Republican Presidential Candidate and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul wants to end the Environmental Protection Agency’s Waters of the US legislation. He said that the EPA is perpetrating the largest land grab of American farmland in history and non one is paying attention. He kicked off a statewide radio campaign in Iowa week “decrying the Obama Administration’s land grab of Iowa farmland”. The … Read More
Pope Francis’ Encyclical Looks at Ag & Technology
Addressing all persons living on the planet, Pope Francis’ LAUDATO SI on Care for Our Common Home, calls on mankind to address climate change and heal earth. Throughout the encyclical he looks at human’s interactions with earth, one of which has caused climate change. He writes that our lifestyles of a “throw-away” society – consumption and waste – must change or humans will … Read More
New Cert in Sustainability for Certified Crop Advisers
There is a new certification focused on sustainable agricultural practices developed by the United Soybean Board (USB), American Society of Agronomy (ASA) and the International Certified Crop Adviser (ICCA). The certification will ensure best management practices are used by the industry. “The majority of U.S. soybean farmers are using sustainable practices, but we want to continue to improve our operations,” … Read More
Pacific Ag Converts Biomass to Dollars for Growers
Last week Abengoa’s cellulosic ethanol biorefinery went online and is expected to produce 25 million gallons of advanced ethanol per year as well as 21 MW of bioenergy. But how exactly does the corn and wheat residue get from the fields to the biorefinery in a economical and efficient way? Enter Pacific Ag. The company was founded by Bill Levy … Read More
Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram Awarded 2014 World Food Prize
Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram was awarded the 2014 World Food Prize was awarded on World Food Day, October 16, 2014. A wheat breeder who has developed more than 400 varieties of the crop, he was born in a small village in India and is now citizen of Mexico. Dr. Rajaram conducted the majority of his research in Mexico at the International … Read More
Solution to End World Hunger: GMOs
A new report, “The Future of Farming and Rise of Biotechnology,” finds decreasing regulations on genetically modified crops (GMOs) could be a valuable strategy in combating global hunger. The report was released by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA). NCPA Research Associate David Weisser notes that Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug’s use of biotechnology has been credited with saving … Read More
Ag Sales Experts Join Verdesian Life Science
Verdesian Life Sciences has increased its sales staff with the hiring of four sales experts: Bob Bischoff, John Henize, Brad Meckle and Mark Seipel who will join Verdesian as regional sales managers. The new team members will help to drive sales growth and support relationships with key customers in the plant nutrition, seed treatment and inoculants product categories. “As we … Read More
LBIS Takes Precision Ag to a New Level
Science is fun. Let me explain. During the Vedesian Life Sciences Los Alamos Media Tour we learned about a cool soil sampling technology coined Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LBIS). In an attempt to not use to much technical jargon, LBIS is a focused pulse laser beam that generates a microplasma (think spec or dot). From here, the emission from the plasma … Read More
Ag Innovations Abound at Los Alamos Nat’l Lab
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 … Read More
Science, Education Core Missions for Verdesian
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 … Read More