John Deere’s Penn Picks Up Syngenta Award at World Ag Forum

John Davis

syngentaawardpicJ.B. Penn, Chief Economist for John Deere, has been recognized for his efforts that have “impacted the lives and livelihood of the world’s population by meeting the growing need for food.”

During a presentation after the last session today at the World Agricultural Forum in St. Louis, Syngenta Seeds President David Morgan presented Penn with the Syngenta Recognizing Contributions to Global Challenges Award for his work that has “contributed significantly to bringing plant potential to life by addressing the crucial issues of safe, affordable and reliable supplies of food, fuel, fiber and water.”

Morgan highlighted Penn’s work to calm fears after BSE in cattle was discovered to have been imported into the U.S. from Canada. He was also noted for his educational work about the enhanced safeguards put in place against BSE and helped lift bans on U.S. beef exports to other countries.

Penn told the delegates to the forum that he was very flattered, very honored and very pleased to accept the award. He hopes the award will help draw attention and better inform people of the daunting challenges facing agriculture in the future.

You can hear almost all of the award presentation (sorry, missed the first few seconds) and Penn’s acceptance remarks here: Syngentaaward.mp3

Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
Novus.

John Deere, Novus International, Syngenta

Farm Bureau’s Stallman: Any Hungry Person is a Concern

John Davis

stallmanpicPresident of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Bob Stallman, just finished up his part of a panel discussion at World Agricultural Forum, entitled Strategies, Actions & Policies for Long-Term Security in Agriculture & Food Production.

Right at the outset, Stallman stressed the American farmers’ commitment to making sure that not only people in the U.S. are fed but that the entire world has enough to eat.

“Any hungry person should be great cause for concern to all of us.”

Stallman says agriculture needs to figure out how it will feed the 9 billion people who will live on the planet by the year 2050… on basically the same amount of land used to feed about 6 billion today (including the nearly 3 billion who now don’t get enough to eat). But, he says global hunger has less to do with production than it does with infrastructure and politics. “Hunger in the world today is not a lack of calories. It’s a problem of distribution,” he said.

Stallman says policies, in particular, the trade protections that too many developing countries insist upon, are some of the political decisions that are having a tremendous impact on world food supplies. He also defended biofuels, which had been a bit maligned during this session, as not being to blame for the spike in food prices the world has seen. Stallman pointed out that American farmers are getting better at sustainability practices.

Stallman tells the group in St. Louis that there are some solutions to the daunting tasks world agriculture will face over the next couple of decades.

“We must continue to seek out new production technology, adapt new production technology and not fear new production technology. Those countries that choose to turn their backs on tech will be left behind.”

Stallman says open borders and open trade are also part of the solution to how to feed those 9 billion people by 2050.

You can hear more of Bob’s comments during the session here: Stallman1.mp3

Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
Novus.

Novus International

Finances Continue to Dominate Talk at World Ag Forum

John Davis

riskmgtgroup1The issue of finances and credit markets remains the main topic of discussion during this first day of the World Agricultural Forum going on in St. Louis, Mo.

The most current session features several prominent bankers, including: Shuillin Wang, China Investment Corp.; Joseph Quinlan, Chief Market Strategist for Bank of America; James Bond, CEO, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency at The World Bank; Jonathan Campaigne, CEO of PRIDEAFRICA in Kenya; and Esther Muthoni Muiruri, the General Manager Marketing-Agri Business, Equity Bank, Ltd.

Quinlan warned that with the current global financial crisis, there might be a tendency for some banks, especially those in North America and Europe, to keep more of their capital at home.

“As the banks rebuild their balance sheets, there’s going be a home bias.”

As bad as that might sound for some of the developing countries, which rely on foreign investment to move their ag programs forward, they might look more to their own homegrown finances to get the local economies moving. That growth in local economies, in turn, will fuel the overall growth in the world’s economy.

Quinlan says the political instability that plagues many developing countries will make banks in the U.S. wait for local banks, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) take the lead at financing those operations in those areas.

He says that a forum such as this one only confirms in his mind the importance of agricultural commodities and the investment opportunities they offer.

Listen to my conversation with Joseph here: Quinlan1.mp3

Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
Novus.

Novus International

The Give and Take of World Ag Forum

John Davis

waf3One of the great things about the sessions like the ones at World Agricultural Forum is the way the audience is able to interact with the panelists and experts who are on the main stage.

During a session this morning, the RT Hon. James B. Bolger, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and the current Chairman of the World Agricultural Forum; Carl Hausmann, President and CEO of Bunge North America; J.B. Penn, Chief Economist for John Deere; David Morgan, President of Syngenta Seeds; Michael Bennett, CEO, Terra Industries; and Prof. Nuhu Hatibu, CEO of the Kilimo Trust, East Africa, fielded questions from the audience… ranging from making organics profitable and worthwhile for developing countries to produce… to employing and lifting up those at the bottom half of the world’s economic ladder.

Some of the answers I’ve already covered in previous postings, but I thought you would be interested in hearing how the participants interacted during the session: giventake1.mp3

Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
Novus.

Audio, Novus International

Dr. Pearse Lyons Opening Remarks

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Symposium Opening Session Dr. Pearse LyonsThe opening general session at the Alltech Symposium concluded with remarks from Dr. Pearse Lyons, CEO/President and founder.

Dr. Lyons remarks dealt with the subject of the financial crisis we’re in and how it ties in to the whole principle of sustainability. To start with he says a crisis calls for character and that it’s not a time for despair. He says the pillars of their company are: Education, Innovation, Traceability, Brand and Cause. He discussed the fact that the company has supported education and innovation and then demonstrated how that has driven their sales. Some of the challenges he sees ahead include antibiotics, the environment and quality.

We also got a preview announcement that tommorow Alltech will launch of the Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Education and Humanitarian Fund. It’s their new cause which is one of the pillars on which they build the company.

You can listen to Dr. Lyons’s remarks here: alltech-symposium-session-1-lyons.mp3

You can also download his remarks here: Dr. Pearse Lyons Remarks (mp3)

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech, Audio

Alltech Medal of Excellence Presented To Dr. David Byrne

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Symposium Opening Session Dr. Karl DawsonDuring this morning’s opening session at the Alltech Symposium former EU Commissioner, Dr. David Byrne, was presented the Alltech Medal of Excellence. Normally it is presented to a scientist but this year the company decided to make the presentation to someone who has demonstrated serious leadership in the agriculture industry.

Dr. Byrne, shown here (center) with Alltech’s Dr. Karl Dawson (left) and Alltech CEO/President, Dr. Pearse Lyons (right). After his award, Dr. Byrne then made remarks. He spoke about the mad cow problem in the EU which was during his term as a Commissioner. He says food safety became political and people lost jobs and elections. He says they had to put a plan in place in the EU that was science based, had mandatory recalls and a rapid alert system. He says that a traceability system is absolutely necessary and hopes that U. S. Ag Sec. Vilsack’s plan is accomplished on NAIS. Byrne says they learned that someone needs to be in charge, there needs to be a plan and that it is working. Byrne says the question now is how to make animals and food sustainable.

You can listen to Dr. Byrne’s remarks here: alltech-symposium-session-1-byrne.mp3

You can also download his remarks here: Dr. David Byrne Remarks (mp3)

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech, Audio

Dr. Karl Dawson Opens Alltech Conference

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Symposium Opening Session Dr. Karl DawsonThe Alltech Symposium got started with an opening general session this morning. If you didn’t follow along live then don’t despair. I’ll be posting our presenters starting with Alltech’s Dr. Karl Dawson here.

He started out with a definition of sustainability, “Economic, social and management practices that allow a system to meet current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” He says that there are many components of ag sustainability ncluding being economically viable with inputs that are renewable and that it must integrate natural biological processes and have no environmental impact. He also made a point that a sustainable future will change culture, especially if mandated.

You can listen to Dr. Dawson’s remarks here: alltech-symposium-session-1-dawson.mp3

You can also download his remarks here: Dr. Karl Dawson Remarks (mp3)

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech, Animal Health, Audio

World Ag Forum Pics on Flickr

John Davis

worldagforum3Just a quick update for you, I’ve got some of the pictures from this year’s World Agricultural Forum posted over on Flickr (well, more accurately, Cindy got them posted… I’m still battling the system).

We’ll have more as the events progress, but to start with, you can see about 40 pics from last night’s welcoming reception and behind-the-scenes tour at the St. Louis Zoo, sponsored by our friends at Novus International.

World Ag Forum photo set.

Novus International

You Can Park Unsold Cars; Can’t Park Hunger

John Davis

bolger2smallOne of the speakers at the opening session of the World Agricultural Forum was the former Prime Minister of New Zealand and current Chairman of the World Ag Forum, the RT Hon. James B. Bolger.

He told the group that while you can park unsold cars, you can’t park hunger… drawing parallels to the bailout of the US auto industry but a lack of similar action to bail out some of the world’s poorest people.

Just a few minutes ago, I caught up with Mr. Bolger as he stepped off the stage from a session that included representatives from some of the world’s biggest agri-businesses talking about how to solve the current global financial crisis. He says the most important thing we can do is lift up the 3 billion people who are at the bottom of the economic ladder.

“Fundamentally, if we are going to have a world economy moving smoothly, we need to have the 3 billion on the bottom having the income to buy the goods of the others.” Mr. Bolger sees those 3 billion as potential customers who could make a tremendous difference in the world’s economy as a whole.

Several of the panelists pointed out that while banks and companies would like to invest in these developing countries, there needs to be a stable political environment. Mr. Bolger sees it as a “chicken-and-egg” quandry as to which one is solved first.

“Poor countries will be unstable. We’ve got to start looking at how we lift them up out of absolute poverty to have more stable societies. It’s naive to say we can’t do anything until they all settle down and behave.”

He says a venue, such as the World Agricultural Forum, is a tremendous place where people can get together and hear other viewpoints and learn from others backgrounds.

Listen to my entire conversation with Mr. Bolger here: Bolger1.mp3

World Ag Forum photo set

AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
Novus.

Audio, Novus International

Alltech Symposium Opening Session

Chuck Zimmerman

The opening session of the Alltech Symposium is about to begin has just concluded. Our theme is “The Sustainability Principle.” I’ll be posting here and on my AgWired Live Twitter account too. You can now follow back through the session via this archived live chat.

Alltech