Laura just brought my attention to “Slow Food,” an organization that I coincidentally mentioned in a recent post. I haven’t finished checking them out but did come across an article on their website that rings true to American agricultural journalists.

In his article Phil Rees bemoans the lack of alcohol in today’s newsrooms. He writes about the good old days and he could just as easily be writing about U. S. journalists instead of British ones. We have political correctness gone mad in the world today so everyone’s afraid to do anything. One of the reasons I wanted out of the traditional corporate media world was that I was hearing and feeling “it just isn’t fun anymore” way too much.

Phil’s article is hilarious and makes for a good laugh. If you think ag journalists are any different then you haven’t been to an NAFB or AMS convention. We used to joke at NAFB that it stood for Nearly Always Free Beer. I can provide you with plenty of anecdotes like ones in the article from many years in ag media. Here’s an excerpt from Phil’s article.

It was not unusual for a newsroom sub-editor to pull out a hip flask and take a slug or two in between visits to the bar. I remember being offered a scotch at about ten in the morning by a hardened lead story writer from Glasgow. I was allocated to be his assistant that day.