A five-minute summary of AAI, regulation, and industry activities for members of the largest state agribusiness association in the nation. | |
NGFA Harvest Safety Week - Aug. 21-25 | |
NGFA is hosting its fifth annual Harvest Safety Week on August 21-25.
Harvest is a busy time for the grain, feed, and processing industry, with increased traffic at grain facilities, additional workers, demanding hours, and other unpredictable challenges. Each year at the end of August, NGFA hosts Harvest Safety Week. During this week, NGFA delivers harvest-related safety information to grain handlers and encourages the sharing of safety resources available on ngfa.org/safety throughout the agricultural community.
This year, NGFA will focus the entirety of Harvest Safety Week on “Safety as Value in the Workplace” and the importance of building “safety first” environments at grain handling facilities. NGFA member companies across the country employ safety programs that rely on leadership, employee empowerment and innovative resources to send workers home safely each day.
This year, several new videos featuring NGFA member company CEOs, safety directors and facility managers will cover their approaches to cultivating safety-minded workplaces. They also discuss the increased hazards during harvest time and their methods for maintaining effective safety programs during the harvest season. These videos are supported by funding from the National Grain and Feed Foundation. The Foundation is funded entirely by charitable contributions and supports many of NGFA’s safety resources.
Throughout Harvest Safety Week 2023, anyone can receive email reminders and new resources available from NGFA. Go to ngfa.org/safety for more information.
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AAI Summer Grain Grading Workshops - Multiple Classes Nearly Full | |
Workshop Participant Registration Fees
AAI Member Companies: $130
Non-Member Companies: $155
August 29 - 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM
Zeigler CAT - Altoona, Iowa
10 Seats Remaining
August 30 - 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM
Zeigler CAT - Altoona, Iowa
19 Seats Remaining
August 31 - 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Viterra - Creston, Iowa
3 Seats Remaining
Each Workshop Limited to 30 Participants | No walk-in students will be accepted
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Grain Indemnity Fund Assessment Begins On September 1 | |
Participation Fees
IDALS licensees are required to pay participation fees into the Fund including the following:
Grain Dealer Fee
- .00014 per bushel based on previous fiscal year's purchases
- Minimum fee of $50; no maximum fee
Grain Warehouse Fee
- .00014 per bushel based on storage capacity
- Minimum fee of $50; maximum fee of $500
Additional details are available online, including an FAQ for grain warehouses and an FAQ for farmers:
https://iowaagriculture.gov/grain-warehouse-bureau/assessment
Questions regarding the assessment can be directed to the Grain Warehouse Bureau - 515-281-5324 or james.kennedy@iowaagriculture.gov.
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TIME IS RUNNING OUT!
Seven Days (7!) Until The Amana Golf Outing
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July 13 - Okoboji, Iowa
Emerald Hills Golf Course
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Aug. 24 - Amana, Iowa
Amana Colonies Golf Course
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Sept. 13 - Ames, Iowa
Coldwater Golf Links
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Nitrogen Initiative Field Days
In Attendance:
Ben Gleason, INREC Executive Director
Rural Economic Development Summit
In Attendance:
Bill Northey, AAI CEO
Midwest Soybean Collaborative
In Attendance:
Bill Northey, AAI CEO
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August 24
AAI Golf Outing - Amana Colonies Golf Club
9:00 AM Shotgun Start | Amana, Iowa
August 25
AAI Legislative Committee Meeting
10:00 AM | AAI Main Office Board Room
August 29
Grain Grading Workshop
8:30 AM | Ziegler CAT - Altoona, Iowa
August 30
Grain Grading Workshop
8:30 AM | Ziegler CAT - Altoona, Iowa
August 31
Grain Grading Workshop
9:00 AM | Viterra - Creston, Iowa
September 13
AAI Golf Outing - Coldwater Golf Links
10:00 AM Shotgun Start | Ames, Iowa
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Cybersecurity for Agriculture Workshop | |
August 28, 2023
9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Great Hall | Memorial Union | Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa
Precision technologies and big-data analytics are delivering enormous benefits to agricultural production, innovation and discovery.
However, these critical advancements also expose the agricultural ecosystem to various forms of cyber attack that could jeopardize the food & agriculture supply chain, food safety and security and — ultimately — national security
Click Here for Registration
Download Cybersecurity Workshop Flyer
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Nitrogen Initiative Field Days | |
The Iowa Nitrogen Initiative (INI) is excited to announce its summer 2023 Field Day Series. Attendees of the field days can look forward to presentations from the INI project directors about project goals and optimizing nitrogen management, discussion with farmer participants about their experiences with the trials, as well as an introduction to the technologies used and drone footage of the research areas. Each field day will also feature topics in nutrient management of local interest, chosen by the host.
All field days begin at 10 AM and are hosted by farmer participants throughout the state:
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Wednesday, August 23 hosted by farmer Dave Schwartz – Guthrie County
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Wednesday, September 6 hosted by Iowa State University – Kluver ISU Research Farm, Boone County
Lunch will be provided by Iowa Corn. All INI Field Days are free and open to the public. If you plan to attend, an RSVP is greatly appreciated: bit.ly/INIrsvp.
Want to learn more about the initiative but can’t attend a field day? Contact Ben Gleason, bgleason@agribiz.org, and he can set up a meeting with the team at ISU.
Iowa Nitrogen Initiative Website
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AMS Seeking Nominations For USDA Grain Inspection Advisory Committee | |
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is seeking nominations for individuals to serve on the USDA Grain Inspection Advisory Committee. The nomination period is currently open and closes on September 22, 2023.
The advisory committee meets no less than once annually to advise AMS on the programs and services it delivers under the U.S. Grain Standards Act. Advisory Committee recommendations help AMS advance its customers' needs in a dynamic and changing marketplace. Meetings are held virtually or in a hybrid style, with participants attending in person or virtually.
A notice announcing the nomination period with instructions on submitting applications was published in the Federal Register on August 8, 2023. The nomination application can also be found on the website. For more information, please contact Kendra.C.Kline@usda.gov, Chief of Staff at AMS Federal Grain Inspection Service.
AMS policy is that the diversity of the boards, councils and committees it oversees should reflect the diversity of their industries in terms of the experience of members, methods of production and distribution, marketing strategies, and other distinguishing factors, including but not limited to individuals from historically underserved communities, that will bring different perspectives and ideas to the table. Throughout the full nomination process, AMS, in conjunction with industry, conducts extensive outreach, paying particular attention to reaching underserved communities, and considers the diversity of the population served and the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the members to serve a diverse population.
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Recycling Pesticide Containers | | |
Source: Progressive Farmer
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A World Trade Organization ruling upheld U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum in 2018 but rejected China's retaliatory tariffs against an array of U.S. goods in response.
China, in response, called for the U.S. to remove the 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum from China that have been in effect since 2018.
The WTO on Wednesday handed down a ruling on China's tariffs on 123 different products, including U.S. agricultural goods. The WTO stated China's added tariffs were "inconsistent" with a 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) treaty.
The Chinese retaliatory tariffs, which ranged from 10% to 25%, also led to China drastically cutting its imports of U.S. farm products. The Trump administration then spent more than $23 billion over two years to support farmers through the Market Facilitation Program.
The American Farm Bureau Federation praised the WTO ruling. "AFBF is pleased that the WTO dispute panel ruled against China's imposition of unjust retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural products. Agricultural trade is necessary for food security around the world and should not be endangered by retaliation for unrelated concerns," said Zippy Duvall, president of AFBF.
[...] Read Full Story
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The recent discontinuation of pandemic-related food assistance benefits, known as the Supplemental Food Assistance Program (SNAP) Emergency Allotments, led to a substantial increase in food insufficiency in the United States, according to a new study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The primary goal of SNAP, which distributes cash-like benefits to low-income families to buy food, is to combat food insecurity, which affects 10% of U.S. households. The findings were published in JAMA Health Forum.
Comparing trends in food insufficiency in states that ended Emergency Allotments before the federal government ended them altogether in March 2023 with the rest of the U.S., the researchers found that after the temporary increases to households’ SNAP benefits ended, SNAP recipients experienced a 21% relative increase in both food insufficiency and food insufficiency among children. These findings imply that more than two million more American households faced food insufficiency when Emergency Allotments ended in all states.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food insecurity refers to the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or the limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. Food insufficiency is a more severe condition than food insecurity and measures whether a household generally has enough to eat.
“To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to evaluate the association between changes in SNAP benefit amounts and food insufficiency,” said Aaron Richterman, MD, MPH, an instructor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Penn and the study’s lead author. “This study shows the severe consequences of reducing SNAP benefit amounts at a time when inflation was causing rapid rises in food prices and is especially important because of upcoming federal negotiations surrounding SNAP’s renewal in the Farm Bill at the end of September.”
[...] Read Full Story
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In 2021, the median length of a train on Class I railroads — meaning half were longer, half were shorter — was 5,400 feet. Just 10% of trains were longer than 9,800 feet, and fewer than 1% were longer than 14,000 feet.
[...] View Info Graphic
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Every few days it seems like I pick up a magazine or newspaper article that blames agriculture for 15-, 20-, or even up to 50 percent of the anthropogenic (human) CO2 emissions. Some recognize soil as a significant sink (if crops are grown organically on small farms) but never fail to blame large, monoculture farms that use inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, and, heaven forbid, GMO crops to get maximum yields. No one seems to realize that crops take up and sequester tremendous amounts of CO2 through photosynthesis, incorporating it into plant tissue and seeds, providing food and significant new wealth to the economy.
Michael Pollen in his book, Omnivores Dilemma, claims it takes “about 50 gallons” of crude oil (1.2 barrels) to grow an acre of corn. I can’t argue with that, but he goes on to say it takes a Calorie of fuel energy to produce a Calorie of food, and it’s “too bad we can’t simply drink the petroleum directly.” That is where he is grossly wrong.
(Calories are a familiar unit to most people, but the Calories listed on food packages are actually kilocalories, or 1,000 scientifically defined calories. In the following discussion, I use “Calories” as they are used on a food package. Other energy units, such as BTUs (British Thermal Units) or Joules (units of electrical energy) can be converted to Calories. For example, a gallon of diesel contains approximately 137,000 BTUs or 34,500 Calories.)
In Chapter 4 of my book, World Food Unlimited, I do extensive calculations to represent how much energy is captured by an acre of corn. University of Iowa researchers calculated the energy cost of growing an acre of no-till continuous corn using a gallon of diesel as the energy unit. Manufacturing, mining and distributing the required fertilizer uses 21 gallons. Planting, spraying and harvesting uses 2.5 gallons. Manufacturing a pound of pesticide (active ingredient) requires the equivalent of one gallon of diesel. A no-till farmer may make three pesticide applications of a pound or less, so add three gallons of diesel for pesticide manufacture and distribution. Growing, processing and distributing seed takes a gallon, and allow two gallons for machinery manufacture.
[...] Read Full Story
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