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Beyond the Rows is a Monsanto Company blog focused on one of the world’s most important industries, agriculture. Monsanto employees write about Monsanto’s business, the agriculture industry, and the farmer.avatar Monsantoco Posts

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About Janice Person

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Janice Person is a fourth generation Memphian (at least on one side of the family) who recently moved to St. Louis. While studying communications in college, a friend of the family hired Janice to work at a farm magazine and something took hold. Janice still remembers the first on-farm interview vividly and has since learned a lot from the farmers she's met. Having lived in various regions, from a population center like metro New York to a town of 600 in the Mississippi Delta, she has had the chance to see lots of people & places. Her love of communications revolves frequently around sharing other people's stories -- some family and friends are still surprised she became an "aggie" as an adult. Janice's passions include agriculture, photography/videography and travel.
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First Graders Learn About Cotton Featured Article

Today’s blog post is written by Sarah who I met through Twitter where she uses the handle @houseagbuilt. Sarah teaches elementary school in the Sacramento, California area. She came from a farming background and remains passionate about food and farm. She always knew she wanted to teach too so it seems only natural that she’d combine the two. When she was looking for some materials, we connected and I sent her a box from Cotton’s Journey I had as well as getting her in touch with a California cotton farmer. She learned alot in the process of teaching … Full Article »

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Originally published
May 1, 2012 by Janice Person

Teach Ag Day 2012

VIDEO: Celebrating National Teach Ag Day by Hearing from an Ag Teacher

There are days set aside to offer recognition for various foods, states, safety measures and careers. While we can’t possibly write blog posts about all of them, Thursday March 15 is a day that needs to be acknowledged. It is National Teach Ag Day. It’s the day set aside to acknowledge the work teachers of agriculture do every day of the school year and to pause and think about the importance of that job. It’s also a great time for students to give thought to pursuing a career in ag education.

I didn’t grow up in agriculture so … Full Article »

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Originally published
March 14, 2012 by Janice Person

Farmer Blogger

Farmer Bloggers Making Their Voices Heard

Since today is agriculture day, we thought a great way to celebrate would be to highlight a few of the people who are actively sharing their ag stories online. There are a lot of voices sharing their personal story about agriculture, so we thought it may be good to highlight a few of them now and then, so our hope is this will become a series.

With the number of voices, sadly we can’t highlight them all, but hopefully our readers will find it advantageous to discover blogs telling the story straight from the farm, ranch or science bench. The … Full Article »

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Originally published
March 8, 2012 by Janice Person

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Visiting with America’s Young Farmers & Ranchers

The baby boomer generation combined with smaller families and the lower birth rate has a lot of people aware of the “graying of America.” I saw a stat whizz past me yesterday on Twitter that pointed out that a majority of America’s farmers and ranchers are among the AARP target audience. And that we need to find more young farmers. Well, that’s the opportunity ahead of me this weekend as I get to attend part of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmers & Ranchers Leadership Conference!

This will be my first time at the conference so I’m not sure … Full Article »

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Originally published
February 17, 2012 by Janice Person

USDA

I heard Monsanto Employees Control USDA, FDA, etc

Do you ever wonder if Monsanto people are making decisions about the future of the country through positions at the USDA, FDA or other government bodies? It’s a strange question but based on the Twitter search strings I see sometimes, it seems this is a theory a lot of people think is plausible. What’s the basis for the thought? A handful of Monsanto employees in the past couple of decades left the company and ended up working for the U.S. Government.

In no way, does Monsanto control the government. We simply seem to have a shared goal of hiring good … Full Article »

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Originally published
February 15, 2012 by Janice Person

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Monsanto’s Annual Shareholder Meeting

Today was the annual shareholder meeting for Monsanto Company. I’ve been to several of these before, both here at Monsanto and for other companies. I can remember the first one I went to… it really didn’t match my expectations. I’m not sure what I expected – maybe something like the excitement in “Mr Deeds.”

Although I like to know how the business is doing and how shareholders voted on topics in front of them, the central part of the meeting for me has been participation of farmers. Maybe that’s because I’m working here everyday and feel like I have a … Full Article »

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Originally published
January 24, 2012 by Janice Person

Hawaiian fruits and vegetables

An Incredible Learning Experience With Farm Bureau

For the last few years, I have had an opportunity to go to the annual meeting of the Farm Bureau. A group of us have also enjoyed being able to share the experience in real-time (thanks to Twitter) and with a bit of reflection on the AFBF meeting blog. This year, I wrote 1-2 blog posts a day with several of them featuring video interviews with farmers engaged in the meetings. The pace of doing that along with all the other activities seemed dizzying at times but what a rewarding experience it has been! I thought you would like … Full Article »

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Originally published
January 13, 2012 by Janice Person

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Getting to Know the Farm Bureau

This week as millions of Americans went back to work after the New Year‘s holiday, thousands of men and women who kept working straight through the holidays began packing and finalizing schedules to have friends and family care for crops and livestock. Many of these farmers worked through the holidays but find the American Farm Bureau Federation‘s annual meeting requires their time.

The words “farm bureau” sometimes get thrown around without anyone taking the time to step back and talk about the basics of the organization. So before the thousands of farmers gather, I asked a few of … Full Article »



Originally published
January 7, 2012 by Janice Person

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VIDEO BLOG: Strategies to Insure Farmer Productivity with Corn Rootworm Control

We generally look at three components for farmers to succeed with Monsanto products – agronomics, breeding and biotechnology. We work closely with agronomists at the state level across the country and have focal regions for each crop. And we share this information in a variety of ways, including our Technology Use Guide as we provide the best agronomic management practices to obtain the greatest yield and sustainably manage insect pests.

For the Corn Belt, there are great resources for us to work with in developing the best agronomic recommendations to accompany our corn products. In addition to work conducted … Full Article »

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Originally published
November 11, 2011 by Janice Person

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Wagner Farms Focuses on Flexibility & the Future

Seeing the presentation farmer & rancher Val Wagner gave at the #140conf Small Town, some people naturally wondered about her farm. She took a little time to give me an overview of Wagner Farms (Monango, ND) after our presentations were completed. I wanted to hear how she and Mark ran their farm. And I wondered how they approached things that can elicit strong opinions – biotech or GMO seeds and the practice of buying or saving seeds.

As we visited, I couldn’t get over how comfortable she was on camera. And it certainly struck me again as I prepared … Full Article »



Originally published
November 3, 2011 by Janice Person