Apparently only some media were allowed to attend a Humane Society of the United States “news” conference this morning in Des Moines, IA. But a post on a Des Moines Register blog says that it was “closed to journalists.” Now how can you have a news conference if you don’t allow media to attend?
This photo, provided via Facebook and credited to an Iowa Farm Bureau photographer, shows those not allowed in. However, there are already stories on AP and Pork Magazine which I assume means they had someone there? And the Des Moines Register had a reporter doing live tweets from the event. Pretty confusing, eh?
We do know what HSUS is up to and it’s part of their tried and true method to drum up sympathy and support. This time they’re attacking poultry and egg production. They released a nasty looking video which is supposedly shot by HSUS employees who went to work at two different poultry production facilities for a couple weeks. So, they got jobs under false pretenses. Hmm. Now I should believe what they claim they show? You can imagine how easy it would be to set up the shots you want in order to get an effect even if what the viewer thinks they’re seeing isn’t real. Not much credibility there, especially when you’re a political lobbying organization doing the production! If you have the stomach to watch you’ll hear a number of unsubstantiated claims, even with their own production efforts. Pretty pathetic.
To get a much better perspective on the realities of poultry production, especially when it comes to using cages or not using cages, I highly recommend a read of a Des Moines Register guest column by Dean Kleckner, Chairman, Truth About Trade & Technology. He wrote it before today’s event. In it he says, “The Humane Society of the United States, however, would like to turn eggs into emblems of cruelty and death.” That’s got to be a tough goal since eggs really are a well established symbol of life. He goes on to write:
The truth is more complicated. Arizona Republic columnist Linda Valdez visited an egg farm that uses cages. She confessed to thinking that she would see chickens treated “like cogs in an industrial machine.” She discovered something different. She described a clean, efficient operation that produces good eggs at a reasonable price.
Then she visited a “cage-free” farm. “Layers of chicken excrement build up on the floor,” she reported. This is what the eggs lay in until someone picks them up.
For consumers of eggs, it’s a discomforting thought.
For well informed consumers who depend on modern farming production practices for safe and affordable food, the HSUS is a discomforting thought.
Here’s one way you can support the Agri-Business Educational Foundation of the National Agri-Marketing Association.
The ABEF Online Media Auction has begun Check out these media packages and all the others at http://www.nama.org/abef/silentauction/auctionbid.htm.
The auction ends Wednesday, April 14, at 5:00 p.m. All proceeds from the Online Media and Silent Auctions benefit the Student Careers Program.
Please note: If a bid is received on an item within the last 30 minutes of the auction, the auction will remain open on that item through the next business day until 5:00 p.m. (central time). This process will continue until no bids are received within 30 minutes of the bid closing.
If you have any questions about the Online Media Auction contact Kathi Conrad at kathic@nama.org or call 913-491-6500.
I am so proud of Marri Carrow, U.S. Grains Council, who is streaming live from Japan as I write this post. We had a very short phone walk through of Ustream.tv right before she left and she got it. Well done. I think we’ll see more groups using this great tool. I think I hear her snapping photos too! I’m sure we’ll see them appear in the USGC Flickr account.
Representatives from the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Farm Bureau and the U.S. Grains Council gathered in Japan this week for a series of site visits, business meetings and to participate in the Partners-in-Agriculture events. For more than 50 years, the United States and Japan have enjoyed a partnership that has yielded more than $280 billion in sales of U.S. food and agricultural products to Japan, creating a relationship that has helped cater to the needs of Japanese consumers while fueling the U.S. economy.
The feed looks and sounds great. She’s also there with good friend, Sally Behringer, Nicholson Kovac. I knew that since one of the speakers mentioned her name.
The iPad got a great workout tonight with AgChat. My case arrived today which allows me to prop it up in portrait or landscape mode. With my bluetooth keyboard in my lap all I had to do was tap the screen every once in a while. AgChat is 2 hours and with my browser running constantly using Twubs the battery went from almost 100% to 80%. I think that’s great!
Our AgChat session was on the subject of social media in agriculture. Thanks to Kathy Swift for moderating. She did a great job.
I give both AgChat and the iPad high marks tonight!
According to the National Soybean Research Laboratory April is National Soy Foods Month. I support soy very much, however, I like mine processed by an animal (poultry, pork, cattle) first.
Soymilk, soy burgers and soy cheese are showing up in consumers’ shopping carts now more than ever. Take a stroll through your local grocery store and you’ll find soy foods front and center. Soymilk can be found in a multitude of flavors in the dairy section and tasty soy nuts show up near sunflower seeds in the snack food aisle. Today, edamame (the green soybean) embellishes salads at fast food restaurants and soy spaghetti is a well-liked entrée on school lunch menus. April is National Soy Foods Month and now more than ever, more and more people are enjoying soy.
“The nutritional benefits of soy may be among the reasons soy is gaining in popularity,” said Stacey Krawczyk, research dietitian at the National Soybean Research Laboratory (NSRL) at the University of Illinois. “Soybeans are packed full of protein. They are the only complete vegetable protein containing all essential amino acids. Soybeans contain no cholesterol, are low in saturated fat, and provide important Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids.”
I guess I just missed the announcement of the Dupont TankMix iPhone app which of course also works fine on an iPod touch.
The DuPont Information Technology’s (IT) Innovation Office, under the leadership of John Puckett, director, IT innovation, sponsored the project.
The TankMix App provides basic math calculations for the amount of product and water needed per tank or area. The current TankMix App does not contain product specific information. However, a link to the DuPont CP website guides users to specific production information and usage guidance. This app calculates spray volumes.
According to John Chrosniak, regional business director, Crop Protection, North America, the team was able to develop the app through the collaboration of a cross-functional team. Team members included John Beitler, Kevin Ego, Bernardo Tiburcio, Chandra Manickam and Mike Hemman. Work on future versions and additional applications that support Crop Protection products are underway.
The TankMix App is available through Apple’s App Store, where it is free to download on any Apple iTouch or iPhone. A simple search for Crop Protection, DuPont or Agriculture will give growers access to the free calculator.
I guess that answers the question of whether or not DuPont thinks farmers use mobile technology!
It has been a long time since I’ve reminded you of a great way to keep up with AgWired via your mobile phone. Besides the fact that AgWired is mobile phone browser friendly (it knows what kind of phone you use!) you can put that unlimited text plan to good use with AgWired Mobile. Sign up for free and get a text when we do a new post.
Messages will contain the title of the story and a link directly to it if you’d like to click through and read it right on your phone. It will keep you agricultural marketing professionals on top of your game. Sign up now:
Just text “agwired” to 46786
That’s it. You’ll get confirmation immediately and then you’ll get AgWired updates automatically. News will be sent between 8am-8pm.
If you ever want to unsubscribe (why would you?) then just text “agwired stop” to the same number.
AgWired Mobile is powered by (thank you Joel Jaeger):
The 2010 Agri-Marketing Conference and Connection Point trade show is getting closer. If you’re a professional agrimarketer attending the convention you’ll be able to enter our booth #412 drawing for a brand new B&N Nook. I like my iPad but I also like all eReaders and I’m a big B&N fan so I hope to see you stop by and visit with Cindy, Joanna or myself. I’ll be getting in during the opening session from the IFAJ Congress in Ostend, Belgium.
Now for students, don’t think we forgot about you. You’ll have your own entry box to win a new Samson Zoom H2. It’s a great tool for the farm podcaster soon to be!
We’ll also have some other cool items to give away for everyone who stops by so we hope to see you in Kansas City, MO.
AgWired coverage of the 2010 Agri-Marketing Conference will be sponsored once again by Successful Farming. I’m sure I’ll be having some pre-conference announcements from SF for you so keep watching your AgWired feed wherever you get it (RSS, Text, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Widget, or just plain old visiting the website). Remember that AgWired is mobile phone enabled, meaning you’ll get a great phone browser experience regardless of what phone you have.
When it comes to sustainable food production, enhanced efficiency fertilizers are starting to play a role. At the Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer Conference Charlie Walker, Incitec Pivot Ltd., Australia was on the program to talk about how they’re using urease and nitrification inhibitors to accomplish this. If you like a good Aussie accent then you’ll enjoying listening to Charlie. He’s a technical and development manager for his company.
He told the audience that EEF’s can improve environmental quality. However, when he thinks of sustainability he also thinks about profitability and minimizing off-target impacts. He calls it a “double whammy.” It has to not only help the environment but also make sense financially for the farmer. He recommends working with a well informed agronomist since there isn’t a one size fits all when it comes to EEF’s. He says that in Australia EEF’s are in the very early stages of adoption.
You can listen to my interview with Charlie below.
If the AgChat Foundation has its way the whole nation will be participating in a weekly Twitter conversation. Okay. Maybe that’s a little grandiose but the goal of the Foundation is to get many more farmers involved with Agvocacy by telling their story and interacting with consumers and each other via social networking.
In this week’s program I’ve got another in my series of interviews with AgChat Foundation board members. You can listen to Kansas farmer, Darin Grimm, talk about his involvement and what we hope to accomplish.
Darin farms with his father and a couple of valued partners raising row crops and feeding cattle in the northeast corner of Kansas. Darin has been involved for a number of years in precision agriculture and using data to help understand and improve agronomic decisions on the farm. “With such a small amount of the population directly connected to growing their food today, social media seems to be a vital component in helping people understand today’s farm business. My personal passion is applying the data skills I have learned from working with technology such as sensors and GPS systems to the world of
social media.”
The Mosaic Company announced that it entered into an agreement with Vale S.A. and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. related to a proposed joint venture that will own the Bayovar phosphate rock mine being constructed by Vale in Peru.
The National Pork Producers Council has hired Chris Wall as assistant vice president for government relations in its Washington, D.C., public-policy office.
IRON Solutions, Inc., will consolidate its management and headquarters functions in new offices in Franklin, Tenn.
The Oklahoma Pork Council selected Ron Hays, director of farm programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, to receive the Distinguished Service Award.
Here’s my first review of my new iPad. I’m sure I’ll have more to write in coming days after I get accessories and have more time to be on it. If you’ve already got yours send me a photo of you with it and let me know your thoughts.
I’ve got my extra Apple bluetooth keyboard paired to it which makes typing a lot faster. The built in keypad is very easy to use and a big relief from the iPhone one, especially for those with big fingers.
This will not replace my Macbook Pro notebook. However, for some people who only want to do email, browse do social networking and consume media (books, magazines, movies, etc.) this will be quite sufficient. I see me using it at home to grab and do the above functions and it’s going to be great for the airports and planes.
I like the fact that it turns on instantly. So let’s say you come home, sit down in your recliner and want to deal with email or surf the web. Pick it up and boom, you’re online. (more…)
Happy Easter AgWired fans. Today is a day of celebration since it marks the greatest event to ever happen in the history of the world. Jesus rising from the dead.
Since so many people will be celebrating by coloring Easter eggs and cooking big meals I think we should give thanks to God for our bounty and sending His Son as our savior. And if it’s not too presumptuous, I also want to thank our farmers and ranchers who produce the safest and most nutritious and bountiful food supply in the world. In fact, I would apply that to all farmers anywhere in the world.
USDA does have a sense of humor. At least Mary Ann Leonard at the National Agriculture Library does. Here’s her April Fool’s Day post on the NAL Blog. It’s so good I had to share it. The photo credit is, “by Extraterrestrial Farmers United Intergalactic rights reserved.”
USDA, the “Every Day, Every Way” Department, made its play for the hearts and minds of visitors to our Nation’s Capital by employing alien crop circle technology to carve the Department’s logo into the grass of the National Mall.
Tourists lucky enough to be on the observation deck of the Washington Monument on April 1st got a bird’s eye view of the spectacular sight.
Strangely, however, only one photo of the phenomenon — the one you see above — was released. All other photos were eerily erased without any known intervention.
Miraculously, the green expanse is expected to be back to normal by Friday, April 2nd, just in time for the crowds that will descend on the Mall and the Tidal Basin area this weekend to see this year’s cherry blossoms.
The (first) AgWired iPad has arrived and is fully synced and ready for action. Give me a day or two to use it and I’ll be writing about my impressions.
In the photo are my iMac, iPad and iPhone. You can get a perspective on size from that. From a very quick first impression, it has a beautiful screen and readability is significantly easier than iPhone. I’m thinking some shirt makers have got to be coming up with a pocket design that is, let’s just say, huge! LOL. As if you’d be putting this thing in a pocket anyway.
My case and a couple other accessories are still on their way and I’ll be including them in my ongoing review. For now, let me just say that AgWired looks awesome on an iPad!
Alert and soon to be uber-cool AgWired fan, Curt Blades, is in line at the Apple Store in Des Moines to obtain his iPad. Yes folks. Pics like this one are all over the web this morning on National iPad Day.
Curt says there’s at least 100 in two lines, one for reservations and one for walk-ins. If he sends one after his pick up I’ll add it later.
Yours truly is hoping that the big brown truck shows up today since there is no mid Missouri Apple Store.
Post Update:
Here’s Curt’s iPad being checked out. He’ll beat me to having his synced but if all goes well, mine will be done by end of day too.
So why does anyone care? Keep reading AgWired and you’ll see the story unfold as this new technology continues to change the way we consume and use media.
It looks like we’ll have another study out next month on how farmers use media, especially “digital.” The American Business Media’s (ABM) Agricultural Council and Readex Research will conduct a major agricultural research study that will explore the use of digital, mobile and social media channels by farmers and ranchers. I hope they survey some AgChatters! There has been a lot of this research done in the past couple years. It will be interesting to see how this study compares to the others.
The study’s objective is to gain new insights into how specific digital channels fit into the overall behavioral pattern of farmers and ranchers and to understand how these channels layer onto other traditional channels in terms of influencing behavior.
“We believe this research will add significant new information to the industry’s knowledge base and enable Ag media companies to better serve the needs of Ag marketers,” said Bill Miller, vice chairman of Meister Media Worldwide and chair of ABM’s Agri Council.
Some of the specific question areas the study will address include: how often farmers and ranchers view, visit, attend or use different Ag media or information sources; what media and information sources farmers and ranchers use at different points in the decision-making process; and how the importance of various media and information sources is likely to change in the next three to four years.
The study is currently in the field, with results available in April 2010.
Let’s go ahead and meet another farmer member of the Board of Directors of the AgChat Foundation via YouTube. He’s Jeff Fowle, California. As the fourth generation to farm and ranch at his current location, and raising the fifth, it is extremely important to Jeff that the land remains productive, the environment healthy and the water plentiful. “Engaging in a positive manner through social media and other outlets is essential in order to effectively communicate with the public what, why and how we do what we do. An educated public and consumer, is agriculture’s best insurance policy for future generations to share our passion and commitment to providing the safest, most abundant and affordable food supply in the world. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to work with such a diverse and enthusiastic group of agvocates on what is certain to be a most rewarding endeavor.”
You can meet some other board members on the AgChat YouTube channel. Yes, we’re into social media folks, direct from the farm.
That weekly AgChat Twitter conversation is nearing its one year anniversary and it has helped energize and inspire many farmers to engage online to agvocate for their industry using social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook. Still wondering if farmers are engaged online?
Today the AgChat Foundation has been announced via Twitter. This farmer led group “is designed to empower more farmers to leverage social media as a tool to tell agriculture’s story. The Foundation will educate and equip farmers and ranchers with the skill set needed to effectively engage on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, Linkedin and other social media services. It will give them knowledge to unlock new tools to effectively tell their story. Research shows that social media is a growing opportunity for farmers to have a stronger voice in educating people about the business of growing food, fuel, feed and fiber.” I interviewed Mike Haley, one of our farmer board members, about the announcement and have posted it below.
The Foundation is farmer led but I have the honor to serve on the founding board as an Agribusiness Liaison. In addition to a board of directors we also have an advisory board which I’ve listed below. You can find this information and more on the AgChat Foundation website. Let me also say a big thank you to Michele Payn-Knoper for getting this all started a year ago!
Board of Directors:
Chris Chinn – Missouri, Farmer
Jeff Fowle – California, Farmer & Rancher
Mark Gale – Wisconsin, Agribusiness Liaison
Eliz Greene – Wisconsin, Consumer & Healthcare Liasion
Darin Grimm – Kansas, Farmer
Mike Haley – Ohio, Farmer
Shaun Haney – Alberta, Canada, Farmer
Michele Payn-Knoper, CSP – Indiana, Professional Speaker
Ray Prock, Jr. – California, Farmer
Chris Raines, Ph.D. – Pennsylvania, Extension
Tricia Braid Terry – Illinois, Checkoff Liaison
Chuck Zimmerman – Missouri, Agribusiness Liaison
Advisory Board:
James Andu, Vancouver, British Columbia – Your Local Foods
John Blue, Indiana – Truffle Media
Zach Hunnicut, Nebraska – Hunnicut Family Farms
Janice Person, Tennessee – Monsanto
Brent Pohlman, Nebraska – Midwest Labs
Craig Raysor, Tennessee – Gillon & Associates
Nate Taylor, Illinois – ZedX
Mace Thornton, Washington D.C. – American Farm Bureau Federation
Dr. Scott Vernon, California – California Polytechnical Institute San Luis Obispo
Tim Zweber – Zweber Family Farms
Let’s meet board member Mike Haley. Mike is a fifth generation grain and cattle farmer in northern Ohio. Mike believes not only in raising healthy crops and animals, but also working to ensure that future generations will be able to continue to do the same. This not only means that Mike must continuously work to ensure that his farm is operating in a sustainable way, but also that others understand what farmers are doing on a daily basis to ensure that they are acting in a socially acceptable manner. “Social media is a valuable tool that allows us to communicate with others across the country about our farming operation while we are working on daily tasks.”
In my interview with Mike we talk about farmer use of social media and what we hope to accomplish with the AgChat Foundation. I’ll be interviewing all our board members over the next several weeks.
Syngenta announced the first European registration of the new fungicide isopyrazam, which is expected to enhance significantly its market position, notably in cereals.
AgriLabs has introduced two novel awards available to young veterinarians actively working with beef and dairy operations. Named as a tribute to Dr. W. Bruce Wren, each award will provide a $5,000 grant for professional-development training, ultimately helping these veterinarians better serve their producer-clients. The first two grants will be awarded in August 2010, with completed applications due June 15, 2010.
Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health is partnering with the Dairy Calf & Heifer Association (DCHA) to educate dairy leaders through the 2010 Leadership Program.
University of Illinois researchers recently identified a new soybean aphid biotype that can multiply on aphid-resistant soybean varieties. Soybean aphids are the No. 1 insect threat to soybean production in the North Central region of the United States.
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
David conducted a presentation on delivering expert opinion via social media to an audience at the start of International Poultry Expo week. He's got some great information about who consumers trust and how you can use today's consumer behavior to help communicate your message.
Apparently only some media were allowed to attend a Humane Society of the United States “news” conference this morning in Des Moines, IA. But a post on a Des Moines Register blog says that it was “closed to journalists.” Now how can you have a news conference if you don’t allow media to attend?
It has been a long time since I’ve reminded you of a great way to keep up with AgWired via your mobile phone. Besides the fact that AgWired is 
When it comes to sustainable food production, enhanced efficiency fertilizers are starting to play a role. At the Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer Conference Charlie Walker, 
If the 
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
