International Year of the Potato

Chuck Zimmerman

International Year of the PotatoI had no idea we’re living in the International Year of the Potato, one of my favorite foods. I largely ignore the FAO these days but just the idea of a year dedicated to the potato kind of caught my attention. So I guess I’ll have to bake a humble tuber tonight to celebrate.

FAO releases on 15 December 2008 a 144-page illustrated book, New light on a hidden treasure, which records the achievements of the International Year of the Potato and underscores its essential message: that the potato is a vital part of the global food system, and will play an ever greater role in strengthening world food security and alleviating poverty.

The review – available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish editions – describes the rationale for IYP, its objectives and implementation. It introduces the Year’s guest-of-honour, Solanum tuberosum, the “humble tuber” that spread from the Andes across six continents and changed the course of world history. The review also provides the most recent FAO statistics on world potato production and consumption, and profiles of 52 major potato producing countries.

The International Year was observed around the globe in scientific conferences, growers’ congresses, festivals, cooking contests, art exhibitions and school projects. The book presents highlights of those events, as well as the winning entries in the IYP Global Photography Contest. The review concludes with viewpoints gathered from some of the world’s leading “potato people” – those whose daily work with the potato has become a passionate way of life – and an overview of prospects for potato development beyond 2008.

Food

Online Demographics Older Than You Think

Chuck Zimmerman

I say this because so often I get comments from people who think it’s “only the young farmers” who are online. I also say this because research says so. In today’s lead article by eMarketer you’ll find some interesting stats such as.

Ageism is out, online. Some 55% of US adult Internet users are over age 40, according to Harris Interactive.

Although Internet penetration within the 40-and-over crowd is lower than among younger demographic groups, boomers and seniors outnumber younger adults in the general population—so that lower Internet penetration still translates into greater numbers of older Internet users, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Although younger Internet users go online for entertainment, older users are more practical in their online usage. Smart marketers will target older Internet users with special offers, uncluttered Websites and ad messages, and lots of product information.

eMarketer’s Predictions for 2009 – eMarketer

Internet

Holiday Greetings

Chuck Zimmerman

Happy Holidays From UF/IFASHere’s the latest holiday card to visit my in-box from AgWired fan, Mark R. McLellan, Dean & Director, Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences — University of Florida, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station.

I’m wondering if I should start scanning the smail cards I’m getting too. There have already been some good ones.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

University

AgWired Reaches 6,000 Posts

Chuck Zimmerman

WordPressWe just upgraded AgWired to the latest version of WordPress (2.7 “Coltrane”). Coincidentally this is post number 6,000!

Wow. Who would have thought? Not me I can assure you. When we created this website it was to find out what this blogging thing was all about. We’ve come a long way and can’t say enough thank you’s to all the folks who have believed and supported us.

Post Update: This new version of WP has some very cool features. I just noticed that I’ve authored 5,100 of these posts for example. All together these posts contain 1,313,567 words! And AgWired has been running for 52 months. Has it really been that long?

I’m looking forward to 6,000 more!

Uncategorized

Reminder About Beltwide

Chuck Zimmerman

Beltwide Cotton ConferencesT. Cotton Nelson wants the media to make sure they get registered for the upcoming Beltwide Cotton Conferences. I’ve got mine done.

The newsroom for writers/broadcasters covering the 2009 Beltwide Cotton Conferences will be in Conference Rooms 13/14 (third level) in the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel. Hours are: 1-5 p.m. on Jan. 5; from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Jan. 6-7 and from 8 a.m. – noon on Jan. 8. The newsroom operation, which is supported by a Monsanto Company grant to The Cotton Foundation, will be equipped with phones, fax machine, copier and computers/printers, including Internet access. Refreshments will be provided, including breakfast and lunch.

Ag Groups, Cotton

World Ag Expo Has Newly Designed Website

Chuck Zimmerman

World Ag Expo 2009It looks like 2009 will be another year I don’t get to go to World Ag Expo. Someday soon though. They have a newly designed website you might want to check out.

World Ag Expo, the world’s largest annual farm equipment and agriculture technology exhibition, has launched a newly redesigned website.

Structured to provide the most current information about the Expo to its estimated 100,000 attendees and one-half million online users, the new worldagexpo.com is designed with each type of user in mind. Attendees can access the site for general information, an exhibitor can download tools for a successful event and media can access the expo’s archived high-resolution photos and articles.

Uncategorized

Podcasting is a Word

Chuck Zimmerman

It’s officially a word. It’s podcasting. Here’s the entry in the Oxford English Dictionary release of new words.

podcasting n.

A very new word, for a recent phenomenon, and a great example of how technological change, especially that relating to the Internet and the media, can be a driving force not only in generating new words, but in determining whether they survive and succeed. In this case the rapid adoption of podcasting (the technology) as a means of making audio material available has seen podcasting (the word) move quickly from its first tentative steps in 2004, as only one of a number of suggested names for the process, to near-ubiquity in 2008. The current OED quarterly release also includes other members of the same family: podcast as a noun and a verb, podcaster, and even the somewhat ungainly adjective podcasted.

Via Podcasting News.

How long did that take? Have you been podcasted yet?

Podcasts

Paulsen Goes On The Road

Chuck Zimmerman

Paulsen Marketing On The Road BlogPaulsen Marketing has a new blog called On the Road.

We have the opportunity to travel a great deal, both regionally and nationally, as our clients can be found across the country.

Through this blog, we’ll share our thoughts and impressions of the places we travel and the people we meet. We promise to keep it interesting, insightful and authentic.

In fact, “authentic” is the single-word description that best defines our agency.

– Authentic creative and strategic recommendations for our clients.

– Authentic people.

– Authentic relationships with our clients.

The word “authentic” perfectly describes Paulsen Marketing.

See you on the road!

Agencies

NAFB Wave Research Study

Chuck Zimmerman

National Association of Farm BroadcastingI’ve been meaning to write about the National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Wave Research Study. Looking at this month’s Agrimarketing Magazine prompted me to go ahead. I found it ironic that there’s an ad for Farm Journal Media early in the publication touting their position compared to other major ag pubs and quoting the NAFB study. Then NAFB has an ad later in the magazine which has information superimposed on a GPS unit (why?).

The bottom line from NAFB’s standpoint seems to be that farmers still turn to the radio as their main source of daily information and that makes sense to me. There’s a lot of information in the study which I’m sure you can obtain from the NAFB office if you haven’t seen it.

Some things that caught my eye in the summary information includes the fact that NAFB acknowledges the changing farm media landscape with the internet playing a key role. The study shows that 69 percent of Class 1A farmers have internet access. That’s even higher than the most recent USDA NASS Farm Computer Usage and Ownership study, “For farms with sales and government payments between $100,000 and $249,999, the figures are: 70 percent have access to a computer, 66 percent own or lease a computer, 51 percent are using a computer for their farm business, and 61 percent have Internet access. The number keeps growing and at a fast pace. The study also shows that almost half of these farmers have high speed internet access (44.2%). It also says that producers under 49 years old and with higher levels of income are heavier users of the internet.

I’m going to make an assumption that when the summary says that web site choices “are so abundant that fragmentation is occurring – there are no individual sites or categories that clearly are “most valuable” to farmers” they mean they didn’t get a consistent unaided answer from the surveys. I don’t see this as a weakness though. That’s the strength of the web and why it’s so important to be a part of the conversation. Farmers are all over the web for the same reasons any of us are (searching for information, entertainment, etc.). The web isn’t about “mass audience numbers” but “niche audience numbers.” If I’m looking for weather I’m going to focus on a weather site, for news, a news site, for equipment, equipment sites, and on and on it goes. The web gives farmers lots of choices and I think that’s what they want!

Your thoughts?

Internet, Media, NAFB

Representing Aerial Applicators

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-199 - NAAA OverviewAfter following along on AgWired last week you may have a better understanding of the National Agricultural Aviation Association but after listening to this week’s ZimmCast you’ll have an even better one. That’s because I interviewed NAAA Executive Director, Andrew Moore and he tells us all about it.

Andrew MooreAndrew has a farm background which fits in very nicely with the job of representing aerial applicators across the country in Washington, DC. He says they lobby on behalf of their members and represent them in front of key regulatory agencies like the EPA. Another big element of their member services focuses on training and safety. Andrew says they’ve seen a big increase in the number of acres that members have flown over based on FAA data that shows number of hours in the air. He says that since 2006 there’s been an almost 50 percent increase in that number!

Thanks once again to BASF for sponsoring our coverage of the NAAA Convention.

The program this week ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. This one is called “Flying Away” from Empyrion. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 199 (19 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Andrew Moore - ZimmCast 199

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, BASF, NAAA, ZimmCast