In an opinion piece published in Agri-Pulse today, Marshall Matz, an agriculture and food security specialist of the firm OFW Law, asks each of us to look inward and ask “Famine: Where is the Rage?” Beginning with the lack of outrage and action over the horrific famine looming in Africa, he makes a strong, possibly overdue case, for basing federal …
Breaking News: IARC Creates Carcinogen Confusion
Cancer terrifies all of us. Given the painful memories almost every person has in America, this is completely reasonable. Yet, the precise global agency tasked with assessing cancer risks most probably generates a great deal of unnecessary fear according to a Reuters report released today. Delving into how experts in public health, academia and industry view the findings of the …
Big Export Year for Corn
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released its final total for fiscal year 2014 agricultural exports and they are indeed a new record. “It’s a big record, too,” said USDA chief economist Joe Glauber. The final tally was a big $152.5 billion, an increase of $11.5 billion or eight percent from last year’s record $141 billion. Soybean exports topped the …
Corn Farmers at Global Farmer Roundtable
Since 2006, Truth About Trade and Technology (TATT) has been bringing farmers from different countries together during World Food Prize week in Des Moines to attend the event and share their knowledge and experiences with each other at the Global Farmer Roundtable. This year there were 16 farmers from 14 countries at the Roundtable, including Wisconsin farmer Jim Zimmerman who …
How One Cattleman Views Corn
We’ve highlighted Bill Couser of Couser Cattle Company several times on this blog but this week was the first time I had the opportunity to meet and spend some quality time with this great guy and his fabulous wife and son during the Truth About Trade and Technology Global Farmer Roundtable. The Couser operation has been a stop for the …
Farming is Big in Any Language
“Farming, the Biggest Job on Earth” is the tag line of a European campaign for agriculture by BASF Corporation which is hitting the United States now on Facebook. It’s also very true. I had the pleasure this past week of being able to attend BASF’s global press conference with nearly 100 other agricultural journalists from ten countries, right after being …
American Character Fuels Future of Our Farms
Farming looks quite different in America than it does in Europe. While many offhandedly write off the modernizations that allow American farmers to produce such an abundant, affordable food supply by characterizing U.S. farmers as passive pawns of agribusiness, The Economist magazine dug deeper in recent article and found American farming to be a product more of a forward-looking, achievement-driven …
Don’t Till for Me Argentina
Argentina may be about 10 years behind the United States in adoption of precision farming technology, but the country is probably 20 years ahead in adoption of no till practices. That was one of the most interesting bits of information I gleaned about Argentinean farming during the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) 2013 Congress in Argentina last week. The …
Corn Communicators in Argentina
Three corn grower communications professionals are among hundreds of agricultural journalists from all over the world at the 2013 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) Congress in Argentina this week. Mindy Williamson with Iowa Corn Growers, Marri Carrow with U.S. Grains Council, and National Corn Growers Association Communications Director Ken Colombini spent the day on Tuesday visiting a farm near …
Japan Ready to Beef Up Again
A group of Nebraska corn farmers and cattlemen are convinced after a recent trade mission that Japan will soon return to its traditional spot as the number one export customer for U.S. beef. The Nebraska Corn Board funded the participation of five Nebraska producers on the Japan mission, which centered on Tokyo and the Sendai region. They are pictured here …