Team Ethanol Now With Rahal Letterman

Chuck Zimmerman January 23, 2006

If you’re going to switch teams, pick a good one. That’s what Team Ethanol driver Paul Dana did. The rumor was floating around until confirmation came today at an Indy Racing League press conference. Paul Dana will now be driving for Rahal Letterman Racing, which makes him a teammate to Danica Patrick.

“This is a huge step up for us from a competitive standpoint because Rahal Letterman has such an excellent track record,” Dana said. “My teammates will be Buddy Rice, who won the Indy 500 in 2004, and, of course, Danica Patrick, who was Rookie of the Year last year.” Rahal Letterman Racing is co-owned by 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and television talk show host and comedian David Letterman.

Team Ethanol is sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. Executive Director Tom Slunecka said they could not be more thrilled with the switch to one of the best and well-known IRL teams. “The Rahal Letterman team, having produced Indy car winners and having the sensation in race car and sports media Danica Patrick, is just a fabulous way for ethanol to get its name out to that many more people.” (Full Release)

You can hear the actual press conference annoucement here.

Ag Groups, Audio, Ethanol

XM Satellite Radio With Willie Nelson

Chuck Zimmerman January 22, 2006

This is ZimmCast number 52. I know that means a year but in the early week’s I did a couple extra’s at an event. It took me a few weeks to get into the rythym. It’s close enough to a year though. My how time flies when you’re having fun.

This week I interviewed Joe Jobe, Executive Director of the National Biodiesel Board. Joe talks about the upcoming National Biodiesel Conference (I’ll be blogging from there). He describes the history, the agenda, who attends and the trade show. He also talks about the final event at the conference which will be a live XM Satellite Radio broadcast with Willie Nelson.

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 or subscribe in iTunes.

Ag Groups, Audio, Podcasts, ZimmCast

Indy Racing League Podcasting

Chuck Zimmerman January 22, 2006

I don’t know how interested you are in renewable fuels like ethanol or biodiesel but you ought to see what Cindy’s been doing over at DomesticFuel. That’s a ZimmComm blog that we’ve been cranking up the production on. Cindy’s really developing a blogger’s habit there. What’s been interesting is seeing the response we’re getting and we haven’t even rolled out our first promotion for it yet. People are submitting ideas for stories and submitting comments! Take her recent post about the Indy Racing League podcasts as an example.

I know I’ve been a little slow on the posting scene this weekend but that doesn’t mean my fingers haven’t been wearing out a keyboard. You’ll be seeing the results soon.

Podcasts

Wild American Shrimp

Chuck Zimmerman January 21, 2006

If you like shrimp like I do (gumbo, fricassee, etoufee, broiled, boiled, grilled, salad, cocktail, etc.) then maybe we all need to make sure we’re getting the “wild thing.” I mean Wild American Shrimp of course.

They’ve got a new campaign going which includes print and tv. You can see the new ad on their site in the media section.

However, I really like this idea. They have a download of this card you can print out and hand out at restaurants if they aren’t serving the real deal, er, shrimp. It says, “You see, I recently found out the shrimp I’m eating is of the imported pond-raised variety, and frankly, I was quite shocked to hear the news. Now that I know there’s a choice, I’d rather have certified Wild American shrimp in my recipes, which I’m sure you’d be happy to offer. Visit www.wildamericanshrimp.com to see how you can carry it.”

Food

Philom Bios $25K Giveaway

Chuck Zimmerman January 20, 2006

Hey farmers. If you’re a Philom Bios customer now you can enter a contest to win one of 10 prizes of $2,500 as part of Philom Bios’ 25th Anniversary prize sweepstakes. Simply log on to www.philombios.com to enter. It’s their way of saying thank you. They also just opened a new facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Don Atchison, Mayor of Saskatoon cut the ribbon along with Calvin Sonntag, President/CEO of Philom Bios and John Cross,
Chairman of the Board in front of hundreds of customers, employees, stakeholders, and shareholders. The $6.3 million facility will house Philom Bios’ manufacturing, research, agronomy, marketing and corporate employees, and will allow greater integration of the company’s activities under one roof as they continue with their on-going expansion.

Agribusiness

Announcements From BASF

Chuck Zimmerman January 20, 2006

BASF announced a new Clearfield technology approval today.

BASF Agricultural Products has received approval from Canadian regulatory authorities that supports the introduction of the CLEARFIELD Production System into confectionary sunflowers in the United States. This latest approval is the final step in a three-step process for CLEARFIELD sunflowers which included approvals by U.S. regulatory authorities of CLEARFIELD sunflower oil for food use in 2003 and approval of LEARFIELD sunflower meal for feed use in the U.S. earlier in 2005.

BASF also made an announcement about its stewardship of Clearfield technology regarding a case with Louisiana rice growers.

BASF continues its commitment to protecting the effectiveness of its CLEARFIELD Production System, as demonstrated by the pursuit of a stewardship case involving rice growers in Louisiana. BASF successfully obtained a preliminary injunction against growers in Kinder, Louisiana, who admitted to farming over 700
acres of CLEARFIELD CL-161 rice without proper authorization from BASF. The order, which was obtained from the U.S. District Court in Louisiana, prevents the growers from planting or selling the harvested rice and from otherwise infringing BASF intellectual property rights in the CLEARFIELD rice technology. “This injunction was necessary to preserve the integrity and viability of the CLEARFIELD Production System for the overwhelming majority of rice farmers who have appropriately – and legally – used the technology,” said Jason Ward, CLEARFIELD market manager with BASF.

Agribusiness

Hamlett Joins Bader Rutter

Chuck Zimmerman January 20, 2006

Bader Rutter & Associates has a new writer on board in the public relations group. She’s Jaclyne Hamlett.

Prior to joining Bader Rutter, Hamlett was actively involved in her family’s dairy farm and held internships with ABS Global, Deforest, Wis., and Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Johnston, Iowa. Originally from Arlington, Iowa, Hamlett graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication – public relations.

Agencies

Australia Thinks Apples Aren’t Healthy

Chuck Zimmerman January 19, 2006

I know how important government rules about nutrition and food are in the agricultural world. Look at how the new MyPyramid has been used in advertising and publicity campaigns. I just think it always seems like an exercise in futility and a pretty serious waste of taxpayer dollars. That’s why a story like this is both amusing and disturbing.

According to a story on One News, the standards group for Australia and New Zealand has draft rules that say “anything with a sugar level above 16 grams per serving, which includes apples, pears and most stonefruit, cannot be marketed as healthy.” As if that’s not ludicrous enough the same standards group also “promoted an Apples in Schools’ programme which is now being contradicted by the proposed ruling.”

That’s government in action looking out for us. I know it’s Australia and New Zealand but I could just see this happening here and those are good export markets for us anyway.

International

I Don’t Smell The Hogs

Chuck Zimmerman January 19, 2006

Here’s a project that doesn’t smell, literally. What do you do with what hogs do anyway? GRRO has a solution and they’ve obtained help from USDA to develop and market it.

Global Resource Recovery Organization, Inc. (GRRO) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a formal agreement with Farm Pilot Coordination, Inc. (FPPC) in conjunction with the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Resources Conservation Service (“NRCS”) to form a new Joint Venture company to commercialize the GRRO Tempest Dying Technology in all Animal Feeding Operations (AFO) in North America. The new joint venture will be a Florida Limited Liability company with all of its operations located in Eldora, IA. The first project in swine manure is well underway and will be located in Hardin County. A new 2400 Head Swine confinement will be built using state-of-the art technologies that will capture at least 75% of the nutrients from the AFO and eliminate all liquid manure on a daily basis. There will be no on site long term storage of liquid manure with this new process. Daily production of manure is gathered and processed with the end product being an easily handled dry fertilizer product that can be stored and used when needed by the farmer.

The hogs make a mess and when all’s said and done you’ve got something to store and use when you need. Neat.

Agribusiness

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