Sustainability was the focus of the 2010 BASF Agricultural Solutions media summit held last week in Chicago and as part of that event BASF released a new survey on attitudes toward farmland stewardship, and a new YouTube video highlighting how farmers are feeding a hungry planet.

I talked to Paul Rea, VP of BASF U.S. Crop Operations, about the survey and the video and decided it would make a good ZimmCast this week because it reflects what agriculture is up against and how companies like BASF are helping farmers face the future.

Paul says the survey, done by Padilla Speer Beardsley, found some significant perception gaps between growers and the general public when it comes to farmland stewardship. “The good news would be that farmers and most consumers say that stewardship practices are better today than they were ten years ago,” Paul says. The bad news is that nearly 23 percent of consumers believe stewardship practices are worse today than they were ten years ago, compared to just seven percent of farmers. A whopping 77% of farmers say stewardship practices are better now than 10 years ago, which of course they are.

So, clearly there is a disconnect that needs to be addressed and BASF believes social media is a way to get correct information out to the general public. That’s why they had “One Hungry Planet” produced for YouTube. “The video really does convey the amazing job that farmers and the ag industry has done in the last 50 years, much of it unnoticed,” Paul said. “To think that we’re producing 40 percent more corn from the same amount of land just compared to 20 years ago is incredible.”

The video is entertaining, yet educational, and packs a lot of facts in just four minutes. Take a look at the video and listen to or download this week’s ZimmCast is the audio player at the bottom of the post.

Hope you enjoy the song I picked to end the podcast called “Planet Earth” by James Larson from Music Alley. Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, Novus International, and Leica Geosytems for their support. The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our a Subscribe page.