I’m sure many AgWired fans will remember Paul McKellips. He’s moved from the “good news in Iraq” to working on an issue of major importance to anyone involved in animal agriculture.
Perhaps a few of you may remember me from my days at FSA in Washington and then my agriculture broadcasts from Iraq in 2006 and 2007. I’m now the executive vice president at the Foundation for Biomedical Research here in Washington.
With the passage of Prop 2 in California it has become evident that the massive power of the Humane Society of the US (HSUS) and organizations like PETA will continue to have an enormous impact on animals, both those used in animal agriculture as well as biomedical research. We conducted another national poll last month with Zogby International (1,204 adults) and discovered that the public opinion needle is moving away from the humane use of animals.
Educating the public on how animal research improves animal agriculture, human health and animal health is, perhaps, now our best approach to countering aggressive animal rights messaging.
To accomplish this Paul has started the FBR Animal Research Minute. In this program he will take “the top headlines from animal research labs across the world and delivers honest success stories, unfolding hope and words of promise.” If you’ve got a podcast or farm broadcast or place to post it on your website I’m sure he would really appreciate it.
You can listen to the latest episode of the Animal Welfare Minute here: animal-research-minute-090.mp3
Welcome back to work everyone. I’m almost there. Sort of. Kind of.
This sounds like a magazine I would enjoy. Just the name conjures up savory images – 
We’re coming off the slowest two weeks in ag news of the year (do you agree?). I’ve just got a feeling that things will pick up a lot starting next week. In the meantime you might want to spend a few minutes finding out who’s talking about you or your products online. You know I strongly advocate “joining the conversation.” Check out 
I don’t think we’re going to have as pretty a sunset tonight as last night. This was the view just before Cindy and I went to enjoy a New Year’s Eve dinner.
This is your Happy New Year ZimmCast. In it you’ll hear my thoughts on this year’s growth in online communications, especially in agriculture. Agriblogging and Farm Podcasting have exploded and we’re thankful to not only be a part of the conversation but help others along the way.
The growth in agriblogging and farm podcasting has had a very positive impact on us. Just within the ZimmComm world we’re managing 24 blogs, 5 of them our own. We’re managing content on a regular basis on 6 of our client’s sites. We’ve also designed and built 6 new blog sites this year. We’re also producing and managing 8 podcasts, 4 of which are our own. Of course if you define podcast as an audio file you can click on to listen to and/or download to your computer then there are hundreds just on AgWired not counting all the other blogs and postings we’ve done this year. We once again spent well over 200 days on the road bringing you news and information about what’s new in world of agribusiness and pre-bookings for 2009 are strong. I’m sure Cindy or I will see you somewhere soon. Until then we wish you a very happy new year.