Bill Gates Defends Biotech Crops

Cindy Zimmerman

At the World Food Prize Forum in Des Moines on Thursday, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates spoke out in support of biotechnology to help feed the world.

“We have to develop crops, including new inputs to go with them that can grow in a drought,” Gates said. “We have to have crops that can survive a flood, that can resist pests and new diseases. We need higher yields on the same land, despite more difficult weather. And we will never get there without a continuous and urgent, science-based search to increase productivity, especially focused on the needs of small farms in the developing world.”

WFPGates took environmentalists to task for having an idealistic attitude that jeopardizes the ability of developing countries to grow enough food. “They have tried to restrict the spread of biotechnology into sub-Saharan Africa without regard to how much hunger and poverty might be reduced by it.”

While Gates said that major breakthroughs in the fight against hunger and poverty are now within reach, he cautioned that progress toward alleviating global hunger is “endangered by an ideological wedge that threatens to split the movement in two.” On one side, he said, there are groups that support technological solutions to increase agricultural productivity without proper regard to environmental and sustainability concerns. On the other, there are those who react negatively to any emphasis on productivity.

“It’s a false choice, and it’s dangerous for the field,” Gates said. “It blocks important advances. It breeds hostility among people who need to work together. And it makes it hard to launch a comprehensive program to help poor farmers. The fact is, we need both productivity and sustainability—and there is no reason we can’t have both.”

Let’s put this in the Blog Action Day Climate Change category under the topic of Food Production. We can have both – productivity and long term sustainability. In fact, we already do have both here in the United States. The majority of our nation’s farms are models of both productivity and sustainability for the world. We are using less land, less fertilizer, and less energy to produce more food than ever before. If developing nations are able to utilize biotech crops, we can and will be able to feed the billion people across the globe who are suffering from malnutrition, as well as the increasing global population. I’m not a big fan of Bill Gates, but I have to applaud him today for standing up to radical environmentalists who want us to move backward instead of forward.

Biotech, Environment, Sustainability, World Food Prize

Blog Action Day Thoughts

Chuck Zimmerman

BADIt’s Blog Action Day. A day when apparently a whole lot of environmental extremists are joyfully proclaiming the end of life as we know it. Seems like a continuation of the Chicken Little theory. Take the Prime Minister of the UK’s blog post that says, “Climate change is the biggest threat to all our futures.” Maybe we should just all roll over and die right now? Or is it possible that we’ve got a lot of people trying to alarm and scare the public to help further their political agenda? Take a look at the photo in this post on the organizing group, Change.org’s, blog on animal rights. Yes they want you to become vegans.

I’m hoping that a lot of farm bloggers are weighing in on the subject of climate change. As Cindy said earlier this week, the organizers of this annual promotion even sent out very misleading and incorrect information about agricultural production, encouraging participating bloggers to use it in their posts.

If you’re a regular AgWired reader you know of my complete skepticism of global warming and that mankind has an impact that is changing the climate. I believe in climate change of course and that different areas of the world have changes from time to time. Take the seasons for example.

The fact is that agricultural production and the technological breakthroughs we’re seeing in precision, seed technology and better chemistry is having a positive impact on the environment and our ability to help feed the world. So let’s accept the fact that we have climate change and focus on how to deal with it instead of trying to scapegoat the very people who provide our food. Let’s realize that we’re seeing the development of crops that are drought resistant and that we’re producing more and more food on less and less land.

Yeah, this year’s Blog Action Day topic and the hysteria it’s trying to create is just plain BAD.

Uncategorized

ZimmComm On Location at BlogWorld

Chuck Zimmerman

BlogWorld and New Media ExpoHow do you become new media experts? Participate in conferences like BlogWorld and New Media Expo. That’s why I’m here with Carly and Robert our webmaster. In fact, Robert is in this photo somewhere. The Mac in the front row on the left is mine.

The opening session is underway featuring Laura Fitton, Pistachio Consulting. She’s challenging and inspiring us. And many need that after their first night in Las Vegas!

Part of her message so far is to be or become lucky and she’s telling her story of how she has become successful through her expertise in “microsharing.” She just said that Twitter has improved her life. Sounds silly right? Well if you don’t understand how that can happen and how a social networking utility like Twitter can improve your business or farm then you probably haven’t invested a little time in learning what it can do for you. But since you’re not here feel free to give me a call and I can conduct a social media training session for you.

I’ve started a photo album for the conference which I’ll be adding to periodically over the next couple days: BlogWorld Photo Album

Post Update: I interviewed Laura after her session. Laura says that the main message she wanted people to walk away with was “Be Awesome.” She also wanted to plant the idea of using social networking mechanisms like Twitter to connect with other people and get your ideas out in the world where they might yield awesome results.

She says Twitter has helped take her from a busy stay at home Mom to giving the keynote here, publishing a book and launching her business. She points out how well Twitter works for business since there are so many Twitter tools.

Listen to my interview with Laura below:

Uncategorized

World Food Prize Winner

Melissa Sandfort

ejeta-gebisaGebisa Ejeta, Purdue University Distinguished Professor of Agronomy plant breeder and geneticist, will receive the World Food Prize for his work in developing sorghum varieties resistant to drought and Striga, a parasitic weed common on the African continent. Because of Ejeta’s efforts, sorghum yields are significantly higher in many African nations.

The World Food Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of agriculture, will be presented to Ejeta during an 8 p.m. EST ceremony in the Iowa State Capitol Building in Des Moines today, Oct. 15.

“For so many Africans, this award projects so much hope to a continent that has so much negative news,” Ejeta said. “This is a shining moment for a continent.

“The journey has been so far to where I am now, but I am so driven. Serving humanity means so much to me.”

Sorghum is an important cereal grain to Africa, but arid conditions and the deadly Striga make growing the crop difficult for farmers. Read more about Ejeta’s life and research in the fall issue of Connections, Purdue’s agricultural alumni publication.

Grains, International, sorghum, World Food Prize

Farm Foundation to Host 30-Year Challenge Conference

John Davis

30-YearChallengeHow do you feed, clothe and fuel a world population that is expected to climb to 9 billion people by 2040? That is the challenge the folks at the Farm Foundation set out about a year ago to address six major drivers impacting agriculture’s ability to provide food, feed, fiber and fuel to a growing world. Those six areas are: global financial markets and recession; global food security; global energy security; climate change; competition for natural resources and global economic development.

On Tuesday, October 27th the ag-based think tank will host a conference focusing on those six challenging areas at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C.:

Featured speakers will be Dr. Rajiv Shah, USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, former U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter and Erik Peterson, Director of the Global Strategy Institute at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The program will also feature a panel of agribusiness, NGO and academic leaders discussing how to build the next generation of public policies. Dr. Barry Flinchbaugh of Kansas State University will moderate that discussion.

“Given the right tools and incentives, we are confident that the world’s agricultural producers and agribusinesses will meet the 30-year challenge,” says Farm Foundation President Neil Conklin. “But those incentives and tools are heavily influenced by food and agricultural policies that have been shaped by decades of abundance and declining real food prices.

“Today, consumers, environmental concerns and climate change–as well as a major global financial recession–are reshaping the public policy landscape. It is not clear that today’s policies, most of which were designed to deal with the challenges of the last century, will provide the tools and incentives needed to address the 30-year challenge,” Conklin continues.

The conference will feature the winners in Farm Foundation”s 30-Year Challenge Policy Competition, which sought innovative and promising public policy options to address the challenges outlined in the 30-Year Challenge report.

You can register for the free conference by Friday, October 23 here.

Farm Foundation

Truth About Trade and Technology Honors Irish Farmer

Cindy Zimmerman

TATTFarmers from around the globe gathered in Des Moines this week to participate in the 2009 Global Farmer-to-Farmer Roundtable, which is held in conjunction with the World Food Prize and hosted by Truth About Trade and Technology.

The group honored one of their own today with the 2009 Kleckner Trade & Technology Advancement Award which recognizes a farmer for “exemplary leadership, vision and resolve in advancing the rights of all farmers to choose the technology and tools that will improve the quality, quantity and availability of agricultural products around the world.”

TATTThis year’s honoree is Jim McCarthy, a farm manager from Ireland whose agricultural interests span three continents – Europe, South America and North America. He says it is frustrating that he is unable to use biotechnology-based crops in his farming operation in Ireland, but can in other areas. “The environmental benefit of GM (genetically modified) crops is staggering,” he said, as he made comparisons between the farm operations he’s involved with in Ireland and Argentina. He says wildlife numbers are much higher in the South America farm operation because fewer pesticides are used because of Bt traits in the crops. “We’re not using huge amounts of organophosphates, so the food chain is not being interrupted for the wildlife,” he said.

Closer to home, McCarthy is one of a group of farmers that invested in a grass-based dairy in southern Missouri. He is the third recipient of the Kleckner Trade and Technology Advancement Award, which was established in 2007 in honor of Dean Kleckner, the founder and chairman of Truth About Trade and Technology.

Biotech, Farming, International

Getting Ready For Start of BlogWorld & New Media Expo

Chuck Zimmerman

BlogWorld & New Media Expo - Las Vegas Convention CenterThe 2009 BlogWorld & New Media Expo is about to get underway in Las Vegas. Carly, Robert and I are on location (finally).

I’ll primarily be writing about the conference on ZimmComm.biz but will post here too when I find something you new media farm folks might be interested in.

My hope is that I can shed a little more light on how and why you and your company should be utilizing new media mechanisms like blogs, podcasts and social networks.

Uncategorized

CLEANmp Provides Help With Nutrient Management Plans

Cindy Zimmerman

cleanmpHelping livestock and poultry producers develop and implement plans to limit their environmental impact is the goal of a program called Comprehensive Livestock Environmental Assessments and Nutrient management plans, or CLEANmp.

The program, which is managed by the Missouri-based Environmental Resources Coalition, is designed to provide services to all types and sizes of livestock and poultry production operations west of the Mississippi River. Technical assistance for the project is confidential and free to all producers. ERC is a non-profit group dedicated to water quality protection and improvement efforts and the program uses federal grant dollars from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Find out more here.

Environment, Livestock, Poultry

Climate Change is BAD Topic

Cindy Zimmerman

BADThursday is Blog Action Day (BAD) and the topic this year is Climate Change. Food production is top on the list of suggested ideas for bloggers to write about in an alert sent out by organizers. “Agricultural production around the world is responsible for nearly as much greenhouse gas emissions as all forms of transportation put together, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the food choices we make have a big impact on the climate,” the organizers say, linking to some choice misinformation on their website.

If you are an agricultural blogger, you should sign up now for BAD, because the views of this will likely be very one-sided without you. When you sign up, you can get an idea of the ideology of the organizers. You are asked to “pick your favorite causes” from a list that includes such goodies as Animal Rights, Global Warming, Gay Rights, Global Poverty, Sustainable Food, Environment, Wildlife and Habitat, and Conflict and Response (that’s a cause?) You get the idea. BAD is “powered by change.org” which has as the top post today “Will Our Beef Addiction Destroy the Amazon?” Lovely.

If you haven’t registered and feel like airing your viewpoint on food production and climate change as part of BAD, sign up here. Or just boycott it.

Animal Activists, Farming, Wackos

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Syngenta Crop Protection announced Callisto Xtra as the brand name for a new, post-emergence corn herbicide that will be an excellent tank mix partner for glyphosate in glyphosate-tolerant corn.
  • Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health announced that it has initiated a multi-year sponsorship project, supporting the Shire Highlands Milk Producers Association in Malawi.
  • Alltech’s Yea-Sacc1026, a live yeast culture based on Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain 1026, has been granted full European Union authorization as a feed additive for horses under Commission Regulation (EC) No. 886/2009.
  • The American Phytopathological Society, in cooperation with related organizations, will present the 2009 National Soybean Rust Symposium, Dec. 9-11, in New Orleans, La.
    Zimfo Bytes