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CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Iowa Agribusiness Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
(Radio Iowa) – A report finds up to ten-percent of food grown in Iowa is left in the field because it’s not visually attractive or can’t be sold, while more than 300-thousand Iowans can’t cover their basic food needs. Those facts are prompting an effort to find volunteers to glean surplus vegetables from Iowa’s fields to donate to the hungry. Nicki Ross, executive director of the Table to Table Food Rescue, says nutritious food is vital, now more than ever. “We need volunteer gleaners, folks who are willing to get out there and pick the food from the farm and prepare it to be delivered to people who need it,” Ross says. “We are also looking for farm partners. We know there are a lot of local farms, a lot of them are organic farms, who sell what they can and then leave the rest.”
That produce would otherwise go to waste. The Feeding Iowans Task Force also seeks AmeriCorps members and hunger relief organizations willing to be host sites to help in the effort to harvest food, fight hunger and build community. Gleaning leftover produce is not an easy job, but it’s rewarding. “If I know anything about Iowans, it’s that they’re hearty,” Ross says. “Getting out there and doing hot, maybe challenging work would appeal to some folks. Also, with so many things across the state cancelled, people are looking for things to do with their time.”
Potential volunteers, she says, would -not- be spending eight hours a day, toiling in the summer sun. “We will keep those gleaning operations to a few hours a piece with a few people at a time to make it as enjoyable of an experience as possible,” Ross says. “I think ultimately, folks know that they’re doing something that’s really valuable to their community and getting food to people who really need it.” Blueberries are already ripe and ready to be picked, while Ross says there’s a cornucopia of other veggies that need to be harvested now or very soon. “There’s all kinds of crops like green onions, kale, lettuces, kohlrabi and even broccoli is coming right up,” Ross says. “We’re watching this now and we expect in another month, we’re going to have even more things to glean from the fields, like tomatoes and zucchini and cucumbers, and of course, corn when it comes ripe.”
People who want to volunteer should send an email to the Iowa Gleaning Network at gleaniowa@table2table.org.
Deena Wells with Adair County ISU Extension and Outreach in Greenfield, today (Wednesday), released an updated schedule for the Adair County Fair, which takes place July 11-19. 2020 Adair Co Fair Schedule – Brenda As mentioned before, Wells says this year, the Adair County Fair will not be normal. Even so, she says they are working hard to provide a good experience for 4-H and FFA youth to showcase their hard work. 
Due to CDC regulations and restrictions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, fair staff are not able to take individual photos for each show. Staff, volunteers and show superintendents will be stretched to capacity and focused on keeping a safe environment for all events. Wells says “We will be taking candid shots of each show and candid photos of static exhibits being judged. We will also take State Fair Selection group photos of projects. We will provide Fair Results for each show the week of July 20th.” The photo banner will be hung during fair so families can take their own photos.
DES MOINES – Today (Tuesday), Iowa Gov. Reynolds signed Senate File 2403, legislation that will lower the cost of E-15 and higher blends of renewable fuels in Iowa by changing how the state taxes higher-blend biofuels. The governor signed the bill during her weekly press conference at Pine Lake Corn Processors in Steamboat Rock. “Iowa continues to lead on innovative ways to drive demand for biofuels,” said Gov. Reynolds. “This legislation makes higher blend biofuels even cheaper at the pump while driving demand for homegrown renewable fuel.”
The governor also announced an additional $7 million in funding, through the federal CARES act, for the Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program. This state program offers cost-share dollars to fuel retailers who install or convert their equipment to allow the expanded use of renewable fuels in Iowa. Yesterday, Governor Reynolds joined a bipartisan group of governors from Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska, calling on EPA Administrator Wheeler to reject the excessive number of retroactive small refinery exemptions to the federal Renewable Fuel Standard. The law exists for a reason and we need the EPA to stand by it.
(Radio Iowa) – For the first time in 69 years, there will not be a Midwest Old Threshers Reunion in Mount Pleasant. The Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers board of directors has decided to cancel the event, held for five days every year, always ending on Labor Day. The Reunion draws thousands of people from all over the United States and around the world. Terry McWilliams, the C-E-O and administrator, says the health implications of holding the Reunion could have had a far reaching impact. “The safety and the health and the well-being of our visitors, our volunteers — all of that played a key factor in making this decision,” McWilliams says. “We waited as long as we could…Every day things changed — the loss of key volunteers, the loss of community civic groups doing their support because people are scared — and that has an impact.”
McWilliams says expense estimates were going up and up every day as they navigated through necessary health precautions they’d have to take to hold the event. Plans are now focused the 2021 Old Threshers Reunion.
(Radio Iowa) — Republican Senator Joni Ernst and Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield are both criticizing the E-P-A administrator’s handling of federal ethanol policy — and each questions the other’s commitment to promoting the corn-based fuel. Greenfield says Ernst never should have voted to confirm a lobbyist from the fossil fuels industry to lead the agency. “I am calling for the EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler to step down immediately,” Greenfield said, “and I am calling for Senator Ernst to ask him to do the same and to Iowa first.”
Ernst says she threatened to call for Wheeler’s resignation last October if he didn’t follow through on the president’s promises to the ethanol industry — and Ernst ridicules Greenfield for getting Wheeler’s name wrong in a press conference. “Whatever she was calling him, a couple of different names…if you really are interested, you know, make sure that you’ve been engaging,” Ernst says, “and it’s only recently that she has started to engage in the RFS.”
Ernst says she’s been working on ethanol policy for at least a decade, starting when she was a member of the state senate. “I’m glad that she’s finally paying attention to the RFS, good for her, but a little bit late,” Ernst says. Both Ernst and Greenfield are critical of the Trump Administration’s consideration of waivers that would let oil refineries escape the requirement to blend ethanol into gasoline. Ernst has recently blocked a senate vote on a man nominated to be the deputy administrator of the E-P-A — as a way of protesting the consideration of those waivers.
(Brownfield Ag News) – The 2020 National FFA Convention and Expo will be held virtually. National FFA CEO Mark Poeschl says at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic the organization began working on two parallel paths- what a reduced-sized convention would look like and what a virtual convention would look like. He said it became clear that hosting a virtual convention was the only reasonable option. “By making the decision now it gives us a full four months to plan what we anticipate will be a truly remarkable virtual experience for many more students across the country,” he says. Poeschl says more details on the program and registration will be released August 12.
“We’ve already been working on what a virtual FFA Blue Room would look like, we’re identifying what we could do in terms of an expo experience, we’re evaluating how we could have some sort of concert experience, as well as what I would consider the normal sessions of keynote speakers, retiring address, and award presentations,” he says. He says the National FFA Organization looks forward to returning to Indianapolis with an in-person convention in 2021 as part of its long-term hosting partnership that will now run through 2033.
The event will be hosted by the 2019-2020 National FFA Officer Team. The team will travel to Indianapolis in July to help with planning. The virtual convention will still take place the week of October 28.
(Brownfield Ag News) – A coalition of U.S. Senators is urging the EPA to reject more than 50 so-called “gap-year” RFS waivers recently requested by oil refiners. In a letter, the Senators say the waiver petitions should not even be entertained because they are inconsistent with the 10th Circuit Court decision, Congressional intent, the EPA’s own guidance, and most importantly the interests of farmers and rural communities who rely on the biofuels industry.
Renewable Fuels Association president Geoff Cooper issued a statement applauding the bipartisan group of Senators for exposing the absurdity of the oil industry’s latest ploy to undermine the Renewable Fuel Standard. Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor says the sole purpose of the retroactive exemptions is to circumvent the law at the expense of rural families struggling to get back on their feet. She contends there’s no justification for allowing the petitions to hang over the market, saying it injects uncertainty into America’s agricultural recovery. Kurt Kovarik with the National Biodiesel Board says a new flood of unlawful small refinery exemptions is guaranteed to compound the economic challenges soybean farmers and biodiesel producers are facing.
Among the Senators who signed the letter to EPA were Tammy Duckworth and Richard Durbin of Illinois, Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith from Minnesota, Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley of Missouri, Nebraska’s Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Mike Rounds and John Thune of South Dakota, and Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin.
(Radio Iowa) – Many recent protests have left public places marred by spray painted slogans and an Iowa-based company is helping clean it up, in locales ranging from Old Capitol in Iowa City to the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. Jeff Gard is spokesman for Natural Soy Products, headquartered in Brooklyn, Iowa. Gard says the company’s Graffiti Remover is made with soybean oil and it’s 100-percent eco-friendly. “The user either sprays it on and depending on the surface, it can be wiped off with a rag or a towel,” Gard says. “Several places that are using our product right now are spraying it on, letting it sit for 10, 15, 20 minutes, and they’re using a high-pressure sprayer to take it off.”
The product is designed to remove spray paint from nearly any surface, including brick and concrete. Gard says their clients include the City of Los Angeles which used it on the L-A Post Office and along the Walk of Fame, while others are much closer to home. “The City of Iowa City, a couple of weeks ago with all the situation going on there, has purchased a substantial amount of our product,” Gard says. “That’s what they’re doing, cleaning up all of the graffiti that’s been tagged on all the local municipalities and the statues and everything.”
The University of Iowa is also a client. The company uses soybean oil in a host of industrial products, including a paint stripper, a concrete sealer and a highway joint compound.
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