Our first speaker this morning was Bruce Howison, Head of Marketing.
Bruce gave us an overview of the Syngenta Seeds business. I was very interested to hear about work they’re doing on corn amylase for ethanol production. They’re expecting to launch this product in 2008. I’m going to learn more and conduct interviews on some of these subjects later, so we’ll get more information.
Once we got checked in this morning and settled down we were greeted by Roger Kemble, Head, Crop Genetics Research.
Roger set the stage for our day and reviewed the agenda which includes morning presentations on Syngenta’s business.
Afterward we’ll break up into groups for a facility tour. Then after lunch we’ll learn about Genomics and Drought Tolerance. Finally we’ll have time for one-on-one interviews.
In order to get in the door of any research facility you have to sign your life away and get your name badge.
Here’s our group getting that done this morning before being escorted to our morning meeting room.
We have close to 20 media representatives here today. I’m just guessing that there’s only one blogger in the group.
Upon arriving here at Syngenta we entered the Mary-Dell Chilton Center. The center is dedicated to Mary-Dell Chilton, Phd, who was the founding executive director in 1983.
We’re going to hear from her at lunch today so I’m looking forward to recording her remarks or conducting an interview for you.
The first step in our journey today here in Raleigh, NC is moving to the Syngenta offices where they conduct their research and development.
I’m pretty sure there will be things today I can’t take pictures of but that doesn’t mean I’ll have any lack of images for you.
Hello from Raleigh, NC where we’re about to kick off the Syngenta Media Day. To get things started I interviewed Gardner Hatch, Gibbs & Soell, to find out why we’re here.
He says it’s a way to provide agricultural reporters with information, especially what’s “in the pipeline” from Syngenta to communicate to our grower audiences. We’ll be able to ask a lot of questions and interview Syngenta researchers and learn more, which helps us do our job better.
Makes sense to me. Listen to what Gardner has to say here: 
Gardner Hatch Interview (2 min MP3)
Before getting started we got to get together for supper this evening at the Angus Barn. If you’re ever in the Raleigh area this is the place to eat. Awesome is all I can say. Make reservations though. Tonight (Wed) if you didn’t have them you faced a 2 hour wait. That ought to tell you something!
I’m in the St. Louis airport on my way to Raleigh, NC and got to test my new Sprint Mobile Broadband card in my computer. According to the test I got 768K download speed and 100k upload speed. Not bad and much better than dialup!
It’ll be interesting to compare it to how the service works in Raleigh and then in Portland starting this weekend.
Post Update: I’m in Raleigh, NC now and just did the same internet speed test with my mobile broadband connection. I got 468K upload and only 40K download speed. Not as good as St. Louis but still better than normal dialup. It’s what I’m using for my posting here so far. I just saved $10, which is how much the hotel I’m in charges for internet access.
I’m off to Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc. for a day of talks and the opportunity to interview their research representatives. Keep an eye here on AgWired for lots of posts from this event.
A home economist with Manitoba Pork Council is recommending barbecuing as one of the healthier low fat ways of cooking. With the arrival of the warmer summer temperatures outdoor barbecuing peaks in popularity.
Home economics consultant Marlene McDonald says barbecuing, along with baking, grilling, broiling or roasting, is one of the recommended methods for healthy cooking. “When you’re looking at a nutritious cooking method, we’re looking at methods that either minimize the fat in food by limiting the amount that’s added during cooking,” says McDonald. “That would be like frying or deep frying or deep frying where you’re using a lot of fat. On the other hand, if you’re doing something like grilling or broiling or barbecuing, you’re cooking the meat on a grill somehow and the excess fat is dripping away so you don’t have it retained in the meat.” Read More
According to meatingplace.com, Quiznos is coming out with another beef sub. At last week’s Cattle Industry Summer Conference the media (like Ken Rahjes here, KRVN) were treated to Quiznos beef subs. They were awesome.
Now it looks like theyr’e coming out with a new one, “Smokehouse Beef Brisket Sub, available in small, regular and large sizes priced from $4.99 to $9.99. The newest offering from the Denver-based quick-service sandwich chain features a double portion of mesquite-smoked brisket that has been slow roasted for seven hours, sliced thin, then topped with cheddar cheese and barbecue sauce.”
Now that’s really what’s for dinner in my opinion!
I really wish more advertising and public relations agencies working with agricultural clients had a blog. I haven’t seen much yet. That’s why I got excited about Fresh Glue. One of the words I hear more and more marketing people using lately is “sticky.” Well Fresh Glue is kind of sticky.
Fresh Glue is the Breukelman Kubista Group blog. They’re in Sioux Falls, SD and we know of them from their work for US Bioenergy. Nathan Schock sends us news releases. Guess what, we use them on Domestic Fuel.
Nathan and crew, “get it.” BTW. If you don’t get it yet, go to Amazon.com and buy “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson. I am going to get my copy this week. I’ve only read excerpts from other people’s blogs but I think it looks like a must read.
