All About Spuds and Politics

Chuck Zimmerman January 18, 2016

In this week’s program we will meet the CEO’s of the National Potato Council and the United States Potato Board. I met both of these guys while covering the Potato Expo last week for my first time.

Let’s start our with John Keeling, CEO of the National Potato Council. We focused on potato policy issues which as you might guess are very similar to other farm commodities. They include WOTUS and food labeling issues. Foreign trade is also a very critical issue for the sustainability of potato growers.

John says that potatoes fared well with the recent update to dietary guidelines. He says some have been trying to remove vegetable as the designation of what a potato is. I hope that doesn’t go anywhere.

Next up I talked with Blair Richardson, President & CEO of the U.S. Potato Board. The gong you can see behind him was used at the close of his report to signal the unveiling of the Spud Nation Food Truck.

Why a food truck? Blair explains, “By 2017, food trucks will be a $2.7 billion market according to the National Restaurant Association,” he said. “Currently food trucks are only reaching about 50 percent of the U.S. population, but it’s one of the fastest growing market segments in foodservice, and several sources reveal there are huge opportunities for the future. Seventy-one percent of Americans polled in a recent survey indicated they are comfortable buying meals from food trucks. We need to be a leader and trend setter in this rapidly changing environment.”

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast to learn more about taters here: Potato Executives from Potato Expo

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Expanding @NufarmUS Portfolio

Chuck Zimmerman January 18, 2016

Nufarm is the eighth largest crop protection company in the world and just keeps getting bigger while not changing its stripes.

At the 2016 Potato Expo last week, I talked with Nufarm North America‘s Vice President for Innovations and Regulatory Affairs Rob Schwehr about what’s new at Nufarm. “What we’ve done over the last couple of years is continue our portfolio expansion in our tree nuts/vines/vegetables segment, which includes potatoes, and as part of that we have expanded into bactericides,” said Schwehr. That includes the company’s big focus at Potato Expo on zebra chip disease in potatoes. “That is very much related to efforts Nufarm has put into citrus, where a very similar organism is causing a problem.”

Schwehr says Nufarm is investing quite a bit into research and development to help growers with these kinds of problems. “We listen to customers and try and address their needs as best we can,” he said.

Learn more in this interview: Interview with Rob Schwehr, Nufarm

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Meet New #Potato Council President

Cindy Zimmerman January 18, 2016

Idaho potato farmer Jim Tiede took over as the new president of the National Potato Council last week during the 2016 Potato Expo in Las Vegas.

Tiede is a third generation farmer from American Falls, Idaho who is looking forward to focusing on important issues to potato growers in the coming year, including TPP, WOTUS, and transportation. “We’re looking at truck weight increases for the highways, which will allow us to be more efficient,” he said. They will also be working on other trade and regulatory issues and they will all be on the plate during the NPC fly-in to Washington DC this year. “It should be a really good fly-in,” says Tiede. “I’m encouraging everyone to come because it makes a difference to have boots on the ground there.”

Normally the NPC summer meeting is in the home state of the president, but Tiede says he chose to go to Utah this year instead. “We just had it in Sun Valley (Idaho) two years ago, so we were looking for a new place,” he said.

Learn more in this interview with Tiede: Interview with Jim Tiede, National Potato Council

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Farmers Increase Profits with Solar Leases

Joanna Schroeder January 18, 2016

You hear some news about farmers receiving payments for leasing land for wind turbines, but some growers are also receiving lease payments for solar power projects. For example, Farmland Partners recently entered into two ground lease agreements for photovoltaic solar power generation facilities on two farms in South Carolina.

The agreements offer the right to lease up to an aggregate of about 979 acres that may be converted, at the tenant’s cost, from farming operations to energy generation. The two farms are currently leased to local farmers for a blended annual rental rate of approximately $210 per acre for the 2,579 tillable acres of the farms. Under the lease agreements, the initial average annual rental rate will be $822 per acre for the 979 acres subject to solar development, with annual rent increases of 1.5 percent beginning in the fifth year of the lease terms. In other words, Farmland Partners will pay “rent” to the farmers to build solar farms on the land.

“These South Carolina solar leases further demonstrate the additional upside rent potential for non-ag uses we have on our farms,” said Paul Pittman, CEO of the Company. “We continue to focus on developing supplemental revenue streams for the farms we own in order to increase returns for our stockholders.”

With these Agreements, Farmland Partners will have three solar leases in place, on a total of 1,179 acres, and a wind lease on a farm, on approximately 28 acres, all located in North and South Carolina.

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Economist Reports to #AFBF16

Kelly Marshall January 18, 2016

Weak crop prices and a dramatic decline in livestock prices lead to a decrease in the 2015 farm net income, according to an economist from the Federal Reserve Bank, Nathan Kauffman. Since 2013 farm income has actually dropped by 55 percent, Kauffman recently told attendees of the American Farm Bureau Federation‘s 97th Annual Convention and IDEAg Trade Show.

“I don’t have the best of news to share this morning,” Kauffman said. The “sky is not falling,” he added, “but this is definitely a period of adjustment.”

The oddity is that the decline in income has not been followed by a decline in land values.

“Farmland values have, in many ways, defied expectations associated with lower crop values,” he said.

A gradual buildup of corn, soybeans and wheat in the global supply chain is one of the reasons for the lower commodity prices. “Global inventory is very, very high,” he explained.

At the same time, key demand factors have also “softened significantly,” he said, specifically mentioning ethanol production, which has been nearly flat in the past few years, and U.S. exports to China, which have decreased steadily as growth has slowed in that market.

An additional factor is credit conditions, which have deteriorated in the past two or three years. A strong dollar, coupled with a somewhat sluggish global economy, has made selling crops overseas more difficult, he added.

Land values have stayed high, in part because of the lack of land on the market, but prices can very depending on the quality of the land. Marginal ground is seeing some decreases, but high-quaily land is still very much in demand. Rented ground has also been slow to follow the decrease in crop prices.

“It’s not what you would have expected when corn drops from $6 (per bushel) to $3,” he said.

AFBF, Ag Groups, Events

AGree Tells Prez Candidates to Focus on Ag & Food Policies

John Davis January 18, 2016

A coalition of stakeholders in the food and agriculture systems is urging the presidential candidates to focus on the policies that can improve the health of America’s families, economy, farms and the environment. In this news release from AGree, the call includes a strategy for elevating food and agriculture as a national priority.

“Many people don’t realize the degree to which food and agricultural policies shape our nation,” said Dan Glickman, AGree co-chair and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. “Farmers and ranchers and the food and agriculture supply chain from ‘farm to fork’ contribute roughly 5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and employ more than 12 million people, yet they face challenges with market volatility, drought, floods, disease, food safety and a reliable labor supply. Policy changes are urgently needed to overcome these challenges.”

AGree, a bipartisan group driving positive change in the food and agriculture system, has engaged more than 2,000 food and agricultural thought leaders to identify key issues and develop consensus recommendations to ensure American agriculture continues to thrive, providing the safest, most affordable food supply in the world. These recommendations are the basis of AGree’s Call to Action being presented to campaigns on both sides of the aisle.

“Food and agriculture-related businesses contributed $878 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2013, and it’s critical to enact policy changes that will enable agriculture to continue to drive innovation, allow access to a stable workforce, protect the environment and empower future generations to provide safe, nutritious, affordable food,” said Jim Moseley, AGree co-chair and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.

The Call to Action advocates smart policy changes to strengthen the food and agricultural sector, which, in turn, will strengthen our nation.

– Strongly support research and innovation for food and agriculture. Research drives innovation and agricultural research on weather volatility, obesity and water quality require greater focus, while addressing underfunding.
– Ensure a stable workforce through immigration reform. Agriculture faces challenges of an unreliable labor supply and would be helped by a simple, efficient and fair guest worker program and a system through which citizenship can be earned by undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S.
– Empower the next generation to ensure a safe and affordable food supply. The average age of U.S. farmers is 58 and new entrants face enormous challenges, including land and equipment acquisitions.
– Strengthen risk management policies and practices. Balancing risk protection and costs, while integrating data on soil, yield risk and conservation practices are needed.
– Bolster conservation and working landscapes. Regulations alone cannot ensure the landscape-level actions needed, so policies that encourage producer-led, watershed-scale efforts involving the supply chain and demonstrating effectiveness and a measurable return on investment must be implemented.

The group goes on to point out how improving health and nutrition can also help reduce health care costs.

Ag Groups, politics

#PotatoExpo is Big Event

Chuck Zimmerman January 15, 2016

Since I had never been to the Potato Expo before I had no idea what to expect so I was surprised to find out what a huge event it really is!

Randy Hardy of Idaho is past chairman of the National Potato Board and was one of the co-chairs of the expo. “I was in on the initial thought process of having a Potato Expo about 10 years ago,” he said. “We felt if we had all of the attendees that attended the various potato meetings around the country we’d get 800 or 900 people. This year, we’re going over 2100 …the success has just been phenomenal.”

Hardy was excited about the roll out of the Spud Nation food truck but he was also very pleased with the technology seminars they offered at the expo. Next year he says the meeting will be in San Francisco.

Learn more in this interview – Interview with Randy Hardy, Potato Expo Co-chair

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Bee Buzz at #PotatoExpo

Cindy Zimmerman January 15, 2016

There was a lot of buzz about bees at the 2016 Potato Expo this week in Las Vegas.

The National Potato Council announced this week that they are joining the Bayer CropScience Feed a Bee initiative as an official partner committing to enlist America’s potato farmers to help feed bees.

Dr. Becky Langer, manager of the North American Bee Care Program says Bayer launched Feed a Bee in March of 2015 to address the problem of lack of food and nutrition for bees and it has been more successful than they could have imagined. “We started out with the goal to plant 50 million flowers and to partner with 50 organizations,” she said. “To date, we’re at 65 million flowers and have 80 partners in the program.”

Langer says in 2016 they plan to expand to have more national partnerships, such as with the National Potato Council, and more educational outreach to young people.

Becky talks more about Bayer Bee Care in this interview: Interview with Becky Langer, Bayer CropScience

One of the ways to communicate with kids is Vitamin Bee, who combines a message about the importance of bees with healthy eating.

Creator Geoffrey Kater says Vitamin Bee stars in a series of short videos and interactive materials that inspire children to have fun while learning about healthy eating and nutrition. “There’s videos, there’s games, and we have a lot of recipes for parents,” said Kater.

In the evolution of Vitamin Bee, Kater got involved with Bayer to also include messages about pollinators. “It became very clear to me that bees are important to the food that we eat,” he said. “So we decided to do some videos that highlight pollination, preservation of bees, what kids can do to help preserve bees, and being aware of bees.”

Learn more in this interview with Geoffrey: Interview with Geoffrey Kater, Vitamin Bee

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Federal Grants Workshop at #AFBF16

Cindy Zimmerman January 15, 2016

Navigating the federal grant system was the topic of a workshop at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 97th Annual Convention and IDEAg Trade Show.

Decisions about whether a farm or agribusiness can or should apply for a federal grant requires significant foresight and self-analysis, according to grant-writing and rural entrepreneurship experts who spoke at the workshop.

A value-added support team in Iowa is made up of agribusiness experts from Iowa State University, state government and other agencies. The group meets once a month to review confidential start-up proposals. “It’s kind of like ‘Shark Tank,’ but friendlier,” joked Denny Harding, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation’s bio-economy manager and a member of the team.

“Our purpose is to help them discover their weaknesses and some of their opportunities,” Harding said. “It really does seem to help a lot of these companies that want to get started. And sometimes you can do just as much by saying, ‘Hey, this needs a lot of work and here’s what you can work on,’” he said.

Other speakers during the workshop were James Matson, owner of Matson Consulting LLC, a grant-writing specialty firm; and Christopher Cook, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation’s assistant director of rural development. There are a number of federal grants available from USDA, such as Value-Added Producer Grants, the Rural Energy for America Program and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. There are also grants available to help improve farmers’ markets and promote local food programs.

AFBF

AFBF Patriot Project

Cindy Zimmerman January 15, 2016

The Farm Bureau Patriot Project, a mentoring program that connects military veterans interested in agricultural careers with experienced farmers and ranchers to help them develop professional networking and business planning skills, was a featured workshop during the AFBF 97th Annual Convention & IDEAg Trade Show this week in Orlando.

Military veterans in production agriculture are finding that the farming and ranching lifestyle provides therapeutic and financial support for their transition to civilian life, but many can benefit from an experienced mentor to coach them through the start-up stages of agribusiness development.

Veteran farmer Damon Helton of Arkansas has found it valuable to connect with his mentor, Jeremy Allen, through AFBF’s Patriot Project, a pilot program that will fully launch later this year. “This program has opened my eyes to the business side of agriculture,” Helton said.

American Farm Bureau is conducting a pilot of the FB Patriot Project in Texas and Arkansas in partnership with the Texas Farm Bureau and Arkansas Farm Bureau.

AFBF

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