Pontifical Academy Approves Genetically Modified Crops

Chuck Zimmerman June 26, 2009

I’ll take the opportunity to post a photo of my main man, Pope Benedict XVI anytime. Thanks to Terry Wanzek who grows corn, soybeans, and wheat on his family farm in North Dakota and serves as a North Dakota Senator and board member of Truth About Trade & Technology, for a great letter.

In it he mentions that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has given it’s blessing to genetically modified crops as one solution to world hunger. Here’s the first two statutes of the Academy:

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, founded by Pius XI of hallowed memory, is placed under the exalted and direct protection of the reigning Supreme Pontiff.

The aim of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences and the study of epistemological problems related thereto.

Here are a couple of excerpts from Terry’s letter:

There are some people around the world who think religion and science shouldn’t get along. For some reason, they believe the men of the cloth should disagree with the men of the lab coat, now and forever.

They’ll be disappointed to learn that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences–an arm of the Vatican–has given its blessing to genetically modified crops. At a conference last month in Rome, it praised GM food for holding “a great potential to improve the lives of the poor.”

This is a welcome marriage of religion and science–two powerful forces joining for the good of all.

Farming is my profession. But it’s more than a job–it’s a vocation. The Catholic Church teaches us to show benevolence toward the poor, and to feed them when they are hungry. One of the best ways I can realize this goal is to grow as much food as possible and to make it available at the most reasonable prices. I believe it is important that all farmers, especially the resource-poor smallholders, have the right to choose the best technology available, including biotechnology when appropriate, to improve their hope of producing more food for themselves.

Are GM foods dangerous, as so many Europeans have been told? “No substantiated environmental or health risks have been noted,” says the academy. “Opposition to biotechnology in agriculture is usually ideological.”

I’m also glad to see that science and religion can agree and even in the face of extreme emotionalism with a political agenda.

Biotech

International Trade Is Now Causing Global Warming

Chuck Zimmerman June 26, 2009

The folks at the United Nations are at it again, this time along with the World Trade Organization. Last time it was their idiotic report about how cows and other forms of livestock are contributing so much to global warming (now calling it climate change which I believe happens naturally every year). This time they’ve moved a step ahead to try and link global climate change to trade. Give me a break. Here’s an excerpt from the WTO press release.

The scientific evidence is now clear that the Earth’s climate system is warming as a result of greenhouse gas emissions which are still increasing worldwide, and will continue to increase over the coming decades unless there are significant changes to current laws, policies and actions. Although freer trade could lead to increased CO2 emissions as a result of raising economic activity. It can also help alleviate climate change, for instance by increasing the diffusion of mitigation technologies.

The fact is that the scientific evidence isn’t clear. There is wide disagreement on this issue of GHG emissions. This is just another attempt to try to create fear in the name of accomplishing a policy objective and one that will have negative impacts on business in general and agriculture in particular. As if somehow, if we would just do what the UN wants on climate policy and what the WTO wants on a Doha agreement, all would be solved and we could sleep at night. It’s just not going to happen folks.

Here’s an excerpt from the UNEP release.

The world cannot continue with “business as usual” and there is a profound need for a successful conclusion to the current negotiations on both climate change and trade opening.

Sounds like the same old, “the sky is falling” story to me. But I’m sure this report will be quoted and pointed to by all the global warming wackos out there ad nauseum.

Post Update: Alert Twitter follower @etcattlewoman pointed me to a great piece on the Wall Street Journal about the growing skepticism worldwide of man made global warming. It’s worth a read.

Environment, Farm Policy, International, Wackos

Katy Trail River Scene

Chuck Zimmerman June 25, 2009

This Missouri River scene is just one reason why I like biking on the Katy Trail.

Its very peaceful and relaxing. And my new iPhone takes pretty good pictures!

Post Update: The first edition of this post was from my iPhone, using the WordPress app, but I found I need to work on some settings since I had to edit it afterward. I’ll keep working on it.

While I was in the same spot I shot some video with the iPhone and uploaded to YouTube which I can now share with you here:

Uncategorized

Debate Heating Up Over Climate Change Bill

Cindy Zimmerman June 25, 2009

Is it hot in DC or is it just global warming?

Agriculture, biofuels and environmental groups are all weighing in on the sweeping “climate change” bill expected to come up for a vote in the House tomorrow. A deal made by House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) this week paved the way for the legislation that Peterson had threatened to hold hostage.

Here’s a sample of some comments from key groups – *being updated as we receive more releases*

American Farm Bureau – “Vote ‘No’ on Climate Change Bill, ‘Yes’ on Peterson Amendment”
American Farmland Trust – “We support this bill moving forward to a successful vote on the House floor.”
National Pork Producers – “…cannot support climate change legislation even with the compromise language agreed to late Wednesday.”
National Corn Growers – “…will remain neutral on the overall bill until we can fully analyze the impact on our growers.”
American Soybean Association – “…given the potential costs to farmers and to the U.S. soybean industry, ASA opposes this climate change bill.” (That may change as ASA has an exec committee meeting Friday morning and now says the statement was “distributed prematurely” although it was already quoted earlier today in the Washington Post)
National Cotton Council – “… urges support for Chairman Peterson’s amendments but can not support the bill without significant modifications and improvements.”
National Sorghum Producers – “…cannot in the best interests of our producer members and agriculture in general, support the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.”
National Association of Wheat Growers – “…supports the passage of H.R. 2454 with the Peterson amendment. This is not perfect legislation, but legislation rarely is.”
Renewable Fuels Association – “We look forward to supporting the underlying bill following the adoption of the Peterson amendment.”
Greenpeace – “We call on the Congress to reject this bill and begin immediate and urgent work on legislation that treats seriously the dire threat of climate change.”

Lobbying for and against the bill is as hot and heavy on Capitol Hill today as the summer heat wave here in the Midwest. At latest count, the Democrats are about 35 votes short of the 218 needed to get the legislation passed.

Environment, Media

Protest Bank of America’s HSUS Credit Card

Chuck Zimmerman June 25, 2009

Here’s something to fire you up on a summer Thursday. As reported on CattleNetwork this morning, Bank of America is now offering “The Humane Society of the United States® WorldPoints® Platinum Plus® Visa® Card.” Thank BOA. Help provide funds (25 cents of every 100 dollars charged) to an organization that essentially misleads people to get their money to fund their goal of a vegetarian society in which human beings have no more “right” than any animal. Perhaps they don’t understand that this group has nothing to do with local animal shelters. In fact, this group hurts your local animal shelter by taking funds from people who think they’re supporting them.

This is worth a protest since this is such a well funded group that has publicly pledged to fight for legislation that will hurt America’s farmers and ranchers. They intend to do this in every state in the country and are hard at work as we’ve seen in Ohio this week.

The CattleNetwork story has a draft letter you can use with the address of where to mail it (Bank of America Corporate Center, 100 North Tryon Street, Charlotte, North Carolina 28255) or you can do what I did which was search their website and found that Nicole Nastacie is BOA, Corporate Philanthropy. I sent her an email.

You can also tweet the official Bank of America Twitter rep. Or perhaps post a comment on their blog.

Post Update: The CattleNetwork received a response letter from Bank of America which shows that the matter is being looked into at a pretty high level. Let’s hope they decide to terminate this program.

Animal Activists

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort June 25, 2009

Syngenta Crop Protection announced that increased fungicide usage, specifically of azoxystrobin brands, has resulted in a significant manufacturing investment and production upgrade to its Omaha, Neb. facility.
On Friday, June 19, President Barack Obama named Ertharin Cousin to be the next U.S. ambassador to the Rome-based U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture.
Supima, the promotional organization of the American Pima cotton growers, has selected Quarry Integrated Communications to promote increased consumption of Supima brand cotton in the United States.
Ganeden Biotech, Inc., announced the launch of GanPro, an all-natural animal feed additive containing a direct-fed microbial that has been shown to support gut health and naturally promote feed conversion in livestock.

Zimfo Bytes

Ray-Lin Dairy Blog

Chuck Zimmerman June 25, 2009

More and more farmers are speaking out in the social web world and I think it’s great. Take Ray Prock, Ray-Lin Dairy. He’s got a blog going and is very active on Twitter.

Welcome to Ray-Lin Dairy’s newly minted blog. To start with here is a little background information about us. We are a second generation Dairy Farm located in Central California. My parents started the dairy in 1972 near Galt, CA in 1974 they moved to Elk Grove, CA. We stayed on that facility until 1990 when we sold the property for subdivision. Our current location is in Denair, CA where we have 240 acres and milk nearly 500 cows. I (Ray) take care of managing the cows, my father (Ray Sr.) mainly handles the books and spends time in OR (more on that later), my brother Joseph manages the farming operation. In 2007 we purchased a 1100 acre ranch in Klamath Falls, OR it sits on the Oregon & California border. We grow alfalfa hay, oat hay and graze some beef cattle there. My brother John manages this facility.

I’m not the only one encouraging farmers to join the online conversation. More and more ag groups are doing the same with their members as they learn how useful these tools are to present our story to the consuming public and I don’t think there’s been a more important time to do that than now.

Ray has wisely chosen to use WordPress.com for his blog (free) and Twitter (free). You can too!

Farming

4-H CHARACTER COUNTS! Builds Strong Foundations

Amanda Nolz June 25, 2009

Character Counts Program. The Character Counts Program is taught in 4-H clubs and classrooms across the country, and it instills important life lessons in young people for the future. Educators around the state of South Dakota gathered together in Sioux Falls, S.D. on June 23-24, 2009 for the 4-H Character Counts Education Conference. My sister, Courtney, presented a speech at the event, as she won last year’s Character Counts Speech Contest. While there, I spoke with 4-H Character Counts State Coordinator, Karelyn Farrand, who believes in the power of the program, crediting it for higher achievement scores and an improved classroom environment. Here is what she has to say about Character Counts and 4-H…

Of all the many projects kids can do in 4-H, the real project is the kids themselves. 4-H is an investment in your child’s future, and they learn so many important life lessons through this program. Character Counts helps young people build a foundation of good character qualities. This foundation helps them in difficult situations and times of hard decisions. Kids are our future, and we want kids that will be able to help themselves, as well as the people around them.

A 4-Her washes his or her show steer, builds a rocket ship, plants a garden, shears a sheep, constructs a lamp, sews an outfit, makes a meal, bakes cookies, picks up a road ditch, writes letters to veterans and goes to club meetings. While 4-H kids have fun in their many activities, the most important lesson they learn through these projects is having a good character. As 4-Hers across the country put the finishing touches on their projects before county fair, it’s an important reminder that 4-H kids are the future of agriculture. Thanks to the Character Counts Program, the future of agriculture certainly looks bright.

Education

Farm Foundation Sponsors Pair of Key Events

John Davis June 24, 2009

Our friends at Farm Foundation have a couple of upcoming key events.

First, this Friday, June 26, there’s a Farm Foundation workshop at the Waugh Auditorium of USDA’s Economic Research Service, 1800 M Street NW, Washington, D.C. entitled Local Food Systems: Emerging Research & Policy Issues that will, as the name implies, look at locally grown food and the impact of this small, but rapidly growing, market:

Despite growing interest in local foods, many questions remain about the impacts of local food systems on environmental and human health, food safety, marketing arrangements, and rural development. It also remains unclear what types of economic tradeoffs are associated with growth in local foods, and no consensus exists on the appropriate role for Government programs and policies in local food systems.

The goals of this workshop are to:

* Describe the size and scope of local food systems and discuss how the performance of local food markets is evaluated.
* Critically examine measures of local food market performance, including price and product availability, impacts on rural economic development, environmental consequences and sustainability, food safety and quality, and social welfare issues.
* Assess the economics of local foods by discussing supply and demand issues related to local food systems, as well as marketing considerations involved in the industry;
* Explore the range of current government involvement in local food systems, including existing programs that foster local food distribution at the federal, state, and local levels, potential unintended consequences arising from public sector involvement, and barriers to growth in local food systems;
* Examine the appropriate role for future government involvement in local food systems.

The room is filled up, so Farm Foundation will be providing this video link so you can register and can still take it in.

And then next week, on June 30-July 1, Farm Foundation will travel to Little Rock, Arkansas for the final in its conferences looking at agriculture issues and the bioeconomy.

The Transition to a Bioeconomy: The Role of Extension in Energy conference will be held in the city’s Doubletree Hotel:

The program features experts working in renewable energy, biofuels, energy efficiency and new energy technologies. Presenters include industry leaders, staff from USDA and the U.S. Department of Energy, and researchers working in energy efficiency, renewable energy and new energy technologies.

Plenary sessions will address the important role of Extension educators in providing consumers with timely information on energy-related programs and research findings. An outlook on renewable energy technologies will also be featured. In addition to plenary sessions, six workshops are planned to allow participants to focus in on specific areas of interest. Workshop topics are:

* Risk Management for Energy Investments
* Making Energy Efficiency Choices
* Energy Crop Agronomics
* Forestry
* Harvest, Storage and Logistics
* Extension and Other Delivery Methods

You can find more information at this Farm Foundation Web site.

Farm Foundation

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