AgWired

The sun is shining and I’m at St. Louis airport waiting on a plane. If you do any flying today you know how unpleasant it’s becoming.

For example, I fly out of this airport pretty often. Today security took 25 minutes and I was about 10th in line, meaning that there was almost no line compared to normal. When my bags went through the machine they had to be checked. I sort of expect it but they’ve never been checked here, just breezed on through. Both the x-ray machine dude and the lady who wound up doing the check have passed me through so often I recognize them. Not today. She had to take every single item out of my camera bag and wipe it, analyze it (each wipe in the machine) and then re-run them in multiple plastic bins. When I questioned why she was taking everything out (very unnecessary) she got very huffy and then proceeded to slow down even more. I’d estimate that about 40 people went through in the time it took her to do this. That’s ridiculous.

But so it goes. There’s no way I’m going to check my camera gear which includes audio recorder, computer, etc. I think a visual check, couple of quick wipes ought to be sufficient.

Whatever, so now I’m waiting on my regional jet which doesn’t have sufficient overhead space to put my rolling brief case so that has to be gate checked. Of course that means taking the breakables out of it. Don’t ever watch them take your carry on and load it, it will make you angry since they throw these bags even though you would think they know they often contain sensitive items, which is why we’re trying to carry them on!

See you from Washington, DC.

I’ve had these violets planted under my deck for several years and this is the first time I’ve seen them bloom like this. Kind of makes it worth transplanting them from the woods down the hill. I know they’re considered a weed to a lot of people but they work out perfectly where I have them.

It shows that I got out in the sun today and did a little yard work before hitting the road again.

Sunday will be a travel day to Washington, DC. I’ll be doing some media production (images/video/audio) with American Farmland Trust and covering the NAFB Washington Watch. So you’re going to see and hear lots of good stuff this week from the Capitol.

The Country Living Association is now sending out a “Tip of the Week.” The latest one features these little guys and talks about pet care in warm weather. Members also get a free sample of a product to help with the problem of “hot spots.”

It’s just part of how they’re “Making the good life better.”

Paul Schrimpf, PrecisionAg Institute, has an interesting article in his latest PrecisionAg e-news on texting. He writes about an announcement from Jacquie Ream, former teacher and author, on her opinion about kids communicating today:

“We have a whole generation being raised without communication skills,” says Jacquie Ream, former teacher and author of “K.I.S.S. Keep It Short and Simple” (Book Publishers Network). She contends text messaging and the internet are destroying the way our kids read, think, and write.

Say with me, “She sure doesn’t get it.” Kids today are communicating more than ever and texting is just part of it. Maybe she thinks we should get rid of the internet, mobile phones, computers and just get ourselves a bottle of ink and a quill. In fact, if you go to her book promotion site that’s just what you see in the boring introductory flash video (why do people do that?). Interesting ideas from someone who has a book with a title about the KISS principle. I agree with what Paul says in his article.

As for me, I see it as a tool to supplement communication, not one that replaces it. Used to be that we would connect with our friends two ways … call on the phone or show up on the doorstep. My high school daughter can, and does, connect with friends in a half dozen ways I am aware of, and probably more I’m not. Why? Because they can.

If you’re ready to retire then maybe you want ag communications to stay the way it has always been. However, the way we communicate is changing and texting is just a part of how farmers are getting information now. Check out Commodity Update and AgWired Mobile if you want to get on the bandwagon and be on the leading edge.

Just text “agwired” to 46786

Do it and join the dozens of people who are already subscribed to get agricultural marketing news in the fastest and easiest form available. Once you subscribe then we’ll deliver the news to you in headline form so all you have to do is look at your phone. It just doesn’t get any easier than that.

Will we break your text limits? I don’t think so. Since we started the new service last week we haven’t been sending more than about 4 headlines in a day. It could be more, it could be less. It depends on what we find that we think you want and need to know.

The feedback has been great so far. For example, one subscriber told me that he had just left a client meeting and got an AgWired Mobile message with new information about that very same client. He found that helpful. Another subscriber told me that a headline story we sent was going to be helpful to him when he met with a client the next morning. In either case, they don’t believe they would have received that information any other way. Although almost everything pushed through AgWired Mobile will appear on Agwired too and in longer form.

Here’s a couple of examples of some AgWired Mobile feeds from this week:

Penton Media launches targeted online career center: AgriBizJobs.com. Offers services to employers and jobseekers. www.agribizjobs.com

Craig Louder, Utah State University, wins the Alltech Young Scientist Award presented at the Alltech Symposium.

Argonne National Laboratory releases new report on increased efficiency of ethanol plants. Report available at www.ethanolfra.org.

So don’t delay. Subscribe today and if you like it we would sure appreciate you telling your friends and colleagues about it too.

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Only one food and beverage exhibitor received an invitation to the 2008 USDA BioPreferred Showcase Conference. Naturally Iowa was one of twenty companies overall to attend the conference meant to give the federal government ideas on how to choose environmentally-friendly products.

The invitation to participate in the conference was only extended to companies that can help the USDA “meet the challenge that Congress has set for us — to increase government procurement and use of biobased products” (source: U.S. Department of Agriculture). Naturally Iowa is currently the only dairy in the world that produces Ingeo? bottles, which are made from plants, not oil.

“Naturally Iowa was very well received at the 2008 USDA BioPreferred(SM) Showcase Conference,” said Richard Jensen, Plant Operations Manager for Naturally Iowa. “We believe that this conference gave the company tremendous exposure as the only dairy company in the world producing biobased Ingeo? containers.” “This conference was an outstanding forum for networking with officials from the GSA and procurement officers,” said William Horner, President and CEO of Naturally Iowa, Inc., “and it gave us a roadmap for taking advantage of the BioPreferred program as we move forward with our plans to aggressively market to the Federal Government.”