Twitter photo from @iowa_corn 

Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) recently celebrated their 50th anniversary during the 2017 ICGA Annual Grassroots Summit in Altoona, IA. Iowa's Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg welcomed the attendees for this two-day event. 

Shawn Richmond, AAI Environmental Technology Director and INREC coordinator led a round table discussion on Friday, August 26, during the summit. Richmond spoke on supporting water quality in Iowa. 

Speakers also included: Kurt Shultz, US Grain Council, Jeff Smith, Fitzgerald, Smith & Associates, Will Fett, Iowa Ag Literacy Foundation, Devin Mogler and Michael Dolch, Office of Senator Joni Ernst, and more. 

The Honey Creek Resort golf club "The Preserve on Rathbun Lake" in Moravia, IA is our final stop on the 2017 golf tournament roster. Join us on this  7,000-yard course on September 7. We begin the day at 11 AM with a shotgun start and will have lunch on the course. Thank you to EBS/Holmes Murphy for providing lunch, Midwest Labs for our 2nd Flight Champion Prizes, AGP for our Champion Team Prizes, and CoBank for sponsoring the Snack Cart! 

Only $95 per person to attend. All golfers are eligible for fantastic door prizes including golf bags, pro shop gift cards, swag,  and much more! Get golf info here:     http://agribiz.org/golf/  

$95 per golfer per event

As a result of the continuing impacts on Gulf Coast-area refineries and disruption to the fuel distribution system caused by Hurricane Harvey, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt today exercised EPA's emergency fuel waiver authority to help ensure an adequate supply of fuel throughout the South, Southeast and the Mid-Atlantic.  

EPA has waived requirements for reformulated gasoline and low volatility gasoline through September 15 in the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, Louisiana and the District of Columbia. The waiver authority was exercised under the Clean Air Act and was granted by EPA Administrator Pruitt, in coordination with the U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. 

As required by law, EPA and Department of Energy (DOE) evaluated the situation and determined that granting a short-term waiver was consistent with the public interest. EPA and DOE are continuing to actively monitor the fuel supply situation as a result of Hurricane Harvey, and will act expeditiously if extreme and unusual supply circumstances exist in other areas.

To mitigate any impacts on air quality, the Clean Air Act provides strict criteria for when fuels waivers may be granted, and requires that waivers be limited as much as possible in terms of their geographic scope and duration.  Read More

More information:  www.epa.gov/enforcement/fuel-waivers

Iowa's efforts to improve water quality could get a boost in the next legislative session.

At a meeting Monday in Des Moines to highlight partnerships among farmers, environmental groups, and state and federal agencies, Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey says lawmakers would likely send more money to conservation efforts in the coming years.

"I'm very optimistic that we'll find some more state resources this next session," Northey says, "Exactly what that bill looks like I don't know. But I think it's likely to be hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 10 to 20 years for water quality investment." Read More

Whether you're a Trump fan or not is irrelevant when it comes to the mainstream media's role in his election. There was much inaugural hand-wringing and self-examination of the inadvertent role media played by covering every tweet and provocative  campaign comment.

Yet, many of the same media outlets and others play a similarly complicit role in the marketing of food fear, causing hand-wringing on the part of consumers who may reject a food for no good reason for fear of potential health issues that range from joint pain to death.

By publishing anything claiming to have a whiff of scientific basis, assigning it a nefarious headline and relinquishing responsibility to verify its legitimacy, media counter their own noble pursuit by contributing to consumer confusion instead of being a beacon of clear, reliable information.

"Carcinogenic pesticide found in Ben & Jerry's ice cream" and "Chemical in mac and cheese tied to birth defects" are among the latest alarming headlines. Read More