What the Heck is Certified Humane?

Cindy Zimmerman October 8, 2014

This press release from PR Newswire caught my attention this morning – “What is a Certified Humane® turkey and where can you find one for this Thanksgiving?”

Okay, I’ll bite – what is a certified humane turkey? According to the release from Certified Humane and Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC):

A Certified Humane® turkey is a turkey raised on a farm where it can express its natural behaviors, such as flapping its wings, moving around freely and perching above ground at night. Raised without animal by-products and without the use of antibiotics, these turkeys meet the Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) program’s precise standards of care for the humane treatment of farm animals.

Sunrise Farms Certified Humane® Frozen Young Turkeys are available exclusively at Sobeys, which is a Canadian company that has been delivering refrigerated meat to homes for 106 years. So, the answer to where you can get one for Thanksgiving is Canada. Pretty sure we’re going to stick with regular old “inhumane” turkey for Thanksgiving anyway!

Animal Activists, Food, Poultry

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes October 8, 2014

The United Fresh Produce Association President and CEO Tom Stenzel announced several staff promotions to create strong team alignment to enhance service to its members.
Entries are now being accepted for NCBA’s 2015 National Anthem Contest, open to those 18 and younger and related to an NCBA, CBB, or ANCW member.
World Soy Foundation (WSF) is kicking off a new year of the Acre Challenge and is looking to partner with all those farmers “pushing the button” as they harvest their acres.
Valley Irrigation, has appointed Steve Kaniewski the vice president of global operations.

Zimfo Bytes

Verdesian Mission: Education

Joanna Schroeder October 7, 2014

Verdesian has a mission as part of being a science-based company. And part of that mission is education – education of both journalists and farmers. To learn more about why this is so important, I spoke with Michael Berry, senior marketing manager with Verdesian, who hosted about half a dozen ag media at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

As Berry succinctly explained, “Science is what we’re about.” The company holds more than 270 patents. “Our relationship with Los Alamos National Laboratory is key to one of our biggest technologies that we’re getting ready to take to the row crop market,” continued Berry. “So giving access to the back-end of it is extremely important.”

Berry said technology is what Verdesian is all about is filling technology gaps for growers. “So having everyone throughout the chain understand that process and the technology behind the product is extremely important.”

He said that relationships are one ingredient to success and their relationship with Los Alamos National Laboratory has been fruitful. It enables them to work together to identify potential, future technologies, some of which will eventually help growers.

To learn more about Verdesian’s commitment to science, technology and education and their relationship with Los Alamos National Laboratory listen to my interview with Michael Berry: Interview with Michael Berry, Verdesian

View the 2014 Verdesian Los Alamos Media Tour photo album.

Agribusiness, Audio, Fertilizer, Herbicide, Verdesian

Los Alamos Nat’l Laboratory Ag Innovations

Joanna Schroeder October 7, 2014

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). While the federal lab’s main mission is military defense, many innovations can be reimagined to work well in agriculture. To learn more about going from the lab to the field, I spoke with John Mott, technical writer for LANL.

Mott first started at LANL in 1988 when he arrived as a post doc in the life science division – his background is in neuroscience. After a brief hiatus he came back as a technical writer. “My job is to move innovations developed in the laboratory into the marketplace.”

His current role is to manage intellectual property estates and work with patent attorneys to take innovations and protect them in the proper way. Then he manages those innovations through their patent and copyright processes. So how exactly does this process work?

“Once we’ve established a patent position whether it is a patent application or an issued patent then we look to find partners for that. We work with companies large and small such as Verdesian,” explained Mott. “The transfer of the right to use the patent is called a license. With that generally comes a financial stream back to the laboratory. As the company gets the product onto the market we get a royalty on sales.”

Thirty-five percent of those funds are given to the inventor as an incentive to work with the company holding the license to help make the produce successful and the rest is used by the laboratory for new R & D projects to support, what they call ‘technology maturation’. “Food security is part of our national defense mission so working with companies like Verdesian is part of our mission,” said Mott.

Mott noted that the first product they worked with Verdesian on was their Take-Off product and there will be forthcoming announcement on the next generation of the product soon.

To learn more about how LANL innovations go commercial, listen to my interview with John Mott: Interview with John Mott, LANL

View the 2014 Verdesian Los Alamos Media Tour photo album.

Agribusiness, Audio, Education, Fertilizer, Herbicide, Verdesian

Touring CNH Industrial Village

Chuck Zimmerman October 7, 2014

CNH Industrial Village was my first stop last week in Turin, Italy for New Holland Blogger Days. The facility was inaugurated in the fall of 2011 and is set up to sell, support and present the products of New Holland Agriculture as well as other CNH companies like Construction, Iveco and more. Outside there are lots of products on display and inside there is a huge showroom that has interactive displays. You can get a tour if you would like and our group did.

I recorded part of the tour so you can see what it’s is like. An area I liked best was the gallery that traces the history of how the industrial products of CNH Industrial companies have evolved from the early years of the 20th century. You can photos from that section in the photo album.

2014 New Holland Blogger Days Photo Album

Agribusiness, Equipment, New Holland, Video

My Google Glass Update

Chuck Zimmerman October 7, 2014

I’ve had an issue crop up with my ZimmGlass that prompted me to write a little more about my use of this demo product. Actually, I’ve got a number of issues.

I have found that I primarily use the camera to record video clips, especially those at a trade show or some kind of product demo. The video is acceptable although the audio leaves much to be desired. Some of the apps like Twitter need more integration built into them to make them truly useful for me.

The issue I just had crop up is that the thin layer of foil on the mirror or prism which is what I can see the screen on through my prescription lenses has started flaking off. I have a support ticket started with Google on that and got prompt response. For a $1,500 product that I have taken very good care of I am hoping for a replacement.

But there are other issues that include:

Battery Life: Will have to be addressed before a public launch since I don’t get more than about 3 hours of continuous use. If I’m on a tour bus for the day I am shutting it down except when I have to use it.

Overheating: Glass overheats and shuts down after 3 or more minutes of video recording. I did get almost 10 minutes out of a Livestream app test though. But then I can’t use it until it cools down.

Sudden Shut Downs or Restarts: This has improved with updates but still happens.

Random photo taking: While I’m wearing it but not touching it or speaking to it. Very distracting at best. I do get some interesting photos though!

Listening to audio/phone calls: Glass has an earbud but the primary method of listening to audio just can’t amplify enough to be heard in anything but a quiet room.

We all know this is a product under development and I’m glad to have the chance to be in the Explorer program to try it out and provide feedback. When we do get a truly commercial product my wish list includes better camera, battery, mic and third party apps like Twitter. It has a place in agricultural media that I do think will become better as the product improves.

Got questions about this product or other apps or gadgets? Please feel free to contact me and I’ll do my best to answer. I am planning on starting a regular app/gadget/os review column and currently looking for a sponsor (hint, hint).

Gadgets

CFWF Digs Deep into Video Journalism

Cindy Zimmerman October 7, 2014

“Dig Deep” was the theme for the Canadian Farm Writers Federation 2014 conference in Prince Edward Island, and professional development time was spent digging deep into using video, even if you are a print journalist.

“Everybody (in journalism) has to be kind of a Swiss Army Knife now, you have to be able to do it all,” said Ian Petrie, a former CBC journalist and now video journalism instructor at P.E.I.’s Holland College. That includes audio, video, web, and print – which all involve different skills.

Petrie’s presentation focused on how print journalists can learn to do good video. “There are some stories that really benefit from video,” he said. “We have to evolve a bit and think about the role that video is playing.”

He notes that anyone with a smartphone is a video journalist. “The question for us as journalists is how can we distinguish our work as being better.” Petrie says.

He suggests journalists carry a small tripod to get more steady shots, get good sound, and mix up shots – all of which he says make an edited piece more interesting.

Canadian correspondent Trudy Kelly Forsythe of Cultivating Communications interviews Petrie here: Interview with Ian Petrie, video instructor

2014 Canadian Farm Writers Federation conference photo album

Coverage of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation 2014 Conference sponsored by

Audio, Media, Video

Farm Journal Announces MyFarmRadio.com

Chuck Zimmerman October 7, 2014

Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. Eleven years ago when we started farm podcasting the new channel for farm news distribution was in its infancy. Look how far we’ve come with the latest announcement from Farm Journal Radio (pdf). Farmers are no different from the general public in adopting and using their smart phones and tablets to get information and that includes audio!

I spoke with Mark DePrez, Vice President/General Manager, Farm Journal Radio, about this new venture: MyFarmRadio.com. The new platform is scheduled to launch on November 3rd.

MyFarmRadio.com will be a 24/7 digital mobile radio channel focused on providing a mix of best-in-class news, weather and markets along with entertaining and informative conversation for America’s farmers and ranchers. The “My Farm Radio” app officially launches November 3, 2014 and will allow listeners to pick and choose what they want to hear – and when they want to hear it. The app will feature both a “live stream” experience and programs “on-demand”.

“All the latest research indicates that for a growing number of farmers and ranchers, mobile devices are rapidly becoming the go-to choice for news and information”, says Brian Conrady, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Farm Journal Radio. “While this totally new offering will be a first for agriculture, we expect our audience – and clients – will quickly associate “My Farm Radio” as the Pandora – type app for agriculture.”

“My Farm Radio” will launch with the full-portfolio of programs and reports from Farm Journal Media, including “AgriTalk”, “Market Rally” and “American Countryside. In addition, the company will be approaching potential programmers to make their shows or reports available on the app – or even own their own channel – on the “My Farm Radio” platform.

Mark says the new app will launch with heavy promotion across the company’s print, broadcast and digital platforms. Listeners will be able to download both iOS and Android operating system apps from their mobile devices, and by downloading the app at www.myfarmradio.com. “We have a really strong line-up of programs to kick things off, and we expect to add a long list of important and entertaining options in the months ahead,” notes Mark DePrez, General Manager of Farm Journal Radio.

Listen in to this week’s program here: MyFarmRadio.com

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here.

The ZimmCast

sponsored by

Locally owned, globally strong.

Audio, Media, ZimmCast

Vilsack Spotlights Ag Innovation

Cindy Zimmerman October 7, 2014

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spotlighted agricultural innovations during an appearance at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Monday.

Vilsack stressed the importance of global cooperation in biotechnology innovations. “It’s in our long term best interest as a global community that we encourage appropriate science, that we encourage biotechnology, ways to grow crops with less water, less pesticides, less chemicals,” he said. “In order to do that we have to embrace science, we cannot be afraid of it.”

The secretary talked about the tremendous productivity gains agriculture has made in just the past few decades and how important the field is for the future of the world. “Agriculture is a big deal,” said Vilsack. “It’s a happening place folks and it has the capacity and ability to solve all of the major problems we face.”

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Audio, Biotech, USDA

Magic Dirt Wins Award

Cindy Zimmerman October 7, 2014

The inaugural Bioproducts Innovation of the Year awards were announced this week at the Bioproducts World 2014 Showcase and Conference in Columbus, Ohio and a co-product of renewable energy was named the consumer Bioproduct Innovation of the Year award at this first annual competition.

Cenergy USA of Little Rock, Arkansas won for the development of Magic Dirt, a recycled co-product of generating renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Cenergy specializes in the development and financing of renewable energy, distributed generation and energy efficient projects.

Magic Dirt™ is certified as a Premium Potting Soil by the Mulch & Soil Council, certified by USDA BioPreferred Program as 100% BioBased and approved for use in organic production by the State of Idaho. Each cubic yard of Magic Dirt™ is the end result of generating over 100 kWh of renewable energy and eliminating more than 1,800 pounds of greenhouse gases from the environment as a sustainable alternative to peat moss.

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