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.

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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

    Talking NAFB With Bill O’Neill

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 234 - NAFBThe National Association of Farm Broadcasting has seen some significant changes in the last 4 years and the staff leader has been Bill O’Neill. Bill is stepping down at the end of this year to pursue some personal interests and I spoke with him about his decision and his years working with the organization. He says he’s going to move on to some things he’s been interested in for a while. He mentions “being a student again.”

    Highlights for him during his time with NAFB include the fact that the board of directors that was just seated when he started represented all aspects of the membership. The name of the organization changed the year he started as well. That was done to reflect how the classes of membership have changed over the years. He is proud of the fact that they implemented a strategic plan and that they’ve conducted national farm media studies in the last several years.

    Bill also gives us a preview of the upcoming NAFB Convention which Cindy and I will be attending and covering on AgWired. He says that the convention will continue to provide members with an opportunity to learn more about how to cope with changes in communications technology among other things. The annual Trade Talk session is full showing strong support from agribusinesses and other ag organizations. He says that new research about farmers and their use of the internet will also be of interest.

    If you haven’t registered for the convention, the early registration deadline is the end of this week.

    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.

    Audio, Media, NAFB, ZimmCast

    Getting To Know Fluidigm

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Fluidigm Gajus WorthingtonThe President/CEO and co-Founder of Fluidigm (AgWired Sponsor) is Gajus Worthington. Let’s meet him and learn about the company and how its technology can benefit agribusiness.

    I met with Gajus at the company headquarters in South San Francisco and asked him a number of questions to help us better understand their core technology. Before getting to the technology, he explains how he decided to start the company one day while walking down the street and “in an instant, like being hit by a bolt of lightning” he knew his future was defined and that “what I was supposed to do was build a company that could contribute in a variety of different ways to a variety of different industries.”

    The core technology produced by Fluidigm is the production of integrated fluidic circuits (IFC’s). Gajus uses the analogy of electronics where large computers using vacuum tubes were made very small by the use of a chip. That made electronics much more high performance and affordable. That innovation has impacted ag through the use of GPS in precision applications for example. He says Fluidigm does a similar thing for biology. Biology research today uses machines much like those old vacuum tube computers except they use arrays of test tubes and hoses. Fluidigm takes all that “plumbing” and puts it on a chip. For example, a single chip (IFC) can have as much plumbing as in a 1,000 room hotel! This allows for very high throughput biological research much more cost effectively and easily. This has major implications for genetics, conservation, seed selection and quality control.

    Because the technology is so small it allows this type of work to move to the field in places where it couldn’t be done before, like feedlots for example. One example is a Fluidigm client, the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game, which uses their technology in the field to manage salmon fisheries. He says seeing the use of their technology in industries like agribusiness and the management of wildlife is extremely gratifying because it’s contributing to people’s livelihoods and helping the environment.

    We’re going to learn more about Fluidigm systems and technology in upcoming stories that include interviews with key company representatives. Gajus provides a very good overview of what you can expect from Fluidigm now and in the future.

    You can watch or listen to my interview with Gajus below:

    Agribusiness, Audio, Research, Technology, Video