- Cowboys are in Washington, DC for NCBA’s Spring Legislative Conference.
- Find out what the Association of Equipment Manufacturers thinks are key public policy initiatives.
- Nitragin acquires Agribiotics and says that LCO Promoter Technology will soon be available in non-legume crop like wheat, cotton and corn.
- Vote for your NAMA Regional Direcor. You have to be a member.
- Pioneer announces new high-moisture corn innoculant.
- Alltech is holding some Kentucky Ale Meetings in California on mycotoxins for vets, nutritionists and dairymen. Call (559) 226-0405 to RSVP.
Adventures of Moopheus and Leo
If you’re in the dairy business and have seen The Matrix then I hope you’ve got a sense of humor. This is funny. Actually it’s really a sad waste of misguided talent. It’s a Matrix film spoof to blast corporate farming called The Meatrix II. I never heard of it before but the group doing this claims the first one’s been downloaded over 10 million times and they’ve won awards for it. They are short animated movies.
They even have a blog about it which you can find here. The whole thing is a project of the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE).
Now if you want the truth about corporate dairy farming you might want to visit this website.
Ag Podcast Two-fer
First, Truth About Trade has a podcast series going. I guess we didn’t get the release but they’ve got about 13 episodes done it looks like. I just subscribed and will listen while I’m on the road tomorrow.
Second, the latest installment of Monsanto’s “Conversations About Plant Biotechnology” is out, featuring Klaus Ammann, former director of the Botanical Garden and an Honorary Professor Emeritus at the University of Berne, Switzerland. This is in a video podcast series that I just subscribed to. Works beautifully and looks great on my iPod.
Search Engine For Agriculture
I really like the explosion of web apps we’re seeing in agriculture today. Farm Journal Media just announced their AgWeb Search engine and I tried it out right away.
I searched for “agwired” and sure enough we were there. Then I searched for “podcast” and found some I didn’t even know about. Why don’t people tell us these things. I’ll put it in the next post.
I’m not sure I can give up Google though. But I can see how you might want it if all you’re looking for is ag-related search results.
Now, there’ s a Search Engine just for Agriculture…and your farm. AgWeb Search is simple. Just type in a specific word or phrase and AgWeb Search does the rest. We’ve indexed thousands of agricultural websites to deliver the specific information you want and need for your farming operations.
AgWeb Search is different. We only deliver information relevant to agriculture . From crop or livestock production to machinery and technology, we search for the information that best matches your needs. There are millions of pages on the web on just about any topic , we just deliver ag results to you.
Zimfo Bites
- Southern States selects SOA software from Skyway Software.
- Brandt Beef selects GTR-Datastar’s GlobalTrack System to source verify beef products.
- Register for NAMA.
New Design For Domestic Fuel
This past weekend we unveiled the new skin for Domestic Fuel, our alternative fuels website. Check it out. We’d love to know what you think. We switched to a 3-column blog format to allow us more opportunities for advertising and promotions and to make navigation easier.
Like AgWired, the site has been upgraded to the newest version of WordPress. We like to keep up don’t you know. The biggest story we’ve ever covered on Domestic Fuel happened this weekend too with the tragedy in Homestead, FL at the Indy car race.
If you or your organization have an interest in biofuels like ethanol or biodiesel I hope you’ll make Domestic Fuel a regular pit stop.
ZimmComm Blog Network Review
You can get a ZimmComm blog network update on this week’s ZimmCast. I review some of the highlights of the past week on AgWired, Domestic Fuel and World Dairy Diary.
To begin with though I had to include the interview I did with Paul Dana on Saturday before Sunday’s tragic accident at the Toyota Indy 300 since it was apparently the last media interview Paul did. I include it to honor him and show the energy he radiated when talking about racing and ethanol. The ethanol industry and all of us who support it will truly miss the driver of the #17 Ethanol car.
You can listen to this week’s program here: 
ZimmCast 62 (13 min MP3)
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar.
You can also subscribe in iTunes.
Chicken and the Mass Media
The Avian Flu crisis is a big wild card in the pricing of all meats says Jim Long, Pork Commentator. Much of the major mediums are giving it lots of attention. Time Magazine, USA Today, etc, are intensely discussing the challenges of Avian Flu.
In marketing theory at least, the perception is repetition of a message creates an impression and retention. The media, the chicken and health sectors keep repeating the chicken and Avian Flu message many times. “People dying and the fear of a pandemic are not a message you want to put out there to create demand,” says Long, Vice President Genesus Genetics. In parts of Europe and Asia, reports suggest chicken consumption has dropped 20 percent. French government officials are resorting to eating chicken on television to promote its safety. Eating chicken in France is a patriotic gesture. Read More
Early Spring On The Katy Trail
I found out about the tragic event in Homestead, FL yesterday while I was on a Katy Trail walk in the sunshine. I had different posting plans at that point. They included posting some pictures from my hike which I’m doing now.
You can see the pics on my Flickr photo album.
Sad Day For Ethanol Industry
Rather than update the previous post announcement on this I thought I’d just copy the post from Domestic Fuel:
Today the Rahal-Letterman Racing team suffered a serious blow when the #17 Ethanol car was in a pre-race warmup accident and driver and ethanol champion Paul Dana died from the injuries he suffered. “It is a black day for us, and on behalf of Rahal Letterman Racing, our sponsors and associates, our prayers and sympathy go out to the entire Dana family,” said team co-owner Bobby Rahal, the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner. “This is a great tragedy. As a result, and in honor of Paul, we will not run the team’s No. 15 (with driver Buddy Rice, the 2004 Indy 500 winner) and No. 16 (with driver Danica Patrick, the 2005 Indy 500 and IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year) cars in today’s event.”
“Paul was a very special guy,” said David Vander Griend, president and CEO of ICM, a primary sponsor on the Team Ethanol car. “He demonstrated his belief in what ethanol can do for all of America through his racing. He helped us with so many things in bringing ethanol to the IndyCar Series. He will be missed tremendously. Our thoughts are with his family today.”
Domestic Fuel sponsor and Ethanol Car sponsor, Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) has released a statement. You can read the full release from EPIC here (Word doc).
I also spoke with EPIC Executive Director, Tom Slunecka a few minutes ago. He is obviously still in shock over the tragedy after spending some time with Paul during the last couple days and being onsite when the accident occurred. On behalf of the EPIC staff, board and members, Tom offers his condolences to the Dana family, his friends and teammates. You can listen to Tom’s statement here: EPIC Statement (1 min MP3)