American agriculture is abundant, affordable and AMAZING. You could also add awesome.

This is National Agriculture Week – traditionally celebrated the week before the first day of spring. Ag Day is celebrated on the first day of spring, which is March 20, but the official celebration will be held in Washington DC on Thursday, March 18. It will include coffee with the Secretary of Agriculture at USDA, a luncheon at the Capitol featuring national officers from AFA, FFA & 4-H, and dinner back at USDA with the heads of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, hosted by the Agriculture Council of America.

If you want to hear more about this year’s celebration of agriculture, listen to Chuck Zimmerman’s ZimmCast below, which features an interview with Linda Tank, CHS, Inc., who is chair of the Agriculture Council of America.

In partnership with BASF, the National Corn Growers Association Academic Excellence in Agriculture Scholarship Program awarded five $1,000 scholarships to undergraduate or graduate students pursuing a degree in an agriculture-related field.

Three of the five recipients at Classic are pictured here at the BASF trade show exhibit between Nevin McDougall of BASF and NCGA Chairman Bob Dickey from Nebraska.

Left to right, they are:
John Schultz of Dyersburg, Tennessee, a sophomore at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville studying food and agricultural business; Gina Meyer of New Ulm, Minnesota, a junior at the University of Minnesota pursuing a major in animal science; Carly Cummings of Pleasantville, Iowa – Carly is a sophomore at Iowa State University majoring in agricultural business.

The other two winners not pictured are: Charlene Barlieb of Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania who graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 2009 and will be returning to Penn State this fall to pursue her graduate degree in animal sciences, and Lisa Tronchetti of Paton, Iowa.

I talked with Carly, Gina and John about their backgrounds and their career plans – and you can listen to that interview here:

Commodity Classic Photo Album

My background is in public relations and I served as communications director for the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council prior to starting my own company, 4R Communications. I am a regular contributor on ZimmComm’s Domestic Fuel and Agwired websites, as well as other sites such as Gas 2.0. I am currently living on a small avocado and citrus farm near Santa Barbara, California and having the opportunity to see agriculture first hand.

While I did not grow up around agriculture, ever since I was young I realized its importance to our nation and the world. We face some very big challenges in the future – challenges that American farmers are already meeting full steam ahead. Nine billion people will need to be fed in the next 30 years at the same time that we need a new energy mix. Our farmers will be able to do both: feed and fuel the world. This is a message that the mainstream media seem to be burying and my role will be helping to make sure that its import stays on the top of peoples’ minds.

I am honored that I will be able to join our readers on the journey to the new Age of Sustainability.

In the quiet after the storm we call Commodity Classic it I had a few thoughts, other than sleep, that might be worth sharing. First, I hope everyone who participated feels good about making the time and being a part of the process.

Being a leader isn’t easy but it definitely has its moments. And Classic is a shining moment where the power of a grassroots organization and how it operates is on full display.

It seems that at every Classic from the sessions of Corn Congress to the great slate of speakers one clear theme emerges. It did so with a redundancy that was more remarkable than ever at the 2010 event. Growers talked about it in the hallways and speaker after speaker told growers that the industry is under attack from several quarters by food elitists, animal rightists, select environmental groups, and even unnecessary government regulation.

Although these efforts are backed by few they are a loud minority that often have deep pockets, a friendly media willing to hand them the microphone with little analysis or editing, and a zealotry and singleness of purpose that is as remarkable as it is disturbing.

Normally reticent, hard working farmers need to respond at every opportunity and that will mean carving out some time every week to tell your story. So tell it to anyone that will listen…from the local Lion’s Club or Rotary to the vast reaches of Social Media space the battle is on.

As General George S. Patton said, “A pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood.”  With the thin margins in agriculture today there is little blood to lose and farmers are no strangers to sweat.

Perhaps author scientist Dr. Jay Lehr said it best during the general session at Commodity Classic when he challenged farmers to devote an hour a week to present Ag’s message and save their profession.

In the interest of morale in the industry I also want to point out that some people get it and these voices can also help us in our efforts to educate the masses. Bill Gates of Microsoft fame is a good example. In a recent article he said:

“Whenever I read about farming, I’m reminded how tough it is. Between the weather, weeds, viruses, insects and other pests, farming is a constant struggle, always posing new challenges. A city boy like me can think of it as putting a seed in the ground and waiting for nice stuff to grow. Wrong.”

You don’t have to be an expert to be an advocate. Just tell your story and when you see things like Gate’s comment store them away for later use.

Needless to say, as soon as I saw Ken I told him I’d read (and reviewed) the book and he was, well, flabbergasted after he got over being shocked. But he shouldn’t be shocked – the book is very good and Ken did an amazing job of getting out a strong American agricultural message. The book is about how tied our world is to fossil fuels. From transportation to medicines, to plastic to agriculture, fossil fuels are a part of our everyday lives, and Little helps us understand how embedded they are, and addresses the question of how we move away from them.

In an recent blog from Mark, he celebrated that fact that Food Inc. didn’t win an Oscar. Unfortunately you can’t mention that “documentary” without thinking of Michael Pollan who wrote Omnivore’s Dilemma and promotes a world of organic farming. When on Ken’s farm, Little asks him about Pollan to which he replied, “It’s not a way to maximize production.”

Ken explained that the drawback of these organic methods is that they require more labor and time, and in turn generate lower profits. Organic farmers also tend to have lower yields per acre and higher prices.

The question Little didn’t ask him: How is the world going to feed 9 billion people without production agriculture? It’s not.

Ken is very conscientious about sustainable farming since his land, puts food on his table too. Farmers understand more than most that they must take care of the land that feeds them. I just wish consumers understood that better.

Well, to better understand our addiction to oil and the need for production agriculture through the eyes of a great man, Ken McCauley, then be sure to read Power Trip.

In an effort to curb misinformation and ensure effective policy is put into place, corn growers around the country have been getting involved. One great example is the outpouring of comments around indirect land use, E15 and the RFS2.

“We’re proud of the tens of thousands of farmers who commented to the EPA on that subject (E15). In fact, this is a perfect example of how we’ve seen a resurgence of activism on the part of American agriculture and we’ve held numerous discussions with our allies around the world on this,” said Ihnen.

He continued, “That’s why this year we’re launching an unprecedented image and activism campaign to do two things. First, we will aggressively reinforce the importance and positive image most Americans have with farmers and the products they grow. Second, we will create a more united and vocal army of farmers and their friends who can speak out against the myths and misinformation that we see so often.”

The Corn Farmers Coalition will focus its efforts in the beltway and the activism/grassroots campaign will focus on Americans around the country. Ihnen stressed that the campaign will be more successful the more people are involved and said in closing, “We’re excited about this challenge and invite all interested parties to join us.”

You can listen to Darrin’s full comments about the campaign here:
Download Darrin’s comments here: Darrin Ihnen at NCGA Press Conference

Vilsack said you could look at the department in a number of different ways. “When the department was founded in 1862, the substantial percentage of the population was in the farming business, so it made all the sense in the world to call it the department of agriculture. Today, the mission of the department of agriculture is fairly diverse and not very well understood by a lot of people in the country. Seventy percent of our budget is in the form of food assistance – the SNAP program, the WIC program, the school lunch and school breakfast programs. Now, one could say that makes the argument for the Department of Food, but I would say a lot of those programs are benefited from commodity purchases which help stabilize markets and that’s beneficial to the farmers, so maybe it’s okay to say Department of Agriculture.”

“We do a lot of rural development activities, trying to build strong communities and regions and trying to promote business and industry, and so you might think we should call it the Department of Rural Development. Except that the vast majority of farm families get a substantial percentage of their income off the farm, so the capacity to create jobs in rural communities basically helps people keep the farm, so maybe it’s okay to call it the Department of Agriculture.”

Ditto for the department of global food aid, or forestry, or food safety. “The point is this is a department that has multiple missions but at the end of the day, every single mission comes back to the beginning of this department, which is that it’s beneficial in some form or fashion, directly or indirectly, to farmers,” Vilsack concluded.

Listen to Vilsack’s entire answer here:
Download the sound bite with this link: Vilsack on Department of Food

The Cove” follows animal activist Richard O’Barry — who once trained dolphins for the television show “Flipper” — alongside a team of filmmakers as they attempt to document dolphin slaughter in the Japanese fishing village of Taiji.

Food Inc. shows filmmaker Robert Kenner attempting to slaughter American ranchers and family farmers and send us all running back to backyard gardens and 1900’s vintage farms. He shows us the worst examples of how livestock is raised in this country and also wants us to question the healthiness of corn in our food supply.

Food Inc. is clearly a piece of “food advocacy work” rather than honest journalism, according to Dan Glickman and he ought to know. The current chairman of the Motion Picture Association of American is a former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Bill Clinton. (Maybe someone should do a documentary on how the Ag Secretary makes the pilgrimage from DC to Hollywood. Now that would at least be interesting.)

Family corn farmers represented by the National Corn Growers Association lashed out at Food Inc. in advance of last night’s festive event saying the documentary shouldn’t win the Oscar because it not only grossed out grocery shoppers, but was unfair to the nation’s farmers.

 The dictionary says the noun documentary describes a film or TV program presenting the facts about a person or event. Kenner’s propaganda clearly should have never made it to the red carpet.

 Perhaps now we can relegate Food Inc. to collect dust on the back shelves of video stores where it belongs and farmers can go back to producing the safest and most abundant food supply in the world.

During his speech, Vilsack talked about the importance of biotechnology and biofuels, especially stressing the economic impact projected for 2022 if we meet the Renewable Fuel Standard. “190,000 people will be employed in the biofuels industry and if you leverage all the indirect jobs it will be closer to 807,000 jobs,” Vilsack said. In addition, $95 billion will be invested in the expansion of the biofuels industry over the next 12 years. “Most importantly, it will prevent us from having to import $350 billion of foreign oil,” he added.

Listen to Vilsack’s speech here:
Download speech from this link: Vilsack Commodity Classic Speech

The speech was fine, but the Secretary’s press conference was much more interesting. In fact, it was the longest and most candid press conference I have seen with him yet. Questions ranged from Toyota versus US beef, to calling USDA the Department of Food, to whether E15 will be approved.

Last week, the EPA announced a delay in the decision on increasing the blend level to E15 until the end of the summer. Vilsack commented that the purpose of the delay is due to ongoing testing by the Department of Energy to determine what engines can use the higher blend without ill effects. It has already been established that newer vehicles, and all flex-fuel vehicles can use the higher blend safely, “Which suggests to me that we’re going to see an increase in the blend rate,” said Vilsack. He then noted that it will be important to use rural development resources to make sure the distribution systems create the opportunities for people to use higher blends.

Listen to Vilsack’s comments about E15 here:
Download his comments with this link: Vilsack comments on E15

Commodity Classic Photo Album

Mark had a list of questions for each of the commodity group leaders and Darrin got to go first. With Darrin he started out talking about ethanol. Darrin talked about what the corn growers are doing in this area including pushing for higher blends in the fuel supply. All indications are that this is progressing in a positive way with the science looking good. He says they’re hoping for action by the end of this summer.

Listen to Darrin’s chat with Mark here:

Commodity Classic Photo Album