People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has long been notorious for singleness of purpose but more so for many of its outlandish publicity stunts. Many of these inane stunts have gone a long way to hurt their credibility.
However, despite some of these goofy antics, many individuals and companies have given in to their demands rather than face any bad press. So it was refreshing to see their latest potshot at Dodge did a huge belly flop.
Dodge recently found itself in PETA’s crosshairs after the carmaker aired a commercial starring a monkey dressed up like Evel Knievel. PETA screamed monkey abuse and demanded the commercial be pulled. But, unlike many who draw the ire of PETA, Dodge fought back in a most amusing way.
Enter the invisible monkey and a new creative and comical way to deal with our animal rights brethren who are wound a bit too tight.
I just finished reading comments from The World Bank that say “…the effect of biofuels on food prices has not been as large as originally thought, but that the use of commodities by financial investors (the so-called “financialization of commodities”) may have been partly responsible for the 2007/08 spike.”
The whole time I was reading it I kept hearing the Ghostly voice of Gilda Radner, of Saturday Night Live fame saying “Nevermind.”
Her character Emily Litella was an elderly woman with a hearing problem who made regular appearances on SNL’s Weekend Updateop-ed segment in the late 1970s. Attired in a frumpy dress and sweater, Litella was introduced with professional dignity by the news anchors, who could sometimes be seen cringing slightly in anticipation of the verbal faux pas they knew would follow.
After ranting in an outraged manner, the news anchor would point out she didn’t get the point to which Gilda would reply “Nevermind.”
The World Bank’s leaked” report in 2008 erroneously blamed biofuels for 75 percent of the commodity price spike. The authors of their most recent report conclude that it is unlikely biofuels played a significant role because they do not represent a large percentage of worldwide grain and oilseed use.
It really might have been nice to know this before the World cost the nation’s family farmers dearly in terms of public trust. More importantly, they left the public thinking we should reserve our corn for human food consumption alone. Given this market is mature and our corn yields are soaring, we must look to other markets to keep farmers profitable and viable. And the markets with the most growth potential are things like ethanol, biodegradable products and other industrial uses.
“In reversing course, this World Bank report reaffirms the marginal role biofuels play in world commodity and food prices,” said RFA President Bob Dinneen. “The RFA has long noted that ethanol production has continued to increase while corn prices have now returned to normal levels. Volatile oil prices, speculation, and adverse weather conditions all played far more significant roles in driving commodity prices to record and near record prices. This report should silence critics in the food processing industry, the livestock industry, on Capitol Hill, and anywhere else that sought to portray ethanol as the boogeyman. With this phony food and fuel discussion put behind us, perhaps a real conversation about America’s energy future can ensue.”
Well put Bob but I think the cow left the barn in regard to the damage the World Bank did with their previous faux pas. I wish Emily/Gilda was still around to tell American consumers “Nevermind.”
A new kitty litter made from corn may not save the planet but it does present an educational opportunity. Corn is a versatile product used in thousands of products every day and the list keeps growing. The evolution from livestock feed to human food, to a growing list of industrial uses (ala corn kitty litter) is a natural one based on the staggering productivity of America’s family farmers.
So much focus is placed on the growing use of corn by the ethanol industry that I think we forget all the other products made from corn and how and why this expansive list of corn uses started. Today, nearly every state growing corn also sports a “checkoff program.” These farmer supported efforts take a small amount – from fractions of a cent to as much as a penny per bushel – from each bushel of corn sold to pay for promoting corn products, to increase exports markets and to research and develop new uses for corn.
Checkoffs changed the way people think. Corn suddenly became a chemical feedstock or stored solar energy just waiting to be released. Scientists and business entrepreneurs who thought the corn world revolved around sweet corn began to see unlimited potential for commercial corn.
As a result corn consumption for industrial or non-food uses has been outpacing the growth in food and feed uses for a long time. So it seems kind of silly that we continue to wring our hands over salacious debates over whether we should be using corn for things like fuel (ethanol) when it could be used for food and feed. This debate is ancient history and the market won. The advanced production power of U.S. agriculture today ensures a growing supply of corn that will continue to satisfy demand for domestic use and exports.
Today, there are more than 4,200 different uses for corn products ranging from toothpaste to paint. And just when you think you have heard of it all along comes the World’s Best Cat Litter™ is produced by GPC Pet Products in Muscatine, Iowa.
Developers say it is the only litter with a patented formula that harnesses the microporous power of whole-kernel corn to control odor better, absorb moisture faster, clump tighter, and last longer than all other litters—while providing a 100% renewable, 100% biodegradable cat litter that is pet, people, and planet safe.
And apparently it is safe for human consumption too, as one of the videos featured on the web site shows a gentleman eating the product to prove it is safe. Now that is grassroots marketing of a different kind.
Understanding why farmers started a self-administered checkoff programs is a little easier to grasp. Decades of $2 a bushel corn was a pretty good motivator. Corn grower’s productivity was crushing the prospects for profitability for the nation’s farmers as markets for livestock feed and domestic food uses matured.
Much like the sun coming up in the morning it is in farmer’s nature to try to produce as much corn as they can. Getting more bushels per acre has traditionally been the key to survival, so rather than throw in the towel they decided to be pro-active and build uses and markets. And the effort has paid off. Corn use continues to grow and so does farmers productivity. Seven of the largest corn crops in history have been grown in the last 7 years and without expanding acreage.
A 17 billion bushel crop is no longer a pipedream, but a looming reality so bring on the new uses.
Gluttonous profits: it cost the Saudis a bit less than one dollar to suck a barrel’s worth of oil from the ground. So, at $80 per barrel they make a profit of more than 8,000%.
Marc J. Rauch, Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher of THE AUTO CHANNEL doesn’t just smell a rat regarding the recent bashing of biofuels like ethanol, but rather felt like he tripped over a big fat alley dweller called big oil.
The headline on his latest column says it all – “Not Satisfied with Gluttonous Profits and Environmental Catastrophe, the Oil Industry Works Overtime to Malign Alternative Fuels.”
Rauch takes a look at just one example of how large petroleum interests are trying to discredit the great advances in supply and efficiency being experienced by U.S. ethanol producers. Their current target is the effort to increase the amount of ethanol being blended in gasoline from 10% to 15% per gallon.
Specifically he takes exception to the information – which looks amazingly like unsubstantiated propaganda – being posted and promoted at www.energytribune.com.
The bogus “news” entity’s latest gambit says the auto industry is urging the EPA to delay allowing E15 without naming a single company or a single individual. Some folks at GM and Ford might be disturbed to hear this revelation given the years and billions of dollars they have spent developing and promoting ethanol use and infrastructure.
“The story also did not say what tests were done, to which vehicles, when, and by whom. Nor did it say what kind of damage was sustained. There was no supportive data or information of any kind. The story was merely one large bogus threat sound bite designed to denigrate a viable alternative fuel versus gasoline’s dominance,” Rauch writes, adding “If oil industry lackeys can convince enough people that there is no viable alternative to gasoline then we are left to believe that catastrophes such as oil spills and oil-induced wars are necessary evils that we just have to accept.”
In the category of strange but true, on the same day another news article says the Arab world need $144 billion to invest in meeting future food needs. In a Bloomberg/BusinessWeek article Tareq al- Zadjali, director general of the Arab Organization for Agriculture Development, is quoted as saying, “Arab countries need to invest $144 billion in agriculture between now and 2030 to meet the demand for food for their growing populations.”
So, if we need oil and they need food can good old fashioned bartering be far behind? Maybe farmers should hold out for 8,000 percent return on their investment?
As a general rule guns and alcohol don’t mix well. But when it comes to the colorful and often entertaining world wide web simplicity and entertainment value can help you hit the bullseye, especially with the rapidly expanding audience for social media like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
A perfect example of this approach and the power of Social Media for agriculture is the wild backlash experienced by Australian winemaker Yellow Tail after they made a donation of $100,000 to the Human Society of the United States. HSUS says they are saving puppies and kitties, while their tax return shows they are really spending millions on lobbying for animal rights and legislation that tells farmers how to do their business. Less than 5% of their budget goes to animal shelters.
After being bombarded with emails, twitter messages and Facebook page posts from farmers and ranchers pointing out HSUS’s disingenuous fund raising practices Yellow Tail did the virtual equivalent of saying “Uncle.”
They apologized on Facebook and then took down their Facebook page to minimize the damage. In a statement to ABC News this week, John Casella, the managing director of Casella Wines which owns Yellow Tail, says the company will look to non-political groups in the future.
“Yellow Tail is committed to the plight of animals in need and as a result, we can confirm that through any future activity, we will be looking to other non-profit organizations without lobbying interests that best deliver on our intended outcome of saving animals,” their statement said.
There are several valuable lessons to be learned from this on-line firestorm. 1. Scattered independent farmers can join their voices for a cause and magnify their influence via Social Media. 2. Others outside of agriculture now recognize HSUS as a political entity, not a charitable organizations (IRS are you paying attention). 3. Hard working farmers have a sense of humor and that humor can be used to good effect to educate businesses and the public online.
Examples abound to document point 3. A rancher from South Dakota has posted an online video of himself pouring the wine onto the snow in front of his cattle and urging others to do the same. And a Nebraska video showing a person (ok, it’s a Corn Grower) using Yellow Tail wine for target practice got picked up by the popular magazine Field and Stream.
In response, the HSUS says the partnership with Yellow Tail is about celebrating animals and the money will support the organization’s rescue team, which saves animals from natural disasters or cruelty. The evidence shows this will happen when pigs fly.
Kellogg’s is stepping up the fight against fake flakes.
The company’s UK division has announced the development of “a hi-tech method to stamp out imitation cereals – by branding Corn Flakes with the company logo.”
According to a press release, Kellogg’s plans to do a trial run of the branded flakes, presumably in Europe, to test the system.
Bosses will then consider inserting a proportion of branded flakes into each box to guarantee the cereal’s origins and protect against imitation products. If the system is successful it could be used on Kellogg’s other best-loved brands including Frosties, Special K, Crunchy Nut and Bran Flakes.
The laser uses a concentrated beam of light which focuses the energy within the beam, down to a very small spot on the Corn Flake.
Mirror galvanometers are then used to steer the beam creating multiple vectors that reflect the laser from different angles and ultimately make up the image. The energy density within the laser spot diameter is sufficient enough to give the surface of the flake a darker, toasted appearance without changing the taste.
Kellogg’s embarked on the project to reinforce that they don’t make cereals for any other companies and to fire a shot across the bows of makers of ‘fake flakes’.
Apparently, fake flakes are only a big problem in other countries, as the domestic corporate headquarters for Kellogg’s has not announced plans to brand individual flakes, probably because it would make it more expensive.
Fall is the time when people go crazy for corn mazes, which get bigger and more elaborate every year.
This year, the media has taken a liking to the “Family Guy” TV show corn maze created by Massachusetts farmer Bob Connors, who reportedly received permission from the Fox network to use the characters from the program. He has invited Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the “Family Guy” series to visit the corn maze and as a result has generated quite a bit of publicity for the project.
Mazes date back at least 4000 years to the time of Greek myths. In Roman times, mazes and labyrinths were found in artwork, in the design of floors in homes, public buildings and in the pavement of streets. Somewhere around the 15th century, the idea of growing shrubbery into a pattern of a maze became a popular way to entertain European nobility.
In the 1970’s, some pumpkin farms and fall festivals began developing small, simple mazes from hay bales or corn to entertain families, but the current maze craze of huge, elaborate designs in corn fields is only about 15 years old. More than 600 corn mazes can be found from coast to coast, according to the Corn Maze Directory, many with different themes each year. The complexity varies but some can take hours to navigate with cell phone help available to those who get lost.
The American Maze Company takes credit for bringing the art of the maze to America and to the cornfield. According to their website, they created and produced the first ever cornfield maze for private or public entertainment in 1993 at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. The Maize claims to be the World’s Largest Cornfield Maze Company in the world, which provides information on how to create your own maze.
It appears that the current trend coincides nicely with the use of GPS for planters and harvesters to map the designs in the field. The largest official corn maze (at more than 40 acres) is in Dixon, Calif., but a Nebraska farmer is looking to break that Guinness Book record this year with his 54-acre maze.
Summer is rapidly coming to an end and with the return of school those useful and amusing temporary employees called interns are also heading back to college.
If you want to educate yourself about corn, or in some cases just laugh at their spin on all things corn, you can enjoy some of the fruits of their summer labor by going to the following links highlighted here.
In Nebraska The Cob Squad has hit again by adding four new videos to the Nebraska Corn Board’s Channel on YouTube. There is a series of three, which together forms a full news broadcast and a bonus commercial.
Part 1 discusses sustainability in agriculture; Part 2 addresses some of the issues like California’s Prop 2; Part 3 investigates efficient water use and Part 4 is a commercial about new corn products.
In the heart of the Corn Belt Illinois’ film crew created several videos explaining the difference between field corn and sweet corn; and offers up a second installment on what happens to all of the field corn produced in Illinois, which they say is enough to fill railroad box cars stretching all the way from Illinois to Hong Kong.
And if you need a dose of twisted corn history you won’t want to miss the tale of Lewis & Clark’s lesser know mission of discovery, funding provided of course by the unemployed history major’s association.
Now, it’s time for us full-time slackers to get back to work.
This morning Sprint CEO Dan Hesse announced the August 16th release of the Samsung Reclaim™. Speaking with the media from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City where the Nature Conservancy’s Design for a Living World exhibit is on display, Hesse introduced the new device – a messaging phone that offers environmentally conscious consumers a perfect blend of responsibility without sacrificing speed, style or must-have features.
The Reclaim is constructed from bio-plastic material (40 percent of the Reclaim’s outer casing is derived from corn). It’s RoHS compliant and free of potentially hazardous materials like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and phthalates, and nearly free of brominated flame retardants (BFR).
With a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, One Click access to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube, Sprint Navigation, 2 megapixel camera/camcorder, and more all at a rockin’ price of $49.99 after rebates and with a two-year service agreement, this is a great phone. Add the Reclaim’s green attributes, and what you’ve got is the most feature-rich, eco-friendly phone available in the U.S.
It comes with an ENERGY STAR-approved charger that uses 12 times less power than the standard for standby power consumption. The typical thick paper user manual has been replaced by a virtual user manual. The packaging is 100% recyclable material, made with a high percentage of post-consumer waste content, and printed using soy inks.
Here’s a profession you won’t find too many people doing – cutting corn mazes. NJ.com has a great story about a man who now travels around the country in season making great looking mazes.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has long been notorious for singleness of purpose but more so for many of its outlandish publicity stunts. Many of these inane stunts have gone a long way to hurt their credibility.
The 
This year, the media has taken a liking to the “Family Guy” TV show corn maze created by Massachusetts farmer Bob Connors, who reportedly received permission from the Fox network to use the characters from the program. He has invited Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the “Family Guy” series to visit the corn maze and as a result has generated quite a bit of publicity for the project.
This morning Sprint CEO Dan Hesse announced the August 16th release of the Samsung Reclaim™. Speaking with the media from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City where the Nature Conservancy’s