New CEO Introduced for World Agricultural Forum

Cindy Zimmerman

World Ag Forum Day Kathy MoldthanDr. Leonard J. Guarraia, Chairman and CEO of the World Agricultural Forum, announced today at the 2009 World Ag Congress that his title will soon only be chairman of the organization and that Kathy Moldthan is taking over the job of CEO. Kathy has been with WAF for ten years, just before the first World Ag Congress in 1999. Prior to that, she worked in the sustainability division of Monsanto.

Kathy says her goal going forward with WAF is to take the organization from only having congresses in St. Louis to expanding into other areas of the world. “To better bring the solutions and innovative ideas that are working in one area and see if we can replicate them in other areas,” she said.

They were expecting 200 participants for this year’s congress and Kathy says there are over 260 registered from more than 20 different countries. “The theme this year is food security and looking at the technological issues related to food security,” she said. “The participants feel the panelists have been outstanding and the discussions have been robust, and some pretty innovative ideas and concepts coming out of those.” She is also pleased with the participation in this year’s Congress by a variety of stakeholder companies – from food manufacturers like Hershey and General Mills to agribusiness companies like Novus, Monsanto and AGROTAIN.

You can listen to my interview with Kathy here: waf-09-kathy.MP3

Download the audio file here: Kathy Moldthan interview

Click here to see all stories from the World Ag Congress.

Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

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

Agribusiness, Audio, Novus International

Agrotain Focuses on Sustainability at Ag Congress

Cindy Zimmerman

World Ag Forum Day Mike StegemanIt should be no surprise that sustainability is the most often used word here at the World Agricultural Forum’s World Ag Congress in St. Louis since the agriculture industry as a whole remains under the microscope when it comes to environmental issues.

Another company making a difference in that arena is St. Louis-based AGROTAIN International and I talked with president Mike Stegmann today about some of the ways they are helping. “Sustainability means different things to different people but at AGROTAIN International we’re talking a look at fertilizer specifically,” Mike said. “We truly believe there’s ways to use fertilizer, be more efficient, get more, cost less and still do the right thing for the environment.” AGROTAIN is the world’s largest producer of StabilizedNitrogen™ fertilizers.

Along those lines, AGROTAIN has been participating in a study with USDA’s Agriculture Research Service on the impact of nitrogen fertilizer on climate change. “We wanted to understand what the climate change benefit is of using a product like AGROTAIN to using conventional fertilizer or no fertilizer at all,” Mike says.

In fact, the study has found there is a dramatic reduction in nitrous oxide emissions when nitrogen fertilizer is applied with AGROTAIN. More on that will be revealed tomorrow here at the Congress by Jerry Hatfield with USDA’s National Soil Tilth Research Laboratory.

You can listen to my interview with Mike here: waf-09-agrotain.mp3

Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

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

Agribusiness, Fertilizer, Novus International

Novus International Helps Feed the World

Cindy Zimmerman

World Ag Forum Day Giovanni GasperoniNovus International is playing a major role in this year’s World Ag Congress because they are a company that is playing a major role in global food and agricultural production.

“Our mission as a company is to support sustainable, industrial animal agriculture,” says executive vice president of marketing and sales Giovanni Gasperoni. He notes that there is a great deal of discussion about “organic” farming under the concept of sustainability. “Organic is not for the mass. You’re not feeding 6.2 billion people by going organic. We need to make sure that the people who want to spend the money for organic are not imposing the rule for the rest of the world.”

John Davis interviewed Gio here at the World Ag Congress yesterday about Novus’ role in sustainability and making food more accessible and affordable for the world. “It’s not by promoting free range chicken or organic chicken,” Gio says. He also talks about some of Novus’ products, Alimet and Santoquin, two livestock feed additives that he says have helped to “change the world” for livestock producers and meat eaters. Santoquin is actually 50 years old and has the distinction of being the first feed additive approved by FDA.

You can listen to John’s interview with Gio here: waf-09-gasperoni.mp3

Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

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

Agribusiness, Food, Novus International

Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global Education Fund

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Muhammad AliThe Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Humanitarian Fund has been officially announced here at the Alltech Symposium. His name is one of the most recognizable in the world and the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world was on hand with his wife Lonnie. They’re seen here with Dr. Pearse Lyons after the announcement moments ago.

Alltech president and founder, Dr. Pearse Lyons presented Muhammad and Lonnie Ali a check for $50,000 to establish the Alltech – Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Charitable Fund. The focal point of the fund is education. Alltech and the Muhammad Ali Center will stress programs that positively impact others around the world, promote excellence and achieving one’s potential. The fund will have humanitarian and artistic components as well.

“For 29 years Alltech has believed that it is our responsibility to not only provide science-based solutions to agribusiness, but to give back to the communities in which we operate,” said Alltech president and CEO, Dr. Pearse Lyons. “The establishment of this fund and this collaboration will undoubtedly help us raise global awareness of the problems that we hope to address; particularly those that are educational or humanitarian in nature.”

On the stage this morning we heard remarks from Lonnie Ali and then Dr. Lyons. I have them recorded for you here.

You can listen to their remarks here: alltech-symposium-ali.mp3

You can also download the remarks here: Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Fund Remarks (mp3)

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Agribusiness, Alltech, Audio

Trade, Food and Agriculture

Cindy Zimmerman

World Ag Forum Day 2The impact of trade on food and agriculture security for the global economy was the topic of the first roundtable discussion on day two of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress in St. Louis on Tuesday.

Roundtable participants included moderator Gary Blumenthal, CEO of World Perspectives; Joel Velasco of Brazil’s Sugar Cane Industry Association, Cargill’s Devry Boughner, Robert Modarelli with the National Center for APEC; and Tjada McKenna of The Gates Foundation.

I am taking over for John Davis covering this event this week and hope I can do half as good a job. Thanks to John for his excellent coverage, and thanks again to Novus International for sponsoring Agwired coverage of the congress.

Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

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

Novus International

Freelance Blogging For Alltech

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-220 - Freelance BloggingThis morning I had an interesting Twitter exchange on the subject of bloggers vs. journalists. I don’t see the difference really and I don’t think you can lump people into those categories as if they’re mutually exclusive. I think you’ll find plenty of “journalists” on mainstream media channels without credibility and you’ll also find plenty of blogging “journalists” with plenty of credibility. That exchange became the inspiration for this week’s program which features an interview with Debbie Hildreth who is the Alltech blogger here at the Symposium I’m attending. I was the Alltech blogger last year so it was easy for me to understand what Debbie is doing as a freelancer with a new gig.

Alltech BloggerHere’s Debbie doing one of her many interviews which are winding up as YouTube videos that are also being posted on their blog.

If you’re a freelance writer or photographer you might find our interview of interest. There is a world of opportunity out there and hopefully Debbie’s story will inspire you.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 220 (12 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Debbie Hildreth - ZimmCast 220

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes

Alltech, Audio, ZimmCast

I Love Farmers They Feed My Soul

Chuck Zimmerman

I Love FarmersHave you heard of or visited I Love Farmers, They Feed My Soul? Here’s what it’s all About.

We may be young, but we are not stupid.

We love farmers. They feed our soul. Together we are working to help our generation understand the importance of knowing where our food comes from and who produced it.

We’re not your typical “who cares” kind of young people from the Millennial Generation. Sure, we all have cell phones and we text like crazy. We have iPods and spend way too much time on Facebook and MySpace, but we care about our planet. We care about our country. We care about the American family farmer.

Few of our friends know how their food is produced. We think that is sad. And, really it is kind of scary. If we are not careful, we will become dependent on other countries to provide our food. That is not good. Who knows what goes on in other countries when it comes to growing our food? We have an idea, and it too is not good.

In an effort to create a conversation among our peers about our food, our farmers and our future, we have committed to getting connected. We want to get the word out about where our food comes from and how it is produced. We invite you to join our I Love Farmers group on Facebook and be a part of the conversation about American agriculture.

“Together, our generation can make a difference.”

Ag Groups

Alltech Europe Faring Well

Chuck Zimmerman

The Alltech blogger, Debbie Hildreth, has been busy. I will be featuring an interview with her in this week’s ZimmCast. Part of her duties include getting short video clips with attendees here at the Symposium. The first one I found in their YouTube channel is with Alltech Europe Director Marc Larousse. He answers the question: How are Alltech’s European facilities doing during this economic crisis?

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech, Video

Agri Aware and Alltech Announce KIDZONE

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Announces Agri Aware SupportKIDZONE is going global thanks to new support from Alltech. KIDZONE is an educational resource of Agri Aware, an Irish farm and food education organization. Teaching children about agriculture and food is something I think all of us here in America would like to see more of. The new KIDZONE resource is scheduled to launch later this year. I spoke with Dr. Pearse Lyons, pictured here with Mairead Lavery, Agri Aware, at yesterday’s press announcement. Dr. Lyons is holding up the teaching resources packet for class rooms called, “Dig In.” It is one of the items that will be translated into different languages as part of this effort. I would encourage American farm groups to look into this program.

Agri AwareDr. Lyons says that he became aware of Agri Aware a few years ago and has supported it locally in Ireland since then. This new level of support is meant to allow the program to become available around the world.

I also asked him how things were going at this year’s Symposium. He says that attendance is strong at about 1,200 and that is impressive when you consider what he described as several strikes against them. For starters, the economy is discouraging travel, especially internationally. Additionally, Alltech began charging a fee for the Symposium for the first time this year. However, those factors have not dampened attendance which is testament to how important these folks believe the event is from a networking and professional improvement standpoint.

You can listen to my interview with Dr. Lyons here: alltech-symposium-lyons-1.mp3

You can also download the interview here: Dr. Pearse Lyons Remarks (mp3)

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Ag Groups, Alltech, Audio

Alltech Where The Buffalo Roam

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech BuffaloWe finished today’s Alltech Symposium out on the farm. You couldn’t have asked for more picture perfect weather which is why I took photos like this one of the buffalo. You can find a lot more in the photo album.

I have a number of stories to post in the morning including an announcement by Alltech that it’s supporting a program to educate children about farm life. Actually, the company has been supporting it but now wants to help take the program “global.” More on that in the morning. Until then, enjoy the photos.

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech