We’re on a roll with the holiday greetings. I like this one from American Farmland Trust’s latest email. Best wishes for the holidays from American Farmland Trust and the Farm Fresh News team! Take a few minutes to watch a video about farmers helping the urban poor, learn a few ways to celebrate the holidays in a greener, farm-friendly way …
Energy Bill Pleases and Disappoints
The farm bill isn’t the only legislation of interest to ag groups right now. In fact, I think I’ve had more email over the energy bill lately. Of course it’s now on it’s way to the President to sign tomorrow morning and who knows when that will happen with the farm bill. Here’s a sample of comments just sent out …
2007 National Corn Yield Contest Winners
The National Corn Growers Association has announced the Corn Yield Contest winners. Not only was the number of entries higher than ever before, but several entrants scored yields of more than double the estimated average. The 27 winners in nine production categories had verified yields averaging more than 298 bushels per acre, compared to the estimated national average of 153 …
Ag Dept Reaches Children Through Disney and Video
The latest ploy from the USDA to teach kids about nutrition features characters from Walt Disney’s ‘The Jungle Book.’ The Ag Department is working with Partners with Ad Council and Collaborates with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment in an effort to promote nutrition education to children and families. The United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Nutrition and Consumer Services and …
Michael Walter Named President of CMC and TEGMA
Here’s a couple of groups I’m not familiar with. But I do know they have a new leader. I’ll bet we could all learn a lot more if they would have me blog their annual meeting. The Commodity Markets Council (CMC), a competitive markets association, announced today that Michael D. Walter has been named President of the organization. Walter, who …
Media Interviewing Suggestions
I was waiting to hear what Steve Leer, Purdue University would have to say in his presentation this morning. His topic is “Interviewing with the Media: Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say.” Instead of the interactive TurningPoint clicker he’s having us write our answers to questions on a notepad he handed out to us. The notepads promote Ag Answers, …
Authoritative Producer Message Delivery
We’re onto the subject of “Delivering a Message to the Producer: Present the Facts, You are the Authority!” This presentation is being done by Fred Whitford, Purdue University. Here’s Fred using some creative props to help make a point. It took me a few minutes to get a picture since he’s wandering all over the room. He also doesn’t need …
Perfect Poster Presentation
Now it’s time to talk about “Crafting the Perfect Poster: Catchy, Clear, and Concise.” Christy Sprague, Michigan State University, is doing this presentation and we’re clicking with TurningPoint again. I think she’s really just trying to keep us awake. Not really. Our presenters are doing a great job. I think Vince (right) sat in the first row so he could …
Make That Scientific Presentation
Here at the NCWSS Convention Communications Symposium we’re onto the next topic which is on “Presenting Research to a Scientific Audience.” She says we’ve got about 12 minutes to make the presentation so she’s going over how we structure our short presentation including a short introduction, describe our methodology and the results or findings. Our presenter is Karen Renner, Michigan …
Scientific Writing Advice
The communications symposium is still going on here at the NWCSS Convention. Here’s the next presenter after me. He’s Kent Harrison, The Ohio State University. He just finished talking on the subject of Scientific Writing: Meeting the Reader’s Needs. Ken says you can find information on his website. This is a dark room so I apologize for the picture quality.