An association for people who live in the country? It seems like we have a lot of those but maybe not one like this. It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out. The announcement says there will be an annual convention and trade show too. Hmmm . . . Member registration is $49.
A new association to address the needs of the ever-growing “country living” population will begin initial operation Sept. 15, 2006. The new entity is named Country Living Association and its membership is focused on individuals and families who reside in the country and marketers who supply these families with goods and services relating to country life. “Data proves there are millions of households made up of people who reside outside of cities on acreages ranging from one to 50. These people, as well as traditional farm operators, have unique needs and priorities, and they can benefit greatly from a collective voice, as well as networking opportunities and educational resources,” says Alan Krob, executive director of Country Living Association.
In addition to introducing the new association, Krob announced that Meredith Corporation’s Living the Country Life will serve as the organization’s official publication, and John Deere has committed to be a founding sponsor.
It’s good to be home. Now I’ve got some catching up to do. I’ll have a few posts for you yet today but it’ll take a couple days to get everything posted I’d like to. So let’s get started with this announcement from 
Harding joins the Bayer CropScience team as a public relations account supervisor, supporting the Bayer CropScience cotton/rice/peanuts portfolio. Since joining Rhea & Kaiser in 2000, Harding has won seven first-place National Agri-Marketing Association awards. Harding received a bachelor’s degree in radio-television-film from the University of Texas and a master’s degree in media communications from Webster University.
Hepler joins the Bayer CropScience Southern row crop products team as account executive. She joined Rhea & Kaiser in 2004 as an account coordinator. Hepler is a graduate of the University of Missouri–Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture business.
One of the companies exhibiting at today’s biobased event at the Pentagon is 
It seems like I run into Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, everywhere these days. Today it was in the Pentagon at the Dept. of Defense, biobased products event that was put together with a lot of work by the United Soybean Board.
The first speaker this morning at the Pentagon for the biobased event was The Honorable Gordon England, Deputy Secretary of Defense. 
These were the speakers this morning at the Pentagon for the “Biobased Products – Enhancing DOD’s Mission; Protecting the Environment” event opening session. Pictured (l-r) are: Dep. Sec. of Defense, Gordon England; Sec. of Agriculture, Mike Johanns; Senator Richard Lugar; Representative Marcy Kaptur and Senator Thomas Harkin.
Hello from the Pentagon area. It was a long day of travel after getting in late yesterday from Chicago. That didn’t leave much time for posting but I’ll get caught up this week.
I didn’t know that the 
The Irish Food Board promotes Ireland under the name The Food Island. Sounds like an island I need to visit.
The race is over and it was an exciting one. As usual this season, ethanol wins.
The race is on. Thank you weather.