Monsanto Announces Farm Mom of the Year

Kelly Marshall

mary-300x300Monstanto‘s latest announcement is just in time for Mother’s Day.  After two weeks of online voting, Mary Courtney has been named Farm Mom of the Year.

Courtney farms with her husband, Shane and grows corn, soybeans, burley tobacco, mixed vegetables, green bell peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, squash and zucchini, specialty peppers and seedless watermelon, along with cattle.

Mary was one of five women who were recognized at the end of April as a regional finalist in the program. All of them, including Ann Stamp (Cranston, R.I.), Karen Kasper (Owatonna, Minn.), Katie Heger (Underwood, N.D.), Nikki Weathers (Yuma, Colo.) and Mary were selected by both the American Agri-Women and Monsanto for their dedication and commitment to their families, farms, communities and the agriculture industry.

America voted online at www.AmericasFarmers.com from April 22 through May 4 for one of the five regional finalists to be named the national winner. All five women will receive $5,000. Mary will receive an additional $5,000 for securing the most votes to be named the national “Farm Mom of the Year.”

“I had the fortunate opportunity to meet all of these women in person at the end of April, and their energy and passion for their families, communities and agriculture is absolutely inspiring,” says Tracy Mueller, corporate brand manager for Monsanto. “These women are literally helping nurture and grow our world. They love talking about their lives and their farming lifestyle, yet they are so humble about their invaluable role. We can’t wait for everyone to learn more about what they do and how they’re making a positive difference in farming today.”

Courtney’s husband nominated her for the award.  He notes that being a mom is not an easy job, but Mary handles her responsibilities as full-time farmer, director of a multi-state ag lender and mother of four with ease.

“Where she has a will, she finds a way. We began our farming operation from scratch in 2008, the same year we welcomed our first son. It is with tenacity and fortitude, she taught herself payroll taxes, manages a crew of 18 migrant workers, plans, produces, and markets an abundance of local fruits and vegetables, contracts grain, and teaches the oldest children to bottle feed calves, while the youngest is in tow.”

In addition to all this work, Courtney advocates for agriculture.  She organized a “Touch the Dirt Day” and brought consumers to the farm to learn about agriculture.  She also works on ag literacy efforts and offers guidance to the local cooperative extension.  She is also an active member of the Kentucky Farm Bureau.

To learn more about Mary, her fellow 2016 regional Mom of the Year winners visit www.AmericasFarmers.com.

Agribusiness

Syngenta Appoints President and CEO

Kelly Marshall

syngenta-logoJ. Erik Fyrwald has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Syngenta.

Fyrwald is the current President and CEO of Univar.  He will succeed John Ramsay, who has been acting as interim CEO since November of 2015.

“After a rigorous search, the Board concluded that Erik’s leadership and considerable experience in both agriculture and chemicals, along with his strong track record of success as a CEO made him the outstanding candidate for the role, said Michel Demare, Syngenta’s Chairman.  “Erik has demonstrated throughout his career the ability to work successfully in different environments, designing and leading strategies which resulted in impressive value creation. I look forward to working with him to create the next chapter of Syngenta’s story of success.”

Ramsay, who has served as Chief Financial Officer of Syngenta for nine years, will be working closely with Fyrwald to create a smooth transition.  Closing the ChemChina transaction is high on the priority list during this time.

Mr. Fyrwald spent 27 years at DuPont where he held positions in technology, manufacturing, sales and marketing, strategic planning and regional and global business unit leadership, including four years in Asia. In 2003, Mr. Fyrwald was named Group Vice President of DuPont Agriculture and Nutrition. Mr. Fyrwald also served as Chairman of Crop Life International for two years during this period.

In 2008, Mr. Fyrwald was named Chairman, President and CEO of Nalco. In December 2011, Nalco was acquired by EcoLab. Mr. Fyrwald was President of EcoLab until May 2012, when he was appointed CEO of Univar, a leading global distributor of chemical products and provider of related services, including agricultural inputs.

Mr. Fyrwald serves on the boards of Eli Lilly and Company (including their Science and Technology Committee) and the Society of Chemical Industry. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

“I have admired Syngenta from the outside for many years and am delighted, therefore, to have been chosen to lead the company in the next exciting phase of its journey,” Frywald says.   “I greatly look forward to meeting employees, leaders, customers and other stakeholders after I join in June and to working with them to achieve further success in the years to come.”

Agribusiness, Syngenta

RFD-TV and FarmHer Form Partnership

Kelly Marshall

FarmHerRFD-TV and FarmHer have signed a new agreement to bring a true-to-life, positive image of farm woman to television.  Marji Guyler-Alaniz, founder of FarmHer, will tell the story of farm women and capture the behind-the-scene stories from the FarmHer online community.

Women have always been an important but mostly unseen aspect of agriculture. In recent years, women are rising to the forefront of agriculture in so many ways; as owner/operators, landowners, workers, mentors and much more. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, today there are nearly 1,000,000 women farmers in the U.S., which accounts for nearly one-third of all farmers.

Everyone remembers the powerful 2013 Super Bowl commercial “God Made a Farmer,” but few know how many women were actually in the 60-second commercial. The answer is three.

“I remember struggling with this fact and asking myself over and over why we don’t see more women in agriculture?” said Guyler-Alaniz. “One night as I was lying in bed this idea came to me and I knew my new mission in life was to combine my passion for photography and agriculture and begin showcasing the amazing women of agriculture.”

“I have always wanted to do a show on RFD-TV focused around the many great women I have had the pleasure of meeting throughout my travels in rural America,” said Raquel Gottsch, Executive Vice President of RFD-TV. “When I met Marji, I knew she shared my same passion and that this would be a great partnership for both our interests.”

RFD-TVFarmHer will be a 30-minutes television series featuring women in agriculture doing what they do best.  The theme for the show is: love the land, care for the community, feed the people.  This spring and summer Guyler-Alaniz and RFD-TV will travel the country looking for stories of women with a variety of backgrounds, including Lexi Marek, a college junior raising and showing pigs, and Karen Archiplay, a woman researching the hydro-organic industry from her farm near San Diego, California.

Additionally the team is planning a float for the Tournament of Roses Parade to showcase the diverse work women in agriculture do.  All FarmHers are invited to Pasadena, California to celebrate.

“This partnership is beyond exciting because it takes what I started with FarmHer, that is shining a light on all of the real and important roles women play in agriculture through still imagery and launches it to the next level,” said Guyler-Alaniz.

The partnership offers millions of viewers the opportunity to see into the lives of farm women, Guyler-Alaniz relates.  “These are beautiful women, doing amazing work and I am thrilled to bring that beauty to the forefront through this new endeavor.”

For more information, please visit ruralradio147.com and RFDTV.com. Listeners can hear Rural Radio Channel 147 programming daily on SiriusXM, online, and via the SiriusXM app.

Ag Groups, Media, Photography

I AM USFRA – Monsanto

Cindy Zimmerman

i-am-usfra-webThe U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) is composed of almost 100 agricultural organizations and agribusinesses, including some of the largest companies in the industry because they know how important it is to help consumers better understand how their food is produced.

It’s pretty safe to say that no company or sector of the agriculture industry has been the target of more misinformation than Monsanto, mainly for their development of what could arguably be the greatest scientific achievement for feeding the world in history – genetically modified crops. Getting factual information to consumers about the agriculture industry is the reason Monsanto was one of the founding members of USFRA. “We saw the need for the grower voice to be present in the ongoing conversations about food and how it is produced,” says Monsanto VP for public and industry affairs Mike Parrish. “And we knew that Monsanto had a role to play in that conversation, but more importantly we knew our customers had an important role to play.”

monsanto-parrish1Parrish is a member of the USFRA board and considers it a privilege to provide whatever expertise Monsanto can provide to help communicate with consumers. “What’s been great for us is to see an organization like USFRA really broaden the conversation,” said Parrish. “I think USFRA is definitely having an impact.”

He strongly encourages all agricultural companies and organizations to be involved with USFRA. “USFRA provides a really big tent for all of agriculture to come in and speak with one voice,” he said. “For those who aren’t supporters today, I’d encourage them to get to know the organization better.”

Listen to an interview with Mike about USFRA here: Interview with Mike Parrish, Monsanto

Audio, USFRA

Agri-Pulse recognized by NAAJ

Lizzy Schultz

agri-pulse-naaj The North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) presented Agri-Pulse with the Audrey Mackiewicz Special Award at the group’s annual banquet last week. The award is named after the first woman president and long-time Executive Secretary-Treasurer of NAAJ, and is presented to publications that have expanded their coverage of agriculture. The Agri-Pulse mission is devoted to covering agriculture, food and rural issues on Capitol Hill, and their staff of 11 editors and broadcast journalists is now the largest agriculture news bureau in Washington D.C.

Over the last year, circulation grew to a record 5,200 Ag and Rural policy influencers, and Agri-pulse expanded its reach to more than 1,200 congressional staffers in every Senate and House office on Capitol Hill and most major committees impacting agriculture and rural America.
More than 1,700 students at 33 Universities currently use Agri-Pulse as their classroom curriculum in Ag Economics and Policy studies.

The Agri-Pulse website averages 180,000 visitors, is currently generating 900,000 page views per month, with about 14 minutes per user session on site, and has over 20,000 followers on Twitter.

Ag Groups, Agri-Pulse, Journalism

First Ever ZimmComm Team Retreat

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmComm TeamThe ZimmComm Team got together for the first time in Pensacola Beach, FL. All our editors and the mysterious Robert, the webmaster, are concluding our business sessions which have included website critiques/changes (some still pending), social media strategy, online multimedia content creation and much more. It has been an intense time but also a great time for fellowship with family members too. And yes, that does include some grand babies who are now budding beach bums.

Over the next week or so we’ll be implementing some of our new strategies and changes and it’s all to provide our community with an evermore informative, entertaining and available experience from the pioneers of online ag media.

We also adopted a new zebra, MiniZ. You will have the chance to meet the little guy all along the agriblogging highway throughout the year.

ZimmComm Announcement

NCGA Launches Photo Contest

Lizzy Schultz

fields-of-corn-ncga The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is calling on photographers to help tell the story of farming field corn in America through photos in the third annual Fields-of-Corn Photo Contest. This contest intends to help capture high-resolution photos of corn growth from seed to harvest, as well as the families that grow it. The contest is officially open, and interested participants may submit multiple entries through the deadline of November 30, 2016.

The photo contest is open to all interested participants, and offers a free opportunity for photographers to share their work while competing for 19 cash prizes. including a grand prize of $500. Entries will be considered for prizes with cash awards for the top three entries in five categories including: Farm Family Lifestyle, Farming Challenges, Growing Field Corn, Scenery/Landscape and the Soil Health Partnership’s new Conservation category. Additional first, second and third prizes will be awarded for the entries with the most “likes.”

For more information on prizes and on these categories, click here.

The contest will be judged by an impartial panel of media and communications professionals, along with SHP staff with conservation expertise. The panel’s decisions are final.

While entries will only be accepted until November 30, 2016, entries may accumulate “likes” until December 31, 2016. Winners will be announced in January of 2017. Register, upload your best farm photos and come back often to submit new entries by clicking here.

Ag Groups, Agronomy, Corn, NCGA

Workshop Explores Changing Dynamics of Ag Finance

Lizzy Schultz

farmfoundationlogo3 Farm Foundation, NFP, along with USDA’s Economic Research Service and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has organized a workshop that intends to explore the implications of the evolving trends regarding non-farmer investor interest in agricultural resources and the use of more diverse business organization tools by farm landowners. The workshop will be held June 6-7, 2016, at the Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY.

“Several years of strong commodity prices, combined with high market demand, fueled investor interest in agricultural resources worldwide,” says Farm Foundation, NFP President Neil Conklin. “Commodity prices have cooled significantly, but interest in farmland investments remains strong.”

The workshop was developed as more investors outside the agricultural sector have begun to buy farmland, including financial services firms and pension and mutual fund companies. Agriculture-only REITS are now part of the farmland market, and other financial developments are also at play in the agricultural finance sector. Farmers seeking to keep their land, invest in capital assets, adapt to changing supply chains, or expand their current operations are turning to a wide array of organizational tools, such as C- and S-corporations.

“It is clear that trends in farmland ownership and tenure patterns are changing,” Conklin says. “This workshop will explore the current interest in farmland, the players driving it, and the implications for farmland ownership and tenure.”

The day-and-a-half long workshop will feature talks by farmer landowners, academic researchers and lenders, including representatives of commercial banks, Farm Credit, insurance companies and the investment community. The program will also work to examine the relationship of ownership and financing to farm policies, including programs targeted to credit, conservation, commodities and crop insurance.

“This workshop is targeted to farmers, landowners, investors and members of the finance, agribusiness and public policy communities. All are key players whose actions are shaping the trends in farmland ownership and agricultural finance which, in turn, has potential implications for the social and political environments in which they operate,” Conklin says.

The workshop is free and open to all interested parties. Registration is requested, and can be completed online here

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Farm Credit, Farm Foundation, USDA

USDA Unveils New Urban Agriculture Toolkit

Lizzy Schultz

USDA Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently unveiled the USDA Urban Agriculture Toolkit, a new resource created by USDA’s Know Your Farmer team that intends to help entrepreneurs and community leaders use urban agriculture to successfully create jobs and increase access to healthy food in their communities. The announcement was made during the opening of a new school community garden at Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore after the idea for the Toolkit was originally conceived at a USDA Urban Agriculture roundtable held nearby in Baltimore last spring.

“Urban agriculture helps strengthen the health and social fabric of communities while creating economic opportunities for farmers and neighborhoods,” Vilsack said. “USDA’s Urban Agriculture Toolkit compiles guidance from our Know Your Farmer team and many private partners into one comprehensive resource to help small-scale producers manage all aspects of their business. From protecting soil health to marketing to schools and grocery store chains, USDA has tools to meet the needs of this new breed of innovative urban farmer and small business owner.”

Industry estimates show that local food sales in the U.S. totaled at least $12 billion in 2014, up from $5 billion in 2008. Experts anticipate that value to hit $20 billion by 2019. The numbers are also showing that urban agriculture opportunities are helping to drive job growth in agriculture, increase entrepreneurship, and expand food access and choice.

USDA’s Toolkit is an electronic document that focuses on some of the most pressing challenges confronting urban producers. Users have access to more than 70 helpful resources regarding land access, soil quality, water resources, capital and financing, infrastructure, market development, production strategies, applying for federal, state or private foundation grants, technical assistance and financing opportunities.

University extension service partners in Chicago and Indianapolis helped develop cost estimates for starting urban farms, and the toolkit includes information on best practices and check lists for start-ups and early-stage producers planning outdoor or indoor operations.

Ag Groups, Farming, Food, USDA

Ag Foundations Reach Students at USA Science Festival

Lizzy Schultz

farmbureau The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture (AFBFA) and Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation were able to provide important information about where food comes from to approximately 9,000 students and families through their booth at this year’s USA Science & Engineering Festival. The festival, held every two years, is the nation’s largest STEM education event of its kind, with total attendance of 365,000.

“Creatively bringing the farm to students and teachers at outreach events like the USA Science & Engineering Festival is critically important as we work to rebuild the bonds of trust between American consumers and the people who proudly grow their food, fiber and energy,” said AFBF President and AFBFA Chairman Zippy Duvall.

Booth visitors participated in several hands-on activities, including building DNA molecules from edible ingredients, playing online games related to agriculture, and taking on the role of animal nutritionist to complete mathematical challenges. A scavenger hunt and special “make & take” activity allowed students to further discover the importance of agriculture in their lives.

Two children’s book authors who previously participated in AFBFA’s 2016 On the Farm Author Experience funded by the Beef Checkoff were also present at the event. Lela Nargi, author of The Honeybee Man, and Lizzy Rockwell, author of Plants Feed Me and Good Enough to Eat, engaged with students and encouraged them to write their own stories about why agriculture is important.

“Bringing the basics of agriculture to the public is important,” said AFBFA Executive Director Julie Tesch. “Agriculture is the perfect context for the application of STEM concepts. We are especially grateful to our donors. Thanks to their support, we were able to exhibit at the festival and reach thousands of students and families with information about agriculture and food.”

AFBF, Ag Groups, Beef Checkoff, Education