Getting Some Ethanol Truth

Chuck Zimmerman

Cellulosic SummitNext week I’ll be in Washington, DC for the Cellulosic Ethanol Summit. Thanks to the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council and the Renewable Fuels Association for sponsoring my coverage which will primarily be on Domestic Fuel. It’s going to be interesting to see how far along we really are towards having the cellulosic process commercially viable. If it is “here and now” then it should take the wind out of the sails of the whackos who still try to foster a food vs. fuel debate.

Kernals of TruthSpeaking of food vs. fuel, the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council has started a program called “Kernals of Truth.” Here’s what it’s all about:

Kernels of Truth: Learn more about the facts behind food, fuel and farming in South Dakota. Prices at the grocery store are higher. But the truth is, corn prices have little effect on the retail price of food. Find out more about the costs associated with food production and why our leadership in ethanol production and dried distillers grains is a major reason why livestock producers across the state have a plentiful and economical source of feed. That helps keep food prices lower, not higher. Really.

The program got the attention of the Associated Press and their story was picked up by Forbes.com. Helping the SDCUC is Paulsen Agribranding. I know that because they wrote about it on their blog.

Ethanol

Case IH Magnum Has a Good Design

Chuck Zimmerman

CASE IH MagnumYou not only have to be “muscular” but you really need to look good out in the field. That’s what you’ll be in a Case IH Magnum.

For the first time in the company’s history, Case IH has been honored with a prestigious Good Design™ Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design. The Case IH Magnum tractor was voted one of the winning designs in the transportation category.

Other winners in the category include the NASA Lunar Lander, the Mitsubishi Eclipse Spider, the BMW F8005 Motorcycle, the BMW Z4 Coupe, and the Camcopter® S-100 UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

“We were judged against some of the best transportation companies in the world — and out of this world, when you factor in NASA,” says Mike Bunnell, one of the company’s tractor vehicle engineers who designed the next generation Case IH Magnum tractors. “That’s pretty impressive competition.”

Bunnell says the Magnum won the award because “it successfully combines style and extreme functionality. It’s stylish and looks great, but it’s also a rugged, muscular tractor,” he adds. “So the design has to integrate a lot of necessary functions, such as air flow, cooling, high visibility and operator comfort, to name just a few. Based on what our customers are telling us — coupled with this renowned Good Design award — we succeeded.”

Tractor

Wal-Mart Selling Broadband Internet Access

Chuck Zimmerman

WalmartAccording to a story on Business Week, Walmart will begin selling broadband internet access. That would be of the satellite variety. They’ll begin re-selling Hughes Communications satellite service right away. It’s not a huge market but one of the barriers to satellite access has been price. The bet is that the price will go down now that the big dog is selling it.

The story says that currently only “about 10% of Americans have no access to DSL or cable broadband.” That’s still a lot of people and a lot of them are in rural areas. So farmers without access to DSL or cable, take heart. Another option is surfacing at a store near you.

According to a story on Webpronews.com:

Wal-Mart will offer satellite broadband in 800 stores and pricing will start at $60 a month for 700Kbps download speeds up 2.0Mbps. The company is also rumored to be testing a service similar to Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

Internet

NAFB Convention Hotel Sold Out

Chuck Zimmerman

NAFB ConventionThe National Association of Farm Broadcasting has had to make arrangements for extra rooms at hotels nearby the Westin Crown Plaza since as of today it’s sold out for their convention. Contact the office if you still need to make a reservation.

If you’re an Allied Industry Council member then they’d like your opinion on some things prior to the convention. You can find the form here. It’s short so please let them know what you think.

It’s hard to believe it’s almost time for another NAFB Convention. I don’t want to think about how many I’ve been too. This year I’ll be blogging the meeting and on Friday I’ll be conducting a professional improvement session on new media. I think we’ll have some fun with it.

NAFB

Florida Farm Bureau Leader Blogs

Chuck Zimmerman

FFB President's BlogThe President of Florida Farm Bureau Federation is blogging. He’s John Hoblick and you can find him here. Here’s an excerpt:

In this first post, I will focus on the Florida Farm Bureau Annual Meeting at the Hilton in Daytona Beach.

I am looking forward to it.

You are planning to be there, aren’t you?

Our 66th annual meeting will celebrate another successful year for the Federation. It is also the final step in the adoption of the policies that will guide us in 2008 as we work to improve farmers’ incomes and better the quality of rural life.

John, you’re off to a good start. Within the week we’ll know if you’ve got an inner blogger though. There are some who have tried it and . . .

I also notice that my old friend Kay Richardson is giving it a go too. Way to go Kay.

Ag Groups

4,000 Posts on AgWired

Chuck Zimmerman

I call it a milestone. This is post number 4,000 since starting out on the great agriblogging adventure. AgWired has gone through several designs since it was first started in August of 2004. We really don’t count the serious start of the site though until April of 2005 at the NAMA convention. So most of these posts have been done in the last 2 1/2 years.

That’s a lot of archived material having to do with the business of agricultural marketing. I’m not even going to try to add up all the images we’ve posted or audio files. My ZimmCast for this week is episode number 140. 140 weeks of the only audio program you’ll find that focuses on the subject.

Thanks to all of you who visit, read, listen and watch. We’re heading for the next thousand posts full steam ahead.

Uncategorized

ls Food a Right?

Chuck Zimmerman

2007 World Food DayOctober 16 is World Food Day as coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This year’s theme is “The Right to Food.” I’m all for bringing attention to the fact that there are people starving and we should do all we can to feed them with our excess.

However, if you listen to the following statement by FAO’s DG Jacques Diouf, you’ll hear him say that countries are making the right to food a constitutional right. He says we should move away from charity to making food a “right.” I wonder what all the charitable organizations that are working so hard to help feed the hungry would think of that. This concept is just not practical in my opinion. I really think there a lot of other ways to accomplish feeding the hungry and there are a lot of people and organizations already doing it.

Here’s what it says on their website:

The right to food is the inherent human right of every woman, man, girl and boy, wherever they live on this planet.

The choice of The Right to Food as the theme for 2007 World Food Day and TeleFood demonstrates increasing recognition by the international community of the important role of human rights in eradicating hunger and poverty, and hastening and deepening the sustainable development process.

Listen to Jacques Diouf here: fao-wfd.mp3

Audio, International

Budding Agribloggers in Canada

Chuck Zimmerman

University of GuelphYou might recall that I recently conducted a new media class for a day at the University of Guelph. The grad students in that class all had their own blog started by the end of the day.

I finally got a list of their websites and thought I’d share with you. Check them out and let them know what you think.

Scott Hodgins
Terry Stevenson
Patricia Dickenson
Brent Piercey
Mary Feldskov
Joanne Falk
Melissa Snyder
Oliver Haan
Jen Atkinson

International, University

Zimfo Bites

Melissa Sandfort

  • One-stop shopping for agricultural information: The National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) 2007 Convention – “A Rural Renaissance” – will be held Nov. 14-16 at the Westin Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo. Trade talk is from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 15th. Visit the NAFB site for a tentative agenda and registration information.
  • Makhteshim Agan of North America, Inc. (MANA), announces the addition of John Gertz to its new product development team as senior product manager – special projects and new product development. Gertz comes to MANA with eight years of experience at some of the biggest companies in the crop protection industry, bringing great commercial management experience from such companies as SipcamAgro USA, Agriliance LLC and Dow AgroSciences.
  • CHS, a leading energy and grains company, has announced an expanded partnership with Agriculture Future of America (AFA), a collegiate organization that provides leader and career development for students pursuing careers in agriculture. Under the expanded partnership, CHS is making a $40,000 contribution that will help AFA provide quality programs and experiences for college students. Funded by CHS and the CHS Foundation, the dollars will also sponsor 20 students, including CHS and cooperative system interns, to the annual AFA Leaders Conference, Nov. 8-11, in Kansas City, Mo.
  • Getting toward the end of the year and finding that you still need CEUs? Don’t forget about “Spray Drift Management To Minimize Problems,” a FREE, online continuing education course developed by Southwest Farm Press for all licensed, certified applicators in Texas and Oklahoma. It has been accredited for 1.50 recertification credits (0.50 credits in laws and regulations and 1 credit for drift minimization) by the Texas Department of Agriculture. It has been accredited for two CEUs (one CEU each for Categories 1A-Ag Plant and 10-Demo and Research) by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. And there’s an ASA-accredited one-CEU course in Pest Management for all Certified Crop Advisers in the U.S. and Canada.
Zimfo Bytes

New Portable Farm Podcast Recorder

Chuck Zimmerman

Marantz PMD620Hey all you farm podcasters out there. Here’s a new digital recorder to drool over and plan to put in your tool kit. Marantz is finally coming out with a small form recorder. Finally! I got to demo this one at the Podcast & New Media Expo. It’s supposed to be coming out some time in November and I will be placing an order.

Here at ZimmComm New Media we’ve got a Marantz PMD 660 which is the best you can buy right now but it’s still a large form factor. So you’ve been seeing me with an Edirol R-09 and Cindy with a Zoom H-2. Of course we still have our trusty Sony MZ-B100 too. The agriblogging farm podcaster of today needs to think small when you’re talking lots of road time.

The Marantz rep I spoke with admitted that they’re a little behind on this one but from the looks of the one I saw they’ll catch up fast. Pricing should be comparable to the Edirol from what I understand.

You can read more about the new unit on Podcasting News.

Podcasts