Month: January 2001

Our food is safe. Theirs isn’t.

This kind of message from food suppliers is a recipe for a general loss of consumer confidence, according to a study reported recently in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Researchers from Justus-Liebig-University in Germany examined how trust in food suppliers influences consumer response to food scares and food safety crises. Findings led them to conclude: “In their attempt to create trust, suppliers should not discriminate competitors on the grounds of food safety, while highlighting their own reliability. As this will increase the perceived discrepancy between different supplier types, consumer confidence and thus purchase probability will be greatly reduced in case of a food safety crisis.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Confidence lost and – partially – regained”) or author search (Hanf) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

What’s up in development-related communicating?

Here are titles of a few of the documents added recently to the ACDC collection about the communications aspects of agricultural and rural development in various parts of the world:

• “Information technology (IT) in developing nations”
• “Emerging new models for agricultural communication in Russia”
• “Connecting Bangladeshi villages”
• “Folk and traditional media for rural development: a workshop held in Malawi”
• “Report of the first consultation on agricultural information management” (FAO/UN)
• “Comics with an attitude”
• “Validating farmers’ indigenous social networks for local seed supply in central rift valley of Ethiopia”

Reference: Use a subject search on the term < “development communication” > to identify these and more than 350 other documents under that search term.

Big Web gain for cooperative communicating.

The January issue of the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) newsletter reflects excitement about recent approval of .coop as one of seven new top level domains (TLD) on the Internet. National Cooperative Business Association promoted this decision successfully before the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in the face of stiff competition (180 proposed TLDs). “The .coop designation will provide enormous educational opportunities,” explains columnist Jill Stevenson.

Reference: Use a title search (“.coop gets ICANN approval”) or author search (Stevenson) for the full citation. Details are available online at www.ncba.org.

A scientist’s view of media coverage.

Here’s the counsel of a United Kingdom GMO scientist to students about what will happen if they follow a career in science and attract the attention of the media:

“Expect your careful work to be trivialised or misrepresented.”

Reference: Use a title search (“GM referee on the ball in media scrum”) or author search (Grose) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

“Responding to media cheap shots”

Is the title of a recently entered paper that features media experiences of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). Written 18 years ago, it touches on media coverage of issues (such as pesticide use, fertilization and pollution) that remain active. And the procedures described for responding to “media cheap shots” also remain relevant.

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

How privatization of agricultural information affects sharing among farmers.

Are farmers who purchase private information willing to share it with other farmers in their communities? Does increased use of private information sources (farm data services, market advisory services, private consultants, the Internet, crop scouting and others) influence traditional ways of thinking about diffusion of information among farmers? A recent survey among 730 Illinois farmers by Mohamed M. Samy and colleagues revealed that “a relatively small share of farmers who purchased private information are sharing it with other farmers.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The privatization of information”) or author search (Samy) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Role of scientists and industry declining in news coverage about GM foods.

Research findings reported during January point to this phenomenon, as well as to the increasing role of activist groups. Eric Abbott and co-researchers at Iowa State University content analyzed three major U.S. and British newspapers to assess coverage about genetically modified crops between 1997 and 2000. They examined changes in topic, tone and sources across what they identified as triggering or hoopla periods of news coverage. Findings revealed that the newspapers quoted scientists in only about 17 percent of stories, less than half as often as activist groups. And the two British papers showed significantly reductions during the period in their use of scientists as sources.

Reference: Use a title search (“Handling of GM crop issues by the mass media”) or author search (Abbott) for the full citation.

In memory of a pioneer farm broadcaster.

The passing of Herb Plambeck during January prompts us to join others in expressing appreciation for his contributions as a preeminent farm broadcaster in the U.S. He was reported to be the first full-time farm broadcaster hired by a commercial station when he joined Radio Station WHO, Des Moines, Iowa, on August 26, 1936. He also was a founder and second president of the National Association of Radio Farm Directors (now the National Association of Farm Broadcasters) during his 34 years with that clear-channel station. An active agricultural journalist until his death at age 92, he took “greatest pride in being known as ‘the voice of the family farm.'”

Reference: Use title searches (“Farm broadcaster dies” or “Greenlee school honors ‘voice of the family farm'”) for biographical information. Also, an author search (Plambeck) will identify some of his writings.

Useful resources online for teaching agricultural communications.

On the Web you can see syllabi for nearly 20 U.S. college courses about agriculture-related communicating. They are available through efforts of the Academic Special Interest Group of the Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) organization. The syllabi cover subjects such as writing, oral communication, electronic media production, publication layout and design, Web design, information technology, rural-urban interactions and international study – all taught within the context of agriculture, food and natural resources.

Reference: http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~rtelg/courses.htm

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.

Americans believe life has gotten worse for farmers.

That’s the clear picture sketched by a 1999 nationwide survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.
Question: “Has life gotten better or worse for this group of Americans over the past 50 years? Here’s how Americans responded concerning farmers:

• Life has gotten better for them                 20 percent
• Life has gotten worse for them                 65 percent
• Same                                                          5 percent
• Don’t know/Refused                                 10 percent

Among the 15 groups listed for response, farmers and teenagers (56 percent “worse”) were the only two groups identified by a majority of respondents as having lives worsened during the past 50 years.

Reference: Use a title search (“Technology triumphs, morality falters: public perspectives on the American century”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Canadians also concerned about their farmers.

Research during 1999 by the Angus Reid Group revealed that more than seven in ten Canadians believe that Canadian farmers “really are facing severe problems right now.” About two-thirds of the respondents said they think that “farmer protests – such as blocking traffic or holding rallies – are either a very effective (15%) or a somewhat effective (49%) way to inform the public about the poor farm economy.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Commercial farming worse than last year”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

“Just a rampant wild argument” – Internet and the GM debate.

“This is a debate of speed and complexity,” suggests Drew Smith on the Just-food.com site. “And of course, it being broadcast on the Internet means there is no clear line or decision, just a rampant wild argument in which neither side is really listening to the other.” Smith adds, “.if it were not for the Internet it would be impossible for any other medium to monitor the worldwide arrival of what is one of the greatest ethical issues of our time.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Fuelling the fire”) or author search (Smith) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Dysfunction: the fruits of competing messages about biotechnology.

A new report in the ACDC collection reveals that 62 percent of Canadians surveyed last summer were either “not very familiar” or “not at all familiar” with biotechnology. Only 5 percent said they were “very familiar” with the issue. In fact, the reported level of familiarity with this subject was slightly lower than it was two years earlier. Why? “This may be because of competing public messages about the risks and benefits of biotechnology.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Canadians wary of genetically modified foods”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Are consumers also being driven to bad diets by mixed messages?

What happens when consumers hear mixed messages about what foods they should or should not eat? “Conflicting reports.are driving Americans to bad diets,” according to a reported study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. According to the lead author, “The more negative and confused people feel about dietary recommendations, the more likely they are to eat a fat-laden diet that skimps on fruits and vegetables.” Related findings of this study among adults in Washington (state) hoist caution flags for professional communicators:

• More than 40 percent of the Washington (state) adults surveyed said they were tired of hearing about what foods they should or should not eat.
• Seventy percent said the government should not tell people what to eat.

Reference: Use a title search (“Food news blamed for bad diets”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

Ways to make food safety more “hip.”

An entertaining release from the Marketing and Technology Group offers “Top ten ways” to do so. Sample:

“Arrange for Thermy the food-safety mascot to arrive at grade-school function in stretch limo packed with posse of MTV rap artists.”

Reference: Use title search (“Top ten ways to make food safety more ‘hip'”) or author search (Murphy) for the full citation.

Ethical pressures on Australian rural journalists.

An interesting research report added recently to the ACDC collection concluded, “the influence of advertisers pervades Australia’s rural papers.” Chris Tallentire conducted this study as an honours project in the agribusiness degree program at Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia.

Part of his project involved a survey during 1998 among rural print journalists who work with generalist agricultural papers throughout Australia. Here are sample findings about the strength and sources of advertiser-based pressure:

• 84 percent of respondents said that attempts by advertisers to influence what stories appear were “harming the profession” (26 percent) or “a problem in some cases” (58 percent).
• 60 percent reported that attempts by publishers or editors to slant stories to please advertisers were “harming the profession” (34 percent) or “a problem in some cases” (26 percent).
• Among the 40 percent who said attempts from publishers or editors were “not a problem,” nearly one-half said that during the past year they had received advertising withdrawal threats from advertisers displeased by editorial copy.

Reference: Use a title search (“The influence of advertisers”) or author search (Tallentire) for the full citation.

What documents should be collected?

A recent article in Agricultural and Resource Economics Review sparks thought here at the Documentation Center about this question. It confronts us each time we see a document and decide whether it should become part of the collection. Authors of the Review article were assessing the quality of research reporting by agricultural economists. In their conclusion, they said: “Published research, even if it has weaknesses, is still superior to unpublished work (even without weaknesses).”

We use the same point of view in reviewing documents for this collection. Rigor and excellence in communications research delight us. We look for relevant, rigorous analyses wherever we can find them. But thought pieces, editorials, evaluative summaries, limited case reports and other kinds of information about agriculture-related communicating can also offer value. Especially in human communication, opinions can be as important as facts. And, as the economists put it, we tend to think that “published research, even if it has weaknesses, is still superior to unpublished work…”

Your thoughts on the subject?

It’s milking time. Want to watch?

Rural-urban communicating is taking new forms in the dairy barn. More than a million Internet users watched corn grow last season on CornCam. So why not help acquaint people with other aspects of agriculture? A news release from Iowa Farmer Today announces a new website that permits viewers to watch activities in a 220-cow Dairy Center at Northeast Iowa Community College. The URL of this joint venture is www.DairyCam.com. Cameras monitor three areas: milking parlor, calving area and free-stall barn.

Reference: Use a title search (“Watch DairyCam”) for the full citation, including URL for online access to the release.

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.

“Rules of war for power editing.”

Agricultural editors who took part in the 2000 Agricultural Publications Summit heard a call to power editing. That’s “using all editorial strategies and devices available to maximize a publication’s power and influence in the marketplace and to keep the reader coming back for more”. An article in American Agricultural Editors’ Association ByLine newsletter reports on speaker John Brady’s remarks, including 10 traits of highly effective power editors.

Reference: Use a title search (“Give your publication a shot of ‘editude’”) or author search (Parker) for the full citation.

Current strategies in rural communicating.

An excellent multi-nation review of current strategies and methods in rural communicating came into the Documentation Center recently. Thanks to Liz Kellaway of South Australia for providing a report of her 10-week study as 1999 Churchill Fellow under the Kondinin Group Whittington Churchill Fellowship. ACDC was pleased to help host her visit in the U.S. and to provide resources for her studies.

Ms. Kellaway is general manager of Turnbull Porter Novelli Adelaide, a public relations consultancy that has specialized in rural and regional communications for 25 years. Her study took her to New Zealand, Mexico, United States, Canada, Denmark and the United Kingdom. In particular, she analyzed “communications strategies and implementation methods which (a) drive agricultural extension and farmer uptake of new technology and best practice, (b) encourage farmers to change on-farm practice, and (c) drive attitudinal change in broadacre and dairying sectors.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust of Australia”) or author search (Kellaway) for the full citation, including details about electronic access.

On accuracy of agricultural information. 

Do grain market advisory services beat the market? Not much during 1995-1998, according to evidence from the corn and soybean markets. The Agricultural Marketing Advisory Services (AgMAS) project based at the University of Illinois tracks advice given by more than 20 of such services. Findings for the four crop years suggest that “on average, market advisory services exhibit a small ability to ‘beat the market’ for the 1995 through 1998 corn and soybean crops.”

Results for the 1999 crop year were mixed.

An evaluation of performance in the 1999 crop year shows that the average net advisory price for corn ($2.02/bu.) was three cents below the market benchmark price. The net advisory price for soybeans ($5.67/bu) was 17 cents above the market benchmark. “The average revenue achieved by following both the corn and soybean programs offered by an advisory service was…$2.00 per acre more than the market benchmark revenue for 1999.” Performance ranged widely among the services.

Reference: Use a subject search (“advisory services”) for these citations, as well as other documents that report on the accuracy and economic value of information from market advisory services. Some are available online.

Views on science in the public milieu.

Here is a sampling of comments that have come to our attention recently:

• “Science is simply the sum of our knowledge. It is not always accurate, it is always incomplete and it is always changing. But at any given moment it is the best understanding of reality achieved by thousands of years of human discovery.” Reference: Use a title search (“Anti-science activists entertain but don’t enlighten”) or author search (Avery) for the full citation, including URL reference.

• “Perhaps it would be convenient if social and political factors didn’t intrude on the practice of science if new technologies took root and spread without regard to the influences of wealth, power and dominance, if inventions served human need above human greed. In some other universe it might be so – but not in ours. Divorcing the GMO debate from its larger cultural context doesn’t just present a false (if comforting) science-versus-ignorance dichotomy; it also deprives your readers of information they need to understand thoughtful and legitimate opposition to the biotech enterprise.” Reference: Use a title search (“Debating the food debate”) or author search (Maurer) for the full citation.

OECD reviews the market aspects of agricultural biotechnology

In a recent report from the Committee for Agriculture of that international organization. The 53-page analysis from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, addresses topics such as adoption of genetically engineered varieties, dimensions of consumer response, labeling and other market-related aspects.

Reference: Use a title search (“Modern biotechnology and agricultural markets”) or author search (Fulponi) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

When did agricultural journalism begin, as a professional field?

In the U.S., some historical accounts begin with the emergence of college courses and degree programs (early 1900s), or with the first agricultural periodicals (early to mid-1800s). However, one author in the ACDC collection (Donald Marti) has suggested that “agricultural journalism began during the years around the War of 1812” as agricultural societies became active in New England. From his perspective, “societies recognized the value of journalistic support well before agricultural papers first began.”

Reference: Use a title search (“To improve the soil and the mind”) or author search (Marti) for the full citation.

And how about Year 1200?

Recently we identified and added to the ACDC collection a reference that tracks agricultural writers in England back to the year 1200. Author Donald McDonald reports that the oldest agricultural documents in England were mostly compilations by educated monks who had studied the writings of Greek and Roman scholars. An example: “Sir Walter of Henley’s Treatise on Husbandry.” Sir Walter of Henley appears to have served as bailiff or perhaps monk in charge at one of the manors connected with Canterbury Cathedral. His treatise in 1200 was a “survey of the management of men and animals.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Agricultural writers from Sir Walter of Henley to Arthur Young, 1200-1800”) or author search (McDonald) for the full citation.

Do you know of other historical literature about early agricultural journalism/writing and journalists/writers?

If so, we would like to know of it and use it to strengthen a growing, important historical section of the ACDC collection. You can review current documents in that section by conducting a cross-search with subject terms such as: <history AND “farm journals”>.

Surprises from a U.S. study about farm computer adoption.

Authors of an article in the April 1999 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics found some. “One of our most surprising results was that education appears to have little or no impact [on farm computer adoption], whereas previous studies have identified a link.” The authors suggested further review of the possibility that education and experience are “substitutes rather than complements for computer services.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Farm computer adoption in the Great Plains”) or author search (Hoag) for the full citation.

Approaching professional event.

Following are some conferences and other kinds of professional improvement events about agriculture-related communicating:

February 15, 2001
“Genetic manipulation or information manipulation?” Presentation at a meeting of the Rural Media Association of South Australia. Features a representative of the Commonwealth Government agency, Biotechnology Australia.
Information: Visit RMA web site via the ACDC “Related Links” page.

March 15, 2001
Deadline for abstracts of proposed communications research presentations at the 2001 Agricultural Communicators in Education/ National Extension Technology Conference (ACE/NETC).
Information: Joan S. Thomson at jthomson@psu.edu

A thought about visions

“Visions without actions are just hallucinations.”
Comment by Paula Kaufman, University of Illinois Librarian, in “State of the UIUC Library,” September 5, 2000.

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 documents in hard copy or electronic forms. Thank you.

New Year’s greetings from the ACDC staff.

We wish you the best during 2001. The Agricultural Communications Documentation Center moves into this new year with an important and promising agenda. Effective communicating has never been more important than it is today in the broad field of agriculture, food, rural development and natural resources. And we are dedicated to helping communicators meet that challenge.

New food safety survey.

Thanks to folks at CMF&Z Marketing Communications, Des Moines, Iowa, for providing a copy of the 2000 Food Safety Survey. This survey measures U.S. consumer attitudes and editor perceptions about a wide range of food safety issues, including irradiation, genetically modified organisms, organic foods, credibility of organizations within the food industry, and more. ACDC has a set of these annual survey reports for your reference, dating back to 1995.

Reference: Use a title search (“Food Safety Survey”) for citations and document numbers.

The prospects for computers (as seen 35 years ago).

Recently we added to the ACDC collection an interesting 1966 article in the American Scholar journal about the future role of computers. Author David B. Hertz suggested that computers can help address a “world communications crisis” in which technology has “totally outstripped” the management processes of institutions. He sketched this vision of computers in agriculture:

“Agriculture is an excellent example of an area that could benefit greatly from applied computer techniques. There isn’t enough food in the world. And the difference between the haves and have-nots – the people who are eating and the people who are starving – is very great. Yet it is certainly perfectly possible to feed the world. Instead of viewing it as a place in which each country is responsible for feeding its inhabitants, we could look at it as one unit from an agricultural point of view. The world then becomes simply many plots of ground in which differing techniques are used to produce a variety of agricultural products. Looking at the world as one unit, we can work with the computer to learn the most effective method of producing food on each of the various plots of ground and to determine the requirements of food for all the populations of the world…”

Reference: Use a title search (“Computers and the world communications crisis”) or author search (Hertz) for the full citation.

Presentations at “AgCom.com” conference.

Today’s cutting-edge uses of electronic technologies came under discussion during late October at the “AgCom.com” conference on the University of Illinois campus. The UI Agricultural and Environmental Communications Alumni Group sponsored this one-day program that featured eight presentation about the latest in agricultural communications technology. Following are some of those presentations available in the Center:

• “Overview of the impact of Internet on agriculture – now and in the future.” Presentation by Bob Coffman, editorial director of AgWeb.com.

• “How the Internet and technology are changing the business of designing, building and selling farm equipment.” Presentation by J. R. Russ Green, Senior Director, Marketing, North America, Case IH Agricultural Business

• “Wireless Internet technology and the rural community.” Presentation by Dennis Riggs, Illinois General Manager of PrairieInet

Reference: Use title searches for the full citations, including details about forms (electronic or hard copy) in which they are available.

Cow pats: “earthy” technologies for communicating.

One hundred fifty cow patties (or pies) spelled the word “HELP” early last month in front of Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. According to a report from Australian Associated Press, dairy farmers used this method to tell legislators that industry deregulation “had ripped $800 million from their pockets. … Australian Milk Producers’ Association (AMPA) president John Cartwright said almost $4 billion had been wiped off the value of farmers’ assets, while dairy communities were $2 billion worse off.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Farmers deliver cow pats to pollies”) for the full citation.

New “how to” resource for today’s cooperative communicator.

The Cooperative Communicators Association has published a new CCA Handbook 2000. This 90-page handbook features seven categories:

• communicating for and about cooperatives
• newsletters and other periodicals
• reporting and writing
• meeting and event planning
• media relations
• communications management
• technical (video, photography, portable document format (PDF)

Reference: For details, contact CCA at CoopComm@CoopComm.com

Thanks for your encouragement.

Those of us on the ACDC staff greatly appreciate your feedback and encouragement. Here are recent examples that warmed our hearts:

• “The Ag Com Documentation Center is like a lifeline to me! What a wonderful resource.”
• “There is not an awareness site that I see on the ‘net that comes close to the high proportion of interesting and useful reports as does yours. … Take a moment to feel some pride. Then get back to work. We need to know more of what you have yet to find.”
• “…wonderful database…”
• “Thank you for ACDC. What a great contribution it is to the field.”

Approaching professional event.

Following are some conferences and other kinds of professional improvement events about agriculture-related communicating:

January 27-31, 2001
Agricultural Communications Section will report research during the 98^th annual meeting of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) in Fort Worth, Texas.
Information: http://cals.agnis.vt.edu/~saas/

February 15, 2001
“Genetic manipulation or information manipulation?” Presentation at a meeting of the Rural Media Association of South Australia. Features a representative of the Commonwealth Government agency, Biotechnology Australia.
Information: Visit RMA web site via the ACDC “Related Links” page.

March 15, 2001
Deadline for abstracts of proposed communications research presentations at the 2001 Agricultural Communicators in Education/ National Extension Technology Conference (ACE/NETC).
Information: Joan S. Thomson at jthomson@psu.edu

Creative response to post-holiday weight challenges.

The doctor pointed to the scale and, when the hefty young patient stood on it, read the weight: 192 pounds.

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 documents in hard copy or electronic forms. Thank you.