Urban Farmer Receives MacArthur Fellow Award

Chuck Zimmerman

Will AllenAn “urban farmer” has received one of the MacArthur Fellows awards.

The MacArthur Foundation today named 25 new MacArthur Fellows for 2008. This past week, the recipients learned in a single phone call from the Foundation that they will each receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years. The new Fellows work across a broad spectrum of endeavors and include a neurobiologist, a saxophonist, a critical care physician, an urban farmer, an optical physicist, a sculptor, a geriatrician, a historian of medicine, and an inventor of musical instruments. All were selected for their creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future.

You can learn more about him and what he does in this video:



Will Allen is an urban farmer who is transforming the cultivation, production, and delivery of healthy foods to underserved, urban populations. In 1995, while assisting neighborhood children with a gardening project, Allen began developing the farming methods and educational programs that are now the hallmark of the non-profit organization Growing Power, which he directs and co-founded. Guiding all is his efforts is the recognition that the unhealthy diets of low-income, urban populations, and such related health problems as obesity and diabetes, largely are attributable to limited access to safe and affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. Rather than embracing the “back to the land” approach promoted by many within the sustainable agriculture movement, Allen’s holistic farming model incorporates both cultivating foodstuffs and designing food distribution networks in an urban setting.

Farming

Georgia Peanut Tour Blog

Chuck Zimmerman

Georgia Peanut TourI am so lame. I was supposed to alert you to the Georgia Peanut Tour before the tour. But guess what? This is the great thing about a blog. It’s archived!

So take a look at what agriblogging professional Joy Carter did. I think she’s raising the bar for you ag group communications managers. I think Joy has been drinking some of that new media Kool-Aid.

Can you say, “Joy gets it?”

Here’s a link to her photo album.

Ag Groups, Peanuts

The Goal of the BIVI Flex Symposium

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Klaas Okkinga, DVMOur emcee for the Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium was Dr. Klaas Okkinga, Brand Manager, Ingelvac CircoFLEX.

He says, “The goal of the symposium is to really bring the latest information that we find in trials we recently conducted, to share those with our customers, who in the past asked questions that these trials are hopefully answering.” Klaas was a little surprised that the attendance was even higher than they expected. He says they try to pack a lot of information in a short time frame, making it worthwhile for their customers to invest their time in attending.

He also presented the PCVAD Research Awards and says, “The goal of the award is to stimulate practical applied research in the field by researchers and veterinarians to help us find answers in the field of PDVAD management.”

Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium Photo Album

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim

BIVI Research Behind The Scenes

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Petra Maas, DVMAttending the Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium from the corporate marketing group was Dr. Petra Maas. She is the Technical Manager for Ingelvac CircoFLEX.

Her presentation was focused on a behind the scenes look at the research and development of Ingelvac CircoFLEX-MycoFLEX. She says the other speakers presented all the data, she just wanted to let attending veterinarians know more about the science behind the vaccines and why they’re working so well in the field.

Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium Photo Album

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Research, Swine

Vaccination Comparison

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Keith Bretey, DVM“Qualifying Animal Responses to Various Immunization Protocols.” That’s the title of the talk given at the Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium by Dr. Keith Bretey. He’s a professional services veterinarian for BIVI. He says that basically means comparing the negative side effects of different vaccines.

The BIVI products Ingelvac CircoFLEX and MycoFLEX were used in the study and he says they were much less impactive on the pigs compared to other products.

Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium Photo Album

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Research, Swine

Vaccinations Make a Difference

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Ernest Sanford, DVMDr. Ernest Sanford came to the Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium from Canada. He had some of the hottest new research to present. The title of his presentation was, “Impact of PCV2 Vaccination on Subclinical PCVAD Cases in Canada, France and U.S.”

He says this topic has come up fairly recently and they’ve now got some new research data with some interesting results. For one thing, he says the research showed that “. . . obvious thing would be that you probably need to vaccinate pigs against circovirus whether or not you believe you have a circovirus problem.” Another finding that he says came as a big surprise was regarding carcass characteristics with the vaccinated pigs showing more desirable characteristics compared to the pigs that weren’t vaccinated. He says it was significant enough to pay for the vaccination.

Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium Photo Album

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Research, Swine

One Dose Is Enough

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. John Kolb, DVMOne of the speakers at the Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium was Dr. John Kolb. I met him at the company’s Animal Health Seminar last month.

His topic was “Pig Performance with Ingelvac MycoFLEX vs. Two-Dose Vaccines.” At the Flex Symposium he presented research data that compared using this new single dose product vs. some of the competition’s that required two doses. He says the research not only showed that it works well but it also works well over the long run, which had been a question for many veterinarians.

Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium Photo Album

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Research, Swine

PCVAD Overview

Chuck Zimmerman

Dr. Edgar Diaz, DVMThe opening speaker at the Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium was Dr. Edgar Diaz, DVM. He’s a technical manager for BIVI. His task was to provide a scientific overview of PCVAD (porcine circovirus associated disease).

Dr. Diaz says that they’ve found the focus to be on vaccinations recently so he was on the agenda to talk about some new research in this area. The research, he says, shows that vaccination is a very effective tool to reduce the impact of the disease on the farm.

Boehringer Ingelheim Flex Symposium Photo Album

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine

RuralClassifieds.com

Chuck Zimmerman

RuralClassifieds.comPaul Soli, Web Biz, Inc., asked to bring RuralClassifieds.com to you attention. I have done so. Let him know what you think. They have topic specific shopping sites internally like, BullShop.com.

http://www.ruralclassifieds.com/ offers no cost ads to Farmers, Ranchers, Businesses and Residents of Rural America; and currently, users have over 9,000 ads running on its 5 websites.

Many users say this site is similar to Crag’s List, only it offers many more applicable
ad categories which better serve the advertising and marketing needs of Rural America.

Advertising, Internet

New TV Ads From Renewable Fuels Association

Chuck Zimmerman

RFA Ethanol AdThe Renewable Fuels Association, a ZimmComm client, has some cool new tv ads out.

America’s ethanol industry has a fantastic story to tell. Beginning this week, that story is being told to millions of Americans as the Renewable Fuels Association launches two ads very clearly stating the benefits of today’s domestic renewable fuels industry.

Entitled “Faces” and “Places,” the two 30-second spots feature real Americans from Hereford, Texas who are actively leading America toward a more secure energy future. In “Faces,” local Hereford residents explain why ethanol is critical to America’s energy future. In “Places,” the geographic diversity of America’s ethanol industry is on display as the self-proclaimed “Beef Capital of the World” is also home to two ethanol biorefineries. As the Mayor puts it, Hereford is “the ethanol capital of Texas.”

“America’s ethanol producers are on the leading edge of an energy evolution in this country, but far too often aren’t given the credit they deserve,” said Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen.

Here’s Places:


Places – TV Ad from GoodFuels on Vimeo.

Advertising, Ag Groups, Ethanol, RFA