LUCI Brings Food Value Chain Consensus
Steve Reinhard, USB Board Chair and Ohio farmer
The initiative is funded by the United Soybean Board (USB) in partnership with Carbon A List, and USB Board Chair Steve Reinhard, an Ohio farmer who presented keynote remarks at a recent Land Use Change Summit, said the purpose is to have farmers at the table for land use change discussions as corporations consider their sustainability programs.
“We know that we have a lot of urbanization out there where a lot of good farmland is being taken up for either homes or maybe a warehouse, so that’s another definition of land use change that actually wasn’t even considered before we had this particular meeting,” said Reinhard. “It’s great being able to have farmers there to have a conversation around the table when basically before we didn’t have that option, so we kind of had to start it on our own.”
The Land Use Change Summit was held during July at McDonald’s International Headquarters in Chicago, and gathered nearly 100 experts across the food and agriculture value chain. Reinhard says the summit set out to accomplish three goals: 1) find common ground 2) set a strategic course, and 3) prepare to engage.
We’re going to continue on with our conversations that we had and a lot of good discussion that was taken from some of the breakout sessions,” said Reinhard. “And that will all be put into a next steps type program and we’ll look forward then to having another in person conference in the future.”
You can listen to learn more in this interview with Steve Reinhard:
Interview with Steve Reinhard
To receive updates or get involved, visit the Land Use Change Initiative webpage where you can find a white paper describing critical issues and gaps, and identifies where the opportunities exist for implementing change. In addition, there is a primer report and proceedings report available that were prepared for LUCI’s workshop sessions.
Pivot Bio at Farm Progress Show
Customers using Pivot Bio sustainable agriculture products have reduced carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions by over 932,000 metric tons (MT) since the beginning of 2022, and now the company is offering zero percent financing for growers through December 2025.
Pivot Bio agronomist Karen Zuver was talking with farmers at the recent Farm Progress Show about what Pivot Bio has to offer. “Our pivot bio products give you this opportunity to have that foundation product in your nitrogen plan for your grain crops,” said Zuver. “So with corn we have our PROVEN® 40 product that gives you that foundation to replace some of that synthetic nitrogen and make sure that you have that nitrogen there through the season.”
Learn more in this interview:
FPS24 - Interview with Karen Zuver, Pivot Bio 4:30
Syngenta Continues Work With EPA on Atrazine
Syngenta continues to work with the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that farmers can keep using the crop protection products they need, like Atrazine.
Dave Flakne, Syngenta head of U.S. state affairs, provided the latest update at the recent Farm Progress Show. “July 7th of this year, the EPA put out an update that was somewhat favorable, but there’s still some work that needs to be done,” said Flakne. “They increased the level of concern from 3.4 parts per billion to 9.7 parts per billion in streams on a 60 day rolling average, which was a directionally correct improvement in the level of concern, but there are still issues with respect to the models that they’re using to determine where mitigation might be required.”
Flakne says right now the entire ag community is focused on the Endangered Species Act, which is being used to try and vacate registrations. “So right now there’s a lot of work going on by EPA to come up with a framework,” said Flakne. “And what that means is the agency is going to be looking at and evaluating registrations and re-registration to make sure that they’re being responsive and protective of endangered species. So that process and how that strategy is implemented is very important.”
Learn more in this interview.
FPS24 - Interview with Dave Flakne, Syngenta 7:45
Precision Ag News 9/11
Farm Foundation Hosts Farm Policy Forum
Rod Snyder and Kip Tom
Moderated by Kristina Peterson with The Wall Street Journal, The Agricultural Platforms of the Candidates for President of the United States featured Kip Tom, Farmers and Ranchers for Trump Coalition, for the Republican platform, while the Democratic platform was advocated for by Rod Snyder, former Senior Advisor for Agriculture for EPA in the Biden-Harris Administration. Topics covered included the farm bill, agricultural trade, environmental policy, farm labor and immigration, and biofuels policy.
Snyder, who recently stepped down from his position with EPA, outlined the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration in the area of rural development, and pointed out the record of Gov. Tim Walz during his 12 years in Congress, “where he served 6 terms on the House Agriculture Committee and helped write three farm bills.” In his opening remarks, Snyder expressed concerns about how Trump policies on trade and immigration would impact agriculture. “Roughly 70% of ag workers in the United States are foreign born, and nearly half of those are undocumented,” said Snyder. “Trump is promising mass deportation on an unprecedented scale without any consideration for our country’s ag system, food prices, or least of all, the human toll.”
Tom, an Indiana farmer who served as US Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture under President Trump, stressed the success of Trump’s trade policies, the impact of overregulation, and the need to control illegal immigration, as well as his concerns about reliance on foreign inputs. “Nearly 70% of the crop care products that we use in the United States are produced abroad, much in India, but primarily in China,” said Tom. “Imagine if they hit the kill switch… we couldn’t have the products that we need to fight back against the weeds, insects and diseases that we have in our crops or the the pharmaceutical or the drugs that we need for our livestock to keep them healthy.”
Their brief opening statements were followed by a lively discussion that included questions from the audience at the National Press Club that is well worth watching. Watch the whole forum here.
Listen to opening statements here:
Farm Foundation forum opening statements (18:57)
NK Offers 12 New Corn Hybrids for 2025
With a decade of groundbreaking investments, NK is bringing stronger corn genetics and herbicide traits combined with enhanced testing to the farm faster than ever with the new 2025 NK Corn Hybrids.
NK corn product manager Matt Dolch was at the recent Farm Progress Show to talk about the new hybrids. “We have an excellent new lineup here for 2025. We’ve launched 12 new corn hybrids here for the 25 market year ranging from 87 day to 114 day products. And we also have one brand new Enogen product bringing forward Enogen DuracadeViptera™ technology.”
Learn more in this interview.
FPS24 - Interview with Matt Dolch, Syngenta 2:07
Animal Ag News 9/10
Amp Americas Dairy RNG Projects Hit Milestone
Amp Americas, a leading dairy methane capture and renewable natural gas (RNG) company, today announced that its projects have hit the milestone of reducing more than 2,000,000 metric tons (MT) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions since 2012 – equal to the emissions of more than five natural gas-fired power plants in one year.
Amp Americas partners with dairy farmers across the United States on projects that reduce methane emissions from dairy waste. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas – 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in driving global warming over a 20-year time span. Amp Americas provides an immediate, measurable and at-scale solution to methane emissions by capturing methane on dairy farms that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. Dairy RNG also reduces the cost of managing dairy waste and produces digestate that can be used as fertilizer.
“For 12 years, we have worked alongside farmers to make a real, quantifiable impact on greenhouse gas emissions while improving the air quality in rural communities,” said Grant Zimmerman, CEO of Amp Americas. “Two million metric tons is a milestone we’re proud of, especially since there are no other near-term solutions that can tackle methane emissions like our RNG projects. We are grateful for our farm partners and excited to work with them to increase our impact. With access to new markets, Amp will develop additional projects on more and smaller farms across the United States.”
Amp has 17 RNG projects across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Idaho and Kansas that create well-paying jobs and help dairy farmers improve air quality and reduce risks to water quality in their rural communities. These projects will prevent 700,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions per year by the end of this year, the same climate impact as taking 166,601 cars off the road for one year. Amp Americas received the first dairy waste-to-vehicle fuel pathway certified by the EPA under the Renewable Fuel Standard and the first pathway certified by California’s Air Resources Board (“CARB”). Visit ampamericas.com to learn more.
Ethanol Report From Farm Progress Show
It was a beautiful week in Boone, Iowa for the Farm Progress Show, the nation’s largest outdoor ag show. It is a show that the Renewable Fuels Association always attends because it brings out farmers from all over the ethanol-producing part of the country to see what’s new in the industry.
RFA displayed its custom Flex Fuel Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle and an off-road flex-fuel Can Am and had staff on hand to talk about ethanol issues such as the road to E15, record exports, 45 tax credit progress, and more.
In this edition of the Ethanol Report, Chuck Zimmerman interviews RFA president and CEO Geoff Cooper and RFA Senior VP for Industry Relations & Market Development Robert White from the Farm Progress Show.
Ethanol Report 8-28-24 16:12The Ethanol Report is a podcast about the latest news and information in the ethanol industry that has been sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association since 2008.
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