I hate it when blight attacks my anthuriums.
Another inconclusive bse test at USDA. I know we want to know but how ’bout when it’s conclusive?
USDA announced 6 biobased items that will now receive special consideration for procurement.
Griffin Bungener has been promoted to account executive at Bader Rutter & Associates in the agency’s account services group.
Crop insurance deadline is coming up March 15.
There’s a new group of officers at NPPC.
Just the other day I was having a discussion about how sometimes food doesn’t always come out the color you’d like on a bilboard. Like seeing one that’s been up a while and a red, juicy steak starts to look kind of purplish. Well this product is purple on purpose. It’s Hellers Purplo’s Honey Cocktail Sausages. They came out with them at the end of last year but I just noticed them on AdJab.
New Zealand award winning smallgoods manufacturer Heller Tasty has just launched a world first – a purple cocktail sausage called Purplo’s. Over a year in the making, Purplo’s were marketed tested at the New Zealand Kids Fair in July and the New Zealand Food Show in August.
Todd Heller, director of Heller Tasty, said the response from those shows vindicated the hard work that went into producing the Purplo’s. “We would have had at least 20 goes at getting the purple casing right. It was too brown, then too red, but in the end we succeeded, although there were times when we thought we would put the whole idea in the ‘too hard’ basket. In the end we had to import the natural food colouring from Germany to make sure we had it right,” he said.
This is why you always need to pay attention at those NAMA conventions. You might just hear about something that will give you a creative idea. That’s what happened to Todd.
Heller got the idea when at a marketing seminar earlier last year when there was a case study on Heinz introducing purple ketchup in the United States to appeal to young children and teenagers.
“I immediately thought, why can’t we do that with a sausage? And now we have, although we went about it differently. They just changed the colour of the sauce, but not the content. We have gone the extra step and made an entirely new product,” he said.
A fine wine sometimes needs some time. And that’s the way our USTR, Rob Portman looks at the U.S./EU Wine Accord. It looks like we’ve reached an agreement, sort of. At least a beginning of an agreement. Actually a Wine Accord. It only took 20 years to get this far.
From the EU Directorate-General For Agriculture & Rural Development:
The European Union and the United States today in London signed a bilateral wine accord which will bring major benefits for EU wine producers. The agreement, which was approved by EU agriculture ministers in December 2005, follows 20 years of negotiation. It will help EU winemakers to build on their current success in the US, which is by far the EU’s largest export market. Annual EU wine exports to the US are worth more than 2 billion euros, around 40 percent of EU exports in terms of value. This agreement provides a clear demonstration that the US and the EU can resolve important and complex issues through bilateral negotiations and both sides are committed to doing so in the future. The EU and US will start talks within 90 days on a more ambitious second-phase agreement.
“I’m delighted that this agreement can finally enter into force, and I raise my glass to the negotiators for their efforts,” said Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. “This deal will facilitate access for EU wines to the lucrative US market, where consumers greatly appreciate the quality and long history behind our wines. In today’s increasingly competitive market place, it is vital that there are no unnecessary and burdensome barriers for our winemakers, who I believe are the best in the world. The EU attaches great importance to the proper protection of its geographical indications abroad.”
From the U. S. Trade Representative:
LONDON – U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman and EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Mariann Fischer Boel today signed a bilateral agreement on wine-making practices and labeling of wine that will facilitate bilateral trade in wine valued at $2.8 billion annually.
“Like a good wine, this agreement took time. But by helping to establish predictable conditions for bilateral wine trade it is clearly a win-win situation for U.S. and EU winemakers,” said Ambassador Portman. “Wine makers on both sides of the Atlantic have the right to be proud of how tradition, climate and expertise combine to create unique tasting experiences. This agreement honors these differences.”
When a conference has a program titled, “Beer Tasting 101” it gets my attention. That’s one of the things you can attend in conjunction with the first ever World Grains Summit: Food and Beverages, San Francisco, Sept. 17 – 20. This is a new conference sponsored by AACC International and the Master Brewers Association of the Americas.
Want to present a paper of your own for this conference? The deadline is April 27th. There’s a preliminary schedule available already. Check here to register to receive more information about the event.
Here’s a new website to look at. The Canadian Belgian Blue Association is now online. It’s simple and has a unique multi-lingual functionality. When you visit the home page text is in English on the left and French on the right. So you’ve basically got a bi-lingual mirrored website. Nicely done folks. Lots of pictures. Loads fast. There is one little animated title thing but I can take that. Otherwise it has information in short chunks that are easy to navigate to.
Newly elected President Mark Hodges, a Manitoba-based Belgian Blue Beef (BBB) breeder, is “thrilled to see the Canadian BBB industry reach the point where we can have our own portal on the web. We’ve at a crossroads where production from current BBB breeders in Canada just can’t keep up with demand for our double-muscled cattle genetics and naturally lean meat products for consumers. Our three Carcass wins at the Canadian Western Agribition had a big impact on the demand for BBB.” The bilingual website reflects the large number of BBB breeders in the province of Quebec. Members and non-members can post cattle for sale on the site, a first for a BBB association in North America.
Rungreen.com just sent out a news release that says:
“Rungreen.com has announced the winners of its very first photo contest.
The contest was launched in February to allow proud parents of both children and tractors to show off their best photos- with their green and yellow, of course. Voters were allowed to choose their favorites, and these were put into a “playoff mode”, and voting reopened. A surprising number of pictures were entered, with the site finally cutting off new entries after sorting through hundreds.
Among the entries were “The John Deere Car”, John Deere tattoos, and even John Deere pets. There is no end to the lengths that the green-and-yellow crazy will go to collect, own, and discuss their piece of Americana.
For some reason the release doesn’t mention “the winners.” I’ve read it 3 times and I don’t see them. However, there is an attached picture with a caption that says, “Winning Picture.” There’s no other information.
They are blogging, a new feature that they started this year. Here’s where you can find the “John Deere Fans” Blog.
With the Americans signing more Free Trade agreements all the time, Canada needs to do the same.
A coalition of nine Canadian agricultural commodity groups and companies is encouraging the federal government to put a higher priority on bilateral and regional free trade agreements. The coalition has forwarded a letter to International Trade Minister David Emerson urging him to recognize the importance of free trade agreements.
Canadian Pork Council Executive Director Martin Rice says, although multilateral negotiations through the WTO are important, there is a concern that Canada is not giving sufficient attention to bilateral and regional free trade agreement possibilities. “We certainly want to see the government follow through on those negotiations that are officially started such as Korea, the Central American four, such as the European free trade agreement areas,” said Rice. “Some of these negotiations have been going on for several years and we should get those finished up. On the other hand we would like to see the government focus on the possibility of free trade agreements with China, Japan, some the Andean countries which the US is just recently announcing deals with, India and Morocco.”
While some of these markets are more important to the pork sector, but Morocco would be of more importance to the pulse and the cereals industry. “We’re not suggesting shifting resources away from WTO negotiations but we could find ourselves at a disadvantage relative to our major competitors in terms of having inferior access conditions to some of our major pork export markets,” he said. Rice points out we’ve seen our major competitors, including the U.S, Chile, Brazil and even China enter into a number of free trade agreements.
This story is pretty cool so I had to share it beyond World Dairy Diary. Are you a fan of the Cow Parade? Here’s a cool way to keep up with the artists who are busy working on new cows. Some of them have their own blogs. Well, they’re mostly sort of blogs. My favorite is Rosemaling, the bottom one. The latest Moo-Town Moosletter lists the following:
“Animal Magnetism”
Artist: Jenny M. Steinman Heyden
Blog: http://www.madison.com/post/blogs/cowart
Sponsor: Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
“Driftless in WisCOWsin”
Artist: Sue Medaris, Mt. Horeb, Wis.
Blog: http://svmedaris.com
Sponsor: Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
“Milky Whey”
Artist: Katherine Steichen Rosing, Madison, Wis.
Blog: http://www.studioksr.com/CowParade.htm
Sponsor: Wisconsin FFA Foundation in cooperation
with the Wisconsin Department of Ag, Trade
and Consumer Protection (DATCP)
“The Road Home”
Artist: Kirill Negoda, Dodgeville, Wis.
Blog: http://www.flickr.com/photos/plasticboy/95874422/
Sponsor: Capital Newspapers
“Rosemooled Cow”
Blog: http://rosemaler.blogspot.com/
Artist: Jan Norsetter, Verona, Wis.
Sponsor: Wisconsin Department of Ag,
Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP)
I’m sure you’ve heard of PETA. Not the people eating tasty animals folks but the other one. Just to give you an idea of how ridiculous they are I just found out about their latest scam. You can read about it here.
Basically, they are surveying “200 of the top meat, restaurant, and grocery companies, including Tyson Foods, McDonald’s, and Wal-Mart” about “more than 20 animal-related topics, such as farmed-animal welfare, rodent control, and availability of vegetarian products.” They want to rate them on a compassion quotient.
Guess how much attention the media will give that. According to the person who brought it to my attention the surveys have showed up and claim that unanswered questions will be filled out by PETA “to the best of our knowledge.” What a crock.
The term “broadcast” has a lot of meanings these days. It could mean over the air transmission, satellite feed, internet streaming, podasting or a dial-in phone feed. That last one is what the Agriculture Council of America is doing for Ag Day.
Attention NAMA Members! Can’t make it to Washington, DC for this year’s National Ag Day celebrations? No problem, you can attend the official Ag Day luncheon right in your own office via an audio broadcast.
The audio broadcast will take place on Thursday, March 16 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. (EST). This year’s luncheon keynote speaker will be the Honorable Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Senator Chambliss will address the opportunities and challenges facing American agriculture. Former USDA Secretary John Block of Olssen, Frank & Weeda, and Orion Samuelson, WGN Radio/RFDTV, will serve as the Masters of Ceremony. In addition, the national winner of the Ag Day Essay Contest, “Growing Our Energy,” will be honored.
There is no charge to participate in the audio broadcast. To participate, simply complete the registration form at http://www.agday.org/broadcast.htm and we’ll e-mail you the phone number and passcode to call-in. We are limited to how many phone lines are available so get your registration in now!
