Go Green Year Round

Joanna Schroeder

logo2As sustainability initiatives move from fringe to mainstream many companies are wondering how to “go green” beyond Earth Day celebrations and recycling paper and cans. The Hondo Group, a marketing communications company based in Fort Worth, Texas, can actually help your company do just that with their new CO2 Management Initiative. Originally created to help The Hondo Group go green, they realized that helping others emulate their success in sustainability was the right thing to do.

I had the opportunity to spend some time on the phone with “Aggie” and President Lynn Balinas who spoke to me about what photo_lynngoing green actually means from a business standpoint. He noted that a sustainable business plan not only helps a business practice what they preach, per se, but is also created and executed in a way that helps companies save money. The agency’s CO2 Management Initiative helps a business focus on five key areas: water, energy, materials, waste, and transportation. Similar to how the Fieldpoint Calculator, designed by the Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, helps a farmer adopt more sustainable farming practices, the CO2 Management Initiative helps agriculture companies adopt more sustainable business practices.

Balinas told me about four initiatives they offer to help ag companies. Event greening such as a farm show or expo, green consultation which helps businesses adopt sustainable practices, marketing orientation where the agency educates companies on how to take credit for their environmental efforts without falling victim to “greenwashing,” and the Hondo Green Tool.

The program is currently being beta tested and interested ag companies can contact Balinas directly to participate at lynn.balinas@hondogroup.com. In the words of his son, “Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves.”

Agencies, Environment

Wichita Riverfest to Celebrate the American Cowboy, Honor Troops

Amanda Nolz

festibull Slip on your cowboy boots and slap on that cowboy hat. When May rolls around, there is only one place you’re going to want to be: the inaugural Festi-Bull Wichita Riverfest Bull Riding Event! Hosted by the Heritage Development Group, Inc. May 8-9, 2009 at the Cowtown Museum, this wild rodeo show is jam packed with exciting events to celebrate the rich traditions of the American cowboy.

The Festi-Bull will kick off with a bull riding invitational. 15 of the Midwest’s best bull riders will vie for the first-ever Festi-Bull belt buckle. Champion freestyle bull rider Jesse Schellhamer will be matching up with “Kill-o-byte,” the Pixius Communications challenge bull for a $1,500 prize. Schellhamer will be joined by champion freestyle bullfighter, Jeremy Muntz, who will be fighting a hot-blooded fighting bull with his championship freestyle bull fighting skills.

Following this crowd pleasing, man verses beast event, visitors will be dancing the night away to country-western music newcomer Randy Houser. He will entertain the crowd with his country radio hits, “Boots On” and “Anything Goes.” The Hattrick Country Band will also join Houser for a night of fun music and dancing.

The Festi-Bull will also show their patriotic colors in their support of the All American Beef Battalion (AABB). While Houser warms up for his evening performance, military men and women from the Ft. Riley Wounded Warrior Transitional Unit will be served a steak dinner sponsored by the AABB.

“The All American Beef Battalion is a truly respectable organization,” said Jesse Schellhamer, a PBR bull rider with $230,000 career earnings. “Any organization the takes steak as a donation and turns around and gives it to the troops needs to be supported both with time and money. The goal of the beef battalion is to serve those who have served us. It is the least we can do to support such an organization and the troops who have given so much.”

After an evening of fellowship in agriculture, the Festi-Bull adds to the fun with the Children’s Cowboy Camp. Kids of all ages can take part in agriculture activities including: horseshoe pitching, stick horse races, country tic-tac-toe, coloring contests, clogging, square dancing, line dancing, a petting zoo and more rodeo games.

310,000 people attend the Wichita Riverfest Event annually, and with the first-ever Festi-Bull scheduled, this year’s event will undoubtedly draw a big crowd. Don’t miss out on this grand slam country-western event! Celebrate agriculture, honor the troops and be a part of this magical event that takes pride in real American cowboys.

“One word: authentic; we are what we produce,” said Schellhamer. “There is no pretending. These are real bulls, real cowboys, real danger and real country music. We respect God, our country, the animals we ride and the people we do business with.”

Rodeo

Text biotech To 77513

Chuck Zimmerman

What Biotech Is Doing For Earth DayYou can find out what biotech is doing to help the Earth today by texting biotech to 77513. It’s an Earth Day think being produced by the Biotechnology Industry Organization. You can find out a lot more on their website.

WhatCanBiotechDoForYou.com is part of a project sponsored by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), designed to foster a conversation with the general public about biotechnology and further educate people about the contributions of this innovative sector. For more in-depth information on biotech and the people behind the science, please visit our sister site – www.IAmBiotech.org.

Via IAmBiotech on Twitter.

Biotech

A People’s Garden On Earth Day

Chuck Zimmerman

USDA BuildingI think I heard something about today being Earth Day. I can’t say that it really excites me. Maybe it’s because farmers tend the land every day and view care of their property as an integral part of their life. So why do we need a special day? Maybe it’s because this day has been used by so many people and organizations who are antagonistic to modern day agriculture and even to human existence. The Earth Day website says it, “marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.”

Whatever it is, I guess it just “is.” In Washington, DC, USDA is celebrating.

In honor of Earth Day, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack declared the entire grounds at the USDA Jamie L. Whitten Building as ‘The People’s Garden’ and unveiled plans to create a sustainable landscape on the grounds.

“USDA is an every day every way kind of department and this garden will help illustrate the many ways USDA works to provide a sustainable, safe and nutritious food supply as well as protect and preserve the landscape where that food is produced,” said Vilsack.

Do we really need to “honor” Earth Day? I don’t get it. What is there about this that engenders honor? During our #agchat session last night it was pointed out that maybe today is an opportunity to connect farming with consumers. Is that what the Earth Day people want? Seems like most of them want the opposite.

The photo is the view of the west side of the Department of Agriculture from the National Mall between 12th and 14th Streets, SW, in 1930. Apparently the Washington, DC Public Library is putting photos into Flickr sets now. I thought that was pretty interesting. Does the fact that we’re now planning to have sustainable landscaping mean we didn’t have sustainable landscaping? How do you define that anyway? I’m just in a questioning frame of mind I guess.

USDA

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Stephen Russell has joined the staff of Allflex USA as a Feedlot Specialist; Paul Flint has been hired as the Swine Business Development Manager; and to support sales and marketing efforts in the states of California, Arizona and Nevada, Shauna Trusas has been promoted to Western Regional Manager.
  • The StollerUSA products team of sales representatives and dealers continues to grow. Serving farmers in Minnesota, southern Wisconsin and north/central Illinois will be Darwin Lawson (608-553-4053); Scott Gooden (217-637-0880) in the Missouri and southern Illinois territories; in North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska, Larry Desaire (308-258-0885).
  • The Agricultural Retailers Association is pleased to announce that Michelle Hummel has joined its team as the organization’s new director of marketing and communications.
  • AgCareers.com is hosting a brief web session that will go beyond reviewing the basic challenges of employing Hispanic talent and share ideas on how to embrace and use these challenges to the advantage of your organization to positively impact results. The web seminar will be held May 8, 2009, at 11 a.m. (EST).
    Zimfo Bytes

    Twitter #agchat And Join The Conversation

    Chuck Zimmerman

    #agchat Twitter SearchWe had another great @agchat Twitter session last night. If you haven’t participated then plan on next Tuesday evening between 7-9pm central. Our moderator is Michele Payn-Knoper who gets us started and poses questions. Here are the ones we tackled last night.

    • Q1 (via @jcabdriver) What does Earth Day mean to you? Is it the same/dif for Ag v Food? Why?
    • Q2, as a follow up to Q1: Is enviro pressure on ag higher or lower than last year? (also via @jcabdriver) How should we respond?
    • Q3 (via @mpaynknoper): What specific messages and tactics can #ag learn from HSUS, Farm Sanc, et al w/Prop 2?
    • Q4: (via @TruffleMedia) Groceries show the food but not how it is made; where is that line in marketing? Is there a line? (BTW on Q4: International guests, please educate us as to the awareness level of how food is made. )
    • Q5: If you had 1 recommendation for ag to create a message , what would it be, who would it involve & how would you execute it?
    • Q6: What would you like next week’s agchat to focus on? Ideas for questions?

    You can use Twitter search to find all the posts done during our session. We had lots of ideas and a little bit of humor thrown into the mix. We also had a good representation of people from other countries showing our growing international reach. I recommend that you Earth Day people take a look at these comments since a lot of them targeted the whole Earth Day concept. I think we concluded that we need to look at the questions posed even more and come up with some action steps to address the concerns about how agriculture is being attacked by organizations with political/social agendas that are very harmful to the industry and really to “humans” in general.

    It was interesting to hear how many acknowledge the complete lack of success of many attempts to create a unified voice for agriculture. We’ve seen a number of campaigns come and go over the years. Unfortunately agriculture and agribusiness is so diverse and competitive it may not be possible for farm groups and companies to do this on their own.

    That’s why I propose that we in ag media and ag agencies may want to do this ourselves. Why not? I would be very happy to lend my support to any campaign that would help the consuming public get to know agriculture and farming better.

    So, remember to check out #agchat every Tuesday evening. And besides being able to scroll back through the posts using Twitter search you can also subscribe to the RSS feed of that search topic, which is another way you can keep up with the ongoing social media conversation. Just use this RSS feed url in your favorite news reader.

    Uncategorized

    Farm Foundation Sponsors Animal Welfare Forum

    John Davis

    farmfoundationforum3Make plans to attend the next Farm Foundation Forum Tuesday May 5th from 9 to 11 am at the National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW, Washington D.C. when the group takes a look at animal welfare as it relates to production agriculture:

    Presenters will be:

    * Paul Shapiro, Humane Society of the United States,
    * Tim Amlaw, American Humane Association,
    * Dr. Jim Reynolds, American Veterinary Medical Association and the University of California-Davis,
    * Bob Krouse of Midwest Poultry Supply, and
    * Dr. David Blanford, Penn State University.

    If you’ve never been to a Farm Foundation event before, you’re in for quite a treat. One of the great things the group does is promote an honest, free discussion of the issues facing agriculture today. So, if you’re used to conferences where everyone agrees with everyone else and not much substantive discussion takes place, this will open your eyes to just how valuable good, lively… but civil… discussion of an issue from multiple points of view can be.

    To reserve your spot, contact my friend Mary Thompson at mary@farmfoundation.org. They’ll even have a cup of coffee waiting for you.

    Farm Foundation

    Tour de Texas This Summer

    Chuck Zimmerman

    IFAJ/AMSThank you to Greg Lamp for pointing out that you can attend post IFAJ/AMS tours this year even if you’re not a member of AAEA, LPC or IFAJ. So how about some NAFB’ers joining in the fun?

    Looking for a whole new way of seeing the U.S.A. this summer? Look no further. The Ag Media Summit in conjunction with the International Federation of Ag Journalists is offering three post tours immediately after the Summit. What an opportunity to see more of Texas than just Fort Worth, and be able to get photos and stories along the way.

    There’s no early sign-up discount for these tours so you can mull it over for awhile before you decide. Also, if you want to bring a friend or family member along, there are no restrictions. You don’t have to be an AAEA, LPC or IFAJ member to join this inquisitive group of Texas travelers.

    For details on the three tours, log on to www.agmediasummit.com or www.ifaj2009.com. In the meantime, here’s a quick recap of the Texas tours planned for you this summer. Read More

    ACN, Ag Media Summit, IFAJ, LPC

    Greener-Schnitzels

    Chuck Zimmerman

    “Man & Cow” Greener-Schnitzels – Episode #1 – Since the domestication of animals, man and cow have always enjoyed a special relationship. However, in this new era of increased environmental awareness, this special relationship has gotten a bit strained.

    Put a man, a cow and some methane in a YouTube video and this is what you get:

    Feel free to pass it forward.

    Environment, Video

    Ag Career Women

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Ag Career WomenAre you a woman working in agriculture? There’s a new social networking site created by Rhonda Werner called Ag Career Women. It’s “resource for Women in the Ag Industry to network with other women, gain valuable career information and share experiences.”

    Follow Rhonda on Twitter or find her group on Facebook or LinkedIn.

    It’s a good example of how you can use Ning. Don’t know what Ning is? Ning empowers people to create and discover new social experiences for the most important people and interests in their lives.

    Farming, Social Networking