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Meet Our First Agri-Blogger Intern

Cindy Zimmerman

maggie-seilerWe are so pleased with the response to our new agri-blogging internship program. It was tough to choose just one for the summer semester, but we finally decided on Maggie Seiler – a sophomore at Kansas State University dual majoring in agricultural communications and journalism and animal sciences and industry.

Maggie grew up on a dairy operation outside of Wichita and has worked for the Kansas Dairy Association and the Kansas Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Alternative Crops, as well as serving as an Agricultural Ambassador and an officer for the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow. She is very interested in the agriculture use of social media.

“Blogging and the use of social media platforms is becoming an increasingly important part of journalism and the agricultural industry,” Maggie said in her application. “I really appreciate the ability of online platforms and blogs to provide the vital information from agriculture industry meeting to members of the community that cannot physically travel to events. ZimmComm is a company that stays on the cutting-edge of industry developments sharing them with producers. I would really like to be a part of this movement and especially focus on increasing my knowledge of using online platforms to reach out to agriculturists.”

We are not wasting any time getting Maggie on the agri-blogging highway. She will be joining Chuck next week for the 2013 Alltech Symposium in Lexington, Kentucky and you can expect to meet her at other events this summer.

Welcome, Maggie!

Education, Media, ZimmComm Announcement

Coca-Cola Supports Florida Citrus

Cindy Zimmerman

coke-citrusOrange juice is the “Real Thing” in Florida and Coca-Cola is helping the industry keep brightening our days with glasses of sunshine.

The Coca-Cola company is committing $2 billion to support the citrus industry in Florida by planting of 25,000 acres of new orange groves in the Sunshine State.

Under the agreement with with Cutrale Citrus Juices and Peace River Citrus Products, growers will plant 5 million new trees on land that previously held citrus groves or are now idle in Polk, DeSoto and Hendry Counties, and Coca-Cola will buy the fruit. The investment is expected to create approximately 4,100 new jobs and add more than $422 million per year to Florida’s economy.

coke-putnam“Citrus is synonymous with Florida, but the industry has faced many challenges in recent years, particularly the growing threat of citrus greening,” said Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam.

Citrus greening is a bacterial disease that poses an existential threat to the state’s $9 billion citrus industry. The disease is spread by the Asian citrus psyllid and causes trees to produce misshapen and bitter fruit. Infected trees generally die within three to five years. The disease is present in every citrus-producing county in Florida and in more than half of the state’s groves. The Florida Legislature recently appropriate $9.5 million to support research and the fight against citrus greening across the state.

Agribusiness, Citrus

The Glass Walls Project

Jamie Johansen

aaa-13-044_edited-2Speaker after speaker during the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit reminded us that transparency is no longer an option for the livestock industry. To prove that the agriculture community has nothing to hide, groups have opened their doors to share how your food is made.

Senior Vice President for Public Affairs & Professional Development at the American Meat Institute, Janet Riley, was one of those speakers who shared how her organization is bridging the divide between producer and consumer. I got the opportunity to talk with her and she gave more insight into AMI’s Glass Wall Project.

“For far too long the animal rights activists have said if slaughter houses had glass walls everyone would be a vegetarian and I didn’t believe it. Then Cargill really gets a lot of credit for the inspiration when they allowed the Oprah show into their plant. It went so well. It was just a very honest dialogue, they didn’t shy away from anything. So I started talking to Temple Grandin and I said will you be willing to host some videos and just explain in your own works how we slaughter livestock. She was delighted to show people what we do and how she has influenced what we do. She picked two plants that were representative of the beef and pork industries. Both agreed to open their doors to us. Then we decided that we would produce these videos in Temple’s own words. We wanted authentic transparency and so we just allowed Temple to explain in the best way she could how we process livestock into meat at each step of the way. It was a really interesting experience. Every now and then I would say consumers might not understand why we do this, could you explain it? And then she would.”

The beef and pork processing plant videos can be viewed at AnimalHandling.org, along with more information on meat processing. AMI is looking into producing a turkey processing video next. These videos are a great educational tool and open doors for progressive dialogue.

Listen to or download my interview with Janet here: Interview with Janet Riley

Listen to or download audio from Janet’s complete presentation here: Janet Riley - American Meat Institute

Check out photos from the event: 2013 Animal Ag Alliance Stakeholders Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit is sponsored by National Pork Producers Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Animal Agriculture, Audio, Beef, Food, NCBA, NPPC, Pork

Farm Credit Idea Share

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Credit Idea ShareIt’s time to discuss some ideas at the 2013 Farm Credit Idea Share in New Orleans. I’m headed that way today and will be participating on this panel tomorrow morning. Let me know if you’ve got some ideas to share on this topic and I’ll include them in my presentation.

Meet the New Media
Panelists: KayDee Gilkey, Northwest Ag Information Network |Dan Looker, Successful Farming | Chuck Zimmerman, AgriBlogger | Emily Zweber, AgChat Foundation

Moderator: Becca Yaklich, AgriBank

From newsrooms to newsfeeds, the way people consume the news has changed. A panel of ag media influencers will share their perspective on how today’s landscape impacts story development, how news outlets are using social media, how they like to work with PR professionals and what you can do to help tell your organization’s story.

There are a lot of questions being posed to initiate discussion at the event. Here are some of them.

What do you think the world needs to know about American agriculture? What does Farm Credit and American agriculture look like to you? What does Farm Credit mean to you and to the generations of American farmers and ranchers we’ve served for almost 100 years? What are your aspirations for Farm Credit in the future? Next week at Idea Share, we will ask you to consider these questions and answer them in a way you never have before. Write it on your body.

You can follow along with what’s happening at Idea Share using the #IdeaShare2013 Twitter hashtag.

Agribusiness, Media

Protecting Farms & Promoting Animal Care

Jamie Johansen

aaa-13-072_edited-1Protecting animals, farms, food and consumer confidence was the theme during the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit. More and more states are taking legislative matters when it comes to protecting farmers. And that was a hot topic addressed during the recent event held in Arlington, Virginia.

Joe Miller, General Counsel for Rose Acre Farms, spoke to attendees on farm protection legislation and how it actually promotes animal care. Misconceptions with these legislations have been that farmers have something to hide, but Joe helps explain that they are designed to shelter farmers from unlawful accusations. He also stated the need to better understand our consumers and not expect them to simply understand us.

“Some of the drivers have been the 80 videos that have been taken since 1990. Undercover videos taken without any knowledge of the people involved. The problem is it causes a lot of damage to these company’s reputation. They have no way to respond to these. These are farms, they don’t have PR departments and they can’t respond to this. But yet there is a lot of damage done. These is no proper response available for these people so legislation is being driven from the standpoint that we are trying to protect honest, hard working people in business and stop people from trying to harm them. That’s what is driving this legislation.”

Joe also added that states should consider adding a vicarious liability statement to their legislation. This would enable you to press charges against any company or organization that used footage taken illegally. If this clause isn’t added, then the only person held liable is the videographer and they typically have nothing for you to gain.

Listen to or download my interview with Joe here: Interview with Joe Miller

Listen to or download audio from Joe’s complete presentation here: Joe Miller - Rose Acre Farms

Check out photos from the event: 2013 Animal Ag Alliance Stakeholders Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit is sponsored by National Pork Producers Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Animal Agriculture, Audio

WTO Launches New Trade Monitoring Database

Talia Goes

WTOThe WTO launched a new trade monitoring database, which provides detailed information on trade measures implemented by WTO members and observers since October 2008. The database can be accessed through the WTO website.

The trade policy data is taken from the regular trade monitoring reports prepared by the WTO Secretariat. All information is submitted to the relevant WTO member for confirmation; if not confirmed, this is clearly indicated within the database.

The database will be updated each time a new trade monitoring report has been discussed by WTO members. The most recent update was completed on 15 October 2012. The next is expected at the end of July 2013.The information contained within the database can be displayed in a number of ways, including by implementing country, by country affected by the measure, by type of measure, and by products affected.

Agribusiness, Trade

USFRA Appoints New Vice President of Development

Cindy Zimmerman

Our good friend Randy Krotz has a new position with the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance® (USFRA®) as vice president of development.

randy-usfraKrotz will lead initiatives which deal directly with industry partner relations, ensuring that USFRA will have the necessary short- and long-term resources to communicate and engage consumers, influencers and opinion leaders on a range of key crop and livestock production topics.

“As a passionate advocate for farming and ranching, I am eager to provide strategic counsel to USFRA’s industry partnership efforts,” said Krotz. “I look forward to working with the USFRA Board, its CEO Advisory Council and USFRA senior staff as we continue to grow this long-term movement.”

Krotz brings extensive experience in creating stakeholder relationships that align with businesses’ objectives. This experience includes expertise in public relations, marketing, branding, online marketing, advocacy management and communications. He has worked for and/or represented many well-known food and agribusiness companies and associations including Agrium, FMC Corporation, Syngenta, the National Corn Growers Association, BASF, The Grocery Manufacturers Association, DuPont Pioneer, and Monsanto. Krotz is a graduate of Kansas State University, and continues an active role in the diversified family farm in North Central Kansas, on which he was raised.

Congrats to both Randy and USFRA!

Agribusiness, USFRA

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Enter Alltech’s Farming Film Festival

Jamie Johansen

m2974351Get your cameras rolling for Alltech’s Annual Farming Film Festival. Everybody knows that farmers work extremely hard to feed the world, but not everyone knows how much science goes into farming every day. Farmers are always observing, learning and searching for new ways to take better care of their land, livestock and crops.

This is your chance to show the world the science of farming. If you’re a farmer we want to hear your story. If you’re not a farmer, find one and tell their story.

Participants can enter to win up to $2,000 by submitting their video at FarmingFilmFestival.com. Winners will be chosen by a panel of science and agricultural journalists based on creativity, quality of video and story interest.

The competition will run from May 3 to June 30. Early entrees will be highlighted at GLIMPSE 2020 the 29th Annual Alltech International Symposium in Lexington, Ky., May 19-22. Finalists will be notified July 2 and public voting will take place July 2-21.

For more information and official rules, visit FarmingFilmFestival.com.

Alltech, Video