On this #thankafarmer and #foodthanks day how about giving farmers a high five? Voting is now open in the 2010 Alpharma Reach Teach Learn Student Video Contest.
Their are five videos entered in the contest and I just voted. Voting is being done via Facebook and it’s hard to decide but someone has to win!
Phase II of the Alpharma Student Video Contest is now underway. This final phase of the contest ends November 23, so get your entries in asap. It’s your chance to win $5,000. You can find the contest rules here.
Thanks to those of you who submitted clips during Phase I of the Alpharma Student Video Contest. A total of 146 clips were submitted and are now available to download for the remainder of the contest. Phase I of the Student Video Contest is now closed, and it’s time to move on to Phase II, which opened Monday, October 19th.
With the kickoff of Phase II you’ll be able to view and download the clips that were submitted throughout the first phase of the contest by going to the contest Web site. You can use any number of video clips from the first phase of the contest and/or your own media to make the most creative and educational video possible for your chance to win $5,000.
We look forward to reviewing the submitted videos, but please remember you only have until November 23rd to submit them. As always, feel free to contact Amanda Eberle at aeberle@charlestonorwig.com or 262-563-5100 with questions.
Alpharma Animal Health is reaching out to teach young people more about agriculture through a grassroots educational program called “Reach Teach and Learn.”
The company launched the program earlier this year at the 2009 Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. The program supports local school districts and colleges through initiatives that encourage students to learn more about agriculture and how their food is produced, and to share their insights and knowledge about what they learned. I talked with Dr. Lance Fox, Alpharma’s Director of Technical Services, at their exhibit during World Dairy Expo about the purpose of the program.
“Essentially the program is designed to reach out to our youth – elementary, high school, college-level students – our future leaders of tomorrow, to promote agricultural awareness,” Lance told me. “It’s not about products, it’s just about reaching out to the youth.”
It’s also about motivating young people to reach their own personal and professional goals, something Lance has done in his own life and he shares that story when he talks with young people of all ages. He grew up in the Wisconsin dairy industry, became a veterinarian, joined Alpharma as a technical services manager, and earlier this year achieved the personal goal of climbing to the top of Mt. Everest. “If you believe, you can achieve,” Lance says.
Find out more about the Reach Teach and Learn program, which features an essay and video contest for different age level students, at reachteachlearn.com.
Listen to or download my interview with Lance here.
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“Using Popular Media to Tell Dairy Farming’s Story” was the topic of a Tuesday morning seminar at World Dairy Expo conducted by Jolene Griffin of Dairy Management Inc. (pictured on the left) and Polly Ligon O’Grady of Weber Shandwick (right).
Who would have imagined even just a few years ago that things with funny names like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube would allow individual agricultural producers to communicate with people all over the world? And, as Jolene told the group on hand, it has never been more important for them to do so. “Other people are actually out there telling our story and they’re telling the wrong story,” Jolene said. “There’s so much misinformation about the dairy industry out there that we need to mobilize dairy producers and the dairy industry to counter that misinformation and to give consumers the correct information about dairy farming and the dairy products that they enjoy.”
Jolene says they launched the MyDairy program earlier this year to help producers learn more about using the various social media platforms and providing key messages to help them communicate effectively. “Since that time we have had over 600 dairy producers sign on for the MyDairy program and they’ve really embraced social media to tell their story,” Jolene said. Producers can sign up for the program by emailing mydairy@rosedmi.com.
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