Our program moderator here at the Country Living Outlook Conference is Courtney Yuskis, Director of the Country Living Association. She’s been keeping us on schedule.
I’m set up in the side of Replay’s here in Kemper Arena with a pretty slow connection using my Sprint card. That’s why things have been a little slow on the posting front today. But I have been busy getting interviews and taking pictures. So we’ll be learning more about living the country life over the next couple days.
The first person on the program at the Country Living Outlook Conference is Betsy Freese, Editor-in-Chief of Living The Country Life. Betsy talked about who these rural lifestyle people are and based her comments on research her company has done as well as her personal contact with her audience. Some quick facts she gave came from the magazine’s subscription cards and includes:
Average Age: 51.9
Average Income: $81,911
Average Home Value: $116,479
Married: 89%
When it comes to reaching people living in the country she says they take a 360 degree approach using their magazine, a tv show on RFD-TV, a radio show and their website on which she’s now got a blog started. She says it’s a growing audience. From direct feedback with her audience she says they want a lot of information on various types of projects with questions about ponds being at the top of the list.
You can listen to my interview with Betsy here: cla-07-freese.mp3
The Country Living Outlook Conference is underway here in Kansas City at Replay’s in Kemper Arena. We’ve got 60 people attending from a pretty broad range of company types including real estate, media, research and agribusiness.
There are a number of speakers as you can see from my earlier post with the agenda. I’m going to try to have interviews posted with them all by the end of the weekend.
This time, it’s four new members and the new appointees are filling in the gaps in the Mushroom Council.
Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner appointed four members to serve on the Mushroom Council.
Newly appointed producer members who will serve three-year terms beginning Jan. 1, 2008 and ending Dec. 31, 2010 are: Fletcher Street, Region 1,Tacoma, Wash.; Kathleen K. Lafferty, Region 2, Landenberg, Pa.; and Joe Caldwell, Region 3, Knoxville, Tenn.
Virgil Jurgensmeyer of Miami, Okla., the newly appointed member for Region 1, will serve a two-year term beginning Jan. 1, 2008 and ending Dec. 31, 2009.
Authorized under the Mushroom Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act of 1990, the Mushroom Council — composed of fresh market producers or importers who average more than 500,000 pounds of mushrooms produced or imported annually — administers a national promotion, research and consumer information program to maintain and expand markets for fresh mushrooms.
The mango industry isn’t the only fruit getting some new representation. Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner has appointed six producer members, including one first handler and alternates to the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council.
The members will each serve three-year terms of office beginning Jan. 1, 2008 and ending Dec. 31, 2010.
Newly appointed producer members are: H. Neil Moore of Ivanhoe, N.C.; Dennis G. Doyle, New Lisbon, N.J. and Douglas A. Krahmer, St. Paul, Ore. Reappointed producer members are: Adair Chambers Peterson, Homerville, Ga.; Robert Carini, West Olive, Mich. and Rod Cook, Olympia, Wash.
Newly appointed alternates are: Ralph C. Carter Jr., White Lake, N.C.; Tim Wetherbee, Hammonton, N.J.; Ryan L. Brown, Hillsboro, Ore. and John V. Bennett, Alma, Ga. Reappointed alternates are: Kathryn A. Clemons, Pullman, Mich. and Bryan Sakuma, Bow, Wash.
Paul Macrie III of Hammonton is a newly appointed handler member and Guy P. Cotton, Stockton, Calif., is a newly appointed handler alternate.
The Blueberry Promotion, Research and Information Order, which became effective on July 17, 2000, authorizes the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council to conduct a coordinated program of promotion, research and consumer andindustry information in order to maintain and expand the market for cultivated blueberries.
The acting Agriculture Secretary is swiftly exercising his authority. Ag Secretary Chuck Conner has named six new officials to the 20-member National Mango Board.
These six appointees were nominated by the Board to fill three importer positions and three foreign producer positions. The members will start their three-year terms beginning on Jan. 1, 2008 and ending Dec. 31, 2010.
Newly appointed members are: Caleb “Cliff” Cavazos, Rio Rico, Ariz., importer, District III; and Flavio Muranaka, Brazil and Yamil Farah, Ecuador, foreign producers.
Reappointed members are: Ismael Diaz, Rio Rico, Ariz., importer, District III; Larry Nienkerk, Woodside, Calif., importer, District IV and Paul Barclay, Peru, foreign producer.
The National Mango Board is an industry-funded, national generic program of research and promotion, industry and consumer information conducted to maintain, expand and develop domestic markets for fresh mangos. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service monitors the operations of the National Mango Board.
I’ll be getting an outlook on country living today at the Country Living Association Outlook Conference. It all starts later this morning at Replay’s Bar & Gril at Kemper Arena in Kansas City. Here’s what the program looks like:
10:30 – 11:15 Welcome by Betsy Freese, Living the Country Life
11:30 – 12:30 Luncheon, Patrick Gottsch, President & Founder of RFD TV
12:45 – 1:30 Session 1: Panel of Researchers, Susan Spaulding, Market Directions, Scott Downey, Purdue University, Department of Ag Economics, Representative from University of Missouri Extension
1:35 – 2:20 Session 2: From the Country
2:30 – 3:00 Networking Break
3:10 – 3:55 Session 3: Panel of companies actively marketing to this market, Sean Sundberg, John Deere Worldwide Consumer and Commercial Equipment Division, Shari Burgus, Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, Matt Coniglio, National Accounts Manager, Fastline Publications, Daryl Andrews, National Agribusiness, Brad Pline, Allied Insurance
4:00 – 4:30 Closing Session
Then tomorrow stay tuned for the Country Living Olympics. I’ll have coverage of all the activities right here on AgWired.
The Futures Channel has produced a short movie on California agriculture. They’d love your feedback. Thanks to Jenna who’s in charge of their distribution for the alert to it. It’s meant to be an instructional video for classroom use.
Do your students know where their food comes from? There are more than 350 different commodities grown in California, including rice, dairy, avocados, meat, strawberries, grapes and lots and lots of almonds. In a state that provides approximately 15 percent of the United States agriculture, statistics are an important tool that agricultural economists use in California to keep up with its supply and demand.
It’s basically focused on the growth in “organic” acres.
