Canadian Corn Users Call for Government Support

Chuck Zimmerman

Harry SiemensThe Canadian Animal Industry Corn Users wants the Canadian government to provide the necessary support to ensure the survival of agriculture until [someone] finds the fix. The Canadian International Trade Tribunal ended the collection of provisional countervail and antidumping duties on imported U.S. grain corn after determining the imports do not threaten the Canadian corn industry.

The AICU, a coalition of the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and the Canadian Pork Council, suggests, while the problems prompting Canadian corn growers to start the challenge still exist, they need global attention. AICU General Manager Kathleen Sullivan says duties may seem to make sense in the short run, ultimately they hurt all of agriculture. “We don’t just compete in Canada,” said Sullivan. “A lot of our customers, like the pork and the cattle producers, compete in world markets and that means we need a level playing field between Canada and competitors.” Read More

International

Biotech Grows In South Africa

Chuck Zimmerman

Farmers From South AfricaThanks to the Council for Biotechnology Information I was able to meet two very interesting men from South Africa at the BIO 2006 Convention. Pictured with me in the middle are Advocate Mdutshane (L), a corn grower and tribal leader and Dr. Khosi Rebe (R), who is the assistant director of the Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture. Both of these guys are supporters of biotechnology.

In my interview with them you’ll hear what people in Africa think about biotech and what they want American farmers to know about them and their country. You might be interested to know for example, that there is no market system there as we know it here.

You can listen to my interview with them here: Listen To MP3 South Africa Biotech Interview (13 min MP3)

AgWired coverage of BIO 2006 is made possible by: Rhea & Kaiser Marketing Communications

Audio, Biotech

Event Blogging and NAMA on the ZimmCast

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast66 - NAMA Conference NewsEvent blogging is the new media way to have your event covered. In this week’s ZimmCast you can find out about some of the events on my blogging schedule. If your event isn’t on the list call me to make it so.

You can also hear from 2 of last week’s NAMA award winners. At the end of the program several people tell you why they’re jazzed about NAMA. Guess who they are from their voice. Subscribe, listen and enjoy.

You can listen to this week’s program here: Listen To ZimmCast ZimmCast 66 (8 min MP3)

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes.

Audio, IFAJ, NAMA, Podcasts, ZimmCast

We’re Not Google News Worthy

Chuck Zimmerman

We have a tremendous amount of original news content here on AgWired and our other news sites. So I figured that although Google search crawls us a lot, maybe Google news would too. No such luck.

After submitting several urls here’s my reply:

Hi Chuck,

Thank you for your note. We’ve reviewed agnewswire.agwired.com, wdexpo.org, and agwired.com and cannot include them in Google News at this time. We appreciate your willingness to provide your articles to us, and we’ll log your sites for future consideration.

Thank you for your interest in Google News.

Regards,
The Google Team

The same held true for our Domestic Fuel site. I guess you have to conclude that the news search results in Google are “limited.”

Uncategorized

Moo, Oink and Rap

Chuck Zimmerman

Moo & OinkAre you a rapper wanna be? Wanna rap about meat? Then enter the Moo & Oink Jingle Contest. You can listen to winners here.

They’ve got weekly winners and there’s cash involved. Makes me wonder if we should have a contest for a ZimmCast jingle. What do you think?

via AdJab

Audio, Food

Log In To The International Podcasting Expo

Chuck Zimmerman

International Podcasting ExpoThis is just a reminder that the virtual International Podcasting Expo is up and running. It’s only $11 to particpate. I’m currently logged in and just missed the latest seminar on the schedule which was, “How To Set Up Your Podcast Using Feedburner.”

This event will run until tomorrow evening. If you want to know more about podcasting you can have me in to conduct a demonstration or get yourself logged in to this event.

Podcasts

Have Your Event Blogged

Chuck Zimmerman

Clean Cities CongressI’m happy to announce that I’ll be blogging the Clean Cities Congress in just a few short weeks on Domestic Fuel. The event takes place May 7 – 10 in Phoenix, AZ. My coverage is being sponsored by the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Institute and Southern California Gas Company.

More and more organizations are seeing the value in having their event “blogged.” Just look at the recent NAMA Conference or BIO 2006. Just call me the event blogger! It’s really a morphing of traditional media techniques with the world wide web. You’ve just got to be multi-media and multi-tasking capable.

If you would like to have your event blogged please call me as soon as possible. If we can’t do it on a ZimmComm blog let me create one for you. After the event you can continue to use it or just hang on to it as a perpetual online “media Kit” of your event. Although I’ve already got bookings during each month through October I still have lots of opening available. It doesn’t have to be a convention. How about a company event for your customers? They can’t all make it so why not let them experience it online?

Keep in mind that the pictures and interviews I post can be downloaded easily by reporters who can’t attend your event. Invite them to log on and use the content. The audio I post is digital quality and they can order hi-res images from me if they need them.

How can I blog you today?

Uncategorized

NAMA Conference Photo Album

Chuck Zimmerman

Wow. What a week this has been. The NAMA Conference is over and after about 9 hours of sleep last night I think I will recover. I had a meeting after the conference in KC with 2 other convention attendees before leaving. Let’s just say it’s amazing that we could still think creatively but we did.

I didn’t take as many pics at the conference as I normally do. There’s something about exhibiting, selling and blogging that seemed to make that kind of difficult. I’ve got some great ideas for blogging the conference next year though.

Since I never use all the pics I take at an event I always like to upload them to a photo album for you to peruse if you choose.

This Flickr album has most of the pictures I took at the NAMA Conference this year: NAMA 2006 Conference Photo Album

There are 76 of them. Feel free to look and download if you’d like. If you need one at higher resolution just let me know.

NAMA also has an online photo album of the Best of NAMA winners. You can find it here: Best of NAMA Photo Album

I hope you are as jazzed about NAMA as I am.

NAMA

FCC Comment Period on RFD-TV

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Journal MediaAccording to a release from Farm Journal Media, the FCC has issued a Public Notice on Farm Journal Media’s November 29, 2005, Petition for Declaratory Ruling with respect to the non-commercial set-aside eligibility of RFD-TV. I guess this means the FCC is looking for your thoughts on the matter. I really don’t have much other information on the background for this or the potential impact on RFD-TV. If you do, please feel free to leave a comment.

This action by the FCC is the formal process by which the Commission gathers input and comment on important issues of policy and interpretation of the law. The FCC will accept comments on the Petition through May 22, 2006. The FCC’s Public Notice can be downloaded at www.fcc.gov.

The Petition for Declaratory Ruling, as filed with the FCC, can be found at www.farmjournalmedia.com/fccpetitionrfd-tv.pdf.

“Farm Journal is pleased that the FCC has taken the next step and begun a formal investigation,” said Andy Weber, President and CEO of Farm Journal Media. “We look forward to working with the FCC and other interested parties in bringing this matter to a conclusion.”

Media