The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will take several actions to assist farmers negatively impacted by recent trade actions. President Trump directed Secretary Perdue to craft a short-term relief strategy to protect agricultural producers while the Administration works on free, fair, and reciprocal trade deals to open more markets in the long run to help American farmers compete globally. Specifically, … Read More
Scott Pruitt Resigns From EPA
Well, here’s news that probably won’t upset too many people I know. I’m actually amazed that this didn’t happen much sooner. Of course this had to happen during a pretty much vacation week for the ZimmComm Team and many, many other folks. Here’s some industry reaction on the announcement. I think you can sum it up that everyone is pretty … Read More
God Bless America and the American Farmer
Food for thought this Independence Day from former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack: “America has to understand and appreciate what it has in agriculture. American consumers walk out of the grocery store with still more money in their pocket and their paychecks and their incomes than virtually anybody else in the world. That creates great flexibility in our economy directly … Read More
National FFA and AgriNovus Indiana Announce Blue Room
The National FFA Organization and AgriNovus Indiana have joined together to announce the “Blue Room” will debut at the 2018 National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis Oct. 24-27. The Blue Room is the kickoff to Blue 365, an initiative that will bring this same innovation into classrooms and impact more than 650,000 members nationwide. FFA student members are the … Read More
Doggett Interim CEO for NCGA as Novak Joins CropLife America
Jon Doggett has been named interim CEO for the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) starting August 1, taking over for Chris Novak, who becomes president and CEO of CropLife America (CLA) in August. Novak will become just the fifth staff leader of CLA in its 85-year history on August 20. He replaces Jay Vroom, who has been CEO since 1989 … Read More
Senate Agriculture Committee Passes Farm Bill
By a vote of 20 to 1, the Senate Agriculture Committee passed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 Wednesday “The Senate Agriculture Committee’s bipartisan Farm Bill process is a reminder of how things should work in Washington – listening to the folks back home, working through issues with the other side of the aisle, then writing a good bill,” said … Read More
DuPont Opens Industrial Biosciences Global Headquarters
DuPont Industrial Biosciences officially opened the doors of its renovated global business headquarters last week in Wilmington, Delaware. “At this new facility, we have hundreds of people working toward a more sustainable future by innovating biobased solutions that are better, safer and more renewable. These technologies go into products that are used in everyday life,” said William Feehery, president of … Read More
2018 CUTC is a Wrap
The first Corn Utilization and Technology Conference was held 30 years ago. Since 1987, CUTC has brought together leading innovators to focus on new uses for corn with the goals of expanding markets and demand while improving quality and efficiency. National Corn Growers Association CEO Chris Novak says this year’s conference this week was another great success for the future … Read More
USDA’s Northey Kicks Off Alltech ONE18
After the opening entertainment, USDA Under Secretary Bill Northey was first to take the stage Monday morning at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference 2018 in Lexington, Kentucky. He was just discussing the issue of agricultural trade with China when President Trump tweeted “China has agreed to buy massive amounts of ADDITIONAL Farm/Agricultural Products – would be one of the best … Read More
Farm Bill Defeated in the House
House Agriculture Committee Chair Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX) delivered on his promise to get a farm bill written in a timely manner, but his colleagues in the House voted 198-213 Friday to reject his effort. Prior to the vote, Rep. Conaway expressed his frustration as a last minute amendment was introduced to recommit the bill with instructions to the Committee … Read More