Our former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture is now running for the office of U.S. Senate and he’s still great talking about agriculture on stage.
Here he is at the Alltech Symposium. The debate was for the most part very cordial. I think Johanns did a very good job of addressing the questions and talking to the issues in a very direct way.
To give you a taste of it I’ve got his answer here to the first question from Alltech’s VP, Aidan Connolly: alltech-symposium-08-johanns.mp3
The debate session was over an hour long and followed by a press conference where the issues of food vs. fuel and farm subsidies came up again. The bottom line from all three presenters seemed to be that the market and farmers will rise to meet demand and that new technologies are here now and not off in the future. No one’s starving because of biofuels. No one will.
Right now the Alltech Symposium afternoon general session is featuring a debate with these guys pictured with Dr. Pearse Lyons (top). They are Mike Johanns, former U.S. Sec. of Ag, David Byrne, former EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection and Osler Desouzart, OD Consulting.
The winner of the 
I just finished doing Blogging 101 for the international ag media attending the Alltech Symposium.
The man in charge of research on a worldwide basis for Alltech is Dr. Karl Dawson. He has been the guy who starts things off, like here at the press conference for the opening of the new Nutrigenomics Center and then again at the opening session.
Dr. Mark Lyons is the son of Alltech founder and President, Dr. Pearse Lyons. At the press conference yesterday he kept getting referred to as the “other Dr. Lyons.” I think he’s used to it. In fact, Mark says his sister has a PhD too.
I would dare say that Alltech is one of the most multi-media savvy companies I’ve worked with and I’m sure it’s because of the talent the company has invested in. I’m just proud to be working alongside them here in Lexington at their Symposium in my own little way.
One of the challenges of holding an international educational symposium is language. We wish everyone spoke English but that’s just not the case. 
For Earth Day I hope to eat some green vegetables. I also turned out the light in my hotel room before I left. Yesterday afternoon, in preparation, I made sure I re-used my plastic beer cup at the Alltech Kentucky Night celebration.
I’m just guessing that it’s not coincidence that the theme for Alltech’s Symposium is “The Greenest Generation” and it’s Earth Day. No, couldn’t be.