The Hand That Feeds U.S.

Amanda Nolz

header3 Have you heard of The Hand That Feeds U.S. program? This is an educational resource for urban media on the importance of U.S. agriculture to the security and future of our country. The project provides information relevant to our nation’s farming industry, while also seeking to combat the current misinformation campaigns about food prices and renewable fuels.

Columnist Jerry Lackey at GO San Angelo wrote an article, Farmers’ contribution to U.S. topic of awareness campaign, that discusses the benefits of The Hand That Feeds U.S. and how it can help politicians understand the impact regulations have on the agriculture industry and ultimately, our nation’s food supply.

In an open letter to U.S. media outlets, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; and ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., urged reporters to take the time to learn more about U.S. farm policy and the farm and ranch families that keep America fed.

Unbiased information is needed now more than ever because at no time in our history has the general population been less connected to the farm, the senators said as they endorsed newly launched educational efforts dubbed “The Hand That Feeds U.S.”

Based on the recently published U.S. Census of Agriculture, just more than 2 million people in our nation of about 300 million are classified as farmers, with far fewer still making a living off of the land and meeting the lion’s share of the food and fiber needs of our country.

Food

Reminder About 2009 CCA Institute

Chuck Zimmerman

Cooperatives Communicators Association InviteHere’s a reminder about the 2009 CCA Institute. It’s not too late to register according to Terri Breon.

Tickets are still available to attend the Friday night “Fun Night” at the ball park. Join fellow CCA’ers as the Kansas City Royals take on the Cincinnati Reds at the newly renovated Kauffman Stadium! As a bonus, the night ends with fireworks and fountains! Tickets are still available at the low price of $27. For more information, visit http://www.communicators.coop/CCA/.

But, wait, there’s more yet!

Follow-up your ballpark fun-filled night with an Adobe Creative Suite 4 training session, led by Curt Cuscino. Cuscino, Adobe Trainer with House of Tears, will lead participants through the in’s and out’s of CS4, including Acrobat, Dreamweaver, InDesign, and Photoshop. This 11:00 – 4:00 p.m. is an additional training opportunity available for only $60 (that includes your lunch). Details are available online at http://www.communicators.coop/CCA/.

You can download the program here (pdf).

Uncategorized

Quarry Partnering With Eloqua

Chuck Zimmerman

Quarry Integrated CommunicationsThe latest news from Quarry Integrated Communications is about their joining “a select group of communications agencies worldwide in being recognized as a Certified Agency Partner by Eloqua, the category-defining marketing automation leader. Quarry is the first communications agency serving agrimarketers in North America to achieve this distinction.”

“Eloqua’s award-winning marketing automation platform, in concert with our own trademarked Relationship Builder™ system, will enable our clients to do more with less – while enhancing the overall customer experience,” says Bob Wilbur, Quarry senior vice president, Agri-Food. “Specifically, we can help marketers rapidly design and deploy highly-targeted campaigns to generate demand, monitor and track individual responses, and continuously nurture relationships based on their profile and activity. This also helps build alignment between sales and marketing by identifying and passing along only the most qualified ‘purchase-ready’ leads to the sales force.”

Agencies

Search Bing

Chuck Zimmerman

We’re all pretty comfortable making statements like “Did you Google for it?” Do you think we could start saying “Did you Bing for it?” Just doesn’t seem to have the same ring to it. Microsoft unveiled it’s new search engine over the weekend – Bing.

AgWired Bing Search

So, have you tried it? What do you think?

Internet

New Media In USDA

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-221 - USDA New MediaI don’t know if Larry Quinn is ready to rename the Broadcasters Letter, the New Media Letter, but new media is slowly but surely making its way into the USDA Office of Communications strategy. For example, I just recently met Amanda Eamich online via email. I was intrigued by her title, “Director of New Media (Acting).” Now that’s progress.

So Amanda was gracious enough to take a few minutes to speak with me by phone about her job and what’s going on with new media and USDA.

USDA Office of CommunicationsThe mission of the Office of Communications is to provide leadership, expertise, counsel and coordination for the development of communications strategies which are vital to the overall formulation, awareness and acceptance of U.S. Department of Agriculture programs and policies, and serves as the principal USDA contact point for the dissemination of consistent, timely information.

Amanda is from Virginia and was working for the Food Safety Inspection Service. She’s really excited to move up from the agency level to the department level. She says USDA communicates with so many different communities and they’re trying to figure out how to interact with them by engaging them in interactive multimedia ways. One of my favorite quotes from Amanda when talking about using new media is, “It’s really just us having a conversation with a guy down the street.” Now that’s what it’s all about!

I asked her to provide a few links for us:

USDA YouTube
FSIS Twitter
USDA Recovery Map
USDA Podcasts

This week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s a song titled, “Too Much Pork In My Stew”, by Lazy Poker. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 221 (19 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Amanda Eamich - ZimmCast 221

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes

Audio, USDA, ZimmCast

Billy Frey Wins Pork On A Fork Contest

Chuck Zimmerman

I see that our good friend Billy Frey, Alltech, has won the Faces of Agriculture Pork On A Fork Contest. You can see the entries with this link. Here’s the message from Trent:

The winner of the Pork on a Fork contest is Billy Frey of Lexington, KY. Congratulations, Billy. Your photo is great and really shows your appreciation for all that U.S. pork producers do to feed our great nation and provide for our food security. Billy and I will be spending time together touring the World Pork Expo in Des Moines next Wednesday.

Besides Billy’s picture which was posted earlier this week I really liked this one with the kids. One has a t-shirt that says “I Love My Pig” and the other one says “I Love Bacon Better” while he’s eating some bacon.

Pork On A Fork

You can also hear Trent Loos and Billy here. (mp3)

Pork

Case Study in Social Networking

Chuck Zimmerman

RFAZimmComm client, Renewable Fuels Association, posted an interesting comment in it’s latest e-newsletter about using social media that I thought you might be interested to read.

A case study in social networking: This week the RFA saw what social networking efforts like Twitter can produce. A “tweet” from Missy Ruff, RFA’s Market Development Manager, about the opening of this station warranted the attention of numerous bloggers and online publications, but in particular, the attention of a DTN writer.

This led to a communication exchange that involved RFA staff providing information on E85 development efforts, and ultimately led to a story published in DTN.

Twitter is just one social network that RFA staff is using to increase consumer awareness and balance information exchange.

Social Networking

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • To address the nation’s need to remain competitive in the global agribusiness marketplace, 4-H has developed a cutting-edge, research-based, online learning system called Project Pathways. The program was created to help drive youth ages 9 to 19 to develop an interest in pursuing ag science careers and ultimately, to grow America’s next generation of leading ag innovators.
  • EarthRenew, Inc., and Crop Production Services, Inc., have entered into agreements for the licensing of EarthRenew brands and the marketing and sale of EarthRenew Organic Matter Fertilizer products exclusively by CPS in the Western United States.
  • Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced allocations under USDA’s Dairy Export Incentive Program for the July 2008 through June 30, 2009 period.
  • Agricultural Research Service studies conducted in Oklahoma have shown that simple sugars in watermelon juice can be made into ethanol.
    Zimfo Bytes

    USPB Hosts Workshop for International PVO Guests

    Amanda Nolz

    uspb_pvo_training_april_2009-981 The United States Potato Board (USPB) recently met to introduce new ideas about dehydrated potatoes. Guests learned the nutritional facts, planting, production, harvesting, storing and processing. Eight international guests from four private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and two guests from US PVO headquarters attended the USPB Dehydrated Potato Workshop. Among the PVOs participating this year were Africare, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the International Partnership for Human Development (IPHD), Joint Aid Management (JAM), and the Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA).

    For the third year running, the USPB hosted guests from select international PVOs for a workshop to introduce US dehydrated potatoes (dehy) as a sensible solution to food programming. The workshop started in Idaho Falls, ID, and finished with the 2009 United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and USDA sponsored International Food Aid Conference (IFAC) in Kansas City, MO.

    uspb_pvo_training_april_2009-77 T.K. Kuwahara, USPB International Marketing Manager of Dehy, introduced the USPB and its programs designed to support PVOs in their food programming efforts. Dehydrated potatoes, a commodity available to PVO’s through USDA and USAID programs, was also introduced. Dehy is often overlooked due to the fact PVO’s are not aware of its benefits.

    “Dehy is convenient, nutritious, versatile, and economical for use in food programming,” Kuwahara said. “You can’t get all of benefits of dehy from a list of commodities, so we invite the PVO’s to learn firsthand how they can incorporate dehy to support programs such as the health recovery of people living with HIV/AIDS, to school feeding programs with sustainability features of Parent Teacher Organizations (PTOs), to food aid for emergency relief work.”

    Farming, Food

    NAFB Webinar

    Chuck Zimmerman

    NAFB WebinarIf you haven’t seen the results of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Wave Study then you’ve got an online chance coming up.

    We want to share that presentation with you, as an NAFB member. It features recorded clips of a number of producers, from across NAFB geography, talking about their dependence upon farm radio. These farmers and ranchers offer candid and valuable insights into their daily use of agri-media.

    Mike Parry will walk you through this presentation during two upcoming Webinars. The session will last 60 minutes. Please e-mail Member Services Manager Jennifer Saylor by June 5 to register for the Webinar you prefer:

    Tuesday, June 9 at 2:00 pm (CST)
    Wednesday, June 10 at 10:00 am (CST)

    This free Webinar is intended for members of all three NAFB Councils – Broadcast, Management & Sales, and Allied Industry. Don’t miss it!

    NAFB