FFA Announces First Ever Recipients of Earth Day Service Challenge Awards

Laura McNamara

The National FFA OrganizationThe winners of the National FFA Organization’s first Earth Day Service Challenge Awards are honored with thousands of dollars in grants, in partnership with Timberland PRO.

The $7,000 Best Impact grant, awarded to the chapter that demonstrates the most powerful impact to the community, goes to the Oshkosh West FFA chapter from
Oshkosh, Wis. The $3,000 Best Civic Engagement grant, given to the chapter with the most volunteer involvement, was won by the East Bay FFA chapter in Gibsonton, Fla.

The award money can be used to launch a future civic engagement project or fulfill other chapter needs related to community engagement.

“We had many top quality service projects from around the country,” said Joe Martinez, education specialist at National FFA. “Projects submitted had to include at least 50 volunteers and take place in April, ideally on Earth Day, April 22.”

The Oshkosh West FFA chapter worked with the Oshkosh Conservation Club to turn a 30-acre parcel of land into a nature area with trail. Other cleanup projects occurred at Terrell’s Island and the Paine Art Center with the Progress Oshkosh group. The chapter also worked with the Lions Club on their adopt-a-flowerbed program and Trout Unlimited to complete a stream cleanup and water testing day.
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Ag Groups, Education

John Rice Receives North Dakota Grain Growers Scholarship

Laura McNamara

John C. Rice receives North Dakota Grain Growers $500 scholarshipThe North Dakota Grain Growers Association and the North Dakota Barley Council are proud to announce the ‘Growing For The Future’ scholarship was presented to FFA member John T. Rice from the Maddock FFA Chapter. This $500 scholarship is meant to further Mr. Rice’s educational possibilities and to strengthen his future involvement in agriculture. His participation in FFA and his work in the Grain Production proficiency category has not only awarded him state recognition but has qualified him to win the NDGGA/NDBC ‘Growing For The Future’ Scholarship. Congratulations John and we wish you the best.

Ag Groups, Education

Farmbridge To Help Iraq Farmers

Chuck Zimmerman

Susan Littlefield has put together a website called FarmBridge to help connect American farmers with farmers in Iraq. It’s actually a forum site where you can easily post questions and answers on various topics. Like most forums it can grow to include new topics after someone gets registered.

Here’s the FarmBridge mission:

FarmBridge.com is a grass roots effort by farmers, ranchers and producers located in the United States to help support U.S. civil military officers in Iraq as they work to build and develop Iraq’s agriculture industry.

FarmBridge.com is neither a company nor non-profit organization but rather a pass-thru Website that allows American citizens to contribute knowledge, expertise, equipment and resources to the reconstruction effort.

FarmBridge.com was established by Susan Littlefield (farm broadcaster; Nebraska) and Paul McKellips (GO Team; Iraq).

You can find Paul’s reports from Iraq here on AgWired.

International

eWine Match Your Food

Chuck Zimmerman

e Wine MatchIf you’ve ever wondered which wine would go best with which food then there’s help on the way. Now you’ll be able to text the food you’re buying in the grocery store to a number and get back 3 choices that match your food best. I can’t wait to try this the next time I’m out shopping (not that I have much trouble choosing a wine mind you).

eWine Match announces the launch of the first real-time food and wine pairing solution via mobile technology. The new text message tool relies on a “smart” database that recognizes the dominant reactive flavors in food and provides shoppers with three widely available wines that would pair well with their food choice. Developed under the consultation of a professional chef and wine educator, the system aims to help often overwhelmed consumers find a good match for their upcoming meal, whether it be as elaborate as Beef Wellington or as simple as frozen pizza.

Now, with the arrival of eWine Match, consumers have an easy to use resource at their fingertips. eWine Match is like having your own sommelier with you in the store as you decide what you’re going to have for dinner. The shopper simply texts the meal’s key ingredient or type of cuisine to 411511 and within seconds receives three wine selections that span a range in varietal, region and price. The service is free (though contingent upon a user’s text message service) and unlike current food and wine pairing solutions on the web, is totally portable and responds specifically to the food item submitted.

The eWine Match service is already available nationally and will be promoted in more than 2500 stores this summer. The program has received a very enthusiastic initial response from the trade who are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to improve their customers’ shopping experience.

Food

Some Flickr and YouTube Statistics

Chuck Zimmerman

My Flickr AccountWhile I was compiling some numbers for the latest issue of the ZimmNews which should be going out tomorrow (email me if you want to be added to the list) I noticed that I’m up to 45 photo album sets in my Flickr account. They contain a total of over 7,500 photos that have been viewed almost 45,000 times! Those numbers just keep on growing. That’s going back to my first one at the Indy 500 in 2005 so it’s 2 years worth of online photos related to mostly agricultural activities. That’s only a fraction of the photos I’ve taken in that time for our clients and sponsors though.

That made me check out my YouTube account where I’ve got 45 videos uploaded. I don’t know what the collective total views of all of them are but the very first one I uploaded of Tanya Tucker in the first Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race has been viewed almost 14,000 times so far.

What does that all mean? I’m in the online conversation and when you consider the 3,500 posts here on AgWired, 124 episodes of the weekly ZimmCast and who knows how many audio and video files you can’t find anywhere else I’d say we’re making sure agriculture and agricultural marketing is getting noticed.

Uncategorized

Bike Riding Branding Opportunity

Chuck Zimmerman

Jefferson City WaterfallI’ll bet you didn’t know we had a waterfall in Jefferson City, MO. I didn’t either until I was out on a city trail by a creek this afternoon. This isn’t a great shot of it but the bushes were too thick to get close.

I’m sure that normally there’s not much water in this creek bed but we had some major downpours yesterday late that caused a little flash flooding in creeks like this one.

Osborn & Barr Water BottleThis post was just a way to show off a little Osborn & Barr branding since that was the water bottle I picked up on my way out to the trail.

I’m not even sure what event these came from. Do you?

It does go to show that some branded items do get used.

I’m wondering if advertising your brand here on AgWired would be a good “branding opportunity.”

Agencies

It’s Another Ethanol and Indy Week (Iowa)

Chuck Zimmerman

Iowa Corn IndyThis is just a little heads up that I’ll be off to Newton, IA this week to cover the Iowa Corn Indy 250. Here’s a little promo you can listen to (mp3). The race is being sponsored by the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and is being “presented” by Ethanol.

This new race on the IRL schedule should be a corn farmer’s dream. High performance engines cranking out the rpm’s on pure ethanol fuel which is mostly made from corn these days. The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council is sponsoring my coverage and I’ll be cross posting here and on Domestic Fuel starting on Thursday.

Ag Groups, Corn, Ethanol

WordPress Tops in Webware 100 Awards

Chuck Zimmerman

Webware Top 100I am often asked why I seem so “stuck” on using WordPress. It’s because it’s such a good tool! Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so. WordPress just came in first in the publishing category in Webware’s Top 100 Awards.

These are the best Web applications there are. We know because you told us. Over the course of 20 days in May and June, the community of Webware.com users voted for its favorite Web applications. These are the results: the top 100 Web apps, 10 in each of 10 categories, determined by Webware readers and the fans of the sites that made the final cut.There were more than 5,000 nominations for sites to be included in this awards program, which Webware’s editors pruned to a list of 250 finalists. Users then voted on those finalists–there were 489,467 votes cast.

In the media category two of my favorites came in at the top, YouTube and Flickr. Here’s where you can see all of the top 100.

Uncategorized

GSD&M Agency For John Deere Commercial and Consumer Equipment

Chuck Zimmerman

John DeereJohn Deere’s commercial and consumer equipment division has selected its agency of record.

John Deere, a major provider of advanced products and services for lawn and turf care, landscaping and irrigation, today announced it has named Austin, TX based GSD&M as the marketing & advertising agency of record for its Worldwide Commercial & Consumer Equipment Division (C&CE).

After a four-month selection process from 20 invitation-only candidates, GSD&M was chosen for its ability to showcase the John Deere heritage, leverage John Deere dealer and channel partners, and deliver strong messages over a variety of mediums. The agency will lead national broadcast and print creative as well as national media planning and buying. “We were highly impressed with their creativity and ideation during the evaluation process,” said Bob Hove, senior vice president, customer marketing & sales, John Deere C&CE. “They set themselves apart not only through their innovative approach to the John Deere campaign, but also through their proven reputation for excellence with other prestigious clients. We look forward to a successful relationship.”

John Deere’s partnership with GSD&M will begin on July 2, 2007.

Agencies, Agribusiness, John Deere

IFAJ Congress 2008 Pumpkin

Chuck Zimmerman

IFAJ 2008 PumpkinCindy and I are looking forward to this year’s IFAJ Congress in Japan but we’re already looking forward to next year in Austria/Slovenia. Why? Because to pre-promote it the organizers are running a little pumpkin growing incentive. Here’s my plant growing next to our tomatoes.

What we’re supposed to do is grow our pumpkins with seed they supplied starting now. We go to the Japan Congress, return home and harvest our pumpkins. We take pictures of them and bring them to Austria/Slovenia next year and get a bottle of pumpkin seed oil. I assume this is some pretty good stuff for all this work. Actually it’s not a lot of work and may be fun if my pumpkin survives and thrives. He’s looking pretty good to me right now.

IFAJ 2009If you really want to look ahead to 2009 then you’re invited to attend a reception during the Ag Media Summit that will take place July 29 at Churchill Downs in Louisville. You need to rsvp for this event where we’ll get a presentation on the current plans for the 2009 IFAJ Congress.

To rsvp contact Den Gardner.

Ag Media Summit, IFAJ