Five ways to engage the public with climate change
A 2015 article we have added to the ACDC collection featured five “best practice” insights from psychological science about how to improve public engagement with climate change. These insights published in Perspectives on Psychological Science included:
- The human brain privileges experience over analysis
- People are social beings who respond to group norms
- Out of sight, out of mind
- Nobody likes losing (but everyone likes gaining)
- Tapping the potential of human motivation
You can learn more about these insights and the policy implications of them here .
A case report on marketing soda to children in an era of obesity
We have added to the ACDC collection a 2016 case report about that subject from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Results of a CSPI investigation indicated that some marketing practices of Coca-Cola are inconsistent with the company’s pledges to avoid marketing soda to children under 12 and advertising on children’s television.
“The reason for concern about Coke’s marketing practices is that strong scientific evidence demonstrates that frequent consumption of soda and other sugar drinks contributes to tooth decay, weight gain, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.”
You can read the article here .
More on the value of repetition in agricultural writing
The “same old, same old” in reporting ag news
In 1906, the editor of Wallaces Farmer put an unusual twist on the content of farm papers. We share this quote from a manuscript we added recently to the ACDC collection:
“Some of our readers are disclosed to criticize the farmer [ Wallaces Farmer ] because it says the same things over and over again at about the same time of the year each year. Well, then, how can we help it? Our table has been piled up for the last two weeks with letters from farmers asking us what kind of grass seeds to sow under innumerable different conditions, how to thicken up pastures the coming year, how to take care of the spring pigs, etc . . . . we suspect that some of our readers who complain in this way need to learn these same lessons over again, just as many persons who attend church who complain that the preacher tells the same old story.”
Coaching method helps livestock producers (and environment) in Australia
A supported learning methodology based on coaching proved highly effective in achieving practice change and adoption on farm. This finding appeared in a 2016 article in the Rural Extension and Innovation Systems Journal .
Authors described methods and results of an analysis of the Farm300 project of Meat &Livestock Australia. Among the impacts achieved:
- 123 advisors upskilled
- 23 coaches recruited
- 333 producers participated (representing 60,000 head of cattle, 540,000 head of sheep and 455,000 ha of land area)
- Increased profit by 24%
- Decreased total greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent
- Decreased greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 24%
You can read the journal article here .
“Yogurt wars” over advertising claims
We recently added to the ACDC collection two articles on the “yogurt wars.” Two well-known yogurt-producing companies, Chobani and Dannon, had a legal battle over one company’s advertising campaign against the other. Dannon filed an injunction to stop Chobani ads from claiming the chemical sweeteners Dannon uses are possibly harmful. A judge ruling sided with Dannon. This decision still legally allows Chobani to advertise the idea of natural ingredients being better than artificial ones.
You can read more about the matter here .
Farm radio programming valued by Nigerian farmers: a 2016 analysis
All technology transferred to a probability sample of farmers in Imo State, Nigeria, through agricultural radio was relevant to them – and effective. Those results appeared in a 2016 article in the Net Journal of Agricultural Science . Researcher J.I.K. Njoku invited respondents to assess the relevance of what they learned through radio programming about 10 farming practices. The practices ranged from cropping tips and dry season vegetable production to snailery, fish farming and non-ruminant vaccination.
The majority of farmers considered all the agricultural technologies disseminated to be relevant to their farming needs, with the messaging appropriate and useful.
You can read the article here .
At the 35 th anniversary
How many countries are represented in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center?
The ACDC collection currently represents literature about agriculture-related communications in 210 countries.
Communicator activities approaching
February 15-18, 2017
“Innovative approaches to Extension for upliftment of poor and tribal farmers.” 6 th International Conference of the International Society of Extension Education (INSEE) in Dawn, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.
Information: http://www.inseeworld.com/seminars.htm
Relating to strangers
We close this issue of ACDC News with something that caught our eye in a recent article published in the journal, American Nineteenth Century History . It featured Joseph Dennie, unfettered editor of the Farmer’s Weekly Museum , Walpole, New Hampshire, during the late 1790s. According to the author:
“…he never met a stranger he could not look down upon.”
Best wishes and good searching
Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC . And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu
2016-11-9