Free Center for Food Integrity Webinar Series

Jamie Johansen

center-for-food-integrity-shareA free webinar series from The Center for Food Integrity (CFI) explores how the agriculture and food industries can effectively communicate complex technical and scientific information to a public that often doesn’t accept what scientific consensus says is true.

The series of six hour-long webinars, which begin Thursday, January 15, are based on CFI’s new consumer trust research, “Cracking the Code on Food Issues: Insights from Moms, Millennials and Foodies.” The research provides a roadmap for those in today’s food system to help make science make sense to an increasingly skeptical public and encourage consumers to consider sound science when making decisions about the food they eat.

Cracking the Code on Food Issues: Insights from Moms, Millennials and Foodies
Thursday, Jan. 15, 1-2 p.m. CST
Learn more about our latest research and how the food industry can make complex and controversial technical information relevant and meaningful to its most important audiences.

Cracking the Code on Food Issues: Connecting with Millennials
Thursday, Jan. 22, 1-2 p.m. CST
CFI details the attitudes of today’s Millennials when it comes to the sources they trust most and communicating technical messages that resonate.

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Ag Groups, Food

Foundation for Agriculture’s Book of the Year

Jamie Johansen

FBSanDiego7_037The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture presented its eighth annual “Book of the Year” award to Margaret McNamara for “The Apple Orchard Riddle.” In this playful and humorous story, the students learn a lot about apples and apple orchards – including how apples are harvested, how cider is made, and what the different varieties of apples are – while trying to solve a riddle.

New York City-based Margaret McNamara is a former children’s book editor who now works as a literary agent, when she’s not writing. She has written some 40 books for children, and will publish her first novel for adults, “Enchanted August,” this summer.

“I could not be more thrilled that ‘The Apple Orchard Riddle’ was chosen as the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture’s Book of the Year,” said McNamara. “When I was growing up, there was a very crooked, very old apple tree in our backyard. It produced the most delicious green cooking apples. I baked many a pie and cake and crumble with those apples.”

She continued, “When I got older, my stepdaughter was diagnosed with dyslexia. Her struggle with reading has always been coupled with an uncanny ability to see things differently and to solve problems in a very visual way. I wrote ‘The Apple Orchard Riddle’ in memory of that old apple tree, and to celebrate my stepdaughter, Emma.”

The Book of the Year award springs from the Foundation’s efforts to identify “accurate ag books,” a collection of more than 400 books for children, teenagers and adults that accurately cover agricultural topics. Book of the Year selections are educational, help to create positive public perceptions about agriculture, inspire readers to learn more and touch their readers’ lives as well as tell the farmer’s story. The Accurate Ag Books database is available at: www.agfoundation.org.

The Foundation has created an educator’s guide and has revised its Apple Ag Mag publication as companion pieces to “The Apple Orchard Riddle.” Again this year, the Foundation is offering a Spanish text version of the Apple Ag Mag.

In honor of McNamara’s recognition and the host city of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 2015 Annual Convention, the Foundation donated 100 copies of “The Apple Orchard Riddle” to the San Diego Public Library, along with $1,000.

AFBF, Ag Groups

AFBF Young Farmer Chair is 1st Generation

Cindy Zimmerman

afbf-yfr-chairJon Hegeman of White Plains, Alabama was elected as the new chairman of the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers committee at the convention in San Diego. He will take over as chairman in February and serve for one year, also serving a one-year term on the AFBF board of directors.

Hegeman and his wife Amy are first generation farmers who operate a commercial greenhouse that serves as a contract facility to several larger greenhouse operations along the eastern United States. Jon and Amy also have a young daughter who is almost three years old. “The best way to look at Young Farmers is our way to promote advocates for our organization,” said Jon. “We want to create leaders.”

Jon’s parents were missionaries and he knew he wanted to be in agriculture as he grew up in the Dominican Republic. “Watching the cattle ranchers behind us and the sugarcane fields,” he said. “It’s always been in my blood and I just didn’t know what aspect of agriculture I wanted to be in.”

The YF&R program includes men and women between the ages of 18 and 35. The program’s goals are to help younger Farm Bureau members learn more about agriculture, network with other farmers and realize their full potential as leaders in agriculture and Farm Bureau.

Interview with new AFBF YF&R chair Jon Hegeman


2015 AFBF Convention photo album

AFBF, Audio

Waiting for a Thaw

Melissa Sandfort

20150114_095950It’s winter. It’s Nebraska. It’s just plain cold. And it seems as though everything is frozen: my fingers, the pond where the cows drink from, the cat’s water bowl and the lake. The ducks are circled around the last remaining water here in this picture … and the kids asked when we could go swimming! I told them unless you have a wet suit and a death wish, it will be a while.

This time of year, I’m always reminded of how dreary the landscape is and how time just seems to creep by until the warm days of summer reappear. But it’s also during this time that I gather with friends and co-workers at the cattle convention and am reminded of how thankful I am that farmers work 7, 12, 365 to put safe, affordable, healthy food on my family’s dinner table. They are the ones out there breaking up the ice so cattle have water to drink; they are the ones in the bitter cold fixing fence, feeding cattle and fixing equipment; they are the ones crunching the numbers to make farming work for their own families, and for mine, in the years to come.

But it is January and it is Nebraska. So I’m going to complain at least one more time that I’m cold and I wish things would thaw.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Book Introduces Children to the World of Modern Farming

Jamie Johansen

Screen Shot 2015-01-14 at 5.09.31 PM“A Year on the Farm,” a new educational children’s book from Case IH, introduces children, ages 4 to 8, to modern farming, showing how the tractors, combines and other equipment are needed to plant and harvest crops. The first in a series from Case IH, “A Year on the Farm” is filled with colorful photography, fun illustrations and a cast of cartoon characters.

Casey the farmer, Tillus the worm, Big Red the tractor and a whole team of cartoon equipment characters teach children about the many different jobs on a farm. Through the seasons, children learn that modern farming involves yearly planning, responding to the weather, caring for animals and working hard as a team. The book provides details on how different types of equipment on the farm contribute to the production of the food we eat every day. Educational sidebars are presented in simple, kid-friendly terms. Plus, the picture glossary and fun farming facts share information in an entertaining way.

Published by Lee Klancher’s Octane Press, the book continues a long tradition of farm equipment books published by the respected author/photographer. Author Holly Dufek holds a master’s degree in education and has written educational curriculum development materials for many years. Illustrator Paul E. Nunn is a full-range artist who has worked for Disney, Nickelodeon and LucasArts.

“A Year on the Farm” is the first in a complete series about Casey and her Case IH cartoon friends. “Big Tractors,” “Combines” and “Planters and Cultivators,” coming soon in 2015, will cover how and why the equipment works on the farm. Each book will have a mix of real-life photography, cartoon characters, fun facts and easy-to-follow glossaries.

“A Year on the Farm” is available for purchase at select Case IH dealers, on www.shopcaseih.com or Amazon.com.

Agribusiness, Case IH

Satechi Comfort Gadget – USB Humidifier

Chuck Zimmerman

Satechi HumidifierI don’t know about you but during the winter months I need some humidity, especially in hotels where the heat is always on and it gets so dry. I’ve even tried packing a large warm air humidifier that you have to add salt and water to. Always too big and a hassle to deal with.

But Satechi has a new gadget to come to my sinuses rescue. It’s their USB Portable Humidifier. Put it on a bottle of water, plug into a USB port and you have instant cool moisture. Ahhh. Just got mine and have been using since yesterday while working at my computer. It’s nice to have a simple device that just plain works and solves a problem I think a lot of us have. It will be in my suitcase on my next trip, taking up almost no space. I also purchased one for Cindy!

Gadgets

Big Game Week Avocados

Jamie Johansen

Screen Shot 2015-01-14 at 9.40.49 AMOver 111 million sports fans watched the Big Game last year, and nearly 64,000 sports fans will gather at the University of Phoenix Stadium on game day this year. The numbers are nothing compared to the amount of avocados – a food quickly becoming synonymous with the Big Game – Americans will consume this year. It’s estimated Americans will eat nearly 120 million pounds or 240 million fresh avocados during the week leading up to the Big Game on Feb. 1. That’s a whopping 3,785 avocados per seat in the University of Phoenix Stadium and it’s 21 percent more avocados than in 2014 – higher rates than ever before. The total amount of avocados consumed during the Big Game would be enough to fill an entire football field from end zone to end zone over 46 feet high.

While fresh avocados consumed during the Big Game are eaten in many ways, the most common is in the form of guacamole, and new research reveals that as rowdy Americans gather for the game, they try to stay well-mannered when they huddle around the bowl of dip.

Americans aspire to a higher standard of guacamole etiquette than we actually follow. While only 67 percent of guacamole eaters use a spoon to serve themselves guacamole, 81 percent believe it’s the actually the proper way to dip.

And, yes, the dreaded double dippers are among us. Four percent admit to double-dipping the same piece of food repeatedly, and two percent believe it’s the most appropriate way to eat guacamole.

When the guacamole supply runs low, Big Game rivalry extends to the serving bowl, especially for Millennials. 63 percent of guacamole eaters are comfortable being the person to take the last bite of guacamole from the serving bowl after asking if anybody else wants it. The youngest respondents, age 18-34, are most likely (24 percent) to try to be the person who gets to scrape the last bite of guacamole from the communal bowl because they want it for themselves.

No matter how you choose to dip, there’s no doubt guacamole made with Hass avocados is a staple in many Big Game celebrations. In 2014, Americans consumed 99 million pounds or approximately 198 million avocados during Big Game week. Ninety-eight percent of all avocados sold in the United States are the Hass variety – which contain naturally good fats and are cholesterol free.

Agribusiness, Food

AAEA Finest Images 2015 Calendar

Chuck Zimmerman

AAEA PIF CalendarOf course I use my Calendar app on my Macbook, iPhone, iPad, etc. but I also like to be able to see a calendar with just a sideways glance at my desktop. That’s where the AAEA Finest Images 2015 Calendar comes in handy! If you do not have one here’s more information on how to order while supporting a great cause for agricultural journalism. The funds raised go directly to the AAEA PIF which helps young aspiring ag journalists!

The AAEA Professional Improvement Foundation (PIF), in collaboration with Boelte-Hall, now has available a desk calendar that features amazing images from the AAEA Photo Awards program. The back of each photograph describes the situation and technique used by the photographer to capture the image.

If you are interested in purchasing additional calendars, here is the information:
–Calendars cost $15, which includes shipping
–Bulk orders of 100 or more are $12 per calendar, plus shipping. You can personalize each month with your company logo. The image area for logos is 1.25″ x 1.25.” Logos should be vector art or at least 175dpi.

Click here to place your order. If you have questions, contact the AAEA office at 952-758-6502.

ACN, Education, Media

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

Zimfo Bytes

San Diego Sun Sets on AFBF Convention

Cindy Zimmerman

afbf15-sunsetThe sun was just going down over the bay in San Diego when we walked out of the convention center at the conclusion of the business meeting of the 96th annual American Farm Bureau convention Tuesday after voting delegates approved resolutions for the coming year.

AFBF president Bob Stallman held his traditional end of the meeting press conference with the last remaining reporters to talk about some of the most important issues, with the number one being the proposed Waters of the United States rule. “I view that WOTUS will be front and center, and it has been and it will be until we get it resolved,” said Stallman.

Data privacy remains another important issue for farmers and delegates reaffirmed that it should be strictly the property of the farmer or rancher when submitted to third parties for analysis and processing, and that they must have the right to remove their data permanently from the systems of agricultural technology providers.

Farm Bureau delegates also voted to oppose state efforts to dictate out-of-state, farm-level production practices, reaffirm support for producer-led and -approved checkoff programs; and support for country-of-origin labeling provisions consistent with World Trade Organization rules.

AFBF president Bob Stallman top issues at delegate session


2015 AFBF Convention photo album

AFBF, Audio