Speaking of NAFB . . . They have announced their 2009 Foundation Scholarship Recipients.
The NAFB Foundation has awarded three scholarships to college students actively seeking a career in agricultural journalism and communications. The recipients will be formally recognized at the Foundation Luncheon on Wednesday, November 11 at the NAFB Annual Convention in Kansas City, Mo.
Selected for the Glenn Kummerow Memorial Scholarship of $5,000 is DeAnna Schertz of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. DeAnna is a college senior, majoring in Agricultural Communications with a concentration in broadcast journalism and advertising.
Iowa State University junior Chet Hollingshead, recipient of a $4,000 NAFB Foundation Scholarship, grew up on his family’s corn, soybean and pork production farm in Iowa. Chet is majoring in Agricultural Education with a communications option, and plans to become a farm broadcaster when he graduates.
Mattie Nutley is the third NAFB Foundation Scholarship winner of 2009 and recipient of $4,000 toward her junior year at Oklahoma State University. Mattie grew up in rural Oklahoma, where her family has a ranch with Angus cattle and grows alfalfa.
The NAFB Foundation also announced new directors including, Tami Craig Schilling, Monsanto, Don Borgman, John Deere, Eric Brown, Rural Radio Network/KRVN and Lyle Orwig, Charleston-Orwig.
It’s time to book your room and reservation for this year’s National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention. You can hear a message from Greg Akagi about the convention 
Here are a couple of new online resources to get information about food and farming in the United States today. Both are backed by the 
The other site is 
During the recent Ag Media Summit my friends at 
It was very interesting to note that although over 94% expressed high levels of confidence with proposing the use of digital and social media, a high number (39.7%) said their top challenge was “unclear ROI to justify efforts.” So although they like and are comfortable with new media options they aren’t clear how to justify them. I think it’s interesting since these social media mechanisms are so “measurable.” However, there seems to me to be a lingering fear and or distrust of using measurements that don’t include all of a person’s demographic data. As if somehow, the visitors to a blog on agriculture aren’t farmers. Of course, some may not be but on the other hand why would you not think that visitors to a topical blog are involved or at least very interested in the subject?
Looking ahead to the Farm Progress Show, there’s already a lot of activity on the site, including exhibitors. Take Monsanto for example. They’re not only busy but you can follow along since they have several web options.
Jim Evans, 
“One of the things we’ve seen all summer with the economic situation, people have moved away from traditional steaks and those kinds of more expensive product. We’re working with retailers to help them feature those kinds of items. We’re helping consumers understand how to use something like the flatiron were they can still have the steak experience but at a lower cost.”
“A year ago when food prices were increasing and there were food riots around the world, we commissioned a study from three economists at Purdue on what are the real drivers to food prices. They reviewed literature, assessed the global demand for food and what were the driving factors including fuel, petroleum prices, world stocks, supplies of grain and more.”
Our photo album for the IFAJ Congress/Ag Media Summit has been giving us fits the last few days. Flickr is great but every once in a while . . .