I travel a lot by air and I’ve always been amazed and somewhat entranced by the beauty of farmland when seen from far above.  It can look like a Morris code message, an old quilt, pixels of a much larger digital image, a pie chart, or even that old video game packman.  I also find that the variations in crop colors and land colors are fun to try to interpret.  What crop is being grown? Was that field planted too late or too early?  What made that huge patch of different colored soil, and is it better or worse than the rest? 

Different people are inspired in different ways.  Some might look at the picture above and think it merely beautiful. (I would agree with that person)  Others might say it inspires confidence in our country as a representation of our world class farming ability. (that too is true) Still others will look at the picture as a problem, or better yet, an opportunity.  After view the image above, Mikee said,

“A square field with sides = 2000 feet is 100 acres in size. A circular irrigated area in that field has area = 85.25 acres in size. So every irrigated square represents a "wasted" area almost 15% of the total arable land.

The cost (in capital equipment, maintenance, or labor) of linear rolling irrigation versus circular rotating irrigation must therefore be greater than the cost of the potential production on the "lost" arable land.

This is a business opportunity, to develop cheaper and reliable irrigation for square or rectangular fields.

Either that, or arrange with the farmers to "close pack" their square irrigation into one central circle surrounded closely by 6 circles of the same size. A hexagonal pattern would allow much less waste of arable land (reducing unplanted land to about 8.2% of the area used).”

That got me thinking.  What educational programs are available to develop agribusiness and agriculture entrepreneurship?  I did a little research, and this is some of what I found.

School/College/University: Johnson County Community College

Course/Program: Sustainable Agriculture Entrepreneurship Certificate

Link: http://www.jccc.edu/home/depts/1205/site/sustainableag

School/College/University: Penn State Cooperative Extension Offices in the Southeast Region

Course/ Program: Exploring Your Small Farm Dream

Link: http://elk.extension.psu.edu/family/09/SmallFarmBrochure2009.pdf

Program/School/College/University: University of Hawaii

Course/Program: The Business of Agriculture, Agri-entrepreneurship Topics

Link: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustainag/newfarmer/AgBusiness.asp

School/College/University: Iowa State University

Course/Program: Agriculture Entrepreneurship Imitative

Link: http://www.entrepreneurship.ag.iastate.edu

Program/School/College/University: University of Vermont

Course/Program: Rural Agriculture Entrepreneurship

Link: http://www.reeis.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/206793.html

Program/School/College/University: Washington State University

Course/Program: Agriculture Entrepreneurship & Business Planning

Link: http://www.reeis.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/206793.html

Please use the comments field below to share programs that I failed to include.

As part of their ongoing efforts to stay connected with rural voters, the Republican side of the Agriculture Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives has unveiled the redesign of their new website and announced the launch of their Facebook and YouTube pages. 

“I am pleased to announce the redesign of our website and the launch of our Facebook and YouTube pages,” said Ranking Member Frank Lucas from Oklahoma.  “It is important that the Agriculture Committee uses the latest technology available to stay connected with its constituents in the countryside.”

Lucas added, “I hope these tools will be an effective way of reaching out to those who live and work in rural America and informing them about the issues that directly impact them such as cap and trade legislation, food safety, and farm bill implementation.  I also hope these online tools will provide folks with a way to communicate their concerns about agriculture policy to Committee members.  I invite you to visit our website and online resources often, take advantage of the information available, and provide feedback on the work the Agriculture Committee is doing on behalf of farmers, ranchers, and rural Americans.”

To stay up to date with the activities and work of Republican members of the Agriculture Committee, be sure to sign up for their email updates by visiting the new homepage.  Of course, to stay even more connected to the Agriculture Committee Republicans you can also become a fan of their Facebook Page and a subscriber to their YouTube Channel. 

Entrepreneurs Will Meet Investors at Agriculture 2.0

August 20, 2009, New York, New York — NewSeed Advisors, co-host of ‘Agriculture 2.0,’ the first investor conference entirely devoted to sustainable agriculture, has announced competition winners who will present at the one day conference at the New York Marriott Downtown, Thursday, September 17, 2009, 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM.

More than 50 companies from around the world vied for the chance to present their sustainable agriculture business to an audience of venture capitalists, private equity investors, high net worth individuals, government officials, entrepreneurs, academics and farmers. Eight companies representing the best in sustainable agriculture from “dirt to dinner table” were selected, including a biopesticide company from California and a fish farm in China (list below).

“The movie Food Inc. and authors like Michael Pollan have drawn attention to sustainable agriculture, but changing an industry as massive as agriculture even a small amount requires sophisticated investment capital,” says Janine Yorio, Managing Director of investment firm NewSeed Advisors. “This conference is the first step, and it is groundbreaking.”

The conference, co-hosted by SPIN Farming, includes an address by research analyst, Bruce Kahn of Deutsche Bank; a case study by Tod Murphy, creator of a locavore restaurant concept; and a presentation by Grayson Hoberg, former CFO of Earthlink turned CEO of organic flour processor Dakota Prairie Organic Flour.

Speakers include Carol Kramer-LeBlanc of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, David Kirkpatrick of SJF Ventures, Melina Shannon-DiPietro of the Yale Sustainable Food Project, Andy Ziolkowski of MidPoint Food & Ag Fund, and David Tze of Aquacopia, For more information on Agriculture 2.0 and NewSeed Advisors see: http://newseedadvisors.com. Select passes are available for media upon request.

Innovative sustainable businesses chosen to present at Agriculture 2.0:

Good Natured Family Farms (Kansas City, Kansas) BioSoil (Hattiesburg, Mississippi) HQ Sustainable Maritime Industries (Hainan, China) Sky Vegetables (Needham, Massachusetts) Marrone Bio Innovations (Davis, California) Farm Power (Mount Vernon, Washington) Dakota Organic Prairie (Harvey, North Dakota) Vital Farmland (San Francisco, California)

About NewSeed Advisors

NewSeed Advisors identifies, nurtures and invests in companies that make agriculture more sustainable. NewSeed advocates on behalf of the sustainable agriculture industry to improve access to the capital needed to accelerate changes. NewSeed Advisors is committed to growing companies that improve food quality and take better care of the earth.