World Ag Expo has an interim general manager to replace Gary Schulz. He’s Jerry Sinift and he’s got a lot of experience at the show as his resume attests to.
Sinift, who was an exhibitor at World Ag Expo for over 20 years, served as chairman of the World Ag Expo Exhibitor Advisory Committee from 1995 – 2000. For the past five years, he has been part of the Agri-Center staff, ably fulfilling the double duties of assistant general manager and facilities director. He continues to work arm-in-arm with 2006 World Ag Expo chairman, Erin Ferguson, putting the finishing touches on the annual ag trade show, the largest of its kind on the globe.
D&PL 10 Year On NYSE
D&PL rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange Monday for their 10 year anniversary. I wonder if they all had to ride bikes to get there with the transit strike that’s going on.
Among the people present for the bell ringing were several members of the board of directors (Tom Jagodinski, Murray Robinson, Nam Hai Chua, Stanley Roth and Joe Murphy) and D&PL employees Rick Greene, Rhonda Strickland and Dorothy Andrus.
“The past decade has been a time of innovation for D&PL and the farmers who plant our varieties,” Jag said. “We have brought our customers new breakthroughs in genetics and technology by having a vision and working hard to realize that. Farmers are, by nature, independent people. They appreciate the entrepreneurship D&PL offers and the fact that we can partner with several suppliers. Those are some of the reasons they’ve chosen to invest their money in our products and stock – we are proud that they have chosen to invest their money [of that investment] in our plan for growth.”
A Milestone In The Broadcasters Letter
I’d like to thank my good friend Larry Quinn, Assistant Director,
Office of Communications, USDA for mentioning us and AgWired in his “milestones” listing in the latest issue of his weekly “Broadcasters Letter”. Larry is one of the people who makes dealing with the government enjoyable. In fact, all the people in the USDA communications department are very friendly and will go out of their way to help you out.
Here’s what Larry had to say:
In 2005, career farm broadcasters, Chuck and Cindy Zimmerman, became farm “podcasters.” Their subscription ZimmCast is the official podcast of AgWired. As the year ends, they are starting podcasts for other sites, and they offer agriblogging services, too.
Thanks Larry. Just wait and see what 2006 brings as farm podcasting grows. Maybe Larry will have to start a “Podcasters Letter.”
A Potential W.T.O.- Congressional Disconnect?
Concrete achievements made at the latest round of W.T.O. trade talks in Hong Kong were modest.
Most notable was an agreement that sets a deadline for wiping out subsidies of agricultural exports by 2013.
And reaction to the talks from newspaper editorial boards was mostly negative.
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal indicated that, “The negotiators signed a substantially weakened deal that includes a commitment to eliminate farm subsidies by 2013, modest cuts in tariffs, and an April 30, 2006 deadline for agreeing on how to liberalize farm and non-farm trade.”
And today’s New York Times opined that the W.T.O. “might as well just adopt the slogan, ‘Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?’ Because, once again, negotiators have postponed until next year difficult decisions to open up closed markets in agriculture.”
Possibly a more interesting issue regarding the Doha trade talks is the apparent disconnect between trade friendly forms of agricultural support being promoted in trade talks and current budget decisions being made in Congress.
Recall that last week’s discussion focused on non-trade distorting W.T.O. “green box” payments and remarked that some green box payments are often the type of government outlays that are considered “green” from an agri-environmental perspective.
Some farm policy observers see the 2007 Farm Bill as a chance to move payments from existing programs into non-trade distorting green box payments.
But the House just passed a budget reconciliation measure that contains $934 million in reductions to some green agri-environmental programs like the Conservation Security Program and other environmental incentive payment programs.
Some have argued that this sends a mixed signal to our trading partners and may be a precursor of future farm policy resource allocation decisions: While promoting less trade distorting forms of domestic agricultural support on the world stage, Congress is simultaneously considering significant cuts to these very same programs.
Keith Good writes The FarmPolicy.com News Summary, an Email newsletter containing a summary of news relating to U.S. farm policy which is published most weekdays. For more information, go to www.FarmPolicy.com.
Why It’s A Wal-Mart Nation
I don’t know why I find this amazing but I do. It’s no wonder the report has a section titled, “Wal-Mart Nation.”
Nearly every American lives near enough a Wal-Mart to shop there, and 84% say they have done so in the past year. Praise for the retailer’s low prices, wide selection and convenience flow freely, and 81% of those with a Wal-Mart nearby say it is a good place to shop.
This is from a just-released report by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. You can see a summary of the findings: Wal-Mart a Good Place to Shop But Some Critics Too.
Niche Pork Is Unique Pork
At first when I saw this announcement I wasn’t sure it would fit here on AgWired but then I saw that it contained a link to a website I haven’t ever seen before. It’s Niche Pork, The Other Opportunity. Actually I couldn’t tell you what niche pork was until surfing around on the website.
Niche pork has been defined as: Supplying unique pork and pork products in a way that specific customer segments prefer or value.
The announcement was about a niche pork production conference:
Pork producers interested in alternative production methods and in marketing value-added or niche pork will be able to attend the Niche Pork Production Conference on Feb. 17, 2006, at Western Michigan University’s Fetzer Conference Center in Kalamazoo, Mich.
You can get more information about the conference here.
What’s New At The NK Brand
This week’s ZimmCast features an interview with Cathy Soanes, Marketing Services Manager for the NK Brand (Syngenta Seeds, Inc.). I spoke with Cathy at the NAFB meeting in Kansas City recently. Cathy thought we’d talk about products I think but I asked her more questions about marketing their products, including internationally. She said that of all the interviews she’d done so far that day no one had asked her the questions I had. Interesting. I hope you enjoy it.
You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: 
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also now find the ZimmCast on CoolCast Radio.
New Look For Pioneer GrowingPoint Website
Pioneer has upgraded and changed its GrowingPoint website beginning Monday (probably by the time you read this). Actually I think it’s already live. It works for me. Most changes of this magnitude seem to result in a better website. It’s something that just has to be done periodically.
Finding information faster from even more sources is what you’ll find on the new Pioneer GrowingPoint website. Farmers from across the country helped us redesigned the site from the ground up. The new design is easier to navigate and will add prominence to content that has always been on the site but some users may not have been aware of. In addition several new content providers have been added and has significantly upgraded the focus on crop management.
I don’t know if this is a new feature but I just noticed it. They have a “Visit your sales rep’s site.” Mine is for Randy Schlatter in Columbia, MO.
I also noticed that you can do some gift shopping at the Pioneer Country Store.
WTO – Hong Kong & Gone
Well what do you think? Did our USTR, Robert Portman and his team do a good job? There’s an agreed upon declaration which is more progress than I think most thought would happen. You can see what the WTO website calls the “draft ministerial text.” I don’t know if it’s the final approved one or not.
Hong Kong’s Commerce, Industry and Technology Secretary John Tsang, who chaired the conference, outlined the achievements in the declaration:
We have secured an end date for all export subsidies in agriculture, even if it is not in a form to everybody’s liking.
We have an agreement on cotton.
We have a very solid duty-free, quota-free access for the 32 least-developed country members.
In agriculture and NAMA (non-agricultural market access), we have fleshed out a significant framework for full modalities.
And in services, we now have an agreed text that points positively to the way forward.”
Tsang is obviously a John Lennon and Paul McCartney fan since he’s quoted as saying, ““It’s been a hard day’s night. And I’ve been working like a dog.”
Interestingly the negotiators must have favored coffee over Red Bull since “in the last night alone, negotiators consumed 350 cups of coffee. During the week, 450 meetings were organized, six major gatherings and over 200 consultations by facilitators.”
President Bush And His iPod
I thought I was done for the day but I thought you might get a kick out of this. Thanks to Micro Persuasion for the link.
Even President Bush has an iPod and you can watch a Sky News story that shows him with it and describing the music he listens to. I’m guessing he had help setting it up.