CHINA’S FARM REFORMERS EYE MORE FREEDOM

The Chinese Communist Party issued documents on reforms in rural development Sunday, pointing to modern farms replacing the many millions of patchwork plots tilled by the country’s 750 million farmers.

The “landmark” policy documents will allow farmers to “lease their contracted farmland or transfer their land use rights” to boost scale of operation for farm production and provide funds to start new businesses.

Reuters reports that the change could double average disposable income to more than $1,200 a year by 2020. But getting there will mean loosening the reins of collective ownership.

Reuters Article
Window of China article

Way To Go Carlton!

I saw the special as well. It was excellent.
I would love to have a copy of the program since it featured some of my family as well.
Keep up the great work.

Carlton Ward's TV Special on Florida Cattlemen

Just got done watching a great special on Florida's cattle industry(past & present) that was produced by Carlton Ward and Bob Hite on Channel 8 out of Tampa. Hopefully Carlton will bring a copy to show the class in December.

While the entire show was very nicely done and very informative - the slow motion replays of Carlton getting bucked off a horse straight up in the air was great!

Carlton - great program and nicely done!!

Ray

What Do I Do?

I woke up today and grabbed my pocket agenda and there is nothing on it! What do I do? I have my name tag on and I am dressed Florida beach casual. I guess I will just sit here and wait for orders.

Thanks to everyone for a great seminar. I know a lot of work went into this to make it so smooth and perfect. Thank you Hannah, Janice, Rochelle and anyone else that made our trip so smooth.

I look forward to seeing more blogging now that we have some people tuned in and look forward to the next seminar.

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Seminar VI....Complete.

It's difficult to put into words my thoughts on our national trip. It truly exceeded my expectations and I felt it was an extraordinary experience. While the places we saw and the people we met contributed to the success of this trip, the true reason why this was an incredible trip was the people who spent 10 days together...thank you for your good humor, your willingness to be pushed out of your comfort zone and for your positive attitudes towards the trip and this program.

Only nine months to China!

E-85

Just a few minutes after landing in Orlando from the corn belt, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to fill up my tank with E-85.

Its a little more than the $1.99 in Iowa ($2.51) but at least I know better where it comes from.

I guess this makes my trip complete!
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Japonais Sushi Platter

The most fabulous sushi platter of my life. Sandy says to always eat the 'white meat.'

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The John Hancock

A few of us are sitting 95 floors up in The Signature Room at the Hancock. It is the most amazing site! We are sitting amongst the clouds enjoying the view of Chicago. What an experience!

Erin
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Top of hancock for free baby
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OMG this chitowns sushi @ its best fantastic japonais oui oui muy bien
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The Hot Rock

Japonais - The hot rock cooks the beef right in front of your eyes in about 15 seconds!
So neat!

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Chicago Cabs

After almost getting taken out by a city bus, we realized the cab company is called El-Habib!

What a great experience!

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Jen has finally joined the blogging world!

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Testing

Did I do this right?
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City Boys?

Not so sure these country boys can survive in the Big Windy City!

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Adler Planeterium

The first planeterium in US. It has all 12 zodiac signs surrounding the structure.

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Only casualty on Lake Michigan...

Hannah's bag.  It jus got in the way of a stray wave.

But don't worry, Hannah reports that since all programing is over, there is nothing of any importance damaged.

Close call!
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Tes

Lake Michigan

The gates into the 3rd largest of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan.

The south FL crew doesn't do cold weather! Guess we won't be moving to Chicago.

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WLI on Lake Michigan

And it is cold and windy!!!
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The Sears Tower

The Sears Tower, one of the most well known buildings in Chicago was tallest building in the world for 23 years. It is now the 5th tallest. The top sways 18 inches due to the height of the tower.

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Where's the boat!?

After a few bus trips around the same 4 blocks, wandering in the rainy streets of Chicago trying not to get one of Hannah's 30 little ducklings run over, we made it to the boat tour landing.

EJB

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4-wheelers for Police

Most 4-wheelers are seen in the rural areas and most police are seen in cars, on motorcycles, horses, or bikes but not this time! For the Chicago police they get cool (fabulous) 4-wheelers! How awesome would it be to ride a 4-wheeler throught the streets of Chicago!?

They would make more sense in the south, but go figure!

Erin

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Let's Reflect

After enjoying Chicago's great deep dish pizza (waaaaayyy to much pizza) we capitalized on the time and reflected on our time in Illinois. Thoughts ranging from the farmers and the alternative energy production to water issues, from our individual views of our own world being the epicenter to the realizations that the whole chain of ag in the nation is so important. Adam led us through a great exercise of "yes, but" versus "yes, and" idea formations. We all will take away a lot from this week and this course. We are all proud of each other and our program and most of all our great Director, Dr. Carter. I think it is safe to say that we do have the greatest program around and of it Class 7 is by far the best class ever!
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Chicago Mercantile Exchange

Here we are just above the floor of the CME financials where the action is heating up.
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Hannah and Joyce

Thank you Joyce!
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272,000...

That's how many times per second that accelerated electrons travel around a 3/4 mile "track" at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.

X-rays are cool!
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Totally lost people

Still at Argon with that totally-over-my-head look.
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The Speed of Light

Where they found a pill to stop the progression of AIDS! I was lost, but thanks to Jorge, I sort of understand.

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Inside the lab

Super x ray machine. Yep over my head entirely.
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Argonne National Lab

We are here now
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On the road again

Well we left Pioneer seed where we saw how they produce corn seeds. They have 22000 sku numbers in their catalog. You can custom order your seed for anything. We couldn't take pix due to the proprietary processes in altering the seeds. We stopped for a choke it down lunch at your choice of McD's Burger King Wendys or Taco Bell. 15 minutes later we are rolling toward the Argonne National Laboratory. It is a 2 hour bus ride through more corn country. We left Tim Harris back in town and really appreciate the time he gave us.
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Wind Farm

2 million megawatts each. We need these in FL for sure.
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You don't mind the wind chill...

...when you have a wind farm!

As 30 Floridians stood shivering in a stiff breeze, wind turbines were turning our discomfort into clean, renewable energy.

Scott Jenson, the owner of the farm gave us the ins and outs and labeled wind energy as a win-win-win situation.

-A win for him in a QUITE profitable business opportunity.

-A win for the community in taxes and outside investment.

-A win for the country in the form of LOADS of rewnewable energy.

This was an incredible stop!
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Wind farm

Wow theses are cool. 260 feet tall and generating 2 megawatts each. Can we plant these in FL?
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$3 million bridge

This is Bureau County's big federal spend to preserve history in this new covered bridge.
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Marquis Ethanol Plant

This place was only 4 months old. It even smelled new, according to Dr. Carter. This place is first class with all the brand new everything. New locomotive for moving rail cars, new rail cars, new buildings and offices, new production equipment, new, new, new! It was double the size and really showed the learning curve in the technology versus the first plant which was only a year old itself. This place had a lot of forethought put into it and was planned for future technology changes in the layout. It certainly showed off the millions in investments and hopefully will keep working at the current 106% of capacity it is currently doing. It really is something FL needs. Hey the fuel around this place is $1.85/gallon. FL could use that for sure.

Double dipping...

Two ethanol plants in one day.  That's 150 million gallons of clean burning, US farmer produced energy each year.

But the cool thing to me is the technology being used here is really only the beginning. The first plant started in 06 and the last one started earlier this year, and it was clear to see that technology is moving fast.

I wonder how soon we have plants better than these in Florida using Florida products and by-products to produce ethanol?
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Illinois

The last state on our National Trip!

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Mississippi River

Entering Illinois now and crossing the mighty Mississippi
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True entertainment...

From the perspective of a former hog producer, it was a lot of fun watching my classmates commune with the pigs.

But now, as we are on the bus, they are also finding out that the smell does stick!!  :-)
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Iowa Cows & Pigs

Oh the fabulous Iowa Pigs & Cows!

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Elizabeth on her first tractor

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Zylstras Farm

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Oink oink

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Pig farming in Iowa

Mmmmmm pork. Until you smell it. This was Roger Zylstra's operation. 5400 pigs are raised here.
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WLIANR Stays Green

The first stop of the day was to Lincolnway Energy. We had strict instructions that cameras were not allowed inside the plant, but pictures were allowed outside. Here are the pictures of the green class!

I wish I could have taken a picture of the massive pile of DDG, Dried Distillers Grain, which is 26% protein! According to Annie it tasted like sawdust. Also, Joe had a proposal to begin shipping some to Florida and allowing fellow classmates to buy a truckload.

Enjoy my pictures, because the only pictures I can take now will be from my phone! I am devastated that my camera is broken for the remainder of our trip!

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On the road...

Soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans, corn.

BEAUTIFUL!!
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E85 prices

Well this is how much we could be paying for fuel if we had E85.
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Lincolnway Energy

Here is what ethanol looks like.
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Lincolnway Energy

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Bus to Lincolnway Energy

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From the blackberry

Picture of the Hill
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Since No One Else Has...

Ok, since no one else is posting, and Rochelle and Hannah did one, I am going to get this ball rolling. Day One we all met at Orlando Airport and without any snafu managed to get all of us rednecks through security. I don't think they had the new x-ray technology at the airport and no one got singled out for a full cavity search, so we made it to DC on time. Thanks to Elizabeth Pines for setting us up with shuttle buses to get us all over to the hotel. Ours was driven by an idiot who frequently felt it necessary to drive all over the Capital with no apparent regard for what the gps said to do. But in the end we made it. We had a personal tourguide in Congressman Putnam and saw parts of the Capitol that probably few would see. What a great tourguide he was with just so much history to share. The next day we continued our dive into our nation's inner workings with a plethora of fantastic speakers at various sites (check out the agenda for that day). It was a busy day for sure, and started us off running hard. Wednesday we had more programming and the opportunity to meet with our loca congressional staff on the hill. Everyone came away with something and many made new connections to help us along the way with our issues. On Thursday we got to hear about our upcoming China trip with the travel agent and everyone got to ask their burning questions about what that trip would entail. In the evening we went to the famous Kennedy Center and had the chance to walk around and look at this famous place, followed by a show called Shear Madness. Some liked it, some did not. It was an experience nonetheless. We left Friday morning early and flew out on a puddle jumper to Des Moines where we met up with our tour bus and the best driver there ever was. This guy is great. At least now we can minimize all those damn expensive taxi rides all over the place. Once in Iowa we went over to the Iowa Pork Producers for dinner where they grilled up some great pork chops for us and gave us a view of life in the hog industry here. Saturday we met agan and heard about the corn industy and followed the corn and soybeans from the field to the grain silos/elevators for distribution. What an operation. So much is done with so few people thanks to automation. Saturday was on our own and the group watched the Gators kick some butt at the hotel, then we all went off to celebrate. Some more than others. Some of us definitely showed the midwest how much Florida likes to celebrate a victory! Sunday morning came quick, but thanks to Hannah's planning we had time to gather our heads before heading off to the Preserve where we got to see an effort at restoring the Prairie. That brings us to where we are now...

Crackberry Maddness-Who knows how to work these things??

On Friday we had a flight attendent comment (over the PA) that she had "never seen so many Blackberries" in her entire life. At that moment in time at least half the class were collectively trying to figure out how to use Blackberry Messenger (and at least some of us have it down).

So now the next step in our collective technological advancement is the ability to post to the blog from our "crackberries". And thanks to Rochelle, we now have no excuses for not diligently posting.

One quick note for our families or alumni that may be following along. Last night (Saturday), all the Gators in the group, along with some "jorts" wearing classmates with other collegiate affiliations (they seriously wore cutoff jorts in public) turned the Hotel bar into Gator Country. And I think we ALL had a great time watching the good guys dominate.

But I just want to point out the bond that class VII has formed. EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of the class chose to come together on a free night after spending almost a week in very close quarters. It is amazing to me that we are all still on speaking terms, much less having 100 percent of the class choosing to come together when we didn't have too.

Pretty cool...
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It's hard to believe we will be headed to Illinois tomorrow. Here are a few of the photos from Des Moines. Today was Charlie Wilson's birthday, so we had the nice people at The Machine Shed Restaurant sing happy birthday. Joe Collins was the chairperson for the day and took full use of his power by using the bus driver's microphone. The other photos are from the Pork Producers Dinner and while visiting a few farms in the Des Moines area. Today we had a pretty light day while visiting the wildlife refuge. We saw some buffalo, pheasants, a deer, and a chipmunk. Des Moines has been great! Tomorrow will be packed with visiting ethanol plants and a farm before we end up in Princeton, IL. Hard to believe we only have four more days!