USDA Celebrates $3 Billion for Climate-Smart Commodities
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack traveled to Pennsylvania to celebrate investing over $3 billion in 135 projects under the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities since its creation in September 2022.
Among the projects Secretary Vilsack highlighted during his address in Hershey were:
A project led by Farm Journal that is expanding climate-smart markets for specialty crops, beef, pork and other commodities while incentivizing Pennsylvania farmers to implement practices like cover crops and grazing management, and providing technical assistance and data-management support to track outcomes.
The Iowa Soybean Association’s Midwest Climate-Smart Community Program, which now has over 1800 farms enrolled in climate-smart production. The resulting corn, soy, sugar beats and wheat supply insetting markets where corporate entities aim to reduce their greenhouse gas footprint.
A project let by TH Cattle Company is quantifying the soil and biomass impacts of climate-smart ranching practices and rewarding livestock producers through premiums for added-value beef. Over 5,000 acres of ranchland are participating by implementing climate-smart grazing practices that will enable access to these markets.
Listen to Vilsack’s remarks:
Vilsack in Hershey, PA (26:41)
Terviva Offers New Biofuel Feedstock Grown on Trees
Agricultural innovation company Terviva has announced an investment from Chevron Renewable Energy Group to help scale production of pongamia for low carbon renewable fuel.
“Crude pongamia oil can be converted into biodiesel, renewable diesel, or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). In working with Chevron Renewable Energy Group, we can increase the availability of feedstocks for production of these fuels while promoting our mission to revitalize agricultural land and communities. This relationship benefits stakeholders up and down the value chain, from farmers cultivating pongamia to fleets looking for lower carbon fuels,” said Naveen Sikka, founder, and CEO of Terviva.
Pongamia growing in Central Florida
Terviva recently expanded its executive leadership team to include Simmarpal Singh as Chief Operating Officer, previously serving as CEO-India for COFCO International and prior to that for Louis Dreyfus India. Singh will focus on strengthening the upstream and midstream processes to expand the footprint of Terviva and pongamia across India, the U.S., Australia, and other parts of the world. “I think there is huge potential around pongamia,” said Singh. “I look forward to leveraging my deep experience in farming, origination, manufacturing, and international stakeholder management to work in a new commodity value chain that directly contributes toward improving our global climate.”
Learn more about Terviva and pongamia in this interview with CEO Naveen Sikka and COO Simmarpal Singh.
Interview with Terviva (19:04)
ZimmCast 736 – Syngenta Advancing Innovation
Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast.
In this episode I am going to share some audio from the recent Syngenta Media Summit 2024 that was held in the new crop protection facility in Greensboro, NC. I am grateful for the opportunity to be with a group of agricultural journalists and have personal time with Syngenta leadership. You’ll hear more about the new facility.
I have created a virtual newsroom on AgNewsWire that contains photos as well as interviews and other audio for ag media to use.
I’ve picked out the welcome we had from Jeff Cecil, Head of North America Crop Protection Marketing, in the form of a one on one interview about advancing innovation for the US grower. After that you’ll hear closing comments from Vern Hawkins, Regional Director, North America President. He focused on advancing American agriculture.
That’s the ZimmCast for now. Please let me know if you have ideas for a future podcast. Just email me at chuck@zimmcomm.biz.
Listen to the episode here:
ZimmCast 736 - Syngenta Media Summit Focus on Advancing Innovation (38:13)
I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for listening.
Subscribe to the ZimmCast in:
Animal Ag News 10/16
Syngenta Crop Protection and Taranis Announce Partnership
Syngenta Crop Protection and Taranis today announced a multi-year collaboration to bring Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven agronomic productivity and conservation-focused innovation to agricultural retail partners in the US.
Over the next three years, the partnership will focus on supporting ag retailers in the adoption of Taranis’ AI-powered agronomic platforms so retail partners can benefit from AI-derived leaf-level remote scouting insights and generative AI (GenAI) agronomic recommendations.
Syngenta will extend a unique offer focused in the Midwest to support targeted retailers’ adoption of Taranis’ AI-driven intelligence platform providing leaf-level 0.3mm/pixel resolution threat detection of weed species, insects, diseases and nutrient deficiencies. The service will enable retailers to remotely scout more acres, more comprehensively, from anywhere they access the platform, and to easily prioritize the fields that require the most immediate attention. Paired with Ag Assistant™, the Taranis GenAI agronomy engine, retail advisors can generate data-driven expert agronomic recommendations that save time and allow them to act decisively to help their grower-customers protect their crops using Syngenta’s market-leading crop protection portfolio, resulting in yield-enhancing crop management practices that improve retailer and grower productivity and profitability.
Ongoing development between Syngenta and Taranis will support the continued advancement of AI-powered agronomic platforms, including technology and features from Syngenta’s Cropwise platform with Taranis’ leading crop intelligence solution and will target innovation in areas including conservation agronomy, agricultural productivity, and AI-enabled agronomic solutions.
Alltech Releases 2023 Sustainability Report
Alltech has just released its annual Sustainability Report for 2023, which demonstrates its purpose of “Working Together for a Planet of Plenty®,” reducing its environmental impact and advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
2023 highlights include:
Alltech has reduced its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 19.8% from its 2021 base year. It aims to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 42% by 2030 (from its 2021 base year) and its Scope 3 emissions by 25% by 2030 (from its 2023 base year).
Alltech completed 19 energy efficiency projects. It conducted 31 energy efficiency project feasibility studies and six renewable energy project feasibility studies. The company invested $3.85 million in efficiency projects in 2023, resulting in the reduction of 8,990 metric tons of CO2e.
Alltech completed 74 core product life-cycle analyses across its top seven specialty ingredients and 17 production facilities.
Alltech was awarded three EcoVadis sustainability medals in 2023.
Alltech Serdán was recertified in 2023 as Empresa Socialmente Responsible (ESR).
Alltech was accredited by the Pet Sustainability Coalition for the third year in a row.
Sixty team members participated in the Women in Food & Agriculture Mentorship Program.
“2023 was another milestone year for Alltech as we advanced our mission and vision of Working Together for a Planet of Plenty,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech. “In the five years since it was launched at the Alltech ONE Conference in Kentucky, Planet of Plenty has become a strategic driver of our business and an accelerator of what is even more important: our impact. Through new partnerships and ongoing collaboration with trusted allies we’ve worked alongside for decades, we continue to drive progress toward our shared goal of a world of abundance for future generations.”
Alltech is currently promoting the first feature-length documentary for Planet of Plenty, a three-year exploration of the true impact of cattle on our world called World Without Cows which aims to broaden the conversation about the role of cattle and to inspire deeper reflection about their role in the vitality of our planet.
RaboResearch Launches Frutonomía Fresh Produce Podcast
Rabobank’s RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness (F&A) team today announced the launch of a new podcast called Frutonomía to explore the challenges, trends and opportunities for the global fruit market.
Presented primarily in Spanish and co-hosted by horticulture and fresh produce analysts David Magaña and Gonzalo Salinas, each episode of the podcast will highlight individual fresh fruit markets, taking an in-depth look at lemons, mandarins, avocados, cherries and blueberries, among others.
The podcast will also feature interviews with industry experts and discussion on regional fruit markets with a focus on the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and China. In particular, Latin America is a leading global supplier of fruits and vegetables to critical geopolitical markets, and could supply two to three out of every five fruits and vegetables globally by 2050 based on historic production and export performance.
The most recent episode features guest Vonnie Estes, Vice President of Innovation, International Fresh Produce Association, IFPA, as they dive into the latest changes in the U.S. fruit market, as well as a look at new developments at the highly anticipated IFPA Global Fresh Produce and Floral Show.
The Frutonomía podcast is already taking its show on the road to this week’s Global Fresh Produce and Floral Show October 17-19 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Protect The Harvest Ceasing Operations October 31
I’ve watched Protect The Harvest over years when they first started in 2011. In fact, it as at the 2014 Ag Media Summit that I interviewed Forrest Lucas and a couple of other guys about starting this effort. You can hear that interview below here: Protect The Harvest Interview 9:11
Protect The Harvest will cease operations effective Oct. 31, 2024, citing ongoing funding challenges that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization was created in 2011 as a non-profit educational and advocacy effort to promote and defend American farmers and ranchers, improve food security, protect property rights, ensure animal welfare, and support outdoor sports such as hunting and fishing. Protect The Harvest has focused on informing stakeholders about important issues, protecting against a myriad of ongoing threats and responding when appropriate.
“Over the past two-and-a-half years we’ve been diligently working to secure funding that would allow Protect The Harvest to continue operations going forward, but the current economy has made it challenging for many individuals and organizations that have supported us in the past,” said Dr. Mike Siemens, Protect The Harvest executive director. “It’s been frustrating and disappointing to see the number of issues we confront multiply while our resources to address them have diminished. It’s also heartbreaking because we hear from so many stakeholders about how much they value Protect The Harvest and the work we do. Now, other organizations will need to step up to fill the void.”
“Since Charlotte and I created Protect The Harvest, we’ve helped many people, some who have become good friends, and we’ve accomplished a lot,” stated Forrest Lucas, founder and chairman of the board. “We’ve fought, and won, a considerable number of important battles that threatened property rights, would restrict freedoms and liberties America was founded on, make it more difficult to produce food or own animals, would curtail hunting and fishing, or would result in greater food insecurity. We have made many friends, enlightened many Americans, and fought the good fights to preserve the nation’s principles and values, but the time has come to pass the torch to others who will promote and defend A Free and Fed America™.”
Industry Ag News 10/14
Harley Janssen, a farmer and leader with over 20 years of experience in agriculture, construction and off-road technology, has joined the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). He will serve as the director of outputs and measurements, a newly created position at the organization.