In honor of the retirement of Virginia Farm Bureau’s Senior Agriculture Market Analyst Jonah Bowles, we are posting his collection of jokes that have started each Commodity Comments newsletter since its start in 2000.
You can read it here.
Congratulations, Jonah! Enjoy your retirement!
On Friday, President Barack Obama signed national biotech disclosure into law, which now requires USDA to draft rules within two years to establish labeling and disclosure standards that could include using scan codes on packaged foods as well. The law also preempts states from establishing separate standards, such as the Vermont genetically engineered labeling law that went into effect in July, but is now superseded by the new act.
“President Obama’s signature today will put a stop to the harmful patchwork of state GMO labeling laws and set in place a uniform, national disclosure system that will provide balanced, accurate information to consumers,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said in a statement. He also pointed out that for decades, biotechnology has made it possible for farmers to grow safe and healthful crops while reducing their environmental impact.
“We are pleased that Congress and the administration have moved swiftly to prevent consumer confusion and protect agricultural innovation,” Duvall concluded.
“I farm because I feel called to. I love the challenge, it’s where my heart is, and I love working with my family. Farming gives my life purpose. When I fulfill that purpose I feel like I am my truest self and, most of the time, my best version of me. I think that to do anything other than farm would feel like a dishonest life. I am fortunate that my purpose is also my passion. Farm life is hard, oh so hard, but it also has many blessings such as working with family, eating homemade snacks at Grandma’s, and watching my niece grow up.”
Dinwiddie County Farm Bureau member Coley Jones Drinkwater was featured in Beck’s Why I Farm series. Read her full #WhyIFarm story here: http://www.whyifarm.com/blog.html#!/blog/posts/Why-I-Farm-Roadtrip-Coley-Drinkwater/25
Click here for this week’s Commodity Comments, a weekly newsletter designed to provide agricultural producers with an analysis of current market trends by Farm Bureau Market Analyst Jonah Bowles.
“If you ever want to be close to the good Lord above, you’ve got to be a farmer cause that’s gonna teach you faith like nothing else can. You sit out here in this seat and watch a little bitty old seed come out and grow. Harvest is just miraculous. A lot of people don’t know what they’re missing. Even the hard work. There are days when it’s 105 degrees and you walk out of the house in the morning and start sweating just walking to the truck. But at the end of the day, it’s a good kind of tired. You know you put in an honest day’s work. You know you’re not going to get rich doing it, but it’s who I am. This is what I do.” – Robert Harris, first generation farmer from Chatham, Virginia
Pittsylvania County Farm Bureau member Bob Harris was featured in Beck’s Why I Farm series. Read his full #WhyIFarm story here: http://bit.ly/WhyIFarmRoadtripRobertH
In an effort to better promote the Farm Bureau Chevrolet, Buick and GMC member discount, Virginia Farm Bureau Senior District Field Services Director Mark Dawson and his team led a major dealer outreach effort this spring. Virginia field staff visited 67 GM dealers across the state, distributing membership brochures and Farm Bureau window clings, answering questions about the program and encouraging dealers to participate in joint marketing opportunities with county Farm Bureaus.
“If we are really going to be partners with our dealers, they need to know who we are and feel comfortable communicating with us,” said Dawson. “When you reach out and put a face with a name, it improves relationships, and you’re more likely to get contacts and interaction between your partner and the county Farm Bureaus.”
The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has awarded 13 $500 mini-grants to communities across the nation. The grants are awarded through the Foundation’s White-Reinhardt Fund for Education program.
The grants are allocated through county and state Farm Bureaus and are used to create new agricultural literacy projects or expand existing agricultural literacy efforts.
Criteria for selecting winners included: the effectiveness of demonstrating a strong connection between agriculture and education; how successfully the project enhances learner engagement in today’s food, fiber and fuel systems; and the processes and timelines for accomplishing project goals.
The new Performance Livestock and Feed Co. production facility in Henry County will create jobs and help area grain producers as well.
“We’re hoping to open a retail station there by October of this year and have storage and the rail line by January,” said Jason Pendleton, president and owner of the company, which is based in Lawsonville, N.C. “Hopefully, [we will be] manufacturing feed there by June 2017.”
Henry County was chosen as the feed company’s newest location due to its proximity to a rail line and easy access to public utilities. The site was originally a furniture plant that shut down in early 2000. Once repurposed, the facility will be able to store, mix and pelletize feed along with mixing custom feeds and pellets. It also will include a retail store. Continue reading
Biosecurity measures on Virginia poultry farms have been important over the past year due to an avian influenza outbreak that started in 2014 in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest and California.
Virginia’s largest agricultural organization, the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, recently lifted heightened biosecurity measures that had been in place for 15 months for staff visiting poultry farms.
“Our employees were asked to not visit any poultry farms out of an abundance of precaution unless there was an urgent or emergency situation that required staff to be on the farm,” said Tony Banks, a VFBF commodity marketing specialist. “Our employees are not only conscious of farmers’ needs, but they also understand the serious threat that animal diseases like AI pose to our members’ livestock and poultry.
Continue reading
Click here for this week’s Commodity Comments, a weekly newsletter designed to provide agricultural producers with an analysis of current market trends by Farm Bureau Market Analyst Jonah Bowles.
Plows and Politics 