I asked the college bloggers to think creatively and find some pictures to post. Here’s another one Margy came up with. The post title is hers too.
It’s time to head to some press conferences and get some interviews to bring you later.
AgWired coverage of Commodity Classic is being made posssible by our good friends at New Holland.
Margy took a picture at the NCGA booth because she thought this was such an interesting collection of products made from corn.
The trade show is in setup mode for its big kickoff this afternoon at 4pm. We’ll have a lot more for you afterwards.
AgWired coverage of Commodity Classic is being made posssible by our good friends at New Holland.
It is a beautiful Thursday here in Anaheim. We started of the day by going to the National FFA Organization LifeKnowledge breakfast. This was a press conference that allowed the National FFA to announce their LifeKnowledge program that is being implemented into schools across the nation. This had special interest to me because I was a member of the Illinois FFA for five years and this past summer finished up my year of service as the Illinois FFA Section 5 President. LifeKnowledge is basically a program that incorporates leadership into the agriculture classroom. It is not just for FFA members but for everyone in agriculture. Not only that but the program is available for any teacher Ag related or not. It is a great way to teach America’s youth how to be good leaders, not only in the workforce but in their communities as well. LifeKnowledge helps develop the skills needed for the real world that aren’t always available to teach in the classroom until now.
I had a chance to talk with some of the FFA members that had come to the press conference with their advisor Kris Elliot of the Hanford FFA Chapter, Handford, California, to talk about how LifeKnowledge has effected them.
Michelle Spoelstra is a Junior at Hanford High School as is currently taking an Ag Leadership class. Here is what she had to say about LifeKnowledge: “I think LifeKnowledge is a good thing because it means your not listening to a monotone teacher for an hour. You get to interact with other students and share your thoughts. It makes students believe that they have the ability to be a leader.”
Her Ag advisor Kris Elliott talked about how he feels about LifeKnowledge: “These are like no lessons you will ever see before. It is so easy to incorporate LifeKnowledge into my lesson plans and the kids don’t even know what hit them. They are so enthusiastic after one of my LifeKnowledge lessons they ask when the next leadership lesson is going to be.”
If you want to learn more about this story be sure to watch for my article in the Illinois Agrinews in the next couple weeks.
The trade show here at the 2006 Commodity Classic is currently being set up and the booths look amazing. In this picture you see me with a huge John Deere 8530. Yes, I’m a green fan. We also visited the ethanol booth where they had an Indy Racing Car simulator run by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Counsel. Be looking for video clips and pictures of it from either Margy or I in the near future.
The media are so enthusiastic here at the start of Commodity Classis that they’re even interviewing each other.
Here’s Jack Crowner, Crowner Farm News, interviewing AgriTalk’s host, Mike Adams. They’re actually talking about a very serious subject, which is renewable fuel and the role that corn and soybeans plays in that industry. You can learn more about it on our renewable fuels website, DomesticFuel.
AgWired coverage of Commodity Classic is being made posssible by our good friends at New Holland.
The first assignment I gave to my student bloggers was to cover this morning’s FFA Breakfast. The breakfast was FFA’s venue to launch their LifeKnowledge Center for Agricultural Education. This Center is going to be the focal point for FFA’s leadership initiative that not only supports FFA’s core principles but also has the goal of establishing 10,000 quality agricultural science programs by the year 2015.
Mary Irelan took the picture and Margy Fischer did the interview. Margy’s interview is with Michelle Spoelstra, a high school junior at Hanford High School, Hanford, CA. That interview is available here: 
Michelle Spoelstra Interview (2:12 MP3 File)
Commodity Classic Student blogger Margy Fischer, sponsored by Monsanto
As expected, I had an early start to my first full day at Commodity Classic. I attended a breakfast hosted by FFA regarding their program LifeKnowledge.
It was the best way to start a day here – with lots of agricultural products. From the orange juice, to the egg quiche, to the French toast with almonds and peaches, our tables celebrated our diverse food supply.
FFA promoted their exciting initiative of engaging and interactive leadership lessons called LifeKnowledge. The program is sponsored by John Deere, Monsanto, the National Pork Board, Chevrolet, and Cargill.
There were four student leaders of the Hanford FFA chapter, Hanford California present at the breakfast, so they got a day off from school and the chance to boast about the advantages of LifeKnowledge, which their teacher Kris Elliot who uses these lessons in his classrooms. From what I learned this morning, these lessons can be used to integrate leadership lessons into all classrooms, even technical classes.
FFA was not available at my high school, but I was enthused to see what the organization is doing to improve our youth leadership education which can have powerful impacts on our society and the agricultural industry.
A lot of announcements will be made at Commodity Classic this week, or at least timed for the event. Here’s one we’ve been expecting since last week’s Pioneer Science of Solutions event.
DuPont today announced that its new proprietary glyphosate, ALS-tolerant trait from its subsidiary, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., will be branded as Optimum GAT. The Optimum GAT trait is targeted for commercialization later in the decade in a number of crops.
In addition to unsurpassed glyphosate tolerance, this new proprietary trait from DuPont also has tolerance to herbicides designed to complement glyphosate by providing additional contact and residual control on grass and broadleaf weeds, giving growers the flexibility to tailor weed control programs to local field conditions.
I don’t know if there’s a press conference on it here but I’ll find out later on.
The Mickey ears give our location away. This photo was inspired by Tom Steever, Brownfield Network. This was our view from the Bayer CropScience dinner. Great food and company.
Before we got to eat though we learned all about California wines at the Golden Vineyards Winery in Disneyland. We had a wine tasting after a short video presentation.
In case you’ve never seen what a wine tasting by a group of reporters looks like then you can watch this video clip: 
Wine Tasting With The Media (1:15 wmv file)
AgWired coverage of Commodity Classic is being made posssible by our good friends at New Holland.
The first media-centric event I got to participate in here at Commodity Classic was done by Bayer CropScience.
I spoke to Tim Zurliene about the activities Bayer is participating in here at Commodity Classic, starting with our media reception. You can listen to my interview with him here: Tim Zurliene Interview (2:59 MP3 File)
AgWired coverage of Commodity Classic is being made posssible by our good friends at New Holland.
Commodity Classic Student blogger Margy Fischer, sponsored by Monsanto
I’ve come down from the clouds of my in-flight nap and am happy to report that I am in California!
I go to school almost 800 miles away from home, so I have flown quite a bit for personal reasons to go home for holidays and such, and over the past four years, I have made a consistent observation of in-flight beverage choices – people love tomato juice or ginger ale when they fly. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen such a high concentration of consumption of those two beverages unless I am on a plane. Even our cab driver on the way home from dinner chuckled when I announced what I had noticed to our group. By the way, I love being close to the coast for fresh seafood because I had a delicious dinner. So thank you again to my sponsors.
It was a long flight, and watching what people order from the flight attendant is only entertaining for so long. So I read Vanity Fair and Farm Journal and had my iPod Nano playing G. Love and Ella Fitzgerald.
The first half of my week was full of class, group meetings, and homework to catch up on before my departure, but it was nice to be on my way to California, and now that I am here I am ready to fully engage in this event!
It’s great to know that my peers back at Mizzou can keep track of my blogs on CAFNRCornerpost.com. This is a site that is completely student-driven with reporting, editing, photography and posting all done by MU Ag Journalism students.
Yesterday morning I woke up at 4 a.m. Pacific time in order to pack, attend my first class and meet my shuttle to the airport on time, and this morning won’t be an exception. It shall be a day full of events and interactions with interesting people, and I look forward to relaying the day’s events back to you.
