" I heard it through the AgLine"

November 23, 2011

 

 

·       Future Farmers thrive by looking ahead

·       Supercommittee failure sinks farm bill

·       Deere reports solid profits, bright future  

·       DuPont, Evogene team on seed project

·       PR alchemy and place names for food

 

 

Future Farmers thrive by looking ahead

 

(The New York Times) INDIANAPOLIS — Gamaliel Rizzo grew up in a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn and is studying to become a doctor. Still, he spent his high school years learning how to raise chinchillas, goats and alpaca and growing radishes, sunflowers and cilantro. He even worked on a dairy farm in the summer, all as a member of the Future Farmers of America.

 

Although the nation has shifted ever further from its agrarian roots, the organization is thriving. Begun 83 years ago and now known simply as the F.F.A., it is the largest vocational student group in the country, with more than half a million members and still growing.

 

Although farm employment accounts for less than 1 percent of all jobs in the United States, the Agriculture Department says that one in 12 jobs is agriculture-related. And during the deep downturn and rocky recovery, these workers have actually fared better than most.

 

That gives the F.F.A. a calling card as an organization that actually prepares students for viable careers. About 70 percent of its members live in rural areas, and 19 percent live in small towns. The fastest growing segment, however, is in urban and suburban areas, now making up 10 percent of the membership.

 

“You would think that something called Future Farmers of America would have come to a screeching halt by at least the 1960s in most parts of the country,” said Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, a historian at Iowa State University. “What amazes me is the degree to which they have made themselves relevant when by all expectations they should have simply ceased to exist.”

 

The group has succeeded in part by expanding well beyond agricultural science while also broadening that field to include genetics, logistics, landscape gardening and alternative fuels.

 

Now, the group’s chapters aim to teach students leadership and job readiness as much as the finer points of cattle care or corn fertilization. Mr. Rizzo said that although he learned about farm life, he spent more time honing skills like public speaking and developing business budgets, which he believes will improve his job prospects someday.

 

“A lot of these sales tactics will help,” said Mr. Rizzo, 18, who graduated from the John Bowne High School in Queens last summer and is now a freshman at Rutgers.

 

“Medicine is more of a business,” he added. “And to get patients in this economy you have to understand the market and how it works.”

 

Last month, he joined about 45,000 teenagers clad in blue corduroy jackets with yellow stitching for the F.F.A.’s annual convention here. Between panel discussions like “Learning to Lead,” “Banking Tips for Students,” and “How Many Lawyers Does It Take?” they competed in events to identify cuts of meat and species of plants, along with contests of extemporaneous speaking and presenting business marketing plans.

 

At a time when many employers complain about the lack of basic communication and interpersonal skills among job candidates, the F.F.A. emphasizes work on group projects and old-fashioned presentations in essays and speeches at many of its events. Even in the purely agricultural contests like the judging of livestock, students defended their positions before the judges as if they were trial lawyers in court.

 

“The common misconception is that we are trying to teach our kids to be farmers and rooting, tooting cowboys,” said Greg Rystad, an agricultural teacher and F.F.A. faculty adviser from El Paso, Tex., who had stopped by the booth of the biotechnology firm Syngenta to observe a biochemist testing corn leaves for proteins that would repel worms. “We are training professionals, even if they are not in the agriculture field.”

 

In one of the large exhibit halls, representatives of Toyota, CSX and Carhartt, the maker of work wear, mingled at a career fair with those of more obvious agricultural services companies like John Deere and the animal health division of Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant.

 

At times, the convention simply reflected typical teenage interests and concerns. A laser show and pounding rock music accompanied the opening ceremony, as well as a music video produced to the convention’s theme, “I Believe.” A speaker who described himself as a “farm boy from Kansas” warned against drugs, displaying the third- and fourth-degree burns he had incurred during a methamphetamine lab accident. And at the career fair, many students were more interested in playing video games, singing with karaoke machines, taking goofy photos and winning prizes than talking to recruiters.

 

Still, the organization is a bit of a throwback that stresses wholesome values. Most of the conventioneers were neatly groomed, shunning wild hairstyles or flashy jewelry, and there were frequent invocations of God and country.

 

Some of the business-oriented projects seemed a bit out of sync with the times. During the finals of the contest for best marketing plan, a team from Shoshoni, Wyo., described an advertising campaign for a small firm using direct mail and road signs, but made no mention of Facebook, Twitter or other social media. A judge pointedly asked why they had budgeted $1,200 just for radio time.

 

F.F.A. members must enroll in agricultural courses at school, but they do much of their work after school preparing for speaking and business competitions, or tending vegetable plots or animals. They also take apprenticeships on farms, in nurseries and at biotechnology firms. The group draws many students whose parents and grandparents were members, even if they are no longer on the farm. Kaylen Baker, a 17-year-old from Yukon, a suburb of Oklahoma City, said she joined F.F.A., as her father did, and likewise raised pigs. But she had come to the convention as a finalist in prepared public speaking, which she won with a speech on the virtues of miniature cows. She hopes to pursue a career in veterinary medicine.

 

Part of the group’s appeal may be that the expanded field of agriculture, which includes forestry and fishing, added jobs between 2008 and 2011, a period when total employment in the United States fell about 3.5 percent, according to the Labor Department.

 

“There is an unlimited future in agriculture,” said Tom Vilsack, the United States secretary of agriculture, citing the demand being created by a growing global population and changing diets in developing countries. Plenty of the children of farmers who have joined the group realize that farming itself may no longer support a family. Thor Pearson, who grew up on the cattle ranch started by his great-great-grandfather in Stanwood, Wash., said his father had turned it into a “hobby farm,” and now worked at a technology firm.

 

Mr. Pearson, 17, raised 50 head of cattle and competed at livestock judging and agricultural sales in F.F.A., but he said his career ambitions were elsewhere, perhaps in sales.

 

Whether a bit of denial or confidence was at work, Mr. Pearson said he was unworried about his economic prospects. “You can get pretty far with a good attitude and a good work ethic,” he said as he took a break to listen to a fellow member sing on a talent stage in the convention center atrium. “No matter what the economy is, that is still going to prevail.”

 

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Supercommittee failure sinks farm bill

 

(SFGate.com) – Leaders from the House and Senate agriculture committees said Monday that they've finally reached a proposal that would cut $23 million out of the 2012 farm bill, but it isn't likely to see the light of day any time soon.

 

The new legislation, one of the nation's most significant bills, was scheduled to be submitted to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the supercommittee, without debate or public comment. The specially formed committee, assigned to cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion in the next 10 years, was scheduled to issue a budget recommendation on Wednesday that would have been put to an up-or-down vote with no amendments, no House blocks and no filibusters.

 

But the supercommittee, made up of six senators and six House members from both parties, failed to reach a deal. So the farm bill proposal is being scuttled. Congress will have to start over next year. The 2008 farm bill expires Sept. 30.

 

For critics who saw the process as secretive and undemocratic, it was good news.

 

"Twelve people shouldn't be allowed to determine the nation's food, nutrition and conservation policy for more than 300 million Americans," said Craig Cox, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit conservation organization. "Hopefully, as a result of the breakdown of the supercommittee, the next farm bill will be determined through the regular process of hearings, debate and amendments so the concerns of all citizens can be considered."

 

Cox said there was major concern that the proposal would favor commodity crops - corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice and peanuts - while reducing budgets for food stamps, conservation, sustainable and organic farming programs.

 

"We think if the farm bill is done in a democratic fashion it will look substantially different then what they were proposing," he said.

 

Brise Tencer, director of policy and programs for the California Certified Organic Farmers, said some feared that California, mostly a specialty-crop state emphasizing fruits, vegetables and nuts, would get the short end of the stick. California is the largest agricultural state in the nation.

 

"The programs most significant to California were hard wins in the 2002 and 2008 farm bills, particularly money for organic and sustainable farming," she said. "We feared that those would get cut this time around. At least now we'll get a voice to support them."

 

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Deere reports solid profits, bright future  

 

(Associated Press) – Deere & Co. says strong sales of its farm equipment helped boost its fourth-quarter profit by 46 percent and says it expects robust demand will lead to better results next year better.

 

The earnings and revenue each beat Wall Street expectations, and Deere shares climbed nearly 6 percent in premarket trading.

 

The Moline, Ill., company said Wednesday that equipment sales were up 20 percent in the quarter.

 

That helped Deere generate net income of $670 million, or $1.62 per share, for the three months ended Oct. 31, up from $457 million, or $1.07 per share, a year ago.

 

Revenue grew 20 percent to $8.6 billion from $7.2 billion a year ago. Both sales volume and equipment prices increased.

 

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected earnings of $1.43 per share on revenue of $7.91 billion.

 

Deere said equipment sales will increase about 15 percent next year and profit will grow to $3.2 billion from this year’s $2.8 billion.

 

“We are proud of the company’s performance in 2011 and look forward to building on these gains in 2012 and beyond,” Chairman and CEO Samuel Allen said in a statement. “We have great confidence in the company’s future and our role in helping feed, clothe and shelter the world’s growing population.”

 

Deere’s report offers an indication of how well farmers worldwide are doing. Deere said it expects farmers to have another good year in 2012 because the demand for agricultural commodities remains strong.

 

Deere has been rolling out new products throughout 2011 to comply with new EPA pollution regulations. As part of that, Deere has increased prices for most of its equipment, but its R&D costs have also risen considerably.

 

Credit Suisse analyst Jamie Cook said in a research note that’s it’s hard to criticize Deere’s fourth-quarter performance, and the company’s profit outlook for 2012 is more optimistic than expected.

 

Jefferies & Co. analyst Stephen Volkmann told clients Wednesday that Deere’s guidance for next year is more optimistic overall. He said the outlook includes a $500 million increase in raw material costs and a 10 percent increase in research and development expenses.

 

For all of Deere’s fiscal 2011, the company reported net income of $2.8 billion, or $6.63 per share. That’s 50 percent higher than the previous year’s $1.87 billion, or $4.35 per share.

 

In addition to agricultural equipment, Deere makes construction and forestry equipment, such as backhoes, excavators, riding mowers and leaf blowers. But construction and forestry sales represent a small portion of Deere’s business compared to its agricultural equipment.

 

Its shares climbed $4.24, or 5.9 percent, to $76.16 in premarket trading.

 

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DuPont, Evogene team on seed project

 

(AP) – Seed developer DuPont said has formed a research partnership with biotech company Evogene to develop a strain of soybeans that are resistant to a common fungal disease.

 

DuPont said Monday the partnership will last several years, although it did not specify how long. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. Evogene is based in Rehovot, Israel, and focuses on developing new traits to insert into commercial crops such as corn and soybeans.

 

DuPont is competing against biotech seed developer Monsanto Co. to release new strains of engineered crops. DuPont owns Pioneer Hi-Bred, an old-line seed company that is Monsanto's biggest U.S. competitor.

 

DuPont said the research with Evogene will focus on so-called soybean rust, a fungal pest that can wipe out 80 percent of affected soybean fields. Soybean rust is estimated to cost farmers $1.5 billion annually in lost soybeans.

 

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PR alchemy and place names for food

 

(edible geography) – Provenance is a tricky issue. Over the past few years, the names of agricultural regions, villages, and even specific farms have proliferated on urban menus and shelf labels, providing the aspirational consumer with a shorthand guarantee of authenticity, taste, and, often, local origin.

 

The idea is that by listing the farm on which your heirloom tomato was picked, chefs honour growers as the co-producer of flavour; meanwhile, by achieving protected designation of origin (PDO) status, traditional makers of pork pies and prosciutto preserve the geographic context of their product, as well as its artisanal technique and, often, its continued economic viability.

 

For consumers, however, these place names tend to form a more abstract cartography of implied inherent value. I confess to finding it reassuring that the lamb on offer at the restaurant up the street comes from Jamison Farm, even though I have no idea where that is, and I look for San Marzano DOP tomatoes despite the fact that (this is a little embarrassing) I couldn’t point to their carefully protected origin on a map.

 

Such haziness plays straight into the hands of less scrupulous food producers, who rely on the simultaneous geographical sensitivity and ignorance of consumers to borrow the halo effect of certain places, regions, and site typologies (think of the vast quantities of industrially processed foods that profess to be from some kind of “farm,” “glen,” or “dale,” for example). As it happens, the tomatoes most visibly associated with San Marzano in the United States are actually grown in California, not Italy (although they are the same varietal).

 

Indeed, the very concept of protected geographic origin is a tenuous one in the United States, which relies instead on trademarks that defend geo-specific brand names such as Boston Market (a national fast food chain based in Golden, Colorado) and Philadelphia Cream Cheese (manufactured by Kraft in Wisconsin) as well as Florido oranges and Idaho potatoes. The latter are at least grown in the places their names would imply, but, as the roughly thirteen billion Idaho potatoes and 139 million boxes of Florida oranges harvested annually set global market prices, they, as agricultural economist Bruce Babcock notes, “have as much in common with Roquefort cheese as Iowa corn has in common with Prosciutto di Parma. They are not differentiated products; they are the embodiment of a commodity.”

 

However, it is the branding geniuses at Marks & Spencer, suppliers of underwear and luxury ready-meals to the UK, who have taken the abstract, yet powerful, geography of food labeling to its logical, imaginary conclusion. While re-reading Sarah Murray’s excellent book, Moveable Feasts (of which more later), I came across this nugget:

 

Sometimes places that are entirely fictional are created to add to the appeal of a food. British chain Marks & Spencer recently introduced “Lochmuir salmon,” despite the fact that Lochmuir cannot be found on a map.

 

Marks & Spencer is refreshingly open on the subject of Lochmuir’s non-existence, with Andrew Mallinson, the company’s “fish expert,” explaining to The Scotsman newspaper that “it is a name chosen by a panel of consumers because it had the most Scottish resonance. It emphasises that the fish is Scottish.” Later in the same article, we read that:

 

The Scotsman understands Lochmuir salmon is in fact being farmed at five sites north of the Border by supplier Scottish Sea Farms after three years of research.

 

Interestingly, Marks & Spencer had previously dabbled in the more common type of geo-label fiction, when it branded its chickens (sourced from farms across the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland) with the name of a historic market town in Rutland county: Oakham. Local butchers were not impressed (“They’ve just come in and nicked our name”), and the town’s Member of Parliament demanded (unsuccessfully) that the geographically challenged chicken be re-branded.

 

It seems as though it is easier to invent a fictional cartography than appropriate existing high-value place names.

 

And, as our food supply becomes ever more globalised, I can’t help but imagine that more and more producers of “luxury” foods will seek to make their product even more desirable with reference to a hyper-specific, utterly imaginary atlas of aspirational origins. Chinese fois gras will come from the French-sounding Beauchâteau, Vietnamese mozzarella will be marketed under the faux-Italian name of San Legaro, and the role of geography in food description — originally intended as a means to reconnect consumers and producers — will end up further disguising the industrial commodity chain while creating an entirely alternate universe, made up of the places that we dream our food comes from.

 

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End Transmission