Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 8468 / SEEDWORLD.COM OCTOBER 2016 Exploring ideas and views on all aspects of the seed industry. HOUSE PASSES WATER RESOURCES BILL The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5303, the Water Resources and Development Act of 2016, Sept. 28 by a vote of 399-25. A main focus of the bill is clearing the backlog of projects at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It also provides more than $10 billion in funding to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop, maintain and support the nation’s port and waterways infrastructures. “Farmers and ranchers need to be able to get their products to market quickly and safely, and inland waterways are a critical part of that process for much of the country,” says Wesley Spurlock, first vice president of the National Corn Growers Association and a farmer from Stratford, Texas. “The Water Resources Development Act helps maintain and modernize our inland waterways infrastructure and plays a vital role in moving corn to export markets.” The next step for WRDA 2016 is a conference of the House and Senate bills, with a potential final bill ready to be signed by the president by the end of the year. AGCATALYST 2016 COMING SOON AgCatalyst 2016, an agribusiness communications conference, will be held Nov. 1-2 at the Hilton Airport Hotel in Minneapolis, Minn. The conference aims to bring together the brightest minds in social media, marketing, agriculture and food production to spark conversations and lead the advancement of agriculture in North America. The theme of this year’s conference is “Finding the best possible path to our customers’ hears, minds, smartphones and back again.” The lineup of speakers and topics is designed to help attendees embrace the new consumer empowerment in agriculture. Some of the speakers include Justin Baer, president of Convince and Convert; Joe Schwartz, director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society; Matt Sweezey, principal of marketing insights for Salesforce. Baer is a renowned business strategist who travels the world helping business people get and keep more customers. Schwartz, or “Dr. Joe,” is known for his informative and entertaining public lectures that cover a variety of topics, and Sweezey is regarded as one of the top minds in the future of marketing. He’s a consummate researcher and thinker and is the author of “Marketing Automation” for dummies. Registration costs $299 per person and is available online. NEW FUNDING FUELS BIOBASED RESEARCH As part of an initiative by the federal government, Ana Alonso of The Ohio State University will receive more than $1 million to develop resources and tools to improve the oil content and quality in pennycress. This is one of seven projects selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Agriculture and Feed Research Initiative that will receive a total of $7.8 million for biobased-fuel research. Alonso is charged with developing pennycress as a bioenergy crop, taking advantage of its ability to produce seed oil that is ideally suited as a renewable source of biodiesel and aviation fuel. In this project, pennycress’ natural variation will be investigated to identify candidate genes and biomarkers associated with oil accumulation and fatty acid composition as well as metabolic engineering targets for improving oil content and composition. A public seed collection of pennycress mutants and transgenic lines will be developed as a community resource for accelerating research. in pennycress. This is one of seven projects selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of in pennycress. This is one of seven projects selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Agriculture and Feed Research Initiative that will receive a total of $7.8 million for Agriculture’s Agriculture and Feed Research Initiative that will receive a total of $7.8 million for As part of an initiative by the federal government, Ana Alonso of The Ohio State University will receive more than $1 million to develop resources and tools to improve the oil content and quality receive more than $1 million to develop resources and tools to improve the oil content and quality