Organic Scandal

Laura McNamara

The Cornicopia InstituteA handful of the nation’s largest grocery retailers have been accused of organic fraud. Wal-Mart, Costco, Target, Safeway, and Wild Oats have been accused of selling organic milk that might not be so “organic.”

The legal filings in federal courts in Seattle, Denver, and in Minneapolis, against the retailers, come on the heels of class action lawsuits against Aurora Dairy Corporation, based in Boulder, Colorado. The suits against Aurora and the grocery chains allege consumer fraud, negligence, and unjust enrichment concerning the sale of organic milk. This past April, Aurora officials received a notice from the USDA detailing multiple and “willful” violations of federal organic law that were found by federal investigators.

“This is the largest scandal in the history of the organic industry,” said Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group. Cornucopia’s own investigations in 2005 first alerted USDA of Aurora’s improprieties.

Five lawsuits against the retailers have been filed so far. And law firms based in Seattle, St. Louis, New York and other cities have filed at least eight lawsuits against Aurora, representing plaintiffs in over 30 states.

Aurora, with $100 million in annual sales, provides milk that is sold as organic and packaged as store-brand products for many of the nation’s biggest chains. Besides Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, and Safeway, Aurora serves as supplier to 15 other national and regional chains.Read More

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Animal Health, Dairy, Food, Organic, Wackos

Corn Refiners Clear Up Myths About High Fructose Corn Syrup

Laura McNamara

The Corn Refiners AssociationApparently, the public doesn’t have it straight when it comes to high fructose corn syrup. The Corn Refiners Association has released a list of its “Top Published Myths about High Fructose Corn Syrup.”

Myth: High fructose corn syrup is solely to blame for obesity and diabetes.

Reality: There is no scientific evidence to suggest that high fructose corn syrup is uniquely responsible for people becoming obese. As noted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1996, “the saccharide composition (glucose to fructose ratio) of HFCS is approximately the same as that of honey, invert sugar and the disaccharide sucrose (or table sugar).”The leading causes of diabetes are obesity, advancing age and heredity. All caloric sweeteners trigger an insulin response in the body. In fact, table sugar, honey and high fructose corn syrup trigger about the same insulin release because they contain nearly equal amount of fructose and glucose.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted high fructose corn syrup “Generally Recognized as Safe” status for use in food, and reaffirmed that ruling in 1996 after thorough review.

Myth: High fructose corn syrup is high in fructose.

Reality: Contrary to its name, high fructose corn syrup is not high in fructose. In fact, the composition of high fructose corn syrup is similar to sugar. Sugar is composed of 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose and high fructose corn syrup has either 42 percent or 55 percent fructose, with the remaining sugars being primarily glucose.Read More

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Education, Food

Record Year for Farmland Preservation in Pennsylvania

Laura McNamara

Pennsylvania Department of AgriculturePennsylvania is securing more farms under it’s nationally recognized Farmland Preservation Program. The state has announced that this year 351 farms have been protected.

“Once again, we’ve shown our commitment to the future of Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry with the preservation of another 5,234 acres of quality farmland for a total of 33,445 acres this year,” Governor Edward G. Rendell said. “In addition to safeguarding the land, we are also preserving the proud tradition of farming, our state’s number one industry.”

Pennsylvania leads the nation in the number of farms and acres preserved. Since the program began in 1988, a total of 377,910 acres on 3,339 farms have been protected.

Pennsylvania allocated nearly $40 million this year for the preservation program, including $4 million from Growing Greener II, Governor Rendell’s initiative that supports environmental programs in the state. County programs contributed $37 million in matching funds to protect quality farmland from development and non-agricultural uses. Combined, this $77 million can preserve an additional 38,500 acres or more than 300 farms.

“Looking ahead, we expect another good year for preservation in 2008 as we celebrate the program’s 20th anniversary,” said Wolff. “With the help of Governor Rendell, we anticipate reaching the 3,500 farm and 400,000 acre milestones.”

Agribusiness, Farm Policy, Farming

Altorfer Lets Farmers Customize

Laura McNamara

mojoRTKIt’s about what the farmers want for Altofer Inc. The Midwest-based farm machinery dealer has introduced the new No Drift mojoRTK Auto-steer by Leica Geosystems. Altofer says the new mojoRTK is the first system of its kind to allow farmers to buy a system taylored for their specific needs.

The new mojoRTK is the first auto-steer system that allows farmers to buy a basic system and then upgrade only the features they need, creating a completely customized system at an affordable price.

In addition to the basic system, Altorfer is the first dealer in Illinois to offer customized upgrades, including the addition of GLONASS satellites, 8- and 16-mile range upgrades, survey grade elevation and other add-ons for the mojoRTK.

Altorfer, Inc. will also join Leica Geosystems as a pioneer in virtual service and support with Virtual Wrench(TM) – the agriculture industry’s first real-time, virtual service, support and diagnostic tool. With the use of Virtual Wrench, Altorfer technicians will have the ability to support the mojoRTK system in the field with remote technicians. With one touch of a button, farmers can connect to technicians who can view and adjust settings in the cab. They can see exactly what the farmer is viewing, and even “push” the buttons to make adjustments remotely.

Agribusiness, Equipment, Farming, Technology

Dairy Producer Wins Lawn Tractor

Melissa Sandfort

animart-cydectin-promotion-winner.jpgANIMART, Inc. has announced David Hemann with Double H Dairy of Greenwood, Wisc., won the grand-prize of the 2007 ANIMART/Cydectin Fall Deworming Promotion. Hemann was awarded on Christmas Eve a new 2008 John Deere LA 115 Lawn Tractor worth nearly $2,000. Hemann operates a 95-cow dairy with his wife Linda and son Allen and his wife Karen and their children Ashley and Mitch in rural Clark County.

ANIMART, Fort Dodge, manufacturer of Cydectin and Mid-State Equipment, John Deere dealer from Columbus, Wisc., teamed together to encourage dairy and livestock producers to treat cattle for parasites through the fall deworming promotion.

Hemann uses Cydectin on his dairy cattle to control a broad-spectrum of internal and external parasites including worms, mange and lice.

Hemann was randomly selected from more than 340 entries of ANIMART customers participating in the three month fall promotion that ran Aug. 1 thru Nov. 30, 2007.

Dairy, Farming

Zimfo Bites

Melissa Sandfort

  • Southeast and Mid-South catfish farmers can apply for $11 million in assistance for catfish feed losses due to declared federal disasters that occurred between January 2005 and February 2007. The funding, which will be distributed by the departments of agriculture in 11 catfish-growing states, is part of $1 billion in payments under the Crop Disaster, Livestock Compensation and Livestock Indemnity Programs that USDA began making in mid-December. Mississippi, which has the largest catfish pond acreage in the nation, will receive $8.12 million; followed by Alabama at $3.12 million; Florida, $34,879.25; Idaho, $6,968; and Oklahoma, $5,651.10.
  • VeraSun Energy Corp. announced the appointment of Chief Financial Officer Danny Herron to the additional post of president, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Herron joined VeraSun as senior vice president and CFO in March 2006. Previously he was executive vice president and CFO at Swift & Company, a Greeley, Colo., processor of fresh beef and pork products. Prior to that, Herron was vice president and senior financial officer at Conagra Beef Company and held senior-level positions with Borden Foods Company and Frito-Lay Inc.
  • In October 1995, 70 equine scientists from 20 nations met in Lexington to kick off the Horse Genome Project, the equine cousin of the $2.7 billion Human Genome Project. Now, after 12 years of work by researchers scattered around the world, the Horse Genome Project is poised to radically change the horse world. Experts say the project could lead to better vaccines to prevent infectious diseases in horses, as well as new treatments for equine respiratory and allergic disorders. It is expected to provide breeders with valuable new insights into planning which stallions and mares to mate. It will make it easier to identify horses that carry genetic abnormalities or illnesses. In addition, new understanding, coupled with controlled breeding, potentially could eliminate many equine genetic diseases. And the project one day could reveal ways of preventing equine illnesses such as laminitis.
Zimfo Bytes

Let’s Link Up

Chuck Zimmerman

FacebookI think blogging about agricultural marketing to an audience of thousands of people every month via a massively search engine optimized website is a pretty open form of communication. To enhance that effort you can now find ZimmComm on some additional social communication networks – Facebook and LinkedIn.

To view my profile and write on my wall you’ll need to have a Facebook account though. I’ve got pages created so far for AgWired and ZimmComm New Media.

LinkedInThe same is true with LinkedIn. If you’ve already got an account then visit me and let’s link up. I got started on this one from invitations from a few ag communicators who many of you know!

Uncategorized

Farm Art From Artist in the Sky

Chuck Zimmerman

Artist in the SkyEver wondered what your farm or business looks like from the air? How about having a picture taken? There’s lots of things you can do with it including using the photo in your marketing efforts (website, newsletter, flyers, emails) or just to hang on the office wall.

The folks at Artist in the Sky have lots of reasons why you might want to have this done. Their pricing seems reasonable to me and from the examples you’ll find on their website, they do a quality job.

Uncategorized

Karen Potratz Returns to Bader Rutter

Chuck Zimmerman

Karen PotratzWell the Christmas holiday is over and it’s back to work (sort of). A lot of offices are closed this week but not ZimmComm, although I did take time today to install a new HD plasma tv/home theater system! Thank you Santa.

So, back to business. And business has to do with Karen Potratz returning to Bader Rutter & Associates as a public relations group leader on the Dow AgroSciences account.

As a group leader, Potratz will oversee the agency’s public relations activities for the Dow AgroSciences crop protection, traits and seed businesses. She most recently worked at Morgan & Myers, Inc., as a senior counselor. Potratz previously worked at Bader Rutter as an account executive. Originally from Eldridge, Iowa, Potratz graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural journalism.

Agencies

Zimfo Bites

Melissa Sandfort

  • The National Cotton Council is urging consultants to join cotton producers at the 2008 Beltwide Cotton Conferences at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Jan. 8-11. The conferences’ theme is “Orchestrate Your Opportunities.” The general session will open with a welcome from Tennessee Department of Agriculture Commissioner Ken Givens and feature updates from the NCC and Cotton Incorporated on the farm bill, cotton research and promotion, variety improvement and other important issues. The general session also will include a focus on herbicide resistance management; new harvesting technology, including onboard moduling systems; the new eXtension web site; current/future challenges and opportunities for cotton producers; and lessons learned from the 2007 growing season. Registration and hotel information, as well as the program, can be viewed here.
  • Hormel Foods Corp. announced that Fred D. Halvin has been named director of mergers, acquisitions and strategy, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Halvin, who had served as director of investor relations since 2001, will report to Ron W. Fielding, executive vice president of grocery products and mergers and acquisitions. Replacing Halvin as director of investor relations is Kevin C. Jones, current assistant secretary for the board of directors and senior attorney.
  • The USDA has opened a new agricultural trade office in China, located in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu, the fifth most populous city. USDA presently operates another three offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. In 2007, China imported approximately $8.2 billion in agricultural goods from the U.S.
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