About “Beyond the Rows”

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.

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About Janice Person

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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The Chicago Council Symposium on Global Food Security Featured Article

This week, I have the opportunity to be a fly on the wall in a place where some incredible minds are going to discuss global challenges regarding food production. The Global Food Security Symposium 2013, hosted by The Chicago Council, will “urge U.S. leadership in mobilizing science, increasing trade and capitalizing on the power of business to meet future food demand.” A topic this big requires a broad range of people to be engaged, and that’s exactly who will be in the room — leaders from science, government, business and civil society.

When I discovered that I … Full Article »

Tags: Catherine Bertini, Chicago Council, food security, Global Food Security Sumposium, poverty, Syracuse University

Originally published
May 21, 2013 by Janice Person

A Beltwide Cotton Conference First After Decades of Attending Featured Article

It’s that time of the year when farmers are headed to meetings to hear about new products, agronomic practices and other things that will be beneficial to know in the coming year. Meetings are held locally, by state and by various commodity organizations. If you are a cotton farmer or work in the cotton industry, you are probably already thinking about the Beltwide Cotton Conferences. I know I am.

The Beltwide holds a long tradition for the industry as well as for many of its members. I wrote about my first Beltwide experience before. There are meetings of all … Full Article »

Tags: Beltwide, Cotton, Cotton Belt, National Cotton Council

Originally published
January 4, 2013 by Janice Person

Wagner family shucking sweet corn on their farm

VIDEO: A Farm Family’s Obsession is Sweet Corn Featured Article

This is my first summer living in the Midwest and although I had spent a lot of time in St. Louis the last several years, I didn’t really “get it.” Lots of things were familiar and the differences, well I didn’t spend much time on. Slowly though, I am beginning to appreciate the differences.

One big difference?

It seems like people here love sweet corn every bit as much as Southerners love tomatoes. Now don’t get me wrong, I have always loved the taste of sweet corn, especially when it was fresh from the garden. And I know many … Full Article »

Tags: biotech, Biotechnology, GMO, Obsession, sweet corn

Originally published
September 7, 2012 by Janice Person

An Afternoon with Meg & “Doug the Tomato Dude” Featured Article

A month or so ago, I spent a couple of days with members of our Vegetables team in California. It was a great change in pace from being in the office — having a chance to talk at length with people who spend their days looking for ways to improve fruits and vegetables for farmers and eaters like me. An added bonus was that I met Megan Brown, a sixth generation rancher from Chico, California that I’d been talking with on Twitter for more than two years. (See how happy we were to finally meet each other?)

As somewhat early adopters of using … Full Article »

Tags: California, gardening, Monsanto Employees, Research, tomato, vegetable, Vegetables

Originally published
August 10, 2012 by Janice Person

They Are Farming and They Grow It: Learning About The Peterson’s Farm Featured Article

A month ago, the Peterson Farm Brothers – Greg, Nathan and Kendal – were busy finishing up wheat harvest on the family’s farm in Assaria, Kansas. They were fairly typical farm guys from what some friends on campus or in town have said.

They are passionate about agriculture and they enjoy having fun. Those two things – paired with Greg’s studies in communications and music – led them to do a song parody / video of LMFAO’s song changing it to “I’m farming and I grow it.”

When I first saw the video, it had been online … Full Article »

Tags: Assaria Kansas, Cattle, Corn, Greg, Kansas, Kendal, Nathan, United States, Wheat, YouTube

Originally published
July 27, 2012 by Janice Person

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 »

Tags: California, Cotton, fiber, Fiber crop, Plant, Twitter, United States

Originally published
May 1, 2012 by Janice Person

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 »

Tags: Ag education, Agriculture, Centralia, Illinois, Kaskaskia College, teach

Originally published
March 14, 2012 by Janice Person

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 »

Tags: Agriculture, Biotechnology, Brian Scott, Farm, Food System, GMO

Originally published
March 8, 2012 by Janice Person

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 »

Tags: American Farm Bureau Federation, farmer, Michigan, Ranch, Twitter, Youth, YouTube

Originally published
February 17, 2012 by Janice Person

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 »

Tags: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment, FDA, government, industry, Michael Taylor, Monsanto, revolving door, U.S. Government, USDA

Originally published
February 15, 2012 by Janice Person

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