DairyCast update for November 4, 2009, Who is giving $120,000,000 to agriculture?

Submitted by John Blue on November 3, 2009 - 10:20pm.

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The week before last provided an excellent opportunity to regain a fresh perspective on the future of our industry. It was a pleasure for me to take part in the some of the activities of the 82nd National FFA Convention. There is nothing quite like the enthusiasm and excitement of tens of thousands of young people focused on feeding a growing world population through agriculture advancements.

Even though enthusiasm and excitement will not cause the challenges we face to disappear without hard work, I believe that positive thinking will do much more than negative thinking. It is great to see the way that FFA is developing our next generation of industry leaders.

On another topic, why is Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, giving $120,000,000 to agriculture projects? Discover more below.

How are you sharing your story of agriculture? I would enjoy hearing your comments, send me a note.

DairyCast ^®Conversations

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced $120 million in agricultural grants, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, urged governments, donors, researchers, farmer groups, environmentalists, and others to set aside old divisions and join forces to help millions of the world’s poorest farming families boost their yields and incomes so they can lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. Gates said the effort must be guided by the farmers themselves, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and the environment. Part 1 DairyCast 311 and Part 2 DairyCast 312 .
DairyCast 0310: What's happening with silage harvest?. Phil Kruger, Nutritionist with Mycogen Seeds, highlights the recent World Dairy Expo conversations as well as what conditions dairy producers in his region have worked through during harvest.
DairyCast 0309: Advice from the Grand Champion of the World's Forage Analysis Superbowl David Dickey, South Town Dairy Farm of South New Berlin, NY & World's Forage Analysis Superbowl Grand Champion, offers his perspective on producing high quality forages and getting the most from your cows.

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"The "Bickering" Family": by Don Tyler. "We know these people. The family with the siblings who can’t seem to see eye-to-eye on anything and end up bickering over who, even now that they are in their 40’s, got the larger ice cream cone at the State Fair when they were 8 and 10 years old. (Yes, that’s an actual argument that I heard…..)."
The Food System and Feeding the World. Post by Dr. Terry Etherton Much has been written about the “Food System” and how we should go about feeding the world. To put “much” into context, I ran a Google search using the phrases “food systems” or food system; got 906,000 returns for the former and 759,000 returns for the latter phrase. Why the keen interest in the food system?

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Conversations from 2009 National FFA Convention, October 21-24, 2009, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
- Audio: Ariel Waldeck and and All American Genetics, 2009 FFA Agri-Entrepreneur. Ariel shares why she got into showing Brown Swiss Dairy Cows.
- Video: Mike Rowe, from Dirty Jobs was the main keynote at 2009 National FFA Convention.
Selected educational seminar presentations from the 2009 World Dairy Expo, September 29 - October 3, 2009 Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
- Video: Using Popular Media to Tell Dairy Farming's Story Polly Ligon O'Grady, Weber Shandwick; and Jolene Griffin, Dairy Management, Inc.
We continue to provide you with information, in partnership with the National Institute for Animal Agriculture, from the ID-INFO Expo 2009, held August 25 - 27, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.
- Video: Discussion of Various ID Technologies: Trade-offs of one over another from Bryan Rickard, Kansas Animal Health Department.