Virgil Smail Executive Director of USCP

Chuck Zimmerman

United Sorghum Checkoff ProgramVirgil Smail has been named the Executive Director of the United Sorghum Checkoff Program.

With a strong history of industry and commodity association management, Smail will bring great experience and leadership to the USCP. As President and CEO of the American Institute of Baking, Smail was responsible for drastically expanding institute programs and worked with a Board of Directors representing the top 30 baking and allied industry presidents and senior vice presidents. In his most recent career accomplishment, Smail served as Senior Director of Research and Development for the Milling Division of ConAgra Foods.

“The USCP Board and I look forward to working with Virgil and are extremely confident in his leadership ability,” Bill Greving, USCP Board Chair, said. “He brings a successful track record from his past employment and brings a level of expertise that we believe will be beneficial in furthering Checkoff Program initiatives to improve profitability for sorghum producers.”

Smail served as the first full-time Director and CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers Foundation in Washington, D.C. and collaborated closely with growers and industry representatives while implementing Foundation activities. He also worked with sorghum breeding programs as the Vice-President of Corporate Development for Biotechnica Agriculture and on the Egyptian Major Cereals Improvement Program in Egypt, a USAID funded project.

The organization has positions open for: Communications Director, Marketing Director and Field Services Director (pdf)

Ag Groups, sorghum

Karen Simon’s Travel Journal

Chuck Zimmerman

Karen In ChinaAnother ag group shows a great use of a blog. This time it’s Karen Simon, Iowa Soybean Association. She just returned from a 10 day trip to China. I actually was following her progress on her Twitter feed but she kept an online journal. This is one of her photos I borrowed from her online photo set.

She also posted audio interviews and video clips like this one:

I spoke to Karen this morning and she reminded me that China blocks YouTube so she had to use her Flickr account to post the video. Flickr only lets you load a 90 second clip though which they interestingly call a “long photo.”

Ag Groups, Soybean, Video

Spot Your Career Online

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-214 - AgCareerSpotter.comClint Deitch has kicked off AgCareer Spotter and Cindy spoke to him about it by phone last week. So you can hear all about it in this week’s program. BTW. You can find Clint’s job listings via Twitter.

Careerspotter.com, provider of online industry specific career centers, recently launched AgCareerSpotter.com targeting the agribusiness industry. Developed by agriculture human resources recruiters, AgCareerSpotter.com hopes to make the job search, recruitment and hiring process simpler, faster and more cost effective.

This week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s a song titled, “A Day Job and a Dream (sung by Missi Hale)”, by David Kraut. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 214 (10 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Clint Deitch - ZimmCast 214

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

Agribusiness, Audio, ZimmCast

LeaveMyFoodAlone.org

Chuck Zimmerman

I have not read the propsed H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 but I’ve sure seen a lot of online discussion about it. Farm blogger Alex Tiller sent me a note to alert people to a petition site called LeaveMyFoodAlone.org.

As of March 31, 2009, we have received over 2500 signatures for the petition! (the site was launched on March 26th at 2PM) This is a great start, but we need you to keep telling people about the petition and posting links to LeaveMyFoodAlone.org on forums, blogs, and other related sites. We have also notice growing pushback from the bill supporters who are aggressively pointing out that there were some false emails circulating about the bill early on. It is true, HR875 DOES NOT outlaw farming. However, that fact doesn’t mean the bill is good legislation for small famers and growers. Keep them on point. It’s about the bill, not whether or not there was some debunked web buzz. Refer any bill supporters that you hear from to this article for a level headed argument against HR 875.

I keep seeing the Monsanto Tweeter having to point people to a post on their blog to correct misinformation about the bill. So it’s obvious the bill is touching some emotions and there’s a lot of misunderstanding about it.

Farming

Farm Fresh Blog From Iowa Farm Bureau

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Fresh BlogAnd another farm group blog has been born. This time it’s Iowa Farm Bureau with the Farm Fresh Blog.

Welcome to Farm Fresh, Iowa Farm Bureau’s blog about the people who bring you your food, fuel and fiber and the issues they face. With so much information available to consumers today, it can be daunting to separate fact from fiction. It is our hope that this blog can introduce you to the faces behind your food and shed some light on questions you may have about how it is grown and raised and what that means to you.

We also hope that this new blog will help readers gain a better understanding of our organization, the Iowa Farm Bureau. We are farmers, sure; but we’re also you; teachers, bankers, accountants, artists, parents, grandparents, caretakers of people, animal and land. We are 153,000 member families strong and growing. We have members from every corner of Iowa who are working together to help farmers and rural communities prosper, improve the quality of life for all Iowans, and supporting our youth.

Meet the bloggers (I love transparency). They put their comment policy right out on the homepage (more on internal page too):

Farm Fresh encourages readers to comment and engage in respectful conversation about the content posted here. We value thoughtful, polite and concise comments that reflect a variety of views. To achieve that, all comments will be moderated prior to posting.

They allow comments – hint, hint. Not everyone does. They’ve got photos on Flickr and they’re using Twitter. What do you think?

Ag Groups

Pistachio Recall Website

Chuck Zimmerman

Food recalls seem to be fairly frequent lately and it seems like the general public really doesn’t get good information about what is actually being recalled. I would blame that at least in part to journalists trying to be “sensational” with the effect of scaring the crap out of people who then tend to over react. Okay, got that out of my system.

There is a website now on which consumers can get factual information about the pistachio recall:

As part of ongoing collaboration with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pistachio growers and processors today announced a new Web site — www.pistachiorecall.org — that lists specific pistachio products and brands that are confirmed safe to consume.

The Web site is produced by CAL-PURE, a co-op of California pistachio growers (“CAL-PURE”), and the Western Pistachio Association (“WPA”) and is accessible directly and via a link on the FDA Web site at www.fda.gov/pistachios. The new site is being made available in light of a pistachio recall by the processor, Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc. and Setton International, due to potential Salmonella contamination. The recall action has been taken on a precautionary basis, and the FDA reports no illnesses tied to the recalled pistachios.

Ag Groups, Food, Internet

Farm Podcaster Tool

Chuck Zimmerman

Tascam DR 100The farm podcaster who is all about quality may want to look into the Tascam DR-100. This bad boy looks pretty sweet to me. I like the fact that it has built-in XLR inputs. It’s a little larger than a Marantz PMD 620 (still on sale for $100 off!) but still small form factor. Records on an SD card.

The rugged TASCAM DR-100 offers high-end recording features to musicians and engineers who demand more from their portable recorder. It features four built-in microphones, two cardioid and two omnidirectional, with analog limiting and filtering for great-sounding recordings. A pair of XLR microphone inputs with phantom power welcomes pro-grade condenser microphones, and line in and out connectors are also provided.

The DR-100 includes a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, but can also be powered by AA batteries or an optional AC adapter. A built-in speaker allows for instant playback, and the metal enclosure includes a tripod mounting hole for recording flexibility. A wireless remote control is also included for remotely starting the recording.

Equipment, Podcasts

New Media Soybeans

Chuck Zimmerman

beancastI just found out about the United Soybean Board’s podcast called, BeanCast. I had heard they were planning to produce one but I guess I missed it somehow since it looks like it started last December. It came up in conversation today. I’m glad to see another ag group taking advantage of this new media option.

A couple of things hit me though when I looked at it. It’s not clear that I can subscribe to the podcast. It says I can subscribe to the blog though. I wonder if people will understand that the blog rss feed is okay to use in iTunes for example. The BeanCast is being produced by well known farm broadcaster David Russell but the site doesn’t say who David is. David works for Brownfield of course but I’m not sure everyone knows that. Might be good to disclose that information since he doesn’t work for the United Soybean Board.

I like the fact that they are posting each episode onto a blog. There are a lot of good reasons to do this starting with search engine optimization and online archiving. They’re also posting it as both a click to download option or play in a flash player. This provides choices to the visitor and I’ve found that to be much appreciated, especially if you hope someone else will “pass it along.”

I tried to find the BeanCast in the iTunes podcast library and instead found a trademarked “The Beancast: A Marketing Podcast” by Cool Bean Productions. There’s also a Beancaster.com podcast which is about financial information. No BeanCast for USB though. The iTunes directory is a good place to be found for people who are key word searching for podcasts since it’s probably the biggest online directory of podcasts that I know of anyway.

Ag Groups, Podcasts, Soybean

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Through a collaboration of 830 veterinarians, animal health suppliers and Pfizer Animal Health, nearly $500,000 has been donated to local FFA chapters across the country. Through purchases of Pfizer Animal Health’s vaccines, veterinarians and animal health suppliers were able to donate to a local FFA chapter of their choice.
  • Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. announced Lumax and Lexar herbicides and Quilt fungicide have received federal registration for use in grain sorghum from the EPA.
  • For his career as a pioneer in corn breeding, A. Forrest Troyer is one of this year’s recipients of the prestigious Siehl Prize for Excellence in Agriculture.
  • Makhteshim Agan of North America, Inc. has promoted Troy Bettner to the position of southern regional business manager. Previously he served as the company’s senior product manager, fungicides.
    Zimfo Bytes