TATT Proud of Global Roundtable

Leah GuffeyAudio, GMO, International, technology

Truth About Trade and Technology (TATT) is a non-profit advocacy group led by farmers who support freer trade and a farmers freedom to choose the tools, technologies and strategies they need to maximize productivity and profitability in a sustainable manner. Since 2006, TATT has brought 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. This year there were 16 farmers from 14 countries at the Roundtable, all with different backgrounds and experiences but common challenges and aspirations.

tatt-maryMary Boote, Chief Executive Officer for TATT, is the one who organizes and brings these farmers together and hosts them while they are in Des Moines for the World Food Prize. Mary says since they started the roundtable, they have hosted 98 farmers from 63 different countries and she takes great pride in the fact that alumni want to stay in touch and work together as they go back to their countries. Listen to my interview with Mary here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/world-food/wfp-13-tatt-boote.mp3″ text=”Interview with Mary Boote”]

tatt-13-horanTATT chairman and Iowa farmer Bill Horan says the farmers sitting around the table have such similar stories to tell, yet they have so much to learn from one another. “Farmers, large and small, around the world seem to be dealing with some of the same issues – access to technology, credit, trade barriers,” said Horan, adding that the farmers from other countries bring lots of new information back home. “When these folks go back to their own country, they’re treated like rock stars.” [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/world-food/wfp-13-tatt-horan.mp3″ text=”Interview with Bill Horan”]

2013 TATT Global Farmer Roundtable photos

AG Connect Expo Joins with Commodity Classic

Cindy ZimmermanGeneral

agconnectThe Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association today announced a new collaborative venture that joins two leading industry trade show experiences – Commodity Classic and AG CONNECT Expo & Summit – “to provide an even better world-class experience and gathering place for all segments of agriculture.”

Commodity Classic LogoCommodity Classic is a joint venture owned by the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association, with National Association of Wheat Growers and National Sorghum Producers participating as affiliates. The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) owns and produces AG CONNECT Expo & Summit.

The inaugural event will be held March 3-5, 2016, in New Orleans. The Commodity Classic shows scheduled for 2014 and 2015 will take place as planned. The AG CONNECT experience will join Commodity Classic 2016 and the new combined show will continue to meet on an annual basis.

Read more here.

The organizations involved held a press conference to make the announcement this morning, featuring comments from:
Bill Schuermann, American Soybean Association executive director
Charlie O’Brien, senior vice president of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers
Martin Barbre, corn farmer and president of the National Corn Growers Association
Danny Murphy, soybean grower and president of the American Soybean Association
Rob Kolb, vice president global business development, GEA Farm Technologies

[wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/agconnect/classic-agconnect.mp3″ text=”Classic/AG CONNECT press conference”]

Aussies Use Technology on Farm

Leah GuffeyGeneral

wfp-tatt-andrew2Australian farmer Andrew Weidemann along with his wife and youngest son attended the Wold Food Prize with Truth About Trade and Technologies (TATT) Global Farmer Roundtable. While chatting with Andrew outside of his roundtable role, I learned more about life on his farm in Victoria.  He and his brother are in a partnership along with their families.  They are also involved with a local beer company supplying the barley for Australia’s Finest Barley.

wfp-tatt-andrew1 On the farm in Victoria, Andrew tells me that over the last decade or so they have really started to see advances in their own technologies and how the land is responding. He was one of the first to begin using technology in his production.  Andrew says that weather conditions are a huge factor in how technology has played a role in the change over to no-till practices as well as sowing seeds.  They have seen a movement to a more paperless operation, in part, thanks to the local manufacturer setting up a network for the farmers to use.  Andrew is excited to continue to implement no-till and improved seeding on his farm to grow a bountiful harvest.

You can listen to my interview with Andrew here [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/world-food/wfp-13-tatt-weidemann.mp3″ text=”Interview with Andrew Weidemann”]

2013 TATT Global Farmer Roundtable photos

USDA Celebrates National Farm to School Month

Talia GoesAgribusiness, USDA

usda-logoAgriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack highlighted important strides made in offering healthy, local food to millions of school children through USDA’s Farm to School program, and emphasized the program’s role in creating economic opportunity for America’s farmers and ranchers. According to USDA’s first-ever Farm to School Census, in school year 2011-2012, schools participating in farm to school activities purchased and served over $350 million in local food, with more than half of participating schools planning to purchase even more local foods in future school years.

Forty-three percent of public school districts across the country reported having an existing farm to school program in place, with another 13 percent of school districts surveyed committed to launching a farm to school program in the near future.

Interest in local products spans the school meal tray, with fruits, vegetables, and milk topping the list of local products currently offered in schools across the country, while census respondents indicate an interest in local plant-based proteins, grains and flour, and meat and poultry in the future.

World Food Prize: Bigger & Better Than Ever

Leah GuffeyAudio, GMO, International, World Food

wfp13-quinnWorld Food Prize Foundation president Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn says this year’s event was bigger and better than ever.

“We had more people registered this year for the symposium,” he said. “After we got beyond 1200 I almost stopped counting because I wasn’t sure where we were going to put folks!”

In addition, there were 350 students and teachers at the event and over 700 attended the Iowa Hunger Summit earlier in the week, a new record. Quinn says the World Food Prize has grown so much from what Dr. Norman Borlaug began in 1987. “We’ve been able to get to where people now say it’s the Nobel Prize for food and agriculture, and some people say it’s the premier conference in the world on global agriculture and one of the most unique programs to inspire young people,” he said, adding that the Prize was sponsored by General Foods in the very beginning and taken over by Iowa businessman and philanthropist, John Ruan.

In this interview, Quinn talks about this year’s event, the history, honoring biotechnology, how the WFP winners are chosen, and a new statue of Dr. Borlaug being installed in the U.S. Capitol next year. [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/world-food/wfp-13-quinn.mp3″ text=”Interview with WFP President Kenneth Quinn”]
2013 World Food Prize photos

Fascinating TATT Global Roundtable Discussion

Leah GuffeyAudio, GMO, International, World Food

DSC_1707It was a fascinating experience for me to spend three days watching and listening to the 16 Truth About Trade and Technologies (TATT) Global Farmer Roundtable farmers as they shared with each other and became friends. They were from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Ghana, India, Kenya, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Ukraine, Uruguay, Zimbabwe and the US – yet they were one. Similarities and differences kept them talking into the wee hours of the night and back at it first thing in the morning. They may have been jet lagged at times, but always willing to share about themselves and where they are from.

I had a chance to ask several of the participants to comment on their experience in Des Moines last week and what they will bring back home with them: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/world-food/wfp-13-tatt-roundtable.mp3″ text=”TATT Global Farmers comments”]

2013 TATT Global Farmer Roundtable photos

World Food Prize Laureates

Leah GuffeyAudio, Events, GMO, Industry News, International, Monsanto, Syngenta, World Food

wfp-13-laureatesThree biotechnology scientists were honored at the World Food Prize in a ceremony in Des Moines last week, but before that, they met the press and answered some tough questions about the technology they have dedicated their lives to developing.

The 2013 World Food Prize Laureates are Monsanto Chief Technology Officer Dr. Robert Fraley, Marc Van Montagu of the Institute of Plant Biotechnology Outreach at Ghent University in Belgium, and Mary-Dell Chilton of Syngenta Biotechnology. All have achieved breakthrough achievements in founding, developing, and applying modern agricultural biotechnology.

The first question asked by a reporter was basically, why is Monsanto such a target for critics of biotechnology? “Sometimes that’s frustrating,” said Fraley. “I always assume that means we’ve been really successful and people see us as a leader and that’s part of the responsibility that goes with it.”

Chilton with Syngenta said she didn’t really understand why Monsanto is the main target of critics but she believes the industry as a whole needs to “have good communications with the public about the safety” of the technology.

Van Montagu believes that the critics have singled out Monsanto as the “villain” because it works better than talking about the industry as a whole. “If you start gossiping about a person, people always start believing gossip – humanity is like that,” he said.

Some interesting stuff here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/world-food/wfp-13-laureates.MP3″ text=”World Food Prize Laureates press conference”]
2013 World Food Prize photos

Kleckner Fellow Awarded Ahead of World Food Prize

Leah GuffeyAudio, GMO, International, World Food

tatt-13-raviA highlight of the Truth About Trade and Technology (TATT) Global Farmer Roundtable last week was the presentation of the first Kleckner Trade and Technology Advancement Award Fellow to V. Ravichandran, better known to friends as Ravi. He is pictured here with TATT CEO Mary Boote and chairman Bill Horan.

Ravi grows rice, sugarcane, cotton and pulses on about 60 acres near the southern tip of India in the village of Poongalum which is in the state of Tamil.  We would consider him a small scale farmer by American standards, but in India, Ravi is considered a larger-scale producer. He first attended the roundtable in 2010 and he really enjoys the opportunity to learn from farmers in other countries.

“I’m able to interact with farmers from developed nations like the U.S., Canada and Australia. Their way of farming is really amazing,” he said. “I’m very interested in adopting new technology – that keeps me going.”

Ravi is very active in social media, on Facebook and Twitter, and has about 1100 followers. “Most of my followers are from the European Union, they’re all farmers,” he said, noting that he hears from them about their desire to use biotech crops. You can follow Ravi on Twitter @FarmerRaviVKV.

Ravi talks about that and more in this interview. [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/world-food/wfp-13-tatt-ravi.mp3″ text=”Interview with Indian farmer V. Ravichandran”]

2013 TATT Global Farmer Roundtable photos

Initiatives Announced at World Food Prize

Leah GuffeyAudio, Dupont Pioneer, John Deere

wfp-13-buffett-blairFormer UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and philanthropist/farmer Howard G. Buffett were the stars at the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogues last week in Des Moines, launching new initiatives to address conservation, hunger and poverty issues in Africa.

For one, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation has formed a partnership with John Deere and DuPont Pioneer to promote conservation agriculture adoption and support smallholders and sustainable farming in Africa. The effort will be piloted in Ghana and include a conservation-based, mechanized product suite developed by John Deere; a system of cover crops and improved inputs from DuPont Pioneer; and support for adoption and training on conservation-based practices by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

Additionally, Blair announced a collaboration between his Africa Governance Initiative (AGI), the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the World Food Prize Foundation to launch the 40 Chances Fellows program.

40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World a new book written by Howard G. Buffett, inspired the program, which will encourage innovation in developing market‐based approaches that address food insecurity. Fellowship funds will support social entrepreneurs who are addressing issues of hunger, conflict, or poverty in Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, four of the countries where AGI has strong government partnerships.

Blair and Buffett participated in a panel and then met the press at the World Food Prize. You can listen to or download both audio files below.

[wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/world-food/wfp-13-40chances-panel.mp3″ text=”40 Chances Panel discussion”] [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/world-food/wfp-13-buffett-blair-press.mp3″ text=”Blair and Buffett Press Conference”]
2013 World Food Prize photos

Genscape Invokes NASA for Corn Crop Forecasting

Joanna SchroederAerial Imagery, Corn, Data Collection

Using NASA satellite data, Genscape has released an updated October corn yield forecast of 13.3 billion bushels. The company has noted that other analysts, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), have wide gaps in their predictions ranging from 13.2 billion bushels of corn produced during the 2013 growing season, to 14.2 billion bushels of corn.

Genscape Landviewer Oct 2013 corn forecastGenscape said a unique combination of spring floods and flash droughts, coupled with an unusually long growing season, have conspired to make this year’s annual corn forecast the most difficult on record. However, the company said through its Landviewer technology that utilizes precision agriculture tools, is able to simplify the complexity of predicting forecasts.

“Given the unusual circumstances around this year’s growing season, we feel our NASA satellite and big data initiatives are even more important,” said Dr. Steffen Mueller, director of spatial grain analytics at Genscape. “We are back to our original prediction of 13.3 billion bushels, and we have the hard data to back it up.”

Genscape said its LandViewer model offers next generation data acquisition techniques, integrates NASA satellite imagery, and the industry’s most unified ground-based crop yield verification – called “ground truthing – coupled with extensive analysis by experienced soil/agricultural scientists, to offer corn crop forecasting.

The company notes that normally at this time of year, the USDA incorporates Farm Service Agency (FSA) lost acreage data; however, this year that analysis has not available to market participants because of the temporary government shutdown. As a result, and because the company is able to incorporate NASA satellite imagery with best-in-the-industry ground truthing data, their latest forecast is the only known model to currently account for lost acreage data.