Animal welfare is a hot topic right now in the agribusiness world and anyone involved in animal agriculture should know that they’ve got a friend in Washington, DC called the Foundation For Biomedical Research. FBR has a new voice as I mentioned recently and that’s Paul McKellips. He’s bringing his multimedia skills to the organization to help get out good scientific information on this issue. One of the first things we talked about is the difference in animal welfare and animal rights. I spoke with him this morning not only about the mission of FBR but how they’re using various new and social media platforms to accomplish their communication objectives.

Paul says that FBR is using Facebook and podcasting and has plans for additional social communications efforts. According to him, “New media is the future of communications.” I can’t agree more. That doesn’t mean that FBR isn’t working with traditional media outlets though. The very same elements of new media like podcasts can also be used by traditional media and FBR is making sure that they continue to develop relationships with those media representatives. Paul encourages broadcasters and podcasters to make use of their new Animal Research Minute program for example.

Instead of ending the program this week with music I’m going to let you hear the latest Animal Research Minute. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 202 (22 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Paul McKellips - ZimmCast 202

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