan when the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists held its annual Congress there in 2007. We not only stayed in the affected area but developed relationships with a number of the agricultural journalists who were participating in the event. One of the coordinators was Masaru Yamada, pictured below. I contacted Masaru yesterday to see if we could talk about how the disaster has affected agriculture and we had a nice discussion via Skype that I’m sharing with you in this week’s program. I’m happy to report that Masaru says he and his family are doing fine.

    Masaru YamadaAccording to Masaru the amount of farm land impacted is less than one percent of the total farmland in Japan. Most of this area was being used for rice and fruit and vegetable production. He says that in some ways the worst of the situation has passed such as affected transportation. However, he fears that in other ways the worst is yet to come for Japanese agriculture. The worst may be how the rest of the world reacts to fears about radiation contamination of food stuffs and he’s hoping that accurate information will be published by journalists the world over. Right now there is a lack of information about how agricultural products and farm land are affected because of the immediate need to devote resources to the disaster itself. He says that there are estimates that more people are missing and feared dead than have already been confirmed. I find that just hard to comprehend. And then there’s the problem with the nuclear power plants themselves.

    This is a situation that’s going to take some time to resolve. In the meantime Masaru says that one way agricultural journalists can provide assistance is to make sure they are reporting good, factual information. I agree with that. We’ve already seen a high level of hysteria in some non-farm reporting about radiation. The upsurge in sales of radiation treatment medication is a good example of the impact this type of reporting can have. Just do a Google News search for it! It’s an example of how sensationalist news reporting can create a manufactured crisis. That’s not to in any way suggest that the situation in Japan with the power plants is not serious by the way. Let’s just use some common sense folks!

    As I noted yesterday, IFAJ is coordinating an assistance effort for agricultural journalists in Japan. Here in the U.S. the place to contact if you’d like to help is the American Agricultural Editors Association. If Masaru’s fears become reality one of the biggest problems Japanese ag journalists may face is a lack of work. Of course in the mean time they also have health and safety concerns if they’re going to cover a situation that has a danger due to the situation with the potential radiation contamination.

    Learn more about how the disaster in Japan has affected the country and its agricultural industry in this week’s program: ZimmCast 297 - Affects of Japan Disaster

    Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, Growmark, locally owned, globally strong, 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

    Audio, Farming, IFAJ, International, ZimmCast

    FAPRI: Farm Incomes Up But Not Biggest Driver in Consumer Price Rise

    John Davis

    The amount consumers will be paying for food at the grocery store could jump this year, but rising farm incomes won’t be the biggest factor in that increase.

    The latest report from the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri shows there will be good farm incomes in the U.S. this year … a record $99 billion in 2011 … but it won’t be the biggest driver in an expected 4 percent increase in consumer prices. FAPRI’s director, Pat Westhoff, that distinction belongs energy costs.

    “[High oil prices] are probably the biggest reason for the year-to-year changes. The higher energy costs we’ve seen in recent months do increase the cost of transporting and processing the food. And those are a big share of the overall consumer food dollar.”

    Westhoff points out that while the amount of money American farmers will be making this year will increase, still only about 20 cents of every food dollar goes back to the people who grow and raise that food.

    Westhoff says crop producers should have a good 2011, with livestock producers getting more of a mixed bag. “The positive is we have seen higher prices for cattle and hogs. But they’re also facing much higher feed costs this year.”

    He adds that strong international demand for U.S. farm products will buoy the ag sector with cattle prices expected to go up and tightening corn stocks, helped by advancements for the ethanol and biofuels sectors, will keep those prices higher as well.

    Westhoff cautions farmers that FAPRI doesn’t have some kind of crystal ball, and producers should expect some volatility.

    “If you’re a producer or someone using agricultural products, you’re going to want to be very active in risk management these days to make sure that you’re able to handle different contingencies that might come up over the course of the next couple of months.”

    Listen to my entire conversation with Westhoff here: Pat Westhoff, Director, MU FAPRI

    Audio, Biodiesel, Biofuels, Ethanol, Farm Policy