The Kernel is in charge at Corn Corps. That’s the Illinois Corn Growers blog. Find out what they think of Chipotle’s support of HSUS.
As Illinois’ corn farmers, we’re proud to power a sustainable economy through ethanol, livestock and nutritious food. We love agriculture, the land and CornBelters baseball. Visit us on www.ilcorn.org, or follow us on Twitter, http://twitter.com/ilcorn.
Sanani Coffee
Regular AgWired fans know that I am a coffee snob. That’s Cindy’s term since I just prefer to drink good coffee. That’s why I got excited when I learned about Sanani, The Original Mocha Coffee.
In this week’s program we’re going to learn not only about Sanani but coffee itself. I think you’ll learn some things you did not know. I sure did. For example, mocha does not mean that this is chocolate flavored coffee. Here’s why from the company website.
Not commonly known is that the root of the word “Mocha” comes from the port city of Mocha in Yemen, where the history of coffee trading began. The Original Mocha Coffee, a pure single-origin coffee identified by its port of origin, is so prized that even the perceived imperfections are a desired characteristic. The irregular shape of these naturally organic beans, a result of an inhospitable growing environment, produces one of the finest cups of coffee in the world.
I visited with the founder and President of Sanani, Tarif Ausaf. He started his career as a computer engineer with a degree from Auburn University. After many years sitting behind a computer he decided to start a coffee career. I’m glad he did.
What attracted me to this story was a line from the company news release, “Intense Flavor without the Nerve Jangling Buzz!” I’m all about flavor and I’ve wanted to be able to drink more than just a cup without getting too much of a morning jolt. I haven’t yet tried the coffee but some is on the way and I’ll report on that later.
In our interview we talk about the history of coffee and things like the differences between arabica and robusto beans. Of course we also talk about how you can order some Sanani and their coffee club.
Since we’re talking coffee the program ends with a song titled, “Smell The Coffee” by Chris Crowder from Music Alley.
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, Novus International, and Leica Geosytems for their support.
You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast below.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our a Subscribe page.
Zimfo Bytes
- Sponsored by Pro*Act, LLC, five chefs from across the country and throughout the industry received top honors in the 2010 Produce Excellence in Foodservice Awards Program at United Fresh 2010.
- Agrium Advanced Technologies has announced the promotion of Jeff Novak to vice president, marketing and innovation and the expansion of its marketing department to include agronomy, communications, marketing, product innovation and regulatory affairs.
- The 6th National 25x’25 Summit, a gathering of policy makers; farm, ranch, livestock and forestry leaders; state alliance leaders; congressional staff and federal agency representatives, is set for June 29-July 1 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, in Arlington, Va.
- The American Soybean Association will host the Legislative Forum July 13-14, 2010, in Washington D.C., in conjunction with the ASA Summer Board meeting.
Alltech Fun Run
At Alltech’s 26th International Animal Health and Nutrition Industry Symposium we got a break from the weather for an early morning Fun Run.
This is a very healthy component of the annual event and we had what looked like a near record number of participants this year.
I don’t know who won. I think we’re all winners! I was just glad to cross the finish line.
We’ve got the opening general session coming up soon. I’ll be there posting from the session so check back often.
2010 Alltech Symposium Photo Album
Here’s the start of the Fun Run.
Alltech Sings At International Dinner
The Alltech 26th International Animal Health and Nutrition Industry Symposium got underway this evening with the International Dinner. This may be the 26th Symposium but it’s the celebration of 30 years since Alltech was founded by Dr. Pearse Lyons.
Once again this year Dr. Everett McCorvey, Professor of Voice at the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, introduced some wonderful voices to sing for us. You can listen to one of the songs below.
The audience also got into the act on a couple of songs like “My Old Kentucky Home” and “Molly Malone.”
I’ve updated the photo album and we’ll get started at 9am with our first general session. So until then . . .
131 Days Until Alltech World Equestrian Games
We’re still counting down the days until the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. 131 to go as of today. We may be counting down to the games but the annual Alltech International Animal Health and Nutrition Symposium is underway in Lexington, KY.
I’m getting ready to go to the opening International Dinner in just a few minutes and will have more to report later this evening. This opening dinner is a great start to making new friends and getting re-acquainted with old ones from around the world.
I’ll be covering this year’s Symposium primarily on AgWired. For additional information please visit the Alltech Symposium blog. You can also find it in Spanish.
The photo album has already been started and you can find it here: 2010 Alltech Symposium Photo Album
Can the Local Food Movement Feed the World?
I think that one, living in California, and two, living on a ranch, is causing me to obsess about food. Or maybe it is because publishers keep sending me books about food to review (come back next week for one of those very reviews). Regardless of the reason, I was in Whole Foods last week and the last few times I was there, I noticed that they are labeling all of their fruit and 
produce by country, and sometimes, city of origin (also known as food labeling a separate topic for discussion). The idea is to support local farmers first, and then to support American farmers second.
There are several driving factors for this change at Whole Foods one of which is that many people believe that as much as possible, they should eat local food. While the definition of local food varies, basically it is food that was produced within 250 miles of where you live. Second, people believe our food supply is not safe and knowing the country of origin of spinach will give them some sort of piece of mind, i.e. American food is safer.
Oftentimes, these same people are promoting that the local food movement will feed the world (and save Africa, yet another discussion you can read about here) but there are some serious problems with this way of thinking. Many people in our country do not live in areas that can even begin to produce food within 250 miles….Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada are just three states that could never produce enough food to feed their populations because they don’t have enough water and they would have to put land into production.
People are criticizing agriculture for the amount of land they use when in reality, farmers are producing MORE each year using LESS land. Hey enviros – are you prepared to put millions of acres of land back into production to ensure your local food supply?
People are also criticizing agriculture for the amount of irrigation needed to grow your food. Do you realize that the local food you eat is irrigated? No food grows without water. That being said, there are companies dedicated to creating hybrids that require less water but still have high yields. There I go again, it’s that less is more thing ag’s got going on.
Don’t get me wrong, I say this all the time and will continue to say it, I’m all for local food production and the support of small, family owned farms – I live on one. But we can not feed the world with local food production. However, production farmers can and will feed the world in a sustainable manner all while producing more from less. Now that’s something we need to get behind.
Richard Knowlton in Meat Industry Hall of Fame
The Meat Industry Hall of Fame is profiling their inaugural class members. Richard “Dick” Knowlton is the first one that I’ve received information on.
Meat and poultry production has been a primary component of the nation’s agricultural productivity—a bedrock of our security and economic might. Meat and poultry processing has responsibility for industry growth that has provided many communities with robust economic activity, millions of jobs and a legacy of accomplishment and progress.
The MEAT INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME®.was created to be a repository of that history and a shrine to the leaders and legends whose vision, skill and dedication shaped and sustained the meat industry as the leading sector of food production.
Richard L. “Dick” Knowlton, a member of the inaugural class of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame®, began his career at Hormel Foods in 1956 as a merchandising manager and eventually became president and chief operating officer in 1979 and chairman in 1981. He managed Hormel Foods to consistent profitability and propelled the once staid, old-line meat packing company into the future by spearheading a company-wide emphasis on development of value- added products.
Among his many business accomplishments, he managed the company through a massive re-invention of its product lines to become a modern retail powerhouse. He built a $100 million state-of-the-art processing plant in Austin, Minnesota that in 1982 was the most productive in the industry and featured robotic technology that was years ahead of the industry.
Alltech’s United Nations of Agriculture
Billy Frey calls the Alltech Symposium the “U.N. of agriculture.” I got a preview of the year’s event from him this morning that I thought I’d share. I’ll get in to Lexington, KY Sunday afternoon prior to the opening International Dinner. He says they’ll have over 1.500 in attendance this year with over half of them coming from outside the United States. They’ll be coming to learn more about animal nutrition for all species (beef, dairy, swine, aqua, poultry, equine and pets). Besides all the Symposium programs there’s also a lot of sharing of ideas which has been a real benefit seen by attendees year after year.
This year their will be live streams from the Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning sessions which you’ll find on their website.
You can listen to my interview with Billy below.
Gadgets For Communications
This summer I will be conducting several presentations for ag communications groups and the use of new technology (gadgets) will be a central theme. I’m looking for some feedback here on what you would most like to know on this subject. Feel free to leave comments or email me. I’m thinking of doing a series of posts on the subject too.
Questions I would like some feedback on include:
How important is technology to your job?
Does your company organization provide sufficient technology support? Do you have a gadget budget?
What type of gadgets are you most interested in learning more about: computers, netbooks, tablets, cameras, audio recorders, video recorders, software, methods of internet access, memory cards/readers, cloud services for web apps/data storage, hard drives, archive solutions. Feel free to mention specific brands or items.
How do you currently use gadgets in your job?
Do you need training? What method of training would be most useful?
What gadgets do you currently own and use in your job?
What gadgets do you want the most?
And speaking of gadgets. Here’s an ad for one of my most recent ones that I use a lot.