Month: January 2001

Breathing new life into tired topics.

Ann Wylie, speaker at the 2001 Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) Institute, offers advice for communicators suffering from the “same-old, same-old” syndrome. Her article, entered recently into the ACDC collection, offered six tips for opening the creativity toolbox. Among them: “Reverse it.” For example, “Educators tell us that people learn more from ‘how NOT to’ stories than from ‘how to’ stories – and they certainly have more fun reading them.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Breathe new life into tired topics”) or author search (Wylie) for the full citation.

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How are consumers reacting to organic foods?

Following are some of the documents that we have added recently to the ACDC collection concerning consumer reactions to organic foods:

• “Shoppers ‘flocking to organic products'”
• “The survey says: consumers want your kind of pork”
• “Big vote for organic food”
• “Organic foods offer peace of mind – at a price”
• “Organic food seasoned with fear”
• “The concept of natural: implications for biotechnology regulation”
• “Taste for organic food is growing”

Reference: You can use title searches on the “Real Search” page to see the full citations of documents that may interest you. Also, a subject search on the term “organic” may identify other related documents of interest.

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Radio’s secret weapons. 

David Whitman, an award-winning advertising writer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, says radio offers four secret weapons: Dialog. Monologue. Music. Sound effects. In the May issue of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters newsletter, NAFB Chats, he offers advice about how to use these special strengths to create “a great radio spot.”

Reference: Use a title search (“You want what by when?”) or an author search (Whitman) to see the full citation.

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50 case stories about participatory communication.

Thanks to the Rockefeller Foundation for contributing a valuable new resource to ACDC. It’s what Denise Gray-Felder describes in the foreword as “a fascinating account of 50 experiments in empowering people – living in poor communities across the world – to seize control of their own life stories and begin to change their circumstances of poverty, discrimination and exclusion.” The author, Alfonso Gumucio Dagron, spent nearly a year gathering information for Making waves: stories of participatory communication for social change. Stories in this book come from more than 30 countries and involve projects that range from street theatres to telecenters.

Reference: Use a title search (“Making waves”) or author search (Gumucio) for the full citation.

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A grassroots principle of rural development.

“The only way to start is to start, and the place to start is right here with what little we have and with even a minus quantity. In every case we did not wait for experts to come, or for money to be appropriated, or for certain things to be done. Had we waited, we would still be waiting.”

Pedro T. Orata offered these thoughts nearly 50 years ago as he summarized a community education program with which he was associated in the rural Philippines. His advice continues to echo, globally, in calls for greater local participation and local control in development efforts.

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Case report of an award-winning public relations campaign.

The April/May issue of the Agricultural Relations Council newsletter, ARCLight, described a recent campaign by a U.S. farmer cooperative, Farmland Industries. The campaign encouraged Farmland farmer-owners and employees to support international trade. Audience research before and after the campaign revealed substantial increases in awareness, involvement and support. This effort earned Farmland the 2001 Best of NAMA/Golden Arc Best of Show in Public Relations Award.

Reference: Use a title search (“support trade campaign”) or author search (Schmidt) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Fire in the eyes of small-town reporters.

A research report added recently to the ACDC collection from American Journalism described “standards of courage among small town investigative reporters in the 1950s and 1960s.” Researcher Stephen Banning examined the work of reporters that had received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award between 1956 and 1966. This annual award from the International Conference of Weekly Newspaper Editors recognizes journalistic courage. Results showed how these small town reporters endured economic hardship, physical threats and attacks as they approached local issues such as race, election fraud and political machinery.

Reference: Use a title search (“Courageous performance”) or author search (Banning) for the full citation.

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Liquid truth? A communicator’s thought stimulator. T

he following point of view from a public relations practitioner caught our eye recently in a reference about biotech communications:

“The truth is often, you know.not necessarily a solid. It can be liquid. . What seems to be true is not necessarily the case when we look at it and we dissect it and take it apart, and we turn it around and we look at it from a different perspective.Whose truth are we talking about, your truth or my truth?”

Reference: Use a title search (“Trust us – we’re experts”) or author search (Rampton) for the full citation.

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“Uninformed public opinion remains volatile.” 

Susanna Hornig Priest offers that perspective in her new book added recently to the ACDC collection: A grain of truth: the media, the public, and biotechnology. This is “an issue-focused study of the character and influence of U.S. news, understood by reference to the way it is produced and its relationship to public opinion.” Her analysis deals with agricultural biotechnology. For example, one chapter involves reactions of the dairy industry, media and public to bovine somatotropin (BST), a growth hormone that stimulates milk production in dairy cows.

Reference: Use a title search (“A grain of truth”) or author search (Priest) for the full citation.

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Adoption of BST: far short of predictions.

A study reported recently in AgBioForum traced producers’ adoption of recombinant bovine somatotropin on Wisconsin dairy farms. Researchers found that “over the first five years of its commercial availability, rBST adoption has been rather modest.far short of the robust adoption predictions made when the technology was originally released.” Among the reasons identified: farm-level concerns, such as size, associated technologies, and alternative productions systems that do not match well with the technology.

Reference: Use a title search (“Adoption of rBST”) or author search (Barham) for the full citation, including URL for online access..

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Professional activities approaching:

July 28-August 1, 2001
Joint meeting of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) and the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) in Toronto, Canada.
Information: www.ifas.ufl.edu/~conferweb/acenetc/August 1-4, 2001

Agricultural Publications Summit in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Joint meeting of American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA), Livestock Publications Council (LPC) and APA: the Association of Leading Ag Media Companies.
Information: www.livestockpublications.com

September 8-12, 2001
2001 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists at Savonlinna, Finland.
Information: www.ifaj.org

September 13-16, 2001
“CFWF 2001: An Atlantic Odyssey.” Meeting of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation at Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Information: farmfocus@klis.com

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

“Food safety a growing concern in most of the world.”

That is the title of a survey report added recently to the ACDC collection. Majorities of respondents in 19 of 34 countries surveyed by international market research firm Ipsos-Reid said they feel that their food is less safe than it was 10 years ago. Women in every country surveyed were substantially more likely than men to hold that feeling.

Reference: Use a title search (above) or author search (Ipsos-Reid) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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How to not say what you’re not going to not say and not say it.

Confusion in the biotechnology “debate” may arise not only from differing perspectives, logic, clarity or grammar. A paper presented at the 2001 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science illustrates “how organization, style, and diction convey values and emotions that can undermine intended meaning.” Researcher Steven Katz used rhetorical analysis to study a speech offered by former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman about biotechnology. Findings revealed that a presentation intended to be optimistic about biotechnology actually conveyed strong elements of pessimism.

Reference: Use a title search (“A rhetorical analysis of language”) or author search (Katz) for the full citation.

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Dirty Dining series in Canada earns recognition.

An “eye-opening series which exposed major problems with food safety in [Toronto’s] eating establishments” recently won an award from the Canadian Association of Journalists. The award for computer-assisted reporting went to Robert Cribb, Toronto Star. His coverage led to “an improved inspection and grading system and the closing down of eateries that didn’t meet stiff standards.”

Reference: Use a title search (‘Dirty Dining series wins”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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How broadcasters use farm advisory panels.

A recent article in the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Chats newsletter described how farm advisory panels can help broadcasters deal with fast changing environments. Don Wick of WCCO Radio, Minneapolis, Minnesota, said he has used advisory panels for nearly 20 years and found they have made him a better farm broadcaster. He explained the operations of the station’s current 12-member panel and offered suggestions for using this form of “homegrown market research.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Farm advisory panels”) or author search (Wick) for the full citation.

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Two expanding issues for U.S. agricultural communicators.

Recent news reports in Successful Farming magazine highlighted two communications-related issues of growing concern to producers:

1. Quality and usefulness of market price information. An article describes the April 1 start of mandatory price reporting as a “fiasco.” Features of the new price reporting policy prompted one university agricultural economist to comment that under the new system “we know less about hog prices than at any time in at least 20 years.”
2. Efforts of producer bargaining groups. Effective communications strategies become vital as more bargaining groups form to negotiate with processors and other buyers for improved prices. All parties to such negotiations can benefit from the insights and experiences of professional communicators. For example, as one cited source put it: “The idea of an adversarial relationship is a poor way to do business.”

Reference: Use title searches (“Repairing shattered price transparency” and “As markets turn a cold shoulder to farmers”) for the full citations.

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Recent additions about market price reporting.

Following are the titles of some documents added recently to the ACDC collection involving this subject:

• “Beef underreported”
• “Beef snafu: USDA ‘probably not liable'”
• “Perversion of mandatory price reporting shows extent of packer power”
• “Repairing shattered price transparency in livestock”
• “Mandatory price reporting: the matrix begins”
• “Potential benefits of mandatory price reporting”
• “Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act”
• “Meat packers object to some price reporting”

Reference: Use title searches or a subject search on terms such as “market information” to see citations of these and other documents.

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On target? Agenda for U.S. extension services and agriculture colleges.

More than 35 years ago Paul A. Miller, president of West Virginia University, offered seven suggestions that “should become the grist for policymaking and planning” by colleges of agriculture and their extension services.

• “The old categories of rural and urban no longer are useful in planning the future of the agricultural colleges.”
• “.the intellectual fiber of the colleges must move to the conceptual level of relating the natural and social sciences at the point of man in his environmental setting.”
• “The colleges must be willing to become innovators with reference to their own institutional reform.”
• “The historic inclusion of agricultural extension within the agricultural framework must be terminated in favor of giving strength to radically new conceptions of the public university.”
• “Similarly, the field of home economics, where it continues as an adjunct of the colleges, must be encouraged to seek a more stimulating climate for the significantly different route it must take.”
• “National planning must assume a division of labor among the colleges of agriculture.”
• “The support base for the colleges” needs to widen.

Any reactions today, especially in terms of the communications aspects?

Reference: Use a title search (“The rural lag”) or author search (Miller) for the full citation.

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Broadband access in rural areas – in order to survive. 

Small businesses “will require broadband access not only to be more competitive, but also in order to survive.” That was the message of Michael Cook, Hughes Network Systems, during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing during May. And he added: “For those located in rural areas – something like 50% to 70% of the land area of this country – there will often be only one solution – satellite delivered broadband service.” He offered policy recommendations for development of interactive broadband satellite technology as a way to “eliminate the digital divide.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Eliminating the digital divide”) or author search (Cook) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Americans not enthusiastic about cloned livestock.

A national survey during April among U.S. registered voters showed that two-thirds find it not acceptable to use cloning to reproduce livestock. Opinion Dynamics conducted this survey.

Reference: Use a title search (“Do you think it is acceptable”) or author search (Opinion Dynamics) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Professional activities approaching:

July 28-August 1, 2001
Joint meeting of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) and the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) in Toronto, Canada.
Information: www.ifas.ufl.edu/~conferweb/acenetc/August 1-4, 2001

Agricultural Publications Summit in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Joint meeting of American Agricultural Editors’ Association, Livestock Publications Council and APA: the Association of Leading Ag Media Companies.
Information: www.livestockpublications.com

September 8-12, 2001
2001 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists at Savonlinna, Finland.
Information: www.ifaj.org

September 13-16, 2001
“CFWF 2001: An Atlantic Odyssey.” Meeting of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation at Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Information: farmfocus@klis.com

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

Concerns about water quality at an all time high.

The 2001 National Consumer Water Quality Survey shows that 86% of Americans express concern about their home water supplies. And they want more government-led protection against drinking water contaminants. This high level of public concern holds special meaning for communicators involved in helping keep fertilizers, pesticides, livestock waste and other materials out of water supplies.

Reference: Use a title search (“86% of Americans have concerns”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Big differences in how agricultural scientists view biotechnology.

A recently-reported survey of more than 1,000 land grant scientists revealed distinct patterns of opinions among the disciplines. Researcher Thomas Lyson found that, “in general, social scientists and natural resource scientists express the most reservations about developing and promoting these technologies. They also share a concern about how tightly universities and corporations should be linked. On the other hand, biological scientists are the most favorably disposed toward moving forward rapidly with a biotechnology agenda.”

Reference: Use a title search (“How do agricultural scientists view advanced biotechnology?”) or author search (Lyson) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Communications dilemma of scientists.

Communications researcher Napoleon Juanillo, Jr., recently called attention to a dilemma that confronts scientists in the biotechnology “debate.” He notes: “Not surprisingly, science is presented to the public as universal truth or certainty. Scientists downplay the uncertainties produced through experimental and data generation processes to appeal their perception of science as a definitive and objective source of information.” At the same time, scientists are “duty-bound among peers to proffer the caveats, limitations, and uncertainties inherent in laboratory-controlled experiments.” He calls for greater understanding of how science speaks.

Reference: Use a title search (“Understanding how science speaks”) or author search (Juanillo) for the full citation.

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Remembering the centrality of communicators’ efforts.

Recently we added to the ACDC collection the Nobel Lecture that Theodore W. Schultz presented on December 8, 1979, in Stockholm, Sweden. While it dealt with the economics of poverty throughout the world it was a ringing cry for improved knowledge.

“Knowledge is the most powerful engine of production,” he insisted, citing Alfred Marshall. And, we note, communicators are central to this complex process of generating and processing knowledge, and helping it move to those who can use it.

Reference: Use a title search (“The economics of being poor”) or an author search (Schultz) for the full citation.

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Challenging tests of communication strategies.

How can communicators evaluate whether their efforts help improve the lives of people on the issues that most affect them? In a reference added recently to the ACDC collection Warren Feek, director of The Communication Initiative, offers an important and challenging list of “evaluation indicators.” Among the most challenging:

• Do the people most affected have an increasing “voice” in the communication interventions and hold more decision-making roles?
• Is there increased interpersonal dialogue among families and friends?
• Is there increased public debate?
• Is there increased accuracy in the information shared?
• Is there an increase in the number and scale of social and organizational networks focussing on the issues in question?
• Is there increased sensitivity to differing perspectives?

Reference: Use a title search (“Communication strategy”) or author search (Feek) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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“Gosh, he must be smart. I can’t understand a word he says.”

At a seminar more than 20 years ago, Arthur J. Snider of the Chicago Daily News cautioned agricultural science communicators about the dangers of professional jargon. He conceded that using incomprehensible language may give scientists professional security, but argued that it doesn’t fly with the media. And keeping the public confused creates greater problems. Has the problem eased since then? He offered suggestions that still seem relevant today.

Reference: Use a title search (“How the media make decisions”) or an author search (Snider) for the full citation.

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Helping agricultural scientists communicate their value to society.

They are being urged to define and communicate the value of their professional contributions more clearly by moving beyond the curriculum vitae – to the professional portfolio. A task force of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) recently developed a report that describes the need for this new approach and offers a framework for creating professional portfolios. “The portfolio tells the story of the professional’s educational process, his or her accomplishments, and the impact on society of those accomplishments.” It provides a definition of achievements “beyond peer-reviewed articles and society memberships” and “embraces a broader definition of scholarship.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The professional portfolio”) or author search (Fischer) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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“Well, I thought it was funny.”

That’s the title of an interesting recent article about writing humor for people who live on farms. Award-winning writer John Phipps prepared the piece for the American Agricultural Editors’ Association ByLine newsletter. He offered nine humor-writing tips that have helped him. An example: Use humor to link, not isolate.

Reference: Use a title search (above) or author search (Phipps) for the full citation.

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Heartening growth.

We are gratified and encouraged by continuing growth in online use of Agricultural Communications Documentation Center resources. This unique collection recently passed the 18,000-document level. And online usage statistics for March and April show an average of more than 16,000 successful requests a month, up substantially from a year ago. The ACDC web site served an average of 820 host sites during each of those recent months, with users located in an average of 40 countries.

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And heartening feedback from users.

Comments such as the following help make our efforts enjoyable:

• “Thank you very much. Your service is outstanding!”
• “I so appreciate the time and research you gave to my question.”
• “Thank you. I found it right away.”
• “Another excellent review of new materials in your center.”
• “Wow! This issue of the newsletter strikes me as particularly relevant to some very high priority issues.”
• “exactly what I wanted. It hit the nail on the head.”

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Thanks to all

For your interest, support and encouragement. We will do our best to keep the collection growing in size, quality and usefulness.

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Professional activities approaching:

July 28-August 1, 2001
Joint meeting of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) and the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) in Toronto, Canada.
Information: www.ifas.ufl.edu/~conferweb/acenetc/August 1-4, 2001

Agricultural Publications Summit in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Joint meeting of American Agricultural Editors’ Association, Livestock Publications Council and APA: the Association of Leading Ag Media Companies.
Information: www.livestockpublications.com

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

How reliable is biotechnology information on the web?

Open to caution, according to a study reported in Science magazine during late 1999. Using a general search engine, researchers reviewed 120 websites containing information pertinent to GMO. They found 46 percent of those sites “informative.” And of the informative sites, 10 percent were judged “inaccurate,” more than 30 percent “misleading” and more than 80 percent “unreferenced.” Authors concluded that “science-related websites have serious liabilities.”

Reference: Use a title search (“How reliable is science information”) or author search (Burke) for the full citation.

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A problem “uncannily similar” to that of 500 years ago.

By the 1500s readers of scientific information “faced a problem not just of quantity but of quality – one uncannily similar to that confronting today’s users of the Internet.” So reported Adrian Johns of the California Institute of Technology in an article published early this year in Nature. A “burgeoning crowd of self-appointed authors” furnished a “new stock of proclaimed facts – from the medicinal powers of tobacco to the alleged origin of syphilis.” Out of this explosion of printed information came new, shared processes and social structures for evaluating quality of scientific information.

Reference: Use a title search (“The birth of scientific reading”) or author search (Johns) for the full citation.

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Surveying the Internet market in developing countries.

“Under the right conditions, entrepreneurs in developing nations can launch locally viable Internet ventures with real value,” suggests M. Rao in OnTheInternet. However, he notes that much discourse about the Internet economy in developing nations seems to be heading toward increasing polarization — between the “e-uphoric” enthusiasts and the e-skeptics. His report describes some Asia regions to be tapped and local niches to be explored in emerging economies.

Reference: Use a title search (“How real is the Internet market”) or author search (Rao) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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On asking the right questions in surveys.

Beef and poultry interests in the U.S. sparred recently over claims made about meats that consumers prefer. Part of the argument centered on survey methodology. Poultry interests announced consumer survey results showing that chicken outscored beef on versatility, taste, ease of preparation, price and health value. Beef interests questioned the selective release of numbers and groupings of product categories in the poultry survey: “We challenge the poultry industry to show consumer attitude data comparing ground beef to chicken breast in versatility or price.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Cattlemen smell a rat”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Teaming radio and Internet for rural access in Africa.

A recent report from the Internet Society describes how the African country of Niger is building a network of 160 self-managed, solar-powered, rural radio broadcasting stations to provide access to information and communication for social and economic development. They integrate telecenters and rural radio broadcasting to provide a “cost-effective, full-service, two-way communications system to communities.” Local teams produce, translate and transmit the local programming.

Reference: Use a title search (“Rural access by radio and Internet”) or author search (Gallagher) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Media tips for the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Thanks to Brian Baxter of Baxter Communications, Indianapolis, Indiana, for providing a copy of his remarks during March to a USDA advisory board. An experienced agricultural reporter, Baxter offered several suggestions about working with the media:

• The media are not the enemy – misinformation is the enemy
• Recognize your news opportunities
• Identify, train and equip your spokespersons
• Keep the pipeline filled with information about food, agriculture and science
• Stay committed to communicating

Reference: Use a title search (“Communicating about agricultural research, education and extension”) or author search (Baxter) for the full citation.

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Advice to young agricultural communicators.

Orion Samuelson of WGN Radio/Tribune Radio Network, Chicago, Illinois, shared nearly 50 years of insights about farm broadcasting when he visited with students at the University of Illinois on April 17. Among his key points:

• There is “a thirst for information” about food, farming and other topics that farm broadcasters know and can address. Provide information that listeners and viewers — rural and urban — find interesting and useful.
• Communicate honestly. “You can’t compromise on credibility and honesty.”
• Good farm broadcasters are important, in part, because they “bring personality” and they “talk with people the computer people don’t see.” New media won’t put present ones out of business, although present ones must change.
• It is not as important to be first as to be right.
• If you follow a story it will take you to its conclusion. Don’t prejudge or shape it.
• The biggest change he has seen during his years as a farm broadcaster? Globalization. He said it has greatly influenced the programming he airs and has taken him to 43 countries for news and information to report.

Reference: Use a title search (“Communicating with and selling to agricultural people”) or author search (Samuelson) for the full citation.

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Ensuring safe food: where consumers turn.

Most consumers surveyed in Quebec, Canada, during February expressed “little confidence in government regulators when it comes to ensuring the safety of the food we eat.” Only 6% of the respondents said they had the most confidence in government regulators. Instead, they placed most confidence in consumer groups (32%), health professionals (23%) and associations that represent food producers (14%).

Reference: Use a title search (“Big vote for organic food”) or author search (Beaudin) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Claron Burnett and the teacher’s impact.

Thousands of learners throughout the world improved their agricultural writing and reporting skills through the teaching of Professor Claron Burnett, University of Wisconsin-Madison, even though they may not have met him. He died on April 17 at the age of 82. His workbook text, Agricultural news writing, with co-authors Richard Powers and John Ross served students and practitioners for decades, beginning as early as 1959. Readers found it concise, readable, easy to use and sound in principle and method. It continues, in revised form, as Writing for agriculture: a new approach using tested ideas, by Burnett and Mark Tucker.

We join others in recognizing these and other important contributions that Claron Burnett made in journalism education, research and extension during his career.

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Professional activities approaching:

June 28-July 1, 2001
East Region Meeting of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) in Leamington, Ontario, Canada.
Information: agradio@ciaccess.com

July 28-August 1, 2001
Joint meeting of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) and the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) in Toronto, Canada.
Information: www.ifas.ufl.edu/~conferweb/acenetc/August 1-4, 2001

Agricultural Publications Summit in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Joint meeting of American Agricultural Editors’ Association, Livestock Publications Council and APA: the Association of Leading Ag Media Companies.
Information: www.livestockpublications.com

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

Shallow media coverage of agriculture. Just airing conflicting views.

What happens when urban media try to cover agricultural issues with reporters not familiar with those issues? Stephen Strauss, an award-winning science writer in Canada, explored this dilemma at a recent annual meeting of Agricultural Groups Concerned About Resources and the Environment (AgCare). He said that “reporters want to offer fair and even views, but may have little understanding of the issues they report on.” The outcome:

“Somewhat at the mercy of commentators on the issue, and writing for a non-specialist audience, writers may abandon the attempt to provide synthesis, and merely present contrary viewpoints, leaving readers to apply their own interpretations.

Reference: Use a title search (“Agriculture and the urban media”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Internet speeds rumor grapevines: a case report.

An article that we added recently from Western Producer magazine (Canada) described “a worldwide internet storm that has some people believing that canola oil is poisonous, has been used to create mustard gas, and has caused mad cow disease.” Reporter Ed White traced the origins of this Web-spread reportage and said the Canola Council of Canada is “working overtime to correct the misinformation.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Canola rumor travels the world”) or author search (White) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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A (troubling) 39-year, global look at diffusion and adoption of hybrid crops.

Authors of a recent article in the Journal of International Development reported the results of an econometric analysis of yields of eight crops in developing and developed countries. They used Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO/United Nations) data covering 39 years, from 1961 to 1999.

Findings? “Innovations at the frontier are a permanent feature such that developing countries are ‘pushed back’ from the frontier continuously.”

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And who will benefit from adoption of biotechnology innovations?

These economists suggested that implications for the impact of genetic use restriction technologies (GURTs) are evident. “On the basis of the experiences with hybrid crops, we can predict that GURTs will negatively impact on the rate of diffusion of innovations in those crops for which developing countries could previously rely on a flow of innovations from abroad.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Genetic use restriction technologies”) or author search (Goeschl) for the full citation.

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“People have to be empowered.to take action to improve their lives.”

Participation is a key element in successful rural development, according to Robert Agunga in his useful book, Developing the Third World: A Communication Approach. And he places the professional communicator front-and-center in this process. Raised on a small-scale farm in Ghana, Agunga has used his own background and experience to observe the shortcomings of top-down approaches to rural development. In the book he emphasized the key role of communication — and the urgent need for “a new breed of development worker,” the development support communication (DSC) professional. “Promoting participation and mobilization of beneficiaries” is one of nine functions of such professionals.

Reference: Use a title or author search for the full citation.

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Promoting new “rural underpinnings” for the global economy.

In an era when agricultural and rural development is “seldom on anyone’s agenda” David Bathrick of Winrock International emphasizes the need to forge rural growth. During a recent presentation at the U. S. Library of Congress he noted that for the first time in three decades the World Bank projects poverty trends to worsen in many countries. At the same time, he said, support for agriculture (in real value terms) during the late 1990s was barely one-third of the support provided in the late 1980s.

Within five key themes, Bathrick offered evidence of how a dynamic agricultural sector “becomes the essential pivotal sector for forging global well-being, for poorer and richer countries.” And he suggested four possible strategic interventions – all of which involve effective communication, in forms such as building awareness, mobilizing, coordinating, sharing information, and providing information and education services.

Reference: Use a title search (“Forging rural growth from globalization”) or author search (Bathrick) for the full citation.

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We’re struggling with the language challenge.

Globalization brings with it language barriers that need to be overcome. The ACDC collection involves agriculture-related communicating in more than 90 countries. However, most of the documents are in English language, so their usefulness is more limited than we would like – especially as we look ahead.

According to a recent article in Far Eastern Economic Review: “Global technology-research company IDC estimates non-English speakers on the Web outnumber English speakers by 211 million to 192 million. And it predicts that the number of non-English users will hit 560 million by 2003, dwarfing an English-speaking population by then of 230 million.”

Machine translation can help us. However, limited staffing and budgets in the Center leave this language challenge with us. We welcome any ideas you may have.

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Concept of the virtuous farmer.

Richard Ashcroft addressed the tug-of-war between farming “as a way of life” or “as a business” in a recent issue of Outlook on Agriculture.

“Farming is no longer ‘traditional agriculture’: nor is it any longer only the business of farmers — scientists, business people and the urban public all have a stake in agriculture. The traditional virtues of farming may need revision. But the concept of the virtuous farmer still makes sense, and it is both moral and practical. Talking about ‘playing God’ gestures at this — both the farmer and the scientist acting rashly or improvidently fail as regards the virtues of their professions. Public debate to date has not, however, grasped this point.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Agriculture, ethics and biotechnology”) or author search (Ashcroft) for the full citation.

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Lost in the agricultural revolution: the principle of the “gift.”

In Way of the human being, Calvin Martin encourages readers to begin to perceive the world “of those people who beheld the first Europeans splash ashore five hundred years ago, and yet who did not regard time or reality or even words themselves in the way those newcomers did then or we do now.”

This thought-provoking book offers valuable insights for rural communicators who would be sensitive to their audiences. It notes, for example, how the hunter-gatherer societies rendered remarkable courtesy to plants and animals. “Underpinning the relationship with the spirits of earth was a tenacious confidence that man and woman are taken care of by this commonwealth, through the principles of the “gift:” creatures gave themselves of their own free will. The agricultural revolution marked the repudiation of all this.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Way of the human being”) or author search (Martin) for the full citation.

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Professional activities approaching:

June 28-July 1, 2001
East Region Meeting of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) in Leamington, Ontario, Canada.
nformation: agradio@ciaccess.com

July 28-August 1, 2001
Joint meeting of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) and the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC) in Toronto, Canada.
Information: www.ifas.ufl.edu/~conferweb/acenetc/

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Want to learn to measure cow and sheep burps? 

A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper mentioned a booklet teaching farmers how to calculate methane volumes produced by belching livestock. It’s part of the ongoing fight in Australia to counter greenhouse gas emissions. A research organization has estimated that the Australian cow and sheep population “burps 3 million tonnes of methane annually.”

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

Sound familiar? “The place and problem of the agricultural college editor.”

That is the title of a presentation by an agriculture college dean during 1917 to members of the American Association of Agricultural College Editors (ACE). A. R. Mann, dean of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University, proceeded to offer some interesting perspectives. His thoughts still may resonate, even across decades of change in subject matter, audiences and media alternatives. An example:

“A good college editor has all the tasks and all the problems and all the chances for achievement which are open to a good managing editor anywhere. He needs to combine, in the larger degree the better, some of the qualifications of the executive, the news writer, the scientist, and the diplomat. To these qualifications he must add breadth of view and breadth of sympathies. His task is to connect the college with the people thru the printed word, and the form of that word is so various that he needs considerable versatility.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The place and problem”) or author search (Mann) for the full citation.

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Citizen’s jury: a way to hear local views about GM crops.

A report from ActionAid (UK) describes “the South’s first citizen jury on GM crops.” It took place during early 2000 in the state of Karnataka, India. Within this citizen jury procedure, a cross-section of farmers (14) heard expert witnesses who presented evidence for and against the new biotechnologies. Four days of evidence included testimony from a wide array of public and private sector stakeholders. Then the jury members gave their verdict on a “would you sow” question and offered their reasons and recommendations. According to the report, “The jury demonstrated that the poorest farmers can have a sophisticated knowledge of the way new types of crop can impact on their lives.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Indian farmers judge GM crops”) or author search (Wakeford) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Protecting indigenous knowledge.

Traditional knowledge about agriculture, medicine and other dimensions of human life is getting greater attention, internationally. We recently identified useful reports from a meeting last fall sponsored by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) at Geneva, Switzerland. Title: “Expert meeting on systems and national experiences for the protection of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices.” We have added 14 papers and a summary report. Examples:

• “Food, power, intellectual property and traditional knowledge – a food systems overview”
• “Protection of traditional knowledge on the international level – reflections in connection with world trade”
• “Systems and national experiences for protecting traditional knowledge, innovations and practices”
• “Traditional knowledge: resisting and adapting to globalisation”
• “Protection of traditional knowledge in Indonesia: Review”

Reference: Use title searches to identify the full citations, including URLs for online access. Documents from the meeting, other than those listed above, can be located through a subject search, using the term “indigenous knowledge.”

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Why protect traditional knowledge?

One consultant at the meeting discussed four reasons for protecting traditional knowledge:

• Improve the livelihoods of traditional knowledge holders and communities
• Benefit national economies
• Conserve the environment
• Prevent biopiracy

His paper includes an insightful discussion about the growing appreciation for the importance of traditional knowledge in sustainable development and poverty alleviation.

Reference: Use an author search (Dutfield) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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“The colonial attitude lives on as the surreptitious appropriation of traditional knowledge for commercial ends,”

Said D. Nakashima of UNESCO in his presentation. He noted that “after decades of grudging acknowledgement, indigenous knowledge has now become, at least in certain circles, ‘fashionable.’ The resulting bandwagon effect has led to an increasingly common abuse of terms. In the development and resource management milieu, one now encounters the terms ‘traditional or indigenous knowledge’ loosely applied to a wide array of activities, many of which do not give any serious consideration to the knowledge possessed by local community members.”

He argued that the encounter between scientific and traditional knowledge must be apprehended as a meeting of cultures, with the cultural component as prominent in one camp as the other.

Reference: Use an author search (Nakashima) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Consumer views of irradiated meat and poultry.

Nearly half of 10,780 U.S. consumers surveyed in a government-sponsored survey said they would buy irradiated meat and poultry. A news report about this telephone survey in seven states nationwide came into the ACDC collection recently. Despite what is interpreted as a growing acceptance of food irradiation, results also showed that more than half the respondents said they had never heard of food irradiation.

Reference: Use a title search (“USDA: consumer acceptance of food irradiation growing”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Most still “doing it wrong” in home food safety.

Results of a study last year by Audits International among U.S. households suggest that “three-fourths of the population is still ‘doing it wrong’.” Only 24% of the homes audited met the criteria for acceptable food handling practices. Need for improved communications seemed apparent when auditors probed the reasons for critical violations:

• “I don’t believe it” (motivation) 20%
• “I didn’t know” (education) 40%
• “I wasn’t thinking” (awareness) 40%

Reference: Use a title search (“Audits International 2000 home food safety study report”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Why bother to look back in communications planning? 

It’s so easy and appealing to move with the moment in planning communications programs. However, we are reminded of some counsel that Eric Abbott of Iowa State University has offered: “A wise colleague once told me, ‘when you are about to undertake a project, always assume that something similar has been done before. Usually, you’ll be right.’ While almost all projects do include new or unique aspects, overall there is a great deal of experience out there in the field. The trick is to find it.”

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That’s why we work hard in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center to help you find relevant experience and guidelines that can help you carry out today’s projects.

For example:

Q: Thinking about the potentials for distance education in a project?
A: Run a subject search on terms such as <“distance education”> or <telecommunications>.

Q: Wondering how farmers prefer to get information on pesticides?
A: Run a subject cross-search on terms such as: <“information seeking” pesticides> or <“media use” farmers chemicals>

Q: Looking for data on attitudes of consumers toward food biotechnology?
A: Run a subject cross-search on terms such as <“public attitudes” biotechnology> or <“buying behavior” biotechnology>

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Professional activities approaching:

June 11-12, 2001
“Reaching Diverse Audiences.” Communicator workshop features techniques for communicating more effectively with the elderly, the disabled, those with alternative lifestyles and those with low literacy levels. Coordinated by the D.C. Region of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE).
Information: www.aceweb.org/wash.html

June 21-23, 2001
West/South Region Meeting, National Association of Farm Broadcasters at the Omaha Marriott, Omaha, Nebraska.
Information: Emery Kleven at 402/372-5423 or  Susan Littlefield at 402/564-2866.

June 21-23, 2001
American Horse Publications annual meeting and seminar at San Mateo Marriott, San Mateo, California.
Information:www.americanhorsepubs.org

June 23-26, 2001
Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) joint conferences at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Orlando, Florida.
Information: www.calcot.com/ccainstitutewebsite/CCA/Cover.html

 

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

Twelve research papers highlighted.

Members of the Communications Section heard 12 research presentations at the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, during January. Titles included:

• “The Cooperative e-Xtension: New Media, New Strategies”
• “The View from the Front: County Agent Evaluations of Extension Publications”
• “Measuring and Evaluating Levels of Public Awareness”
• “Peanuts and Pandas: Marketing Georgia Agriculture to Urban Audiences”
• “Extension Educators’ Assessment of Technology Programs, Uses, and Training in Oklahoma”
• “Building and Supporting Online Learning Environments Through Web Course Tools: It is Whippy, But Does It Work?”
• “A Content Analysis of Oklahoma’s Two Largest Newspapers’ 1998 Coverage of Oklahoma Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations”
• “Remarketing the Drought to Georgians”
• “What’s With the Dog? Using Student Focus Groups to Guide Recruitment Efforts”
• “Start Spreading the News: a Case Study on Marketing ‘Millie’ and Cloning Research”
• “Level of Use of Extension Agricultural Programming in the Broadcast Media by Adults in Mississippi”
• “It’s Now a Laughing Matter: the Texas Agricultural Extension Service Makes Serious Business out of Humorous Campaigns”

Reference: These papers are posted at http://agnews.tamu.edu/saas/ as proceedings of the 2001 meeting. They are also entered into the ACDC collection and can be identified through title searches (above).

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A familiar dilemma. 

The presentations cited above reveal some pesky and perennial dilemmas that educational (and other) communicators face. An example:

From one presenter: “Take time to do focus groups.”
From another: No audience research, pre-testing or post-testing was possible for the campaign because of “extremely short turnaround time – only a month – to produce and distribute the huge quantity of materials to participating counties and cities.”

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This tight-timing dilemma

Reminds us of counsel that Bryant Kearl, University of Wisconsin, offered in 1987 to U.S. communicators about how they can work effectively in other economies and cultures:

“Insist on being given the time to learn.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Necessary elements for development in agriculture”) or an author search (Kearl) for the full citation.

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Issues to address in GMO communicating?

Six “myths” about genetically modified plants are identified in a recent issue of Farm Industry News. Environmental attorney Stanley Abramson described and refuted them:

• “Genetically modified plants are not regulated.”
• “No data exist to support genetically modified products.”
• “The public does not have a role to play.”
• “Benefits of biotechnology do not exist.”
• “There is actual harm to health and the environment.”
• “No biotech products are labeled.”

Reference: Use a title search (“6 myths”) or author search (McMahon) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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It’s about trust.

Following is a recent observation by Lori B. Andrews of the Illinois Institute of Technology about the debate involving agricultural biotechnology:

“The debate is not only or primarily about science at all. It’s about trust.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Biotech firms need to address emotional issues”) or author search (Andrews) for the full citation.

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The Internet: changing science journalism, not always for the better.

We recently added a 1999 document that addresses this topic in the BioMedNet Magazine, HMS Beagle. “Thank goodness for the Internet,” said author David Whitehouse as he described ways in which it helps provide faster, easier science coverage. However, he expressed concern that “the concentration of press releases in a few Web sites has resulted in less diversity among journalists. It has made journals and public relations offices more powerful. Look at the newspapers, all the newspapers, and you will see that (in the U.K., at least) they have over 90 percent of their stories in common.”

Reference: Use a title search (“How the Internet is changing science journalism”) or author search (Whitehouse) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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“Where does live, face-to-face communication fit into all this?”

Warren Clark, president of Agricultural Relations Council, raised this thought question – and others – in a recent issue of ARCLight Newsletter. Given new and emerging technologies, such as two-way, high-speed Internet access, he asked questions such as:

• What opportunities does this “bigger 2-way pipe” present?
• Where do “relationships” fit into all this technology?
• Is there a way they can be enhanced?
• Or will farmers feel more than ever like a deer on the opening day of hunting season; like there’s no place to hide?
• Or, if they embrace the technology, how will it be like trying to drink from a fire hydrant?

Reference: Use a title search (“From the president”) or author search (Clark) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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“What are you doing in your colleges to encourage the teaching of farm journalism?”

That was one of the early questions put to members of the Association of Agricultural College Editors (ACE) after they organized nearly 90 years ago. The question came from Charles Dillon, managing editor of Capper Farmer Publications, when he spoke at the 1916 annual meeting (proceedings of which came into the ACDC collection recently).

He argued that lack of trained professionals in this work “is the most distressing thing we have to encounter.There is no limit to what they may be able to do.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Aspects of farm journalism”) or author search (Dillon) for the full citation.

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Recognized demand for more writing.

A year later (1917), Nelson A. Crawford of Kansas State Agricultural College echoed this theme: “The development of agricultural journalism is before us; it is bound to come. It is my firm conviction that work in agricultural journalism should be offered in every agricultural college. If no work is now offered in an institution, there is an opportunity for the editor to start it.” He observed that “courses in agricultural journalism are relatively new, growing out of the recognized demand for more writing on the developing sciences of agriculture.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The relation of courses in agricultural journalism”) or author search (Crawford) for the full citations.

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Some recent inquiries.

Here are several of the topics about which ACDC users have inquired during recent weeks:

• Usage and impact of the Internet among farmers
• Information sources used by Extension educators
• Collaboration between local Extension offices and public libraries
• Communications aspects of precision farming
• How people in rural communities get information about local events

We are pleased to help you locate information for which you may be looking – and to provide documents that may not be available to you locally.

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Professional activities approaching:

May 23, 2001
“Publication design training class” at Phoenix, Arizona. Sponsored by the Grand Canyon State Electric Cooperative Association for cooperative communicators and others. Information: nrunyen@gcseca.org

June 21-23, 2001
Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) joint conferences at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Orlando, Florida.
Information: www.calcot.com/ccainstitutewebsite/CCA/Cover.html

June 23-26, 2001
Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) joint conferences at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Orlando, Florida.
Information: www.calcot.com/ccainstitutewebsite/CCA/Cover.html

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

Interested in the communications side of mad cow, foot-and-mouth and other diseases?

We are adding considerable information these days about consumer reactions, media coverage and other communications-related aspects of these current threats. On the “Real search” page, use subject terms such as the following to identify documents of possible interest:

• “animal health”
• “beef”
• “diseases”

Also, please let us know if you can suggest documents that will strengthen this active and growing part of the collection.

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Inundated with food scares.

Consumers in the United Kingdom were exposed to more than 35 food scares between 1960 and 1999, according to an analysis reported by N. G. Gregory in the journal, Outlook on Agriculture. He said he views 1989 as a turning point in the history of the food industry in Europe, a year in which consumers were inundated with food scares. The scares, in his opinion, led to “accelerated growth of the health food industry” and “a gradual change in ownership of responsibility for looking after health of the public through the food they ate.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Consumer concerns about food”) or author search (Gregory) for the full citation.

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Farmers’ adoption and views of no-till practices.

Thanks to the Natural Resources Conservation Service/USDA office in Des Moines, Iowa, for providing this 40-page research report recently:

“Iowa Residue Management Survey 2000: Report to the Iowa Residue Management Partnership”

The survey among corn and soybean growers in Iowa highlights current adoption rates for no-till practices and factors that farmers use to make tilling decisions. Results also reveal drawbacks and problems that farmers see in no-till practices.

Reference: Use a title search (“Iowa Residue Management Survey 2000”) for the full citation.

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Pressures on scientists from funding sources.

Following are cited results of a survey early this year among British scientists working in government or in recently privatized laboratories. “One-third of the respondents had been asked to change their research findings to suit the customer’s preferred outcome, while 10% had pressure put on them to bend their results to help secure contracts.” Examples involving agricultural biotechnology appeared in the Institute of Science in Society report that cited these results.

Reference: Use a title search (“The new thought police suppressing dissent in science”) or author search (Mathews) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Rhubarb Days and Astroturf.

Pseudo news (“do-it-yourself public relations”) is alive and well in agricultural communications, it seems. According to two articles added recently to the ACDC collection:

• A commentary in New Scientist magazine calls attention to Britain’s National Rhubarb Day (sponsored by National Farmers’ Union) and Chip Week (sponsored by the British Potato Council). “Truly, we have much to celebrate.”
• Science reporters are cited as grappling with problems in trying to distinguish between real grassroots groups and Astroturf (a usage that describes advocacy groups “carefully manufactured” by public relations groups to “concoct and spin news reports”). Some examples cited in an HMS Beagle article involve news about agricultural pesticides, biotechnology and food safety.

Reference: Use title searches (“Did you miss National Rhubarb Day?” and “Grassroots or Astroturf?”) for the full citations, including URLs for online access.

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“Claim no easy victories”

Is the advice given to the pesticide industry by two university researchers. Their analysis, reported in World Development journal, involves the industry’s Global Safe Use campaign. It is a training and education project that has been credited with a dramatic decline in the scope of pesticide-related health and environmental problems in Guatemala. The authors challenge this claim and suggest that it may have over-reached supporting data.

Reference: Use a title search (“Claim no easy victories”) or author search (Murray) for the full citation.

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Role of the consumer activist groups.

PR Watch cites this perspective from Inside PR, a public relations trade publication:

“.these self-appointed watchdogs perform as a necessary counterbalance to untrammeled corporate power and as a source of pressure on recalcitrant regulators.Over the years consumer and environmental activities have done far more good than harm. Thanks to the work of those who agitate for social change, the roads have become safer; the environment has become cleaner; food has become more nutritious; consumers are in general far better informed about the products they buy; and workers are in general better rewarded and at less risk of injury or abuse.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The usual suspects”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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“Don’t Get Sicky Wit It”

Is the title of a new food safety rap song from Carl Winter, extension toxicologist at the University of California-Davis. It gets its inspiration from “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” by Will Smith and offers basic tips for food safety in the home and restaurant. Samples of the 18 other food safety songs in Winter’s expanding collection:

• Mad Cow Disease: “Beware La Vaca Loca,” inspired by “Livin’ La Vida Loca” (Ricky Martin)
• Biotechnology: “Clonin’ DNA,” inspired by “Surfin’ USA” (Beach Boys)
• Microbial: “There’ll Be a Stomachache Tonight,” inspired by “Heartache Tonight” (The Eagles)

Reference: http://foodsafe.ucdavis.edu/music.html

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Early extension teleconferencing.

The ACDC collection recently added several documents that trace origins of a telecommunications program that has served the University of Illinois Extension Service for many years. They include:

• “A communication study for the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service” (1963)
• “Tele-Lecture in your county” (circa 1965)
• “Five counties test Tele-Lecture: an evaluation” (1965)

Reference: Use title searches (titles above) for the full citations.

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Professional activities approaching:

May 23, 2001
“Publication design training class” at Phoenix, Arizona. Sponsored by the Grand Canyon State Electric Cooperative Association for cooperative communicators and others. Information: nrunyen@gcseca.org

June 23-26, 2001
Communications: it’s more than magic.” Joint conferences of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) and Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) at Orlando, Florida.
Information: www.coopcomm.com or http://natact.ifas.ufl.edu

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.

Salmon farming: media coverage in controversy.

ACDC has added several news reports about a controversial television co-production aired recently in Canada and the United Kingdom. This one-hour program – “Warnings from the wild – the price of salmon” – became controversial when BBC aired its version early in January. The program included allegations about farmed salmon containing higher levels of PCB and dioxins than wild salmon. Amid the controversy, the Canadian Broadcasting Company version was delayed until February 14. According to follow-up coverage in Fish Information and Services World News, the CBC program “took shots at the Canadian and UK salmon-farming industries.but reserved its more heavy-calibre rounds for federal regulatory agencies.”

Reference: Use a subject search (fish “food safety”) for the full citations, including URL for online access.

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U.S. farm broadcasters change their market reporting strategies.

As farmers and ranchers change their marketing and information-gathering strategies, what kinds of market information should farm broadcasters provide? An article in National Association of Farm Broadcasters Chats newsletter describes some ways in which farm broadcasters are changing their approaches. Examples:

• More analysis (“Pick up where the market report ends.”)
• More pinpointing of local prices
• End-of-week roundtables to analyze market-driving issues
• Adding loan rates to daily reports

Reference: Use a title search (“Information means nothing, intelligence is everything”) or author search (Hubbard) for the full citation. Check the Chats page on the NAFB web site www.nafb.com for online access.

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What kinds of market price forecasts help producers most?

According to results of an analysis reported in the Review of Agricultural Economics, hog producers gain much more from forecasts of average (mean) prices than of likely ranges in price. Specifically, the researchers found that: “Improved information about the mean of the price distribution is worth about ten times as much as improved information about its volatility.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The value of information to hedgers”) or an author search (Adam) for the full citation.

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Three ways ITC might help developing countries.

A report from the International Labor Organization of the United Nations describes three major types of gains that information and communication technologies (ITC) may offer to developing countries:

• “.countries with the right mix of skills, infrastructure, and policies could become important locations in global markets for intangible products or ICT products generally.”
• “.acceleration of development can occur through the leapfrogging potentials inherent in technologies, where leapfrogging is defined as the ability to bypass earlier investments in the time or cost of development.”
• “To the extent that ITC can improve aggregate economic growth, this could generate linkages to activities that provide livelihoods for those who are poor.”

Reference: Use a title search (“World Employment Report 2001: Life at Work in the Information Economy”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Fifth survey: U.S. consumers and biotechnology.

The International Food Information Council recently announced results of its fifth survey on U.S. consumer perspectives about food biotechnology. Wirthlin Worldwide conducted 1,000 telephone interviews in January 2001 among a national probability sample of Americans 18 years and older. Findings help track trends since 1997 in aspects such as awareness of biotechnology and knowledge levels, attitudes, concerns and intentions regarding it. IFIC programs are supported by the food, beverage and agriculture industries.

Reference: Use an author search (International Food Information Council) for the full February 2001 citation, including URL for online access.

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Trends in agriculture: results of Gallup Poll 2000.

This survey involved 1,218 large agricultural producers across the U.S. Respondents rated emerging agricultural technologies, evaluated the industries that provide farmers and ranchers with products and services, and reported on related topics such as their mood about farming today and the sources they use for obtaining information and making purchases. The study was funded by APA: Association of Leading Ag Media Companies and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, with support from the Alpha Zeta Foundation. Thanks to APA for providing a copy of the report to the Center.

Reference: Use an author search (Gallup Organization) for the full citation. Further information also is available on the APA site that you can reach through the “Useful Links” page of this ACDC web site.

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Shallow coverage: media going along with biotech “posturing and grandstanding.”

 An author in the BioMedNet Magazine, HMS Beagle, recently examined media coverage of the debate on genetically modified foods. He observed in this recent addition to the ACDC collection: “Although real scientific questions exist surrounding the debate.most media coverage has lacked this focus. Instead the media has taken the opportunity to join in the posturing and grandstanding favored by supporters and opponents of GM food.” His analysis included examples.

Reference: Use a title search (“Food court”) or author search (Segal-Isaacson) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Wasting valuable time.

Those who chide scientists for bringing a condescending spirit to their interactions with the public might find support in this recent comment from a university scientist:

“The (new online information) project enables scientists to communicate to a broader audience without wasting valuable time.”

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When non-farming neighbors have concerns: Speak up? To whom?

What happens when non-farming neighbors have concerns about nearby farming operations? A study reported recently in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation assessed the feelings and responses of 601 neighbors to mushroom farmers in Pennsylvania. Twenty-three percent had a concern about mushroom farms. Of those, about one-half voiced their concern to someone – most often to other neighbors. They were least likely to voice concern directly to the mushroom farmers.

Revealingly, non-farm neighbors who voiced concern directly to farmers were the most likely to feel steps were taken to remedy their concerns. Authors concluded that more direct communicating between farmers and their neighbors will help reduce conflict and improve relations.

Reference: Use a title search (“Farming and non farming neighbors”) or author search (Kelsey) for the full citation.

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Will bans on tobacco advertising reduce tobacco consumption? 

Probably not, according to H. Saffer and F. Chaloupka in a Journal of Health Economics article added recently to the ACDC collection. Results of their research involving data from 22 countries suggested that “comprehensive advertising bans can reduce tobacco consumption, but.a limited set of advertising bans will have little or no effect. A limited set of advertising bans will not reduce the total level of advertising expenditure but will simply result in substitution to the remaining non-banned media.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The effect of tobacco advertising bans”) or author search (Saffer) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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“Throne-speech promise” 

That’s the eye-catching expression used in a recent Canadian newspaper article about genetically modified foods. The reporter cited a university researcher who “cast doubt on.the viability of a throne-speech promise to require labelling of genetically engineered foods.”

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Thank you.