After missing it the last couple weeks I got to participate in tonight’s AgChat session on animal ag via Twitter. Here’s the questions posed.
Q1: Should we have a #farmfact and/or #foodfact day each week? Which day & which tag best for educating non-ag?
Q2: Should NAIS be voluntary or mandatory? Why?
Q3: Is it possible to be for MCOOL but opposed to mandatory NAIS? Why?
Q4: What are the existing humane standards for animal care and transport?
Q5: How has Prop 2 impacted animal ag in California?
Q6: What are the top technologies that have positively impacted the dairy and beef cattle industries?
It was another great session. You can read back through it via Twitter Search.
We need to thank Michele Payn-Knoper for once again being the “chat herder” for #AgChat. You can follow her on Twitter at @mpaynknoper. This week we had a co-host, Kathy Swift.
As you can imagine, our questions were sure to generate some discussion and show how many different opinions there are on this subject while also giving any non-ag folks watching some new perspective on issues they have no personal experience with.
If you participated or have read back through the discussion what do you think? Also feel free to check out AgChat on Facebook.
Our friends at Farm Foundation have teamed up with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) to put together a workshop on contract design in commodity markets.
I am packing my bags and getting ready to head off to Des Moines for 
This year is the 21st annual World Pork Expo, which is the largest pork-industry trade show and exhibition in the world, drawing tens of thousands of pork producers, exhibitors and visitors from across the country and around the globe. New this year are the dates for the event, moving from a late-week event to mid-week event, as requested by many of the producers and exhibitors that attend the show each year.
Also new this year at World Pork Expo will be our middle daughter, Carly, who will be attending with me as my assistant. She just graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in general studies and as she spends the next year figuring out if she really wants to be a physical therapist, we will be introducing her to the exciting world of agricultural new media! Dad is going over the new programs he installed on her Mac and introducing her to the sweet new Canon Power Shot G10 we got for her to start as a semi-pro photographer. Carly is very artistically inclined and very people-oriented, so we hope this will be a great experience for her. Just look for this beautiful face at WPX and say hi!
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.
Here’s a reminder about the 2009 CCA Institute. It’s not too late to register according to Terri Breon.
The latest news from 
I 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 
The 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. 
ZimmComm client,