Maryville, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State University students recently won second place in a national scholarship competition aimed at building the next generation of agriculture advocates.
According to a news release, students in Northwest’s agriculture advocacy class, under the instruction of Rod Barr, director of the School of Agricultural Sciences, earned the $1,000 prize in the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s national College Aggies Online (CAO) scholarship competition.
Since CAO launched in 2009, nearly 6,000 students have participated. This year’s program kicked off in early September with 30 student organizations competing in the club division as well as students competing in an individual division. The participants represented 43 states and 89 universities.
“Every year we applaud the students for being the most engaged and enthusiastic group to compete, but it seems each group outdoes the last,” Kay Johnson Smith, the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s president and chief executive officer, said. “We are thrilled to see so many individuals passionate about agriculture.”
The nine-week program is filled with assignments for individuals such as blog posts, infographics and photo contests while club members received challenges ranging from hosting farm tours and school visits to guest speakers and food drives. Assignments and challenges are geared toward helping students boost their confidence when communicating with peers about agriculture issues.
Competitors shared more than 3,000 posts about agriculture on Instagram and Twitter, earning more than 4.4 million impressions, and nearly 400 posts were shared on Facebook. More than 16,000 students and faculty members attended farm tours, guest speaker presentations, booths and other events on college campuses.
Clubs and individuals who successfully finished the program also earned the CAO Completion Emblem, which demonstrates their commitment to advocating for agriculture.
The appointed U.S. Senator to take the place of Democrat Al Franken of Minnesota will “fiercely defend ethanol.” The Washington Examiner reports Democrat Tina Smith will add another big voice of support for corn ethanol in Congress. Smith was appointed this week by Minnesota’s Governor to take the place of Franken, who resigned last week over allegations of sexual misconduct. Smith, now formally Minnesota Lieutenant Governor, said on September 16th last year while declaring the date as Ethanol Day, that ethanol is a “critical tool” in the state’s economic development toolbox. The ethanol industry generates nearly $5 billion for Minnesota’s economy and more than 18,000 jobs, according to Smith. However, it is not clear how much she can do as her appointment lasts one year, after which Minnesota will hold a special election to choose a new senator to serve out the remainder of Franken’s term.
(MODoA) The Missouri Department of Agriculture announced today the first wave of civil penalties issued to applicators, all from Dunklin County, as a result of investigations of complaints during the 2016 growing season. Civil penalties, ranging from $1,500 to $62,250, were issued for pesticide misuse: off label use and drift. “It is important for appropriate enforcement action to be issued in order to deter off-label use and protect the integrity of agriculture,” Director of Agriculture Chris Chinn said. “We are in the final stages of our case review of 2016 investigations and continuing our field investigations of 2017 complaints and will release information as cases close.” In 2016, Department staff conducted and completed 121 complainant investigations. Those complainants named approximately 60 applicators, who were investigated as a result of complaints. In addition, the Department investigated nearly 100 non-Dicamba related incidents. All civil penalties collected will be remitted to the school district where the violation occurred.
The White House is hoping to play mediator between the oil and ethanol industries as it brought them together Wednesday for a preliminary discussion on the Renewable Fuels Standard. Refiners say they can’t afford the RFS compliance costs. The biofuels industry insists it has to have the mandates in the RFS to keep expanding and growing biofuels. Senators Chuck Grassley, Joni Ernst, and Deb Fischer were there to represent corn states. Staffers for Senators Ted Cruz and Pat Toomey were there to make a case for refiners. Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe wouldn’t reveal any details of a plan he’s working on to address some of those issues. He did say it would have to address the ever-increasing cost of buying biofuel credits the Environmental Protection Agency uses to ensure that refiners are blending the required amounts of biofuels into the nation’s fuel supply. Ethanol producers and supporters have been doubtful about the possibility of brokering a deal with the oil industry. Biofuel providers are convinced the oil industry would squeeze them out of the nation’s fuel supply entirely if they got the chance to do so.
House Agriculture Committee Chair Mike Conaway is ready to get rolling on the farm bill in 2018. Politico also mentioned he’s not worried about a push to overhaul welfare potentially making the process more complicated. The Republican from Texas is optimistic about keeping things on track and getting a floor vote scheduled by March. A working draft of the bill is already at the Congressional Budget Office. Conaway’s goal is to have the farm bill wrapped up by the time that welfare reform discussions gain traction on Capitol Hill. “I think we’ll be done and across the floor before the train leaves the station,” he said to Politico. While there aren’t a lot of details on the draft available to the public, Conaway did share a few insights. For example, he said changes need to be made to Title 1 in order to aid the cotton and dairy industries. “I don’t anticipate significant changes to Title 1, but there will be changes in the Agriculture Risk Coverage and the Price Loss Coverage programs,” he said. “We want cotton growers to be eligible for these programs.” He also says plans for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program should line up with Republican goals of tightening up federal spending.
(USW) U.S. Wheat Associates and members of the U.S. Grains Council, U.S. Soybean Export Council, USA Rice, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Sorghum Producers and the National Barley Growers Association welcomed a joint statement issued this week from 17 countries participating in the 11th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina, emphasizing the importance of supporting farmer access to the full range of tools and technologies available and opposing regulatory barriers lacking sufficient scientific justification. “Having in mind the importance of transparency and predictability to international trade, we call on all Members to strengthen the implementation of the WTO SPS [Sanitary and Phytosanitary] Agreement by reinforcing the work of relevant international standards organizations and ensuring the scientific basis of SPS measures is sound,” the statement reads. “The development and application of sound SPS measures is needed to support farmers’ choice in tools that can expand agricultural production and facilitate access to food and agricultural products, and also to safeguard human, animal and plant health.” Government officials from Kenya, Uganda, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Canada, Colombia, Argentina, and the United States delivered remarks in favor of the joint statement of understanding on Dec. 12, 2017, during a side event to the main WTO meetings.