Ag Day Celebration Events In Washington, DC

Chuck Zimmerman

Time to make your plans to participate in the 2010 Ag Day Celebration. Here are the details:

Ag Day 2010 in Celebration of American Agriculture

Join other industry leaders on March 18, 2010, for two great events to honor and celebrate just how AMAZING American agriculture really is!

Mix & Mingle Luncheon

11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
U.S. Capitol Visitors Center
Washington, DC

Complimentary admittance to luncheon. Register for Luncheon

National Ag Day Dinner & Cocktails

5:30 p.m.
USDA Whitten Building Patio
Washington, DC

Tickets: $100 per person, or $1,000 for a reserved table of 10
hosted by the Agriculture Council of America in recognition of National Ag Week

Invited Guest Speaker:

United States Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack Register for Dinner

Ag Day

No Farms No Food Merchandise

Chuck Zimmerman

This slogan pretty well sums things up don’t you think? No Farms No Food. The American Farmland Trust opened an E-Commerce store during the holiday season and you can still make purchases.

The store features our first line of products with the No Farms No Food® message. American Farmland Trust encourages buyers to keep the shopping spirit alive as we welcome 2010 and introduce new items throughout the year at http://www.zazzle.com/americanfarmland.

Sales from the store serve a vital purpose in helping AFT achieve its mission to protect farm and ranch land, increase the availability of fresh local food and farm products, and keep the land and our communities healthy. The profits from our e-commerce store continue to benefit the on-the-ground programs we implement each year.

Ag Groups

Encourage Yellow Tail To Withdraw H$U$ Support

Chuck Zimmerman

According to radical extremist group H$U$, they have received a $100,000 donation from Yellow Tail wines. They’re calling it the “tails for tails” program and the organizational logo will appear on Yellow Tail wine displays throughout the country through the end of March. The photo shows what one former product fan thinks of the donation decision.

Feel free to let Yellow Tail know your thoughts on their Facebook page. I have and unless they change their decision I have also removed them from my list of ZimmComm approved wines.

Wackos

Ohioans For Humane Farms Files Petition

Amanda Nolz

I guess I’m not shocked that HSUS has pulled this bait and switch on Ohio voters. While stepping aside to let Ohio farmers pass the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, our friends at HSUS are now campaigning to make sure that board pushes their agendas forward, which include: abolishing meat, dairy and eggs from the American diet and putting farmers and ranchers out of business. In their newest campaign, Ohioans for Humane Farms, HSUS and Farm Sanctuary are back on the campaign trail, ready to take action in the next election. Check out an excerpt from Kristy Foster in Farm and Dairy.

Producers and state officials had heard it was coming. Now, it’s official: The Humane Society of the United States launched a counterattack on Ohio Jan. 27. Ohioans for Humane Farms, backed by HSUS and Farm Sanctuary, submitted a petition — including signatures from Ohio voters in 48 counties — to Ohio’s Secretary of State in support of placing an anti-cruelty measure on the November ballot.

Regulations requested include: 1. End confinement for veal calves, breeding pigs and chickens in what has been described by the Humane Society of the United States as “tiny cages.” 2. Stop “downer cows” or animals too sick or injured to stand or walk on their own from entering the human food chain. 3. Establish regulations for the euthanasia of sick and injured animals.

politics, Wackos

Field To Table Video

Chuck Zimmerman

How many discussions have you participated in about showing consumers how food gets from the field to the plate? I lost count a while ago. There are many groups and efforts going on to accomplish this. Here’s one I just found from the Canned Food Alliance. They’re using YouTube and MealTimes.org.

Canned food is one of the most versatile options for creating affordable, quick and healthy meals especially during colder months. But common misperceptions persist about the canning process. Within hours of harvesting, top quality fruits and vegetables are simply and naturally preserved for convenience and year-round availability, so you can enjoy tropical fruit even during the cold days of winter. Cans are also one of the safest and most recyclable forms of packaging available. Watch “Canned Food From Field to Table” to get the facts from the people who grow, pack, recommend and cook with canned foods.

The video features food blogger Tom Barritt, authto of food blog, Culinary Types, Associate Director of the Food and Nutrition Practice at Ketchum. Interesting combination. Are you a journalist or a public relations person? I don’t care personally and he is transparent about it. Doesn’t bother me. Does it bother you?

Agencies, Farming, Food, Video

Things We Learned During the Ag Associates Conference

Joanna Schroeder

StollerUSA’s Ag Associates Conference has come to a close. The attendees were pumped up by all that they learned and they are looking forward to next year.

I asked many people during the course of the week what information they found to be most valuable. While many had a hard time just coming up with one thing (they all had many things) I heard several topics repeated no matter where the attendee was from. Some of them included how to listen to the plant, the importance of not only root mass but root tips, epigenetics, and learning to focus more on plant health below the soil because if the plant is does not have healthy roots, it will not achieve maximum yields.

Watch the recap video below with more things that the attendees would like all growers around the world to know, and we hope to see you next year.

Ag Associates Conference Flickr Album.

Agribusiness, Video

Chicago Farmers Reminder

Chuck Zimmerman

chic-farmers-fair-10This is just a reminder that I’ll be attending and presenting at Saturday’s Chicago Farmers Farmland Investment Fair. It will be held at the Joliet Junior College Weitendorf Agricultural Education Center.

I’ll be conducting two morning sessions on social media before heading to Dallas, TX for the National Biodiesel Conference where I’ll be the Biodiesel Blogger again.

If you haven’t registered for the Farmland Investment Fair it’s not too late.

Uncategorized

SureVac From Ag Leader Technology

Chuck Zimmerman

Earlier this week Ag Leader Technology added the patent-pending SureVac electric row shutoff to their lineup of planter section shutoff devices. Since I was at the Iowa Power Farming Show I stopped in and learned all about it from Chad Huedepohl. You can watch the interview or just listen to it below. Here’s the details:

SureVac provides today’s precision farming operation with an easily- installed, zero-maintenance solution to reduce seed costs and increase yield potential.

SureVac is designed for John Deere Pro-SeriesTM XP row units, but is also compatible with any John Deere vacuum seed meter manufactured in the last 20 years. In addition to John Deere corn and soybean seed disks, SureVac supports the eSet® vacuum disk from Precision Planting.

Chad says SureVac is an electric row shutoff made to shut off the seed placement per row on a row by row basis. He says this benefits the farmer user by saving on seed and avoiding “doubles” such as on point rows.

Iowa Power Farming Show Photo Album

Ag Leader, Agribusiness, Audio, Equipment, Farm Shows

America’s Farmers Grow Communities

Chuck Zimmerman

MonsantoThere are booths on the floor of three different buildings at the Iowa Power Farming Show. They’re also in the hallways. I stopped at this one to learn about the Monsanto sponsored America’s Farmers Grow Communities Project. Lots of farmers were stopping by to sign up their favorite local charity. To tell us all about it I interviewed Gayla Daugherty, Monsanto Communications Manager.

She says it’s a new project for farmers to sign up a local non-profit of their choice to win via a random drawing. There are 179 counties involved in Iowa/Missouri/Arkansas and you can see them listed on the official rules page.

Plant $2,500 in your community and watch it grow.

As a farmer, you care for our land and grow our economy. You make everyone’s lives better – locally, nationally and globally. To thank you, Monsanto wants to make a contribution in your name to your local community with the America’s Farmers Grow Communities™ Project.

One nonprofit community organization in each eligible county will receive a $2,500 award. It’s up to farmers like you to help decide where it goes.

Together we can grow rural America…one community at a time. Apply now.

You can listen to my interview with Gayla below.

Iowa Power Farming Show Photo Album

Farm Shows

Novus Stays Close to Customers

Cindy Zimmerman

novusNovus International Executive Vice President of marketing and sales Giovanni Gasperoni, pictured here with a delegation from Thailand, seemed to know everyone at the International Poultry/Feed Expo in Atlanta last week and he greeted them all as close friends. His genuine and effusive personality reflects his passion for the business of animal agriculture and the people in the industry who produce food for the world. He is firmly dedicated to Novus’ vision to help feed the world affordable, wholesome food and achieve a higher quality of life. “This is really important to us, this is our vision, and we’ve maintained the same vision for the last 20 years,” Gio told me during an interview.

novusOne of the ways Novus is working to achieve that vision is by maintaining a close relationship with their customers in every one of the more than 90 countries they serve. In January, Novus opened a new blending plant in Singapore for animal feed supplements. “It’s part of our overall strategy to be closer to our customers with our specialty products,” Gio said. “We needed to address that in the Asia Pacific and northern China.” The plant will serve as a distribution hub for regional Novus clients in industries including aquaculture, poultry, ruminant and pork.

Gio says in the coming year, Novus will be focused on Africa. “It’s kind of a last frontier for us in helping feed the world affordable and wholesome food,” he says.

Listen to or download my interview with Gio in the player below, and check out our photo albums from the IPE – especially if you had a photo taken with baseball great Bob Gibson at the Novus booth.
International Poultry Expo 2010
Bob Gibson/Novus Photo Album

Audio, International, Novus International, Poultry, Poultry Expo