CHS Straw Vote

Chuck Zimmerman

CHS, Inc.Okay, let me add to your political saturation level. Hey, it’ll all be over tomorrow night (we hope). I thought this was an interesting story, especially considering the business CHS is involved in.

Minnesota polls are showing otherwise, but the 20-year-old straw vote tradition at the headquarters of CHS Inc. (NASDAQ:CHSCP) , a leading energy and grain-based foods company, is giving Tuesday’s election to John McCain for president and incumbent Norm Coleman for U.S. Senate.

“We’ve conducted these straw ballots on major national and statewide elections at our location for two decades as a way to encourage employee interest and get out the real vote on Election Day,” said Jim Bareksten, director, government affairs. “Each time, our employee vote has mirrored the actual outcome — including the election of Jesse Ventura as governor in 1998.”

The election, which also included employees at the company’s Rosemount, Minn., transportation terminal drew 153 “voters.” In the presidential contest, Republican McCain drew 57 percent of the votes to Democrat Barack Obama’s 43 percent. Straw poll participants gave Coleman, a Republican, 57 percent to 33 percent for Democrat Al Franken and 10 percent to independent Dean Barkley.

Agribusiness, politics

A Sociable Farmer

Chuck Zimmerman

Are farmers using social networking and new media? I wonder how many times I’ve been asked that. Of course it tells me something about the person asking. Because if you’re online and “in the conversation” then you know the answer to that question!

Let me point you to Tucker who writes The View From The Tractor. He’s following me on Twitter now and I’m following him (subscribed to each other feeds in case you don’t know about following). I’ve never met Tucker but I already feel like I’m starting to get to know him. I love his personal description:

My name is Tucker. My son’s are also called Tucker. We live on a farm in Nebraska. I drive a tractor. I also have the opportunity to spend a majority of my time intaking podcasts and reading in my tractor (I have GPS autosteer) and then I can come here and share some thoughts with you. It is my wish that you will see in my writings, I really do spend too much time alone think.

Feel free to write, call, email, or just comment. I love the socialality of all of this. Our community exists everywhere, even from a little isolated farm in western Nebraska.

So, “Yeah, farmers are using social networking and new media.” Just ask Tucker.

Farming

Enjoying Some Palin Sunshine

Chuck Zimmerman

Sarah PalinIf you were following my Twitter feed then you know where I’ve been for at least part of today. Not to try to influence anyone out there but Cindy, my daughter Chelsea and I went to see Sarah Palin at the Missouri State Capitol building. Here’s Sarah right after she winked at me.

We were kind of hoping she’d say words like “agriculture” and “farmers” but no such luck. However, it was a good time and we got to see my main man, Bocephus (Hank Williams, Jr.) sings some songs. If you’re really interested you can see more photos in an online photo album.

So that’s enough politics for one day. Regardless of where you stand, I hope you’ll go out and exercise your civic duty tomorrow and vote!

Sorry Andy, I didn’t get to give her a kiss for you.

Oh and btw. Hank Jr. sang a variation of one of his hits, called “McCain-Palin Tradition.” Here’s a video of it from another recent rally. I know some of you will enjoy it. Post Update: Cindy used my Flip to shoot the same song today so you get her version now.

politics

Learn About The Alliance For Abundant Food & Energy

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-194 - Alliance For Abundant Food and EnergyYou’ve probably heard about the Alliance For Abundant Food and Energy. But do you know what it’s all about? Well fear not because in this week’s program I interview Alliance Executive Director, Mark Kornblau. He describes their mission, why a new organization was needed and the marketing tactics they’re employing to get their message out.

The Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy brings together a broad group of visionary companies and organizations committed to sustainably and responsibly improving diets and reducing dependence on fossil fuels through increased agricultural productivity worldwide. They understand that through innovation, American agriculture can help meet the growing global demand for food and energy. Members include the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company, DuPont, John Deere, Monsanto, and the Renewable Fuels Association.

Through credible, fact- and science-based education, information and advocacy, we advance support for agricultural solutions today, while building understanding of agriculture’s ability to fulfill the promise of improved diets and better fuels into the future.

The program this week ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. This one is called “Unconscious Alliance” from General Fuzz. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 194 (25 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Mark Kornblau - ZimmCast 194

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

Ag Groups, Audio, ZimmCast

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • A recent International Food Information Council (IFIC) report concludes that 84% of Americans have favorable or neutral impressions of agricultural plant biotechnology, while less than 16% hold an unfavorable impression. Click here for more information.
  • Novus International is proud to announce the appointment of Duarte Diaz, Ph.D. as Ruminant Research Manager. Dr. Diaz will be responsible for managing ruminant research and will serve as technical lead for Novus’s mycotoxin management programs across species.
  • ACH Food Companies, Inc. (ACH), announce the creation, with immediate effect, of Stratas Foods, LLC, a joint venture for the manufacture, marketing and distribution of packaged oil products in the U.S. and Canada. Stratas Foods will serve the foodservice, specialty food ingredient and retail private label bottled oil markets. It is expected to produce 2.5 billion pounds of oil in its first full year of operation.
  • Syngenta announced that it is developing a new technology to dramatically improve the cost efficiency of sugar cane planting in Brazil. Syngenta’s innovation would reduce planting costs per hectare by some 15%, driven by a novel approach to grow sugar cane from smaller cane segments using proprietary treatments. The technology is planned for launch in 2010 under the brand name Plene and has a market potential of $300 million per year by 2015.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Fall Drive By Shooting

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Fall ColorsWe don’t usually hit the height of fall color in Missouri in November but we have this year. This is a drive by shot of some serious color in the late afternoon sun on the river bluffs of the Missouri River.

    I spent the day getting deer hunting camp ready for opening day which follows the NAFB convention this year. With all the rain this summer we’ve got a bumper crop of weeds to contend with but somehow I think we’ll manage.

    If you’ve got a favorite fall shot you’d like to share then send it on in and I’ll try to get it posted.

    Uncategorized

    NAMA GPS Drawing

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Garmin GPSOnce again this year, NAMA is offering some incentive for you to get a friend or co-worker to join. You’ve only got until November 5 so get those applications in. If you do, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a GPS unit.

    Every NAMA member who recruits a new member between now and November 5 will be included in a drawing for a new GPS. The more new members you recruit – the better your chances. New members will have their names entered, too.

    Simply tell your recruit to join on-line at http://www.nama.org/join.html and include your name in the “Referred by” box or have them call the NAMA office at 913-491-6500 to join and remind them to say they were referred by you! Be sure to tell them they’ll be included in the drawing.

    When will the drawing take place? During Trends in Agriculture, which takes place November 11 and 12 at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City. We’d love to have you there, but you don’t have to be present to win.

    NAMA

    Appaloosa Pumpkins

    Chuck Zimmerman

    First Place Appaloosa PumpkinLast year on Halloween I was blogging the Appaloosa World Show for Steve Taylor and crew at the Appaloosa Horse Club. This year Steve is a master agriblogger and handling the job very well. Here’s a picture from his posts at the show this week.

    Probably the toughest job I’ve had all week at the Appaloosa World Show in Fort Worth was being on a panel of judges to evaluate entries in the pumpkin carving contest. Our great supporter, Gary Raak, Twin Cities Feather-Lite, organized the competition and even hauled in the pumpkins.

    Steve’s also got an online photo album started for the show.

    Uncategorized

    Laser Pumpkins

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Laser PumpkinWe’ve got the candy ready for the evening onslaught and will be dishing it out in between calls from automated political campaigns. It’ll all be over next week!

    I saw this on Gizmodo and thought you might enjoy it.

    You could risk cutting yourself with a knife. Or you could buy one of those mini saw kits that always break off in the pumpkin. Or, if you really want to misuse company/lab equipment, you can requisition a laser cutter to carve your Halloween pumpkins. That’s what Doug did, and he has no regrets other than that the results “smell bad.”

    Uncategorized

    Agricultural FINDERBINDER Going To Print

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Ag Finder BinderThe first edition of the Agricultural FINDERBINDER is now going to print according to Cory Cart. I just spoke with him about how things are going with what promises to be the most complete resource of agricultural media listings available.

    He says they completed their pre-sales phase earlier this month and are gearing up to start getting it in the hands of agricultural marketers who want and need to be able to contact ag media representatives. He says they’ll be shipping a disk with the printed binder so that you can import contact data into your computer. Cory says they’ve got over 1,500 media outlets listed with about 2,700 contacts. To be listed a media outlet had to have at least 51 percent of its coverage on some subject related to agriculture. He says they’re also planning a tabbed section on rural lifestyle outlets.

    To get your copy you can call Sandi Lomonaco at 405-759-3373 or order online.

    Listen to my interview with Cory here: ag-finderbinder-update.mp3

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

    Media