USDA Nominee Faces Senate Ag Committee
The Senate Agriculture Committee hosted the confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Agriculture on Thursday.
Brooke Rollins is the president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute and worked in the previous Trump administration in the White House Office of American Innovation and United States Domestic Policy Council. Prior to that, she was the president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
In her opening statement, Rollins outlined her key priorities for day one if she is confirmed. “First, we must ensure the disaster and economic assistance authorized by Congress is deployed
as quickly and efficiently as possible,” said Rollins. “Second, we must work to immediately and comprehensively get a handle on the state of animal-disease outbreaks,including H5N1 and New World Screwworm.”
Other priorities including working to “realign and rethink” the USDA, and providing the “timely and technical assistance” to ensure a farm bill that moves forward.
Rollins hearing - priorities (2:21)Precision Ag News 1/23
Dr. Jonathan Wendel Receives Cotton Genetics Research Award
Dr. Jonathan Wendel, Distinguished Professor at Iowa State University was announced as the 2024 Cotton Genetics Research Award recipient last week during the 2025 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in New Orleans. Wendel, who was not present to accept the award, was selected by the Joint Cotton Breeding Committee and received a plaque with a monetary award.
Dr. Wendel earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and his master’s and Ph.D. from University of North Carolina. His career began in 1983 working as a geneticist for USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in North Carolina. In 1986, Dr. Wendel transitioned to academia and has been heavily involved with research, teaching, and mentorship at Iowa State University since. During his time with Iowa State University, Dr. Wendel has collaborated with researchers internationally as well as held administrative roles.
Over his career, Dr. Wendel has authored or co-authored 340 scientific journal articles and book chapters to date with over 54,000 citations and a Google Scholar h-index of 112. A majority of Dr. Wendel’s research and subsequent publications has been related to cotton genetics. His early work helped to explain the genomic underpinnings of cotton domestication and diversification and more recent research efforts have led to more practical tools for improving cotton as an agricultural crop.
Clean Fuels Celebrates Conference in Important Market
The 2025 Clean Fuels Conference is being held this week in a very important market for biodiesel, renewable diesel, and sustainable aviation fuel – California.
“Biodiesel and renewable diesel have displaced 75% of all diesel sold in the state,” said Clean Fuels CEO Donnell Rehagen in his opening remarks Tuesday. “It’s now harder to find diesel fuel in California than our fuels. Our industry is responsible for 45% of California’s progress under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard so far.”
However, Rehagen says the accelerating growth in the industry has created a unique challenge, the need for more feedstock.
“Our industry’s rapid growth, more than doubling production capacity in the last four years, has outpaced domestic feedstock availability – at least for now. By our calculations, current volumes of domestic feedstocks would support about 3.3 billion gallons of fuel production,” said Rehagen. “As we’ve seen growing amounts of imported feedstocks coming in to fill the demand, it has generated angst with domestic feedstock growers and processors.”
Rehagen says it will be an active and challenging year for the clean fuels industry. “We must remain unified…We will need engagement from this industry as the impacts of 45z begin to take effect, and RVOs are set…all under a new administration. We’re going to need everybody to participate. If we win on these two things, 2025 and 2026 could be among our finest years yet.”
Listen to Rehagen’s comments:
Clean Fuels opening remarks Donnell Rehagen, CEO (27:21)
CattleCon to Feature World Without Cows Screening
What would a world without cows be like? It would certainly be a different world for the people who raise cattle, so Alltech is offering an exclusive screening of the World Without Cows documentary at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Cattle Industry Convention & Trade Show, CattleCon. The screening will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m.– 9:00 p.m. CST in the General Session Room of the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio, TX.
“World Without Cows” is a feature-length 85-minute documentary that was filmed in 40 global locations over three years, exploring the impact of cattle on economies, ecosystems, cultures and human nutrition. It is written and directed by two award-winning journalists, Michelle Michael and Brandon Whitworth who have spent the past three years exploring a fascinating question: Are we better off in a world without cows? This thought-provoking documentary dives into the cultural, societal, and environmental significance of cattle, examining their vital role in nourishing the world and combating climate change.
To find out more about this documentary, we talked with the filmmakers to learn their journey that took them to 22 different countries and five different continents. “It was over 300 conversations with experts in various fields, farmers, scientists, researchers, climatologists around the world kind of asking those really basic questions of what is a world without cows look like to you?” says Whitworth.
“Tveryone will tell you that cows make methane. And guess what? They do. Not a single person we talked to denied that cows do have an impact on our climate,” said Michael. “What we found was that it was a much smaller impact when you look at the way methane is measured. But I think the most surprising thing is it’s not just that cows have an impact on the climate. They have this incredible potential to help us capture carbon and really save the planet for the future.”
Listen to the interview here:
World Without Cows filmmakers Michelle Michael and Brandon Whitworth (17:56)
For more information, visit worldwithoutcows.com. Also, be sure to follow “World Without Cows” on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok, and follow filmmakers Michelle Michael (@farmfilmmaker) and Brandon Whitworth (@theagstoryteller) for their unique insights.
You can also hear more from Michelle and Brandon about their experience in this video, “The Making of World Without Cows”
Conference Highlights Biodiesel, Renewable Diesel and SAF
The 2025 Clean Fuels Conference is underway in San Diego bringing together industry leaders in the biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel markets with the theme “Accelerate.”
Clean Fuels Alliance America CEO Donnell Rehagen says the meeting theme refers to the rapid growth and transformative progress of the biodiesel, renewable diesel, and sustainable aviation fuel industries. “We’re now a 5 billion gallon year industry. We’ve doubled in size in the last four years,” said Rehagen. “So we’re we’re expecting to have probably about 1000 people gathering San Diego.”
Clean Fuels Communications Director Heather Buechter says they are very excited about the conference agenda which will highlight the role that clean fuels plays in California. “It’s worth noting that biodiesel and renewable diesel now make up 75% of California’s diesel pool under the low carbon fuel standard.”
Mainstage session topics include:
California Dreamin’: Clean Fuels’ Time to Shine: The current and future role of biodiesel and renewable diesel in California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard
Acceleration of Change: Clean Fuels Policy, Plus Renewable Diesel Deep-Dive: What to expect from the new administration on fuel policies and what that could mean for businesses
All Aboard: Rail Contemplates Life After Diesel: How biodiesel and renewable diesel are helping the rail industry reach clean-fuel goals
Detour Ahead?: New Emissions Regulations Driving OEM Product: Clean fuel regulation and challenges for Original Equipment Manufacturers and fleets
Feedstock Revolution: Unleashing the Power for Clean Fuels: How conventional and new feedstock supplies are developing to meet new demands for clean fuel
The Clean Fuels Vehicle Showcase Wednesday evening will feature a range of heavy-duty equipment and technologies with representatives on hand to answer questions.
Follow coverage of the conference on the Clean Fuels Conference Blog.
Interview with Heather Buechter, Clean Fuels (9:09) NAFB24 Donnell Rehagen, Clean Fuels (2:54)Animal Ag News 1/20
ZimmCast 740 – Outlook for U.S. Cotton
Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast.
ZimmComm is now entering its 21st year. Who would have thought?
We officially announced our company at the 2004 National Agri-Marketing Conference. We had our first booth at the conference in 2005 which means we’ve exhibited for twenty of them! I thought you might like to hear the first audio podcast I recorded in January of 2005. We were just starting to figure out what we could do with our AgWired blog. It’s a short episode. I share more audio after it. So, that was the start and it has sure changed over the years.
So, let’s look at this year. I was working at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences in New Orleans and thought I’d focus on the outlook for cotton. I would not be surprised if there are some changes after the presidential inauguration. But I’m going to start with Gary Adams, CEO of the National Cotton Council. He talks about the cotton industry outlook and then moves onto the farm bill.
Following Gary is Daren Abney, Executive Director, U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol. He talks about the last year of the sustainability program and an outlook of what’s next.
You can find a lot of photos as well as interviews and session audio on the AgNewsWire virtual ag newsroom here.
I’m heading out next to San Diego for the Clean Fuels Conference and hoping the weather doesn’t cause too many travel problems. It’s looking like I’ll miss the mess though.
Listen to the episode here:
ZimmCast 740 - Outlook for U.S. Cotton (13:38)
That’s the ZimmCast for now. Please let us know if you have ideas for a future podcast. Just email Chuck at chuck@zimmcomm.biz.
We hope you enjoyed it and thank you for listening.
Subscribe to the ZimmCast in:
Industry Ag News 1/17