Trump Puts Rural America in the Spotlight

President Trump’s address to the American Farm Bureau Federation 99th annual convention this week in Nashville definitely brought agriculture some positive publicity, mentioning the word farmers over 25 times in his speech, more than any of the previous three presidents in all of their official speeches combined. Granted, that is just a guess but I feel safe in saying that if someone were to be able to fact-check it!

Farm Bureau estimates 7400 watched the president’s speech in person or on the Livestream, and thousands more have watched it since. Among those watching from home was former AFBF president Bob Stallman, who said it was the first convention he has missed in 30 years. The speech was also carried live by RFD-TV, Fox News and CBS. Agri-Pulse and RFD-TV were both granted interviews with the president. It was definitely a very big deal.

President Trump’s commitment to rural America with the signing of two presidential orders that will help increase broadband access out in the countryside, something that his Rural Prosperity Task Force made a high priority, was also a very big deal to many of the thousands at the event. Jamie interviewed a number of attendees to get their reactions, including FFA and 4H members, state Farm Bureau presidents, the Missouri Director of Agriculture and Mrs. Zippy Duvall. Listen to some of the comments here: Reaction to President Trump at #AFBF18

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2018 AFBF Convention Photo Album

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CHS to Use Enogen® Corn at Rochelle IL Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

Syngenta has finalized an agreement for CHS Inc. to use Enogen® corn enzyme technology at its 130-million-gallon ethanol plant in Rochelle, Illinois.

Enogen corn will provide the CHS Rochelle facility with an industry-leading enzyme for enhanced ethanol production while also supporting local growers and the community. Several million dollars in premiums are expected to be paid annually to growers raising Enogen corn, locally, for the CHS plant in Rochelle.

“CHS is focused on helping its farmer-owners grow,” said Mike Van Houten, CHS Rochelle facility manager. “The Enogen program provides benefits for our plant, but is also a big win for our local community with the premium to be paid on every bushel of Enogen corn brought to us.”

CHS ethanol plants manufacture the alcohol-based renewable fuel via an advanced fermenting and distilling process that efficiently converts corn into simple sugars. The resulting ethanol product is primarily used as a fuel that is commonly blended with gasoline to increase octane and improve emissions quality. The Rochelle plant is an 81-acre, dry mill corn-based operation and was acquired by CHS in June 2014.

CHS is an ethanol producer, marketer and trader and one of the nation’s largest suppliers of ethanol-enhanced gasoline. Enogen corn enzyme technology is an in-seed innovation available exclusively from Syngenta that features the first biotech corn output trait designed specifically to enhance ethanol production.

corn, Enogen, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Syngenta

Brazil Increases U.S. Ethanol Imports Despite Tariff

Cindy Zimmerman

U.S. ethanol exports were up 14% in November over the previous month, totaling 107.2 million gallons, according to the latest government data analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA).

Despite the imposition of a tariff rate quota and 20% tariff in September, Brazil was the leading destination for U.S. ethanol exports for the first time in six months, receiving 28.1 mg. November also saw a small volume of denatured ethanol exported to China, which has not imported any U.S. fuel ethanol in the prior 10 months. Canada scaled back its imports of U.S. product to 24.2 mg, a 29% reduction from October. Exports to India perked up at 15.5 mg, a 17% increase, while shipments to the Philippines more than doubled to 9.9 mg. These four countries accounted for nearly three-fourths of all U.S. ethanol shipments in November. Exports to all destinations for the first eleven months of 2017 stood at 1.19 billion gallons, indicating a record annualized export volume of 1.30 billion gallons.

Read more on the RFA E-Blog.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Exports, RFA

President Trump Addresses Record Farm Bureau Crowd

“Farm country is God’s country,” said President Donald J. Trump at the conclusion of his remarks to a record crowd at the American Farm Bureau Federation 99th annual convention in Nashville.

“100 is so much cooler,” Trump said. “I’ll just have to come back again next year.”

The president hit all the high notes to please the crowd that helped elect him to the White House, from lower taxes to increasing rural broadband access, but only briefly mentioned trade and NAFTA, which farmers are most concerned about when it comes to administration policy. He focused on eliminating unnecessary regulations. “Oh are you happy you voted for me,” the president said as he talked about “ditching the rule” – the Waters of the U.S. or WOTUS, which Farm Bureau stridently opposed.

Listen to President Trump’s entire remarks here – President Trump at #AFBF18

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Find links to all AFBF convention content.

2018 AFBF Convention Photo Album

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Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue at #AFBF18

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue set the stage for his boss and our president Donald J. Trump to address the largest general farm organization in the country Monday.

Perdue highlighted accomplishments of the Trump Administration related to agriculture and discussed the importance of trade and NAFTA in particular to U.S. agriculture. “To get a deal, we need all sides to seriously roll up their sleeves and get to work,” Perdue said. “We have put a number of proposals on the table to modernize NAFTA, and critically for agriculture, to address key sectors left out of the original agreement – dairy and poultry tariffs in Canada. Now, we want to see our negotiating partners step up and engage so we can get the deal done.”

Perdue also noted that USDA has been rolling back excessive regulations following a directive from President Trump, including WOTUS, the Waters of the U.S. rule which was the subject of Farm Bureau’s Ditch the Rule campaign. “You know, sometimes a mud puddle is just a mud puddle,” Perdue said. “We don’t need the federal government coming in and regulating everything to death.”

The secretary also officially presented the findings of the President’s Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity.

Listen to Perdue’s address here: USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue at AFBF18

Click here to watch it on video.

2018 AFBF Convention Photo Album

WATCH LIVE or click for archived video
Watch President Trump live from AFBF starting at 3:00 pm central.

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Farm Bureau Excels at Instant Convention Content

The communications team for the American Farm Bureau Federation is really getting a workout for the organization’s 99th annual meeting in Nashville this week with President Donald Trump attending Monday afternoon. Over 200 registered media and room for only 90, having the vast majority of the convention schedule being changed at the last minute, and just dealing with the logistics of a presidential presence will make Monday a challenge for even the most seasoned professionals. But, no matter what, you will be able to see the president’s speech live, or go back and watch it later – and you will have photos and audio almost immediately after it is over.

In fact, you can find the majority of the main activities at the AFBF convention live-streamed, archived, photographed, and audio filed, with multiple press releases, through the Farm Bureau convention media guide. With the help of state Farm Bureau communications specialists, the AFBF communications team has always been the best at providing content for media. Chuck was one of those state staffers at Florida Farm Bureau who was brought on the AFBF team for the 1985 convention in Hawaii. They were using some of the earliest satellite technology to send both audio and video back to the mainland for some media, but they were also shipping video stories on cassette using the latest express shipping services and getting audio content sent via telephone. News releases and photos were still mostly sent by mail but they were using some of the earliest facsimile machines at the time.

AFBF has always kept up with the latest in communications technology, so now you can watch and record it live as it happens, get high resolution photos, and subscribe to audio feeds from the event via podcast. Jamie will be on the ground there for President Trump’s address Monday and we will have an AgNewsWire virtual newsroom page set up for her photos and interviews, but here are the links to various content sources from AFBF:

Convention photos
Live streaming video and links to archived videos
B Roll Video
Audio files

Farm Bureau is really the epitome of an organization that excels in providing virtually instant digital content from their conventions. AgNewsWire is a way for smaller organizations to get content from their own meetings produced and distributed to a wider audience. It’s what we do best, and we learned a lot of it from working with Farm Bureau over the years.

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ZimmCast with MN Soybean

Tom Slunecka is one of the first people ever to be featured in a ZimmCast, back in 2005 when he was executive director for the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC). That organization became Growth Energy in 2008, and Tom has been executive director for Minnesota Soybean, which includes both the state Growers Association (MSGA) and the Research & Promotion Council (MSR&PC). We had the pleasure of doing a little media training for Tom and his board this week so we had some time to catch up and reminisce a bit.

Tom was also the first person to name our signature meme the ZimmComm Golden Microphone on its first event out of the box, the 2007 NAMA conference, which makes him a founding member of the Golden Mic Club!

You will find Tom on page 25 of the latest AgriMarketing magazine because the Minnesota Soybean Biodiesel Project was named 2017 Product of the Year. Congratulations to the entire Minnesota Soybean team for that honor!

Listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 570 with Minnesota Soybean’s Tom Slunecka

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here. Use this url in iTunes or your favorite news reader program/app.

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Political Strategists to Address Ethanol Conference

Cindy Zimmerman

Former Presidential Advisor Mary Matalin and veteran Democratic Political Strategist Donna Brazile will be at the 23rd annual National Ethanol Conference in San Antonio as the featured luncheon speakers on Tuesday, Feb. 13, for “A Candid Conversation about Washington Politics.”

Matalin served under President Ronald Reagan, made her mark as George H.W. Bush’s campaign director and was most recently assistant to President George W. Bush, and as assistant and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, making her the first White House official to hold that double title. Today, Matalin is a frequent commentator on both radio and TV, and is the co-author of “All’s Fair: Love, War and Running for President,” a national bestseller written with her husband, James Carville.

Brazile is the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee and fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. She has worked on every major presidential campaign since 1976 and in 2000, became the first African American to serve as campaign manager for former Vice President Al Gore. Brazile is the founder and director of Brazile & Associates LLC, a general consulting, grassroots advocacy, and training firm based in Washington, DC. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University.

NEC2018 will be held Feb. 12-14, 2018, in San Antonio. View the complete agenda here.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, National Ethanol Conference, RFA

Ins and Outs of Ethanol for 2018

Cindy Zimmerman

Guest commentary from Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen

Before there was a “What’s Trending” on Twitter or Facebook, indeed before there was a Facebook or Twitter, or even an internet, there was “The List” from The Washington Post, providing insight into what was “In” and what was “Out” every year. It was as predictable as the ball dropping at Times Square on New Year’s Eve, and it remains wildly popular among Senators and interns alike in Washington, D.C. today.

“The List” was never intended to be erudite social commentary and certainly not a reliable compendium of history or current events. But it was a fun and whimsical exercise. And because imitation is the highest form of flattery, I began compiling my own “List” many years ago to provoke light-hearted contemplation about the trends in the ethanol industry. So, with tongue firmly placed in cheek, and deep appreciation to The Washington Post, I provide this year’s “Ethanol List.”


Read more on the Ethanol Blog

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

2017 in Pictures

2017 is just a memory now, so we compiled some of our favorite photos from the 50 events we attended this year so you can relive it!

This album includes some of our favorite shots of the year, our favorite people, and some of the many inductees into the Golden Mic Club. There’s only 200 out of more than 10,500 put into over 60 Flickr photo albums this year, so it is only a small sample, but it took hours to go through them all!

To watch as a slide show, just click the button in the upper right above the title photo that with an arrow in it. Enjoy!

ZimmComm 2017 Year in Pictures

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