Around the Industry / February 2011

Downard Joins Betaseed Station at Kimberly, Idaho 
 
    Betaseed, Inc.,  has named Robert Downard as research agronomist and assistant station manager for the company’s Western Sugarbeet Research Center in Kimberly, Idaho.  Downard is responsible for supervising all activities associated with seed production, including steckling production.  In addition he will assist with management of the Kimberly station.

    A Twin Falls resident, Downard holds an M.S. degree from Utah State University.  He has more than 10 years of experience in sugarbeet seed and research activities, most recently as an agriculturist with Amalgamated Sugar Company.

28th International Sweetener Symposium Is July 29-Aug. 3

    The 28th International Sweetener Symposium, hosted by the American Sugar Alliance, has been scheduled for July 29 to August 3, 2011, at the Stowe Mountain Lodge in Stowe, Vt.  Preliminary event information is on ASA’s website — www.sugaralliance.org — with more program and registration details to become available this spring.
    Traditionally, about 400 people attend the symposium to hear about timely, significant issues affecting the sweetener industry and to interact with industry colleagues.  This year’s event is sure to include a look ahead to the next farm bill, as well as discussion of the U.S. and world market supply-demand outlook and the effects of multinational, regional and bilateral trade agreements on world sugar policies and U.S. commodity programs.
    Stowe is located in north central Vermont, about 45 minutes from Burlington.


Mr. President, Times Two
Cattanach to Serve Consecutively as Prexy of BSDF & ASSBT

    Allan Cattanach may well be making sugarbeet history in March when he assumes the presidency of the American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists (ASSBT) during the group’s biennial meeting in Albuquerque, N. Mex.  That’s not unique in itself, of course.  But Cattanach is also the president of the Beet Sugar Development Foundation (BSDF), making him, it appears, the only individual to ever serve as president of both organizations consecutively.
    Tom Schwartz, executive vice president of Denver-based ASSBT and BSDF, says a similar situation “has not occurred in my tenure, which began in 1988.  I do not think it occurred prior to that, either.”
    Cattanach, American Crystal Sugar Company’s general agronomist, brings a strong familiarity with both groups to his role as president.  He has served as an American Crystal director on the BSDF board since 2003 and has been an active member of ASSBT since 1975, twice serving on its board during that period.  Cattanach, who became BSDF president in 2010, has been chairman of that organization’s project review committee since its inception in 2004.
    A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Cattanach went on to earn an M.S. degree from North Dakota State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, both in soil science.  After serving with the NDSU Extension Service as extension agent in Pembina and Renville counties, he became extension sugarbeet specialist with NDSU/UM in 1975.  Cattanach joined American Crystal in 1998 as its general agronomist.
    “I have traveled with Allan on many occasions, both domestically and internationally,” says Schwartz, “and found him to be known throughout the sugarbeet world and recognized for his wide knowledge of sugarbeet production.  I’ve enjoyed working with Allan this past year as he was president of the Beet Sugar Development Foundation, and look forward to the next two years of his presidency with the American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists.”
    The Beet Sugar Development Foundation’s membership consists of sugarbeet processing companies from throughout North America, along with beet seed suppliers.  BSDF works closely with beet research groups within the USDA Agricultural Research Service, providing both funding and recommendations on the objectives and nature of ARS sugarbeet-related research.  BSDF also sponsors the McGinnis Institute of Beet Sugar Technology, a factory-focused educational program conducted at Colorado State University, and the Beet Sugar Agricultural School, a sugar company agriculturist-focused educational program held annually at rotating institutions in sugarbeet production regions. 
    BSDF also has been actively involved in the Sugar Industry Biotech Council in recent years.
    The American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists, whose Albuquerque gathering is its 35th biennial meeting, encompasses sugarbeet and beet sugar researchers from USDA, universities and industry companies.  ASSBT seeks to “foster all phases of sugarbeet and beet sugar research [and] to promote the dissemination of resultant scientific knowledge.”  The biennial meeting — at which researchers present numerous papers in the areas of (1) agronomy, (2) entomology and plant pathology, (3) physiology, biotechnology, genetics and germplasm and (4) chemistry/instrumentation and factory operations — is a major ASSBT priority.  The group also publishes the Journal of Sugar Beet Research.