Alliance To Feed The Future

Chuck Zimmerman March 17, 2011

The Alliance to Feed the Future was announced during National Ag Day activities by Dave Schmidt, President, International Food Information Council. There are already 48 who have joined the Alliance. Their goal is “building understanding and promoting the benefits of modern food production, processing and technology.” The reason? “As misperceptions about modern food production and technology become increasingly common, a new alliance has formed to better articulate how our food is produced.” He made the announcement during the luncheon and you can hear his announcement here: Alliance to Feed the Future Announcement

I also interviewed Dave and asked him about his organization as well as the newly formed alliance. You can listen to my interview with Dave here: David Schmidt Interview

More about the Alliance:

Members span all sectors of the food value chain and include professional societies, commodity groups, industry and academia to coordinate via the Alliance to help multiply the effects of their individual and joint efforts to tell the true story of modern food production.

“The more consumers understand how their food is produced, the more they can appreciate the role modern agriculture plays in providing safe, affordable, and nutritious food” says Dave Schmidt, President and CEO at the International Food Information Council, who coordinates the Alliance. “The Alliance will be a clearinghouse of resources to increase consumer understanding of this role.”

2011 National Ag Day Photo Album

AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by:
and and

Ag Day, Ag Groups, Audio

ASTA Meets Ag Day

Chuck Zimmerman March 17, 2011

During the National Ag Day banquet I met one of our sponsors for Ag Day coverage, Andy Lavigne, American Seed Trade Association.

Andy says ASTA is 127 years old and was started by seed companies to promote high quality seed. Member companies produce seed from alfalfa to zucchini and everything in between. If it can be grown from a seed, that’s what their members produce. That makes for a wide variety of companies. They work on legislative matters for their members to try to keep regulations from becoming too burdensome and to make sure there are seed variety options for growers. They do this by working with grower groups and the food industry.

I asked him to describe the current legislative climate and what the key issues ASTA will be working on this year. He says it’s an interesting time and right now agriculture is doing very well. But the challenge will be with Congress and the pressure to reduce spending. He says they are helping make sure agriculture is at the table when the negotiating is going on.

The top priority for ASTA is working with the grower community to make sure there is a viable farm bill. It’s not just because there are a couple of items that have a direct impact on seed production but because it’s so important to their customers.

You can listen to my interview with Andy here: Andrew Lavigne Interview

2011 National Ag Day Photo Album

AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by:
and and

Ag Day, Ag Groups, ASTA, Audio

Ag Day Essay Contest Winners

Chuck Zimmerman March 17, 2011

The winners of the National Ag Day Essay Contest have been announced. There are two of them, one for a written entry and one for a video entry. In the photo is written essay winner Nora Faris, Concordia, Missouri with Dr. John Bonner, Chair of Ag Council of America who presented her with her check during the National Ag Day banquet. Nora also read us her winning entry which you can read on the Ag Day website: Nora Faris Essay

The video winner is Kyle Trevino, Madera, California:

2011 National Ag Day Photo Album

AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by:
and and

Ag Day, Audio, Video

Happy Trails to Derry Brownfield

Cindy Zimmerman March 17, 2011

“Bury Derry Day” was a day of mixed emotions for family, friends and fans who attended his funeral and celebration of life Wednesday in California, Missouri. There were many tears, but I would say that most of them were tears of laughter remembering Derry Brownfield’s life. I have not laughed so hard in a long time listening to his oldest son Jay (who looks just like him!) relate stories about Derry through the years.

Missourinet news director Bob Priddy, who knew Derry for over 40 years, did the eulogy at the funeral, concentrating on Derry’s early years in radio at KLIK in Jefferson City where they worked together. One especially entertaining story was about a practical joke that fellow news guys at KLIK played on Derry. One day on the air, Derry had taken to task the Secretary of Agriculture at the time over something he had done or said that Derry disagreed with. A couple of the KLIK guys decided to have some fun by tampering with the UPI newswire in the news room, taking some of the continuous feed paper and typing up a bogus story saying that the ag secretary was upset over the critical comments made by a “certain Midwest farm broadcaster.” Derry came in the next morning, went through the wire copy, found the story and felt he should report it and respond to it during his next broadcast. The jokers didn’t tell him the truth until he was just about ready to go on the air with it. Not often that Derry was had – but that was funny!

Listen to Bob Priddy’s eulogy to Derry here: Derry Brownfield Eulogy

It is so appropriate that Derry’s life was celebrated this week during National Agriculture Week, since he spent his life speaking as a farmer, to the farmer, for the farmer, from the farm. Congressman Rick Crawford (R-AR) even devoted a moment on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to remember Derry. “His vision and passion for informing and educating rural America was unparalleled and an inspiration to the farmers and farm broadcasters he influenced,” Crawford said. “We can take what Derry taught us and honor his legacy by continuing the tradition of quality agricultural reporting.”

Watch it here:

Audio, Media, Video

Chairman of Ag Day

Chuck Zimmerman March 17, 2011

The Chairman of the Agriculture Council of America is Dr. John Bonner, CAST. During National Ag Day activities he was busy and had the pleasure to introduce the Essay Content winners. I’ll more on that in my next post. I spoke with him about ACA and Ag Day.

John says that ACA is having a great year and points out that all week is “ag week and all year is ag year.” He says that the events of National Ag Day bring in a lot of students who have been making visits with elected officials. I interviewed several of them and will be sharing those soon. John says that Ag Day is very important as a method to help educate the public about American agriculture. He also mentioned a new paper that was published this week by the Council for Agriculture Science and Technology that examines the importance of agricultural research. With all the talk about budget cutting in Washington, DC, that seems to be a timely publication. You can find it on the CAST website.

You can listen to my interview with John here: Dr. John Bonner Interview
2011 National Ag Day Photo Album

AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by:
and and

Ag Day, Audio

Facebook Is Big Dog In Social Networking

Chuck Zimmerman March 17, 2011

It looks like Facebook is the big dog in the social media world according to you. Our last ZimmPoll asked the question, “Which social network do you use the most.” A majority say Facebook, 64%, followed by Twitter, 16%, YouTube, 8%, Linkedin, 5%, Other, 5%, Classmates.com, 1%, Flickr, !% and MySpace, 0%. I can’t remember when I’ve checked my MySpace account either.

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “When will planting season start this year?” It’s that time now that we’re in Ag Week with spring just around the corner! 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

Old Tractors

Melissa Sandfort March 17, 2011

Our family farming operation bleeds green. To any John Deere lover, you know what I mean. The tractors today are bigger, have more horsepower, more options and enable growers to accomplish so much more in a short amount of time. It wasn’t always so.

The top photo is a Mogul 8-16 breaking sod on our family’s farm in the early 1900s. This was McCormick’s (International Harvester) first attempt at a smaller tractor and was manufactured in 1915. It had one forward and reverse speed: 1.5 miles per hour.

The middle photo is a Titan 10-20, also an International Harvester, and was also built in about 1915. It had a maximum speed of 3 miles per hour. My grandmother’s family used this tractor to harrow 70 acres per day. (Brand new, the price was $950.)

Both the Mogul and the Titan ran on kerosene.

The bottom photo is a Farmall … my great grandfather’s first tractor he purchased in 1929.

Today’s equipment is built to cover more ground, more efficiently, in an effort to provide food for a growing domestic and world population. Just remember – bigger doesn’t mean ‘corporate’. It just means there’s a farmer out there working long hours, farming more acres, so that you can go to the grocery store and buy affordable, healthy food for your family. Farmers today just have more mouths to feed.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort March 16, 2011

Farm Journal Media recently received the Grand Neal Award, which recognized the service and multimedia strength of the Farm Journal Legacy Project.
Chris Nelson, Pete Holman, Bill Freeman and Col. Randy Baxley have joined forces to form Roundup Internet Livestock Marketing, based in Visalia, Calif.
The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and the National FFA organization announce the availability of classroom-ready resources aligned with national curricula standards for science, math and social studies. The free materials are available online via the NASS website and the FFA Learning Center.
American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology (AFACT) have scheduled a series of free webinars for producers and veterinarians, designed to provide specific steps that can be taken on the farm to insure appropriate use of animal health products.

Zimfo Bytes

National Ag Day Keynote Speaker

Chuck Zimmerman March 15, 2011

At the National Ag Day dinner in Washington, DC our keynote speaker was USDA Under Secretary Michael Scuse. He welcomed us to this day of celebration.

He starts out describing his support of ariculture today by saying, “Our farmers and ranchers are the best in the world, bar none.” He has a lot of statistics that show how well American farmers have done in recent years. It’s time to remind people you know to thank a farmer.

You can listen to and download his remarks here: Michael Scuse, Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture.
2011 National Ag Day Photo Album

AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by:
and and

Ag Day

House Ag Chairman Lucas Addresses Ag Day

Chuck Zimmerman March 15, 2011

We’ve got youth in agriculture here at National Ag Day from just about every organization you can think of including the FFA. Introducing our lunch speaker today was Victor Salazar, Connecticut FFA state president. He was introduced by Orion Samuelson and I’m thinking that alone made an impression on him. But then it was his turn to do the introduction and he did an awesome job. I’ve got his intro on the audio file you can listen to below.

U.S. Representative Frank Lucas (R-OK), Chairman of the House Ag Committee, thanked, “Mr. President,” which got a good chuckle since we were in the Capitol Bldg. He says the last time he came in third in a political contest was for FFA Reporter in Oklahoma once upon a time. He then talked farm bill and budget and says it’s going to be a tough year. He asked everyone to help educate members of the House who may not fully understand the business of agriculture.

You can listen Victor and Chairman Lucas here: Ag Comm. Chrm. Lucas Comments
2011 National Ag Day Photo Album

AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by:
and and

Ag Day, Audio

Page 1,443 of 2,395
←
1
...
1,442
1,443
1,444
...
2395
→