- You figure this one out. An FAO-led group called IMARK, has issued a new learning tool designed to help specialists and interested parties access and exchange agricultural information online.
- A Purdue University ag economist says that, “farmers should not expect their site-specific tools to remain viable any longer than their home computers.” Find out more on their Site Specific Management Center.
- Delta Farm Press says that Cotton Inc. is now sponsoring Nashville Star.
- Students won scholarship funds at World Ag Exo.
- Missouri Agriculture Industries Council summer meeting announced. Register here.
- The FAO is holding its Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean in Caracas, Venezuela, this week.
Humane Society Takes on Factory Farming
I can remember visiting a local humane society as a kid to get a puppy to raise at home. So I used to have this image of the organization as one that took in stray, lost or abandoned animals and found them a home. Of course the Humane Society of the United States has long since moved on.
I just saw an alert to their Factory Farming Homepage. You might be interested to see what they’re doing in this regard. Of course they have the obligatory video of the cruelty imposed on animals so beware your tender sensibilities.
Protect That IP Today
Every day has to be some sort of “day” anymore. Today it’s World Intellectual Property Day according to the World Intellectual Property Organization. Here’s what their Director General, Kamil Idris, says, “World Intellectual Property Day is an opportunity to encourage people to think about the role played by intellectual property in everyday life, and about its importance in stimulating and safeguarding innovation and creativity.” They’ve even got a 30 sec video clip you can watch here (WMV file).
The heads up for this comes from Croplife America which says:
CropLife America supports the efforts of its global federation, CropLife International, to create partnerships with regulators and law enforcement to prevent the counterfeiting and piracy of plant science innovations. Counterfeiting crop protection products affects American, Asian and European multinational companies as well as farmers, consumers and the environment.
Blogging & Podcasting Workshop For NCGA
In just a few short minutes I’ll be conducting a blogging and podcasting workshop for the National Corn Growers Association, National & State Staff Meeting in St. Louis. They don’t even know I’m here yet.
This post will serve as an example of how you can very quickly distribute information from literally anwhere you can get connected.
I’m on the Westin hotel meeting room wireless and all I had to do was take a quick snapshot with my camera, load, crop and tweak it with Photoshop, upload to my server and login to my admin panel and here you are. This post with picture took less than 10 minutes from the time I walked up to the door.
It’s about time to get started so until later AgWired fans . . .
Post Update
We’re actually blogging now in the workshop and this update is for demonstration purposes.
Post Update #2
Right after our workshop concluded this morning I interviewed Mimi Ricketts, NCGA and Mark Lambert, Illinois Corn Growers Association. We talked about what they get out of this annual meeting and if the new media tools I demonstrated today have an application in their communications work. You can listen to our interview here: 
Mark & Mimi Show (4 min MP3)
MyPyramid Website Rocks Along
Last week was the one year anniversary for the USDA MyPyramid food guidance system. Apparently the website has received a huge amount of traffic making it “one of the most popular federal websites ever.”
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says the inagural success of My Pyramid will be built upon in its second year with a variety of improvements and outreach programs. You can listen to him describe the future for the program in this report from USDA Radio News: Mike Johanns MyPyramid Story (1 min MP3)
I guess I have to wonder why we have an obesity chrisis in America with all this good nutrition information and so many people accessing it.
Get Mobile Farm Info Quickly
The keynote speaker at the recent NAMA Conference says the future is in wireless information delivery. It looks like Quickfarm agrees with him. They’ve just announced their new mobile service that allows producers with Web-enabled mobile phones or PDAs to access timely production information.
The phone-formatted information will be managed by the user from the Web site of their local elevator, cooperative or other QuickFarm subscriber location. QuickFarm Mobile™ provides producers with convenient, portable and immediate access to breaking agricultural news, weather radar, forecasts, grain and livestock market information, local commodity prices and LDP information – right from their mobile phones.
Matt Walsh, vice president of QuickFarm, says the mobile Web service augments the company’s current services and makes it even easier for agribusiness subscribers to provide their farmer customers with the critical, time-sensitive information they need for their farming operations.
Virtual Wine Exhibition
These virtual exhibitions are very cool. I just participated in one this past weekend. Here’s one you can really get your palate around. Although, sniffing the aroma after popping a cork might be a little challenging. And I’m not sure a virtual cabernet is as good as the real thing. But hey, check it out.
It’s the first international wine exhibition in Israel, which you’ll find online. It starts June 16.
Doing The Brownfield Boogie
I did make it to the Brownfield reception at last week’s NAMA Conference but without my camera. That’s a rare thing with this blogger. But I was promised a picture and it just showed up in my inbox. Thanks Myra.
So, as usual, it looks like another successful Brownfield NAMA event. I am assuming that Boomerz is playing at the time this picture was taken.
New Mrs. Missouri
From farm broadcaster to Mrs. Missouri America. It’s Lanie Beetsma. Lanie was a farm broadcaster at KMZU in Carrollton, MO.
You can find out a little more about Lanie on the Brownfield Blog where I got this head’s up.
BIO 2006 Coverage Statistics
I was just looking over some statistics from my recent coverage of the BIO 2006 Convention that I thought you might be interested in. These are only for AgWired since I did some posts on other ZimmComm blogs.
Not too bad for a couple days work, eh?