Dupont Fellow Receives Award

Chuck Zimmerman

George LahmDr. George Lahm has just been named to receive a big award.

One of the most accomplished researchers in the crop protection industry, DuPont Fellow George Lahm, Ph.D., has been named to receive the 2009 Kenneth A. Spencer Award for Outstanding Achievement in Food and Agricultural Chemistry. He received the award for his meritorious contributions to agricultural and food chemistry, including his contributions to the discovery of the two newest DuPont blockbuster insect control products, DuPont™ Rynaxypyr® and Cyazypyr™.

Lahm joined DuPont in 1980 and has led major discovery efforts in the company’s agricultural business, including work on innovative insecticides that increase the marketable value of fruits, vegetables and other crops, by reducing losses due to insects for growers throughout the world.

Lahm was selected to receive the Kenneth A. Spencer Award from a nationwide pool of candidates by a 12-person jury of American Chemical Society members representing industry, education and research. He will receive his award at an October 2009 symposium organized in his honor by the American Chemical Society. Founded in 1955, the award is administered by the Kansas City Section of the American Chemical Society and supported by a gift from the Kenneth A. and Helen F. Spencer Foundation. George Levitt, another DuPont Crop Protection researcher, received the Spencer Award in 1991 for his discovery of sulfonylurea herbicides.

Agribusiness

Cellulosic Ethanol To Bridge The Gap

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Foundation Mark DietzenCommercializing Gasification/Fermentation Technology was the topic of comments made by Mark Dietzen, INEOS Bio, at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference.

He says that they have a practical technology that they’re in the process of implementing to be online by 2011 to produce cellulosic ethanol. He thinks that it will help bridge the gap between what’s possible with crop based ethanol and allow the substitution of a larger percentage of gasoline with a bio based fuel.

You can listen to my interview with Mark here: ff-global-09-dietzen.mp3

You can download the interview with this link (mp3).

You can find photos from the conference here:
Transition To A Bio Economy Conference: Global & Trade Issues Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Ethanol, Farm Foundation

AgWired Getting Re-Published

Chuck Zimmerman

Hoosier FarmersHow to quantify social media reach and influence is becoming the top topic in conversations I’m having with agrimarketers. It’s not an easy one to answer. You can’t rely on website statistics to tell you the whole story. How do you factor in Twitter, Facebook and something that I have mixed feelings about. That is the re-publishing of my content.

Let’s take Hoosier Farmers as an example. The website says “Hoosier Farmers is a site from the Noblesville Daily Times designed to provide news and links of interest to Indiana farmers.” What it’s actually doing is re-publishing AgWired along with some other content from other sources. I found this in a Google search a couple days ago. There are actually quite a few websites doing this with AgWired and other ZimmComm properties. Sometimes they “scrape” all my posts. Sometimes just selected ones of interest to their audience. Usually they provide links back to AgWired. I think this raises a number of questions.

Should I be upset or pleased? How can I figure their traffic in my statistics since I don’t know it? How can I use knowledge of this to my benefit and the benefit of my clients?

I said I have mixed feelings because I have invested a lot of work in the content I produce and someone else is using it to attract traffic to their website. However, my clients want maximum exposure and this is one way it’s happening. I highly encourage ag media in particular to utilize pictures and audio they find on AgWired. Hopefully that helps them and my clients who are usually the subject of the content. I know we get plenty of anecdotal feedback that this is happening. Good. But that does seem a little different than the wholesale re-publishing of everything we post.

How about you? Is this a good thing or something else? Do you have the same “problem?”

Uncategorized

Biotech Playing Key Role In Production Of Biofuels

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Foundation Paul WillemsI spoke with Paul Willems, BP Energy Biosciences Institute, one of our speakers at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. I had met him previously at an earlier conference in the series.

Paul says the BP Energy Biosciences Institute was created as a place to apply modern biology to energy problems. He told us that from their perspective, the turbulant times we’re in right now are temporary and that the fundamental trends for the future are unchanged. Those being the supply of oil and gas and the growth and demand for energy products. He says that their CEO likes to say that, “the future has been delayed, it hasn’t been canceled.”

I think he made a good point in my interview with him that we shouldn’t panic. He says there are numerous technology efforts going on in the alternative fuels industry and that it would be a mistake to see that work evaporate because we live in a world of crisis. He urges a steady course toward the future. He also talks about the benefits of biotechnology in developing more efficient alternative fuel production but points out that the industry is still just in its infancy.

You can listen to my interview with Paul here: ff-global-09-willems.mp3

You can download the interview with this link (mp3).

You can find photos from the conference here:
Transition To A Bio Economy Conference: Global & Trade Issues Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Biotech, Energy, Farm Foundation

NAMA Connection Point Is Virtual

Chuck Zimmerman

The NAMA Virtual Trade Show is up and running. You’ll be able to find ZimmComm New Media close to the entrance in booth #102. That’s where you’ll need to drop off your entry forms for our drawing to win either an HP Mini Netbook computer or Cube II desktop speaker/dock for your iPod or iPhone. We’ll also have some other take aways that will be Sizzling Hot.

ZimmComm at NAMA

Connection Point Hours:
A Refreshment Station will be available in the center of the Trade Show area during all hours of the Connection Point courtesy of Southeast Ag Net/Citrus Industry Magazine.

Wednesday, April 16
6:00-7:30 p.m. – Best of NAMA Celebration Reception courtesy of DTN/The Progressive Farmer

Thursday, April 17
12:30-2:00 p.m.-Trade Show Luncheon courtesy of USDA/NASS
12:30-1:30 p.m.-Student Mentor Luncheon courtesy of Technekes and MoKan NAMA
3:00-4:00 p.m. – Ice Cream courtesy of Hoard’s Dairyman magazine
5:00-7:00 p.m. – Trade Show Closing/ABEF Silent Auction courtesy of NAFB & John Deere

NAMA

Online Media Auction For NAMA’s ABEF

Chuck Zimmerman

National Agri-Marketing AssociationHere’s a way you can provide support for the Agri-Business Educational Foundation (ABEF). It’s the annual online media auction which will run from today through 5pm April 9, 2009.

If you have questions about how it works you can visit the Online Media Auction Procedures.

ZimmComm New Media has submitted a package for you to bid on this year. You can find it with this link.

NAMA

Wind Farmers

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Foundation Mark WillersBiofuels like ethanol and biodiesel weren’t the only energy alternatives on the program at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. We also had a presentation on wind energy from Mark Willers, Minwind Energy.

Mark says Minwind Energy was formed by a group of local farmers and businessmen in southwest Minnesota. He’d like people to understand that the electrical grid in the United States needs to be upgraded due to continuing increases in the use of electricity and how that is accomplished and funded is going to be an important issue. He thinks Americans want and need an energy policy that’s focused on efficiency. He says that Congress has extended production tax credits for wind turbines and that’s been helpful.

I thought he made some interesting points about how much news and discussion focuses on liquid fuel like gasoline when the largest energy use in America is from electricity. This is the sector of energy use that wind makes its contribution into.

You can listen to my interview with Mark here: ff-global-09-willers.mp3

You can download the interview with this link (mp3).

You can find photos from the conference here:
Transition To A Bio Economy Conference: Global & Trade Issues Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Energy, Farm Foundation

Biodiesel Good Fit For Carbon Reduction

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Foundation Joel VelascoThe legislative guru for the National Biodiesel Board is Manning Feraci. He was on the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference program.

He gave us an update on the current state of the biodiesel industry and the need for stable policies coming out of DC. He says that he sees some real opportunities now as some of the energy bill mandates are being implemented. He says it’s also a good time to get some structural reforms to the biodiesel tax incentive that will make it work better. I asked him about the carbon issue and he says that biodiesel is such an efficient fuel that it makes the product a good fit in helping obtain green house gas emissions reductions.

You can listen to my interview with Manning here: ff-global-09-feraci.mp3

You can download the interview with this link (mp3).

You can find photos from the conference here:
Transition To A Bio Economy Conference: Global & Trade Issues Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Biodiesel, Energy, Farm Foundation

Take NAMA Pre-Conference Cause Marketing Survey

Chuck Zimmerman

National Agri-Marketing AssociationHere’s a call to action to help Steve Drake out. He’s doing a breakout session at the NAMA Convention on cause marketing. Like me, he wants some feedback before getting there. So . . .

Please take his Cause Marketing Survey for the 2009 Agri-Marketing Conference Presentation.

He will appreciate it. And thank you to everyone who has taken my pre-conference survey.

NAMA

Talking Social Media in DC

Chuck Zimmerman

USGC SessionHere’s my happy group of social media students at the U. S. Grains Council office in Washington, DC.

Pictured are Marri Carrow, USGC, Melissa George Kessler, NAWG, Mike Deering, USGC and Steve Mercer, U. S. Wheat Associates.

We’ve been talking RSS, blogs, podcasts, Twitter, Facebook and more all morning. Like many ag groups today, these are looking at ways to incorporate social media into their communications and outreach efforts.

I’ll be heading back to ZimmComm World Headquarters shortly and still have some interviews to post from the Farm Foundation conference I attended earlier this week. So, I’ll try to get caught up with that in between if possible. It’s been a great trip to DC and I’ll be back here for the NAFB Washington Watch in just a couple weeks.

Ag Groups