ARC Meeting At Ag Media Summit

Chuck Zimmerman

ARC Meeting At AMSAt the recent Agricultural Media Summit, one of the “official” participating organizations, the Agricultural Relations Council held a breakfast meeting.

Here’s outgoing(?) ARC President Jeri Omernik leading the meeting. ARC presented 5 recommendations from a task force that evaluated the organization. I couldn’t stay for the end of the meeting so I’m not sure where the discussion went after I left. The five recommendations are:

  • We offer professional intimacy with others in the same industry;
  • We offer professional development in ag, science and food-related Public Relations;
  • We are experts in ag, science and food-related Public Relations;
  • We extol the value of Public Relations in the agriculture, food and science industries and its continuing development; and
  • We strive to identify and to advocate best practices in Public Relations in the agriculture, food and science industries.


    • They consider these five attributes, the “unique selling proposition” of ARC. You can find a membership application here (pdf).

    ARC, Public Relations

    Signing The OI Flag

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Signing The OI FlagI just received this picture from Albert Renteria the founder of Operation Interdependence. He’s one of the the guys who drove a vehicle every mile of the recent Celebrate the Interstate cross country convoy I participated in. He drove this motor coach with the flag flying all the way across America. All of us in the convoy signed it and now he’s working on a plan for the flag.

    If you haven’t checked out Operation Interdependence you ought to. Albert is a former Marine who is dedicated to helping our military men and women get supplies they want and need. He says that a lot (I mean a lot) of what’s shipped privately overseas never reaches the intended recipients. He’s worked out a system thought to send manageable boxes of C-rations that are guaranteed to arrive. In case you missed it, I interviewed Albert and posted the interview on Domestic Fuel.

    Thanks for the picture Albert and it was a pleasure to travel with you across this great country of ours.

    Uncategorized

    Egg McMuffin Not a Kroc

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Egg McMuffinLet’s all celebrate with Herb Peterson. According to a story in the Chicago Sun, he was just honored with a lifetime achievement award by McDonald’s Corporation for inventing the Egg McMuffin among other things. He did so after becoming frustrated that the restaurant didn’t have a breakfast menu. Thanks to the Meatingplace for the heads up.

    Getting on the menu at McDonalds has to be difficult. Of course Herb was a good friend of Ray Kroc. “Peterson first met Kroc when Peterson was vice president of D’Arcy Advertising Co. in Chicago. That’s when Peterson wrote the first McDonald’s national ad slogan, “Where Quality Starts Fresh Every Day.” . . . He got the idea for the Egg McMuffin from his own favorite breakfast meal — eggs Benedict. He asked a local blacksmith to make an egg ring to keep the fried egg round and tidy for a hand-held sandwich.”

    How many Egg McMuffins have you eaten since they were introduced in 1975? It’s my favorite McDonalds breakfast. What’s yours?

    Food

    Writing About New Media

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Jefferson City Business TimesNew media will now be getting some regular play in my local business paper, the Jefferson City Business Times (JCBT). They’ll be kicking off a new website any day now and I’ll be able to link you to my regular column that started with the August issue. I got started by defining blogs, podcasts and RSS. In the coming months I’m going to be focusing on each of these new media tools separately.

    It’s not enough to just blog, I have to write about blogging, talk about blogging and teach blogging.

    Speaking of which, I’ll be providing some consulting for the JCBT because they want to start blogging.

    Publication

    A Supreme Berkshire Product Website

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Berkshire PorkBerk Supreme of California, MO has a new website to advertise their Berkshire Pork products.

    The website is simple and functional, proving that simplicity works. At least I think it does.

    For almost four centuries the most flavorful pork has come from the Berkshire breed of hogs. Known as the “black pig” to many, the superior taste of Berkshire makes it the ideal choice for everything from tasty barbecued chops to moist delicious hams.

    I wonder if I cooked Berkshire last night on my smoker. The pork steaks were certainly flavorful.

    Food, Internet, Pork

    Gullickson Writer of the Year

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Gil GullicksonAt Successful Farming I know who gets the tough stuff to write about. It’s gotta be Gil Gullickson. As Crops Technology Editor I’m sure he has a challenge making sure his readers understand some pretty complicated stuff. Now he’s won a big award to prove he’s very good at it.

    Gil Gullickson has been named Writer of the Year by his peers in the field of agricultural journalism. Gullickson, Crops Technology Editor with Meredith Corporation’s Successful Farming® magazine, received the recognition through the American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA) annual Writing Awards program. The award was presented during the eighth annual Agricultural Media Summit, in Portland, Ore., which took place July 23-26, 2006. Gullickson’s three winning articles in Technical Feature (Stop Super Weeds), On-Farm Production (What’s Happened to the Miracle Crop?), and Regular Column (What Did We Learn About Asian Soybean Rust?) categories earned him the award.

    Meredith had some other winners too. Read More

    ACN, Ag Media Summit, Publication

    Barbeque Battle Features Beef

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Chef Richard ChamberlainI think Chef Richard Chamberlain is really a good ambassador for the beef industry. Thanks to Diane Henderson at the Cattlemen’s Beef Board for this picture.

    Several checkoff-funded programs and products earned national attention at the recent Safeway 14th Annual National Capital Barbecue Battle, a charity event that draws some 120,000 protein lovers to Washington, D.C. each year. While traditional proteins were entered in the competition, 28 of 39 teams from across the country came with a beef recipe, resulting in a special beef category, said Allison Wenther, director of retail marketing and public relations for the beef checkoff’s Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative (NEBPI).

    In cooperation with retail partners, the Virginia Beef Council and the Meat Importers Council of America, the beef booth featured live cooking demonstrations by Chef Richard Chamberlain, author of the checkoff-funded Healthy Beef Cookbook. Safeway’s mobile grill team and volunteers distributed more than 10,000 sample strip steak dishes. Members of the checkoff-funded Beef Ambassador Program also circulated through the crowd and talked with visitors about beef’s flavor, nutrition and versatility.

    Ag Groups, Beef

    World Record Harvest Attempt In Manitoba

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Harry SiemensRay Wieler, President of Children’s Camp International and coordinator for World Harvest for Kids says things are ready for the big harvest set for August 5, near Winkler, Manitoba. The group’s goal is to break the record for the fastest harvest of a quarter section of wheat.

    Ray WielerAll proceeds from the event will go to help send children in Asia to camp. Their goal is to raise enough money to send 40,000 kids to camp where they can receive a message of hope for their future. Children’s Camps International is an organization dedicated to giving underprivileged children in developing areas of the world an opportunity to attend camp. Based in Winkler, and under the direction of Wieler, a former Winkler Bible Camp director, the organization currently runs children’s camps in India, Nepal, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Belize. Wieler said they have about 95 combines lined up. Read More

    International

    Updates To Monsanto Podcast Site

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Conversations About Plant BiotechnologySpeaking of podcasting. We were speaking about podcasting here in the office just now (really). Here’s an update to Monsanto’s Conversations About Plant Biotechnology. This very well done production now has a “total number of video segments with growers to more than 35 and representing nine of the 21 countries that grew biotech crops in 2005.” They’ve also updated the website.

    The site now provides a state-of-the-art online video player, cutting-edge video distribution system, and more flexible, simpler navigation. The changes will make it easier and faster for visitors to view videos with growers and experts about the benefits of GM crops.

    Agribusiness, Biotech, Podcasts

    Russell Joins Brownfield Team

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Brownfield The Brownfield folks have added to their team. It seems to just keep growing. They’ve hired Dave Russell. There’s a well-known name in the farm broadcasting ranks. Dave began at WRFD in Columbus, Ohio, before moving on to WOWO in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and then the Indiana voice for Tribune Radio Networks. That’s where he was working back when I introduced the Brownfield Network into Indiana. Lately Dave has been serving as Agricultural Liaison for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

    The addition of Russell to the Brownfield team brings the total number of National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Broadcast members up to eleven.

    What percentage of the NAFB membership now works for Learfield Communications?

    Media