During my trip to Italy last week one of our memorable stops was the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo. That sounds like a foodies idea of a college! However, I have to note that the University was started by Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food Movement. He has a rather interesting background according to this post in Wikipedia. …
Global Water For Food Conference Preview
Mobilizing new data gathering capabilities to improve global water and food security is the subject of the sixth annual Water for Food Global Conference, hosted by the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska in association with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Oct. 19-22 in Seattle, Wash. This year’s conference theme, “Harnessing the Data …
Verdesian Mission: Education
Verdesian has a mission as part of being a science-based company. And part of that mission is education – education of both journalists and farmers. To learn more about why this is so important, I spoke with Michael Berry, senior marketing manager with Verdesian, who hosted about half a dozen ag media at Los Alamos National Laboratory. As Berry succinctly …
Los Alamos Nat’l Laboratory Ag Innovations
I recently had the opportunity to spend some time at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). While the federal lab’s main mission is military defense, many innovations can be reimagined to work well in agriculture. To learn more about going from the lab to the field, I spoke with John Mott, technical writer for LANL. Mott first started at LANL …
CFWF Digs Deep into Video Journalism
“Dig Deep” was the theme for the Canadian Farm Writers Federation 2014 conference in Prince Edward Island, and professional development time was spent digging deep into using video, even if you are a print journalist. “Everybody (in journalism) has to be kind of a Swiss Army Knife now, you have to be able to do it all,” said Ian Petrie, …
Farm Journal Announces MyFarmRadio.com
Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. Eleven years ago when we started farm podcasting the new channel for farm news distribution was in its infancy. Look how far we’ve come with the latest announcement from Farm Journal Radio (pdf). Farmers are no different from the general public in adopting and using their smart phones and tablets to get information and …
Vilsack Spotlights Ag Innovation
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spotlighted agricultural innovations during an appearance at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Monday. Vilsack stressed the importance of global cooperation in biotechnology innovations. “It’s in our long term best interest as a global community that we encourage appropriate science, that we encourage biotechnology, ways to grow crops with less water, less pesticides, less chemicals,” he …
Vilsack Gaining on Glickman in Office
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is within two weeks of serving longer in that position than Dan Glickman under President Clinton. “In about 15 days he will beat my record, because I was in office about 5 years and 11 months,” said Glickman during his introduction of Vilsack at a Chicago Council on Global Affairs event on Monday. “He’s doing this …
CFWF 2014 Award Winners
No conference is complete without awards and the Canadian Farm Writers Federation was no exception. Pictured here from left to right are some of CFWF’s best of the best for 2014. Alice McFarlane, Fabmar Communications received the Gold level award in the Electronic Media-Audio category; Lisa Guenther, Farm Business Communications scored Silver in the Press Editorial category; Wayne Riley, Agriculture …
CFWF Discovers PEI Products
Cheese, mussels, potatoes and preserves were just a few of the many Prince Edward Island products that Canadian Farm Writers learned more about during the 2014 CFWF conference. Bruce MacNaughton and his wife operate the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company, located in an old butter factory, which uses local produce to make a variety of tasty preserves, marmalades, jellies, honeys, …