Obama Names Choice for USDA Deputy

Cindy Zimmerman

merriganPresident Barack Obama today announced his choice of Kathleen Merrigan as deputy secretary of the Agriculture Department.

Merrigan is no stranger to USDA, having served as administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service under President Clinton from 1999 to 2001. She is currently Assistant Professor and Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment MS and PhD Program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Boston MA.

Because Merrigan helped develop USDA’s U.S. organic food labeling rules and has been involved in organic policy on both the national and international levels, her choice is being well received by organizations such as the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which were disappointed with Obama’s pick of Tom Vilsack for secretary of agriculture. No reaction yet from agriculture groups on her nomination.

USDA

All American Beef Battalion Raffle

Amanda Nolz

steaksFor some time now, I have served as a volunteer press secretary for the All American Beef Battalion. This organization works to provide steak feeds for troops fighting the global war on terror. Started by Vietnam veteran and cattle producer, Bill Broadie, this non-profit group has served thousands of individuals in its year of service.

The goals of the AABB are as follows: To organize and sponsor steak feeds, entertainment, programs, meetings, and projects with Service Members and their families, to encourage and assist them in any reasonable manner and to foster among the people of the United States an appreciation, respect, and honor for our Armed Forces Military Service Members whose sacrifices have and will continue to make our freedoms possible.

There are several ways to get involved in this organization. You can make a direct donation, purchase an “Americans in Agriculture-We Support Our Troops,” shirt to wear on Red Shirt Fridays or you can purchase a raffle ticket from me! A drawing will be held on Sept. 10, 2009 in Denver, Col. The winner will take home a New Honda 4X4 ATV. Tickets are sold for $50, and the winner does not have to be present to win. If you are interested in purchasing a ticket, shoot me an email at mandy_nolz@hotmail.com.

Farming, Livestock

Basic Outreach Methods

Amanda Nolz

So often, we try to create elaborate marketing campaigns using the latest technologies and marketing techniques. While there are countless new and exciting ways to spread the message about your place of business, sometimes the most simple ways have been used for years. Maybe that’s why they are still around in spite of the latest and greatest ways to do the same job.

img_1400This thought occured to me over the weekend when I attended the 2009 SDSU Alpha Gamma Rho – Block & Bridle Steer Show at the Swiftel Center in Brookings, S.D. With over 120 cattle exhibited representing six different states, it was an exciting time to look at a great number of quality cattle. Aside from looking at livestock and visiting with area beef producers, I had time to ask the show chairpersons how they put on this event every year.

I discovered that this cattle event is run completely by sponsorship dollars and volunteer helpers. A 50/50 raffle helped raise money for the agriculture sorority, Sigma Alpha. Hand-made signs hanging around the ring gave credit to sponsors, 90% of the money coming from ranchers not companies. A radio played and a local commercial came on playing an ad for a bull sale coming up. In all of its simplicity, these marketing and management methods were the ingredients for a successful agriculture event.

As we kick off another week, I want to talk about the marketing strategies you have tried in the past. Are you pursuing advanced technologies to spread the word about your respective product? Are you Tweeting, Facebooking and blogging? Are you sticking with the traditional word-of-mouth approach? Or, are you using the basics of posters, radio spots and television commercials? I’m excited to hear about your marketing strategies!

Advertising, Technology

Monsanto According To Monsanto

Chuck Zimmerman

Monsanto has launched a blog with multiple contributors and they start right out being pretty open about “things.” I think this is great and look forward to how it develops. I’ve been following Kathleen (Ms Monsanto) on Twitter for a while now so it looks like this is one ag company that is not only understanding social media but not afraid to take part in it. Here’s some excerpts from their first post:

This blog will address issues related to Monsanto, our business, and technology in agriculture.

The title Monsanto According to Monsanto is a spoof of The World According to Monsanto, a horribly biased documentary which portrays Monsanto in a very negative light. Aside from the shoddy journalism, we at Monsanto found it incredibly arrogant that the filmmaker would present her own twisted view of Monsanto as the company’s view of the world.

If anyone should speak to Monsanto’s vision of the world, it’s those of us who come to work here every day and collectively make this company what it is. This is the main reason for this blog.

Monsanto has a fair number of critics. Technology in agriculture is an emotional topic and there are organizations or individuals who generally oppose modern agriculture or biotechnology. This blog will be used on a rather frequent basis to respond to criticism leveled against Monsanto and the use of technology in agriculture. On occasion we’ll use the blog to levy some criticism ourselves. We expect that some of these postings will generate controversy. Creating controversy isn’t the intention of this blog, but it’s inevitable.

ZimmComm has had the pleasure and honor to work on various projects with Monsanto btw. It’s great having them more involved in the online conversation!

Agribusiness

RFA Kicks Off National Ethanol Conference

Chuck Zimmerman

Chris StandleeThe 2009 National Ethanol Conference got started this morning with a golf tournament and welcome from Renewable Fuels Association Chairman, Chris Standlee, Agengoa Bioenergy Corporation. Cindy and I will be covering the event courtesy of the RFA. We’ll also be posting content onto The Ethanol Report site for them.

Most of our coverage will appear on Domestic Fuel which just got a whole new look as of this morning. I hope you like the new theme.

Let’s get back to Chris. He’s expecting this to be a great conference and said that not only are we in oil country but that there are more attendees this year from the oil business than usual. Chris says that he’s very optimistic about the health of the ethanol industry even in light of the challenging year we just completed.

You can listen to my interview with Chris here: nec-09-standlee.mp3

Keep an eye on our: National Ethanol Conference Photo Album

Audio, Ethanol, RFA

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The U.S. fruit, vegetable and mass-market floral industry contributes $554 billion annually to the nation’s economy, according to a new study from Battelle. The economic impact study – titled Economic Reach and Impact of the Fresh Produce and Floral Industry, commissioned by Produce Marketing Association (PMA) – used unprecedented economic modeling to analyze and measure the industry’s field-to-fork reach.
  • Massey Ferguson proudly introduces the Massey Ferguson 8600 Series high-horsepower row crop tractor to North American farmers.
  • Dow AgroSciences LLC, and the China National Rice Research Institute (CNRRI) of Hangzhou, China, announced that they have entered into a research agreement to combine the strengths of Dow AgroSciences’ platform of traits and technologies with CNRRI’s leading rice germplasm.
    Zimfo Bytes

    New Website For California Ag Network

    Chuck Zimmerman

    California Ag NetworkRoy Isom, California Ag Network, has a new website and he’s beginning to podcast and according to last week’s USDA Farm Broadcaster’s Letter, he’ll start doing video clips too. Now we just need to get Roy on Twitter, eh? Roy also broadcasts on KMJ, Fresno.

    Here, you will find agri-business and farming news, information, or agriculture related resources, equipment, and supplies. If you’re involved in cultivating the land, fruit production, or raising livestock, if you’re a processor, packer, exporter, or researcher California Ag Net is your business and community center.

    You can hear Roy here (mp3).

    Media

    This Will Be A Classic Week

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Commodity ClassicHow many of you will be attending Commodity Classic this week? No, don’t reply because I know a lot of you will. If you’re twittering from there then use this hashtag: #cclassic. What’s a hashtag? Follow this link. If you’re not a Twitterer but want to keep up with the conversation then you can use the Twitter Search Engine like this.

    Cindy, Joanna and I will arrive on Wednesday which is when the games really begin. We’ll be doing some significant event blogging here so feel free to check in often.

    Commodity Classic

    Netbooking It With A Mini

    Chuck Zimmerman

    chuck-mini-testI know I’m a Mac guy but I thought I’d try out one of the new netbooks which so far are only in the PC world. So today I’m trying out an HP Mini. Just got it set up.

    This is a photo from the built in camera. Not great quality but . . . given the subject matter. So, why a mini? Well, after researching and thinking about it for a while I think it’s a convenience thing.

    Let’s say my Mac is tied up doing a live video stream (it will be at the National Ethanol Conference next week) and yet I still want to be live blogging or tweeting. I’ve got my iPhone of course but these things are so small and they are a full computer that I thought I’d try it out. Plus we’re talking less than $400. So, we’ll see. Hopefully, Cindy will like it and let me keep it.

    Equipment

    The Monsanto Classic Blogger

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Brooke HoelscherMonsanto is sponsoring a Commodity Classic blogger once again this year. Thanks to Tyne Morgan, former Classic blogger herself, for the heads up. This year Brooke Hoelscher will be providing her perspective on the Classic happenings in Grapevine, TX. Here’s a little bit about Brooke.

    I am a junior Agriculture Communications and Journalism major at Texas A&M University. I study the principals of professional writing, editing, public relations, and advertising in the agriculture industry. I plan to graduate in December 2009 and pursue a career in marketing and public relations.

    Commodity Classic