We're not counting miles this week.  Between Chuck in Indianapolis for the Corn Utilization Technology Conference, Cindy in Chicago with BASF and in Des Moines for World Pork Expo and Jamie in Minneapolis for the Fuel Ethanol Workshop, we've covered more than a few!  Now we get a short break to finish setting up the new ZimmComm World Headquarters in Cantonment, FL!

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, "Is Atrazine lawsuit settlement good for farmers?" We posed this question after a lawsuit against Syngenta related to the herbicide was settled with an offer of over $100 million by the company, even thought there has been no evidence of harm in drinking water caused by the product and  the plaintiffs in the lawsuit acknowledged they had not commissioned any research on the subject or seen any new research to the contrary either.

Our poll results: Sixty percent said Yes, time to move on; twenty eight percent said No, still other challenges and twelve percent chose Other.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, "Do you prefer corn sugar to high fructose corn syrup?" Recently the FDA denied a request from the Corn Refiners Association to allow food labels to use the term corn sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Nutritionally, there is no difference in regular table sugar and HFCS so I don't see why FDA ruled like they did. There reasoning had to do with their definition of sugar as a crystalline solid. This is basically a public relations war over words since the "problem" with both substances is how much someone consumes. Nothing wrong with cane sugar or corn sugar in our opinion. We like them both. Apparently consumers like HFCS better according to this story. What do you think?

Here are some interviews from this week you might have missed:

• MU economist, Ron Plain, on sow housing survey
• Paul Rea, BASF, wraps up BASF Media Event
• Rick Tolman, NCGA, wraps up CUTC
• Precision ag as a conservation tool with Terry Griffin, CrescoAg
• Garry Niemeyer, corn grower/NCGA President, on CUTC and other topics
• Bob Dinneen, RFA, talks RFS and more at FEW
• Tom Buis and Jeff Broin, Growth Energy, launch Flex Fuel Finder at FEW 

Now for some news from the ZimmComm News Network

   AgWired     

Farmers Need to Stand Up and Advocate

  Precision Pays 

AgNerds Love Precision Agriculture 

 We like new technology and we like our gadgets. We're called AgNerds. And AgNerds are pretty open to precision agriculture. John McKee is one of us. John is a farmer of corn, cotton, soybeans and wheat. He was a civil engineer prior to farming so precision ag has come natural to him. He was also one of the speakers on the Conservation in Action Tour. MORE

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