I’ve been wondering for a while what exactly a “carnival blog” is since I see it referred to a lot by a blogger I subscribe to. He writes about the Carnival of the Capitalist in particular. Then this morning I noticed a comment on a recent post of mine that’s from one of these blogs. I can’t tell who is producing this blog but what it looks like is a blog that doesn’t produce any original content. They just take images and content from other people’s blogs. Like in this case, mine. They’re topical and as far as I can tell are only in business to create traffic and revenue. But for who? Somehow the idea of someone else using my content to create traffic for themselves isn’t right. I don’t feel good about that. If I’m mis-judging this I would be happy to know how and have someone explain it to me. If I’m not, then maybe I should delete their comment. Anyone have any more information on this or suggestions?
Those High Priced Veggies Causing Problems
“You have got to be kidding me.” That’s the first thing that came to mind when I saw the tease for a new report by USDA’s Economic Research Service titled, “Metropolitan Area Food Prices and Children’s Weight Gain.” Basically it was conducted to see if there’s a link between high priced fruits and vegetables and fat kids. Let’s get rid of the term “overweight” please. Here’s one finding of the study:
Children who lived in metropolitan areas where fruits and vegetables were relatively expensive gained significantly more weight than children—matched for otherwise-similar characteristics and standard of living—who lived where fruits and vegetables were cheaper.
There’s no way you’re going to convince me that the reason these kids in the area studied are fat is because they can’t afford fruits and vegetables. At least the report ends with:
Lacking longitudinal data on consumption and price changes, we cannot confirm the causal relationship between higher prices and the purchase and use of fresh produce. However, the findings suggest the need for more research to determine the impact prices may have on the consumption of fruits and vegetables by children.
I can tell you that the “longitudinal” data they need to look at is how much time those kids are lying down on the couch watching tv or playing video games!
Tolman Re-elected Chairman of MARC2000
MARC 2000 (Midwest Area Rivers Coalition) has re-elected NCGA CEO, Rick Tolman, as their chairman for 2006. Rick, I guess you’re doing a good job.
“Under Mr. Tolman’s leadership, our coalition achieved what was unthinkable just a year ago – walking the halls of Capitol Hill with leading environmental advocates as our allies,” said Paul C. Rohde, President of MARC 2000.
Perfecting The Soybean
This week’s ZimmCast is my last interview from the fall NAFB convention. It’s with Kent Gronlie, soybean farmer and member of the United Soybean Board and Qualisoy. In my interview Kent talks about the work that Qualisoy has been doing and what he sees for the future for soybeans.
You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: 
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also now find the ZimmCast on CoolCast Radio or subscribe in iTunes.
Market Probe Acquires Marketing Horizons
This just in . . .
Market Probe has acquired Marketing Horizons, Inc., a mid-sized marketing research company located in St. Louis, Missouri that specializes in agricultural market research. For nearly 20 years, Marketing Horizons has been a leading provider of full-service marketing research and business consulting services. Earl Wims, co-founder of Marketing Horizons, retired from the company effective December 15, 2005. Co-founder Robert Jasper will assume the title of Senior Vice President at Market Probe and will continue to oversee the day-to-day management of the operations. The Marketing Horizons staff of about 30, located in two St. Louis offices, will remain in place and become employees of Marketing Horizons, Inc. – A Division of Market Probe.
ACDC Has New Ag Media Terms
Jim Evans, who manages the ACDC (not the rock group), liked my new agricultural communications terms. Check out the June issue of ACDC News for my definition of “agriblogging” and “farm podcasting.”
BTW. ACDC stands for Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. They now have over 27,000 documents in their collection. The ACDC is: “a unique literature collection and information service developed by agricultural communications faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is offered as a service to students, teachers, researchers, professional communicators and others who are interested in communications related broadly to agriculture, food, natural resources and rural affairs. The Center is housed within the Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences Funk Library.”
AFBF Leader – The Bridge Is Sagging
The American Farm Bureau Federation annual convention got kicked off today. Boy are they cranking out the news releases. Here’s a couple items from them you might be interested in:
1. The American Farm Bureau today gave its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Barry Flinchbaugh, Kansas State University agricultural economist.
2. America’s farmers and ranchers have an obligation to provide input on farm program changes before outside forces do it for them, American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman said today during his address at AFBF’s 87th annual meeting.
“For decades, agriculture has relied on our farm program as a sturdy bridge that gets us to the other side of the river and moves us on down our country road,” Stallman said. “Today that bridge is beginning to sag under the weight of change. We cannot afford to wait until that old bridge collapses, and we end up swimming for our lives.”
3. Government support for agriculture will look very different — the farm bills of the future will be nothing like the farm bills of recent years.
Global trade will drive agricultural profitability, because more than 96 percent of the world’s population will be outside the U.S.
Farmers will be more dependent on nearby rural communities, but these communities will be less dependent on agriculture for their economic stability.
America will have fewer farms producing a larger percentage of U.S. food and fiber, but there will be more small farms than today.
More farmers and ranchers will have learned to produce what they can sell and not simply sell what they produce.
Market forces will drive the implementation of environmental practices.
Research and technology will be global in scope rather than focused nationally.
This last one is a list of trends that will most affect agriculture in the next 15 years that was part of a new report from the AFBF, Making American Agriculture Productive and Profitable Committee.
I’m sure a lot more will come out of Nashville this week.
Are Older Farmers Using The Internet More?
I’ve been meaning to post this for a few days. You get busy, the emails pile up, you know how it is. After reading this article on MarketingVox I wonder how the same study would apply to farmers. Are older farmers using the internet more or less? Just yesterday someone said that they bet that farm blog readers are “under 30.” I disagree with that based on my own experience but don’t have data to back it up. Are you a farmer reading this? If so, let me know your thoughts by commenting or emailing me.
This article on MarketingVox says that “U.S. online adults 55 years and older – the heaviest users of offline media – say the ability to access online content any time of the day (69.2 percent) and the greater accuracy of online information (67.5 percent) are the primary advantages of the internet versus TV, radio, magazines or newspapers, according to a Burst Media survey.” and “36.6 percent spend less time reading magazines now than a year ago; 44.1 percent spend less time reading newspapers; 44.0 percent spend less time listening to the radio; and 43.6 percent spend less time watching TV.” Media is becoming more fractionalized every day and I believe the same is true in agriculture.
We know that over half of all U. S. farmers are now online but we really don’t know a lot about their specific internet habits and how they use it for business. I’m hoping to learn more on Tuesday since the Gateway NAMA program is “how high-speed Internet access is changing how the agriculture industry does business.” The presenter will be Kip Pendleton of Agristar Global Networks.
BTW. If you go, stay for my blogging seminar afterward!
Agromek About To Kick Off In Denmark
General Manager Peter Hansen, who is also chairman, is about to kick off Agromek 2006 on January 17. This is ” the largest annual agricultural mechanization exhibition in Northern Europe.” They have 560 exhibitors lined up. Apparently ventilations systems and pig production are big this year. Some of the things they’ve promoted in advance of the show are:
Poultry farmers, pig producers and cattle farmers will be able to study and compare a wide range of systems for ventilation and other products for the improvement of livestock housing climates when they attend Agromek 2006 . . .
Pig farmers and their advisors will be able to study and compare a wide array of almost all types of technology, installations, fixtures and production aids for application in pig herds when they visit Agromek 2006 . . .
IFAJ Article On Blogging
The latest issue of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists has a blogging article in it! I’m interested to see how many of the thousands of IFAJ members internationally will be blogging by the end of 2006. I challenge them to give it a try and if they do to let me know so I can feature them here on AgWired.
During last fall’s IFAJ International Congress I saw a lot of interest in this new way of personal online publishing.