Posing With The Secretary

Chuck Zimmerman

Sec. of Ag RoundtableThe board room here at the USDA Admin Building is a great place to have a meeting.

Here’s farm broadcasters participating in the NAFB Washington Watch program. It’s a very intimate setting and besides having a mult box to plug our audio recorders into we get to ask lots of questions. I’m recording our sessions and will be editing out some audio to post later.

One of the highlights of meeting with our Secretary of Agriculture is getting out picture taken with him.

Sec. of Ag with NAFBHere’s the whole NAFB group with Sec. Schafer just a few minutes ago on a break before we went back into session.

This afternoon we’ll be going out to USDA’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. That’s a first for the NAFB Washington Watch and it will be my first time visiting the center.

NAFB Washington Watch Photo Album

NAFB, USDA

Farm Broadcasters and New Communications Technology

Chuck Zimmerman

Sec. of Ag Schafer and my MacHere’s our Secretary of Agriculture speaking to the NAFB group here at their Washington Watch program a few minutes ago.

You’ll notice the Macbook Pro sitting in front of him. That was streaming his remarks live on AgWired Live TV using the built-in camera and microphone.

Sec. of Ag Schafer and my MacHere’s what it looked like on the Mac screen from my vantage point. You can still watch the event since I also recorded a portion of it.

I’m posting from the Mac while our next group of speakers from USDA is speaking. This group includes FAS, FSA and RMA.

NAFB Washington Watch Photo Album

NAFB, USDA

Secretary of Ag Schafer on AgWired Live TV

Chuck Zimmerman

I just completed the first test of AgWired Live TV with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, addressing members of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. I didn’t have time to pre-advertise it but I did record his opening remarks which you can watch here. I think you’re going to be seeing more of the future of farm broacasting.

NAFB, USDA, Video

Meeting With The Secretary

Chuck Zimmerman

Vances With Sec. SchaferThe NAFB Washington Watch program is about to start their visit with Secretary of Agriculture Schafer here at the USDA Admin Offices. Here’s the BARN broadcasters Andy Vance and Lindsay Hill with the Secretary.

Actually they’re all filtering in to the board room now so I’ve got to go. More to come.

NAFB Washington Watch Photo Album

NAFB, USDA

Political Commentary From Jennifer Duffy

Chuck Zimmerman

Jennifer DuffyNAFB members heard from Jennifer Duffy, The Cook Political Report, at dinner this evening. Jennifer says she started covering this year’s election in early 2006 and she’s going to be ready for a 3 month vacation after it’s over.

I spoke to her prior to dinner and learned that her job is to analyze and try to figure out the outcome of various elections. She says the farm audience has played a very important role in various elections on a national level. Here at the NAFB Washington Watch dinner her remarks were mostly about congressional races and the political environment in Washington, DC.

You can listen to my interview with Jennifer here:ww-08-cook.mp3

NAFB Washington Watch Photo Album

Audio, NAFB

NAFB Issues Forum

Chuck Zimmerman

Ken RootI really don’t think Ken Root, WHO, is kneeling at the altar of wheat here but it is a different way to do an interview. He’s one of the many farm broadcasters here at the NAFB Washington Watch who participated in this afternoon’s Issues Forum session.

Various commodity groups attend with representatives who can talk about issues pertinent to their audience and members. The farm broadcasters get a couple of hours to conduct interviews for their programming.

I wandered around and interviewed about a half a dozen various attendees and asked them why they participate in Washington Watch.

Listen to different commodity group representatives provide the answer here:ww-08-issues-forum.mp3

NAFB Washington Watch Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, NAFB

Ustream.tv Test At AFT

Chuck Zimmerman

While I was doing some media production training today we did another test of my Ustream.tv account and recorded the following video clip. One thing’s for sure, I need to get in some better light if this is going to work well. There’s something to keep in mind.

Ag Groups, Video

NAFB Leaders Watching Washington

Chuck Zimmerman

NAFB LeadershipThe National Association of Farm Broadcasting leadership took a few minutes after the opening meeting of their annual Washington Watch program to talk with me about the event. Pictured here (l-r) are Randy Koenen, Red River Farm Network, Pam Jahnke, Fabulous Farm Babe and Greg Akagi, Kansas Ag Network.

Randy explains what happens at a Washington Watch, which includes a meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and various representatives of commodity groups. They all agree that this meeting is like professional development on the job since NAFB members attending get to personally interact with legislators and others involved in farm legislation. They conduct interviews and learn more about what’s going on in the nation’s Capitol which helps them do a better and more up to date job reporting back to their listeners.

Up later this afternoon is an Issues Forum session where commodity group reps come in to be available to talk about issues. I’m guessing the Farm Bill is going to be discussed a lot this afternoon.

Listen to my interview with the three amigos here:ww-08-nafb-leaders.mp3

Earlier today the NAFB Board met and then this afternoon the held a business meeting to bring members up to date on Association activities.

I’ve got a photo album from the event started: NAFB Washington Watch Photo Album

Audio, NAFB

Schwarzenegger to Speak at BIO International Summer Convention

Laura McNamara

The state of sustainable agriculture in developing countries will be one of the main issues addressed at the BIO International Convention this summer. The Biotechnology Industry Organization is hosting the convention in San Diego from Tuesday, June 17 through Friday, June 20.

Biotechnology leaders from around the globe will be descending upon San Diego, one of the leading biotech hubs in the world, to discuss the most pressing issues and share their unique perspectives. In addition, there will be a total of 36 regional and country pavilions within the BIO Exhibition with several new pavilions, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Dubai, and South Africa.

This year’s convention will focus on the promise of biotech innovation to heal, fuel and feed the world. International case studies on biofuels, biomanufacturing, research funding, and international collaborations will focus on examples from Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, North America, Singapore, and Sweden. Two additional breakout session tracks will focus on doing business globally and global health. A session entitled, “The Dynamics of a Globalized World and the Future of the Biotechnology Industry,” will feature international public officials sharing insights on the evolving business landscape.

This year’s keynote speakers include Gen. Colin Powell, J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.Read More

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Energy, Environment, Food, Technology

Trusting in Farmland

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-168 - American Farmland TrustThis week I’m attending the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, Washington Watch program. It will kick off this afternoon as will my coverage here on AgWired.

This morning I’m doing some media production training with American Farmland Trust. We’ve been talking about editing audio and video since they’re in a podcasting mode. In this week’s program you’ll hear from one of the people in our session, Gretchen Hoffman, AFT intern. Gretchen explains the work that AFT does and says that she’s an art major and very interested in the production side of web-delivered information. So besides learning how to edit a file and upload it we’re also talking about story development for a video clip as well as an audio file that may accompany text on a web page. She says they’ve got their own YouTube account now and have found the number of views compared to a video clip posted to their own webpage has increased fourfold.

I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 168 (8 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:zimmcast168-4-27-08.mp3

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

Ag Groups, Audio, ZimmCast