January 2006 – Funk Library

ACDC News – Issue 06-24

Posted on January 2, 2006 by Elizabeth Ray

Conflicts over meat and milk from cloned animals.

An Associated Press article added recently to the ACDC collection describes a fight brewing in the U. S. as the Food and Drug Administration considers approving meat and milk from cloned animals. The article cites views of support from the biotechnology industry, worries of dairy producers and opposition from consumer groups.

Title: Cloned meat and milk spark consumer fears

An analysis of Dutch agricultural journals.

We have added to the collection an analysis investigating how structure and conduct determine performance of the agricultural trade journal market in the Netherlands. Researcher Richard van der Wurff based his analysis upon 1991-2000 data involving an annual average of 74 Dutch-language agricultural periodicals providing information about professional farming activities. Among his findings:

On average, the journals relied on subscriptions for 60 percent of their income, on advertising for 40 percent.
Dutch farmers received an average of six different journals.
This publishing market was found to be moderately competitive.
The market encompasses 34 market segments.
A lack of competition found in individual market segments tends to exert a negative effect on diversity.

“These results explain why agricultural information specialists worry about the negative impact of perceived monopolization of market segments on information content, although the market itself is competitive (at the overall level).”

Title: Structure, conduct and performance of the agricultural trade journal market in The Netherlands

Looking back at the adoption of rBST. We have added to the ACDC collection some research reports of recent years about U. S. dairy producers’ experiences with recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST). It is a genetically engineered hormone that stimulates treated cows to produce more milk. These studies examined adoption levels and trends, as well as impacts of adoption on milk production per cow and profitability. Authors also identified some factors involved in producers’ decisions about the technology.

Title: The adoption and impact of bovine somatotropin on U. S. dairy farms
Title: That was the juggernaut…that wasn’t: rBST adoption in the United States

How farmers are adapting to closer urban neighbors.

Research among 16,000 Canadian farmers helps reveal how they are adopting new environmental practices on the rural-urban fringe. University of Guelph researcher Alfons Weersink found farmers “becoming keener to use programs that can help guide and document a farm’s efforts to improve their environment.” Among the most popular approaches being taken:

Better odor controls
Soil sampling to check nutrient availability and improve fertilizer use
Improved irrigation methods for water management
Manure storage practices
Better pesticide management plans

Title: Farmers adapt as the city moves into the country
Posted at: http://fare.uoguelph.ca/events/documents/FarmersAdapt_GuelphMercury_Weersink.pdf

Getting grassroots voices online.

A memorial lecture by Anuradha Vittachi invites fresh thinking about how new media technologies can help create positive change, globally. Vittachi is co-founder of the OneWorld Network, which supports human rights and sustainable development. She is also an award-winning television documentary maker.

Her lecture featured creative ways in which media technologies help give voice to local people and their needs. Among the examples cited:

A young Sri Lankan gathers sea wave and weather data over satellite via a local telecentre, translates it into Tamil and reads it into an audio file which is picked up in the nearby fishing village and aired through loudspeakers planted along the shore. The information helps fishermen decided whether they can safely go out.
Mothers’ Listening Clubs use solar-powered radios to exchange views and information, based on the listeners’ own agendas.
Local residents produce videos that not only serve them locally, but also may help reveal needs and issues, internationally, through central video databanks online. Through video productions they can, for example, record and display odd behavior in sick animals, record knowledge about locally-bred plant varieties and document corruption and human abuses.

“There are so many ways now to support the people at the sharp end of most of these tragedies,” Vittachi said, with regard to local rural crises and challenges. “They need to tell their stories for their sake…and also for our sake.”

Title: Message from the village
Posted at http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/51114/1/

Consumer acceptance of ethanol-blended gasoline.

Research reported in Biomass and Bioenergy during 2004 assessed Oklahoma consumers’ knowledge and perception of ethanol-blended gasoline. Among the findings:

58 percent perceived that ethanol-blended gasoline is better for the environment than gasoline.
59 percent indicated that a reduction in foreign oil dependency was the greatest potential benefit in using ethanol-blended gasoline.
60 percent perceived that ethanol would have a positive effect on Oklahoma ‘s economy.
Cost was the most important variable for consumers when deciding to purchase it.

Title: Acceptance of ethanol-blended gasoline in Oklahoma

Communicator activity approaching

February 5-6, 2007
Agricultural Communications Section of the 2007 Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) conference in Mobile, Alabama USA.
Conference information: http://www.saasinc.org
Ag Com Section web site: http://agnews.tamu.edu/saas/

New wings for adventuresome minds.

We close this final 2006 issue of ACDC News with one of the inspiring rural communications photos that came to our attention during the year.

It is the cover photo for an e-book, ICT in agriculture: perspectives of technological innovation, edited by E. Gelb and A. Offer. Photographer Edward Galagan captured what we consider a fine example of new wings for adventuresome minds, everywhere.

You can view it at: http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-main.html

Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Reach us at docctr@aces.uiuc.edu. Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.
Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions, suggestions and ideas for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801 ) or electronic form at docctr@aces.uiuc.edu.

December 2006

ACDC News – Issue 06-23

Posted on January 2, 2006 by Elizabeth Ray

Less protesting, more collaborating.

“Not long ago, when it was still the in-your-face Environmental Defense Fund, the group would have looked for a company to sue, boycott or at least protest. Nowadays, it is looking for companies that can help it out.”

Claudia H. Deutsch used that lead-in to introduce readers of the New York Times to examples of “a new spirit of compromise” between corporations and environmentalists. Cases cited include collaborations that involve food safety, endangered forests, biotechnology and other topics related to agriculture.

Title: Companies and critics try collaboration
Posted on the open web at www.forestethics.org/article.php?id=1466

And a more engaging approach by Parks Canada.

Increased collaboration also is the theme of a new communications strategy by that government agency to engage Canadians in managing their natural resources. Dawn Bronson described this strategy in a chapter of Communicating Protected Areas. The author reported these early results:

A stronger, more cohesive national identity
Improved relations with key stakeholder groups
Better issue management
Recognition of the importance of education – building support from the next generation of Canadians

Title: Engaging Canadians
Posted at: www.iucn.org/themes/cec/themes/protected_cases.htm

Payoffs to telecommuting from rural and urban areas.

We have added to the ACDC collection a working paper about home use of computers and the Internet in rural and urban U. S. markets. The Iowa State University researchers found:

“Differences in broadband access explain three-fourths of the gap in telecommuting between urban and rural markets. Correcting for endogeneity, telecommuters and other IT users do not earn significantly more than otherwise observationally comparable workers. Instead, it is the already highly skilled and highly paid workers that are the most likely to telecommute, not that they earn more because they telecommute. The results suggest that as broadband access improves in rural markets, the urban-rural gap in telecommuting will diminish.”

Title: Broadband access, telecommuting and the urban-rural digital divide
Posted at: www.econ.iastate.edu/research/webpapers/paper_12495_06002.pdf

Young Americans “clueless in the kitchen.”

Results of a national survey suggest that “while most 18-34 year olds have some concept of proper kitchen protocol, there are distinct gaps in their knowledge.” Here are the two biggest kitchen mysteries (and communications opportunities) identified in this survey sponsored by the American Plastics Council:

• Keeping and using leftovers. One-third (35 percent) of respondents cited this as their single biggest kitchen mystery.
• Storing frozen food. When asked about freezer storage, 32 percent said knowing “what to store food in to prevent freezer burn” is the biggest mystery.

Title: Clueless in the kitchen
Posted at: www.prnewswire.com/mnr/plastics/25003

“Whither the fight against fake news?”

That question introduced a 2005 report we entered recently from the Center for Media and Democracy, publisher of PR Watch. The report focused on discussions about regulations involving video news releases (VNRs).

One aspect involved concerns about the balance and appropriateness of government-funded VNRs. An example cited in the report centered on VNRs released by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in connection with a controversial trade agreement with Central America.

Posted at: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3790

What to teach aspiring communicators during an era of globalization.

In a recent issue of Glocal Times, Nora Quebral focused on implications of globalization for the undergraduate curriculum in development communication. She suggested seven features of a model curriculum that can address the challenging implications of globalization. Among the features she cited:

Encourages openness to diverse ideas coming from many sources of knowledge.
Grounds students in the basics of development in general “and on the particulars of economic, social, political, cultural, moral and spiritual development, taught in integrative courses.”
Teaches students the principles, values and skills that will prepare them for a profession of service.
Integrates information technology into the curriculum as an added tool.

Title: Development communication in a borderless world
Posted at http://webzone.k3.mah.se/projects/gt2/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=40&issueID=5

Surprises. Where we sometimes find valuable documents.

The journals in which we locate information about agriculture-related communications continue to impress us by their diversity. Here are a few recent examples of such journals:

EuroChoices
Tourism Management
Computer Systems News
Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report
Social Science and Medicine
Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services
Information Development
French History

Communicator activity approaching

Holiday greetings – and thanks – from the ACDC team.

All of us in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center extend special greetings to you at this holiday season. And thank you for your interest, encouragement and assistance during 2006 in developing this special information resource. Volunteers and contributors provide much of what helps it grow and serve.

Coordinators:

Sara Thompson, Center
Joe Zumalt, Administrative
Ryan Rogers, Research Programming

Student assistants:

Kelly Wagahoff
Kathy Novotney

Associates:

Liz Kellaway
Paul Hixson
Jim Evans

Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Reach us at docctr@aces.uiuc.edu. Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.
Best regards and good searching.

December 2006

ACDC News – Issue 06-22

Posted on January 2, 2006 by Elizabeth Ray

A battlefield of knowledge: face-offs of farmers and experts.

Researcher Julia Guivant explored that dimension through a case analysis among farmers and their key informants in southern Brazil. The topic involved use of crop pesticides.

Farmers interviewed “tended to oppose their knowledge to that of the experts or technicians (both salesmen and extension agents) because they considered their knowledge to be more appropriate to the everyday needs of the crops.” In turn, technicians working in the area “found it very difficult to influence farmers to use lower doses and less toxic pesticides.”

According to Guivant, “One important conclusion for participatory methodologies is to start with an understanding of farmers’ risk perception, their hybrid local knowledge, and the power and conflicts that are present in the relationship between farmers and experts.”

Title: Pesticide use, risk perception and hybrid knowledge
Posted at http://www.csafe.org.nz/ijsaf/archive/vol11/JulieIJSAFarticle-formatted.pdf

“Lives of the poor and unfamous.”

Ron Wall used that title to introduce readers of The ByLine (American Agricultural Editors’ Association) to the photography of Mary Ellen Mark.

“Shot mostly in rich black-and-white, Mark’s images capture the rawness of living out on the desperate fringes of rural and urban society, but there is nothing exploitive about them. These are images of real people living real lives. And for photographers working in agriculture, isn’t that exactly what you hope to achieve each time you look through a viewfinder?”

You can see international samples of her photography (including rodeo and circus settings) by visiting the Gallery section of her web site:
http://www.maryellenmark.com

UK consumer attitudes to food and food safety.

The latest (Wave 6, 2005) in a series of public surveys by the Food Standards Agency, United Kingdom, has been added to the ACDC collection. Among the findings:

The majority (69 percent) expressed some concern about food safety issues and 22 percent were “very concerned.”
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or Mad Cow disease) and food containing genetically modified ingredients “appeared to be less top of mind as a concern.”
Results showed increasing concern over the amount of salt, fat and sugar present in food since those aspects were added to the survey in 2003.
“Over two-fifths of UK respondents considered that food safety had improved in the last year. This is consistent with the level observed in previous years.”

Posted at: http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/casuk05.pdf

Marketing tools that U. S. agribusiness firms are using.

A recent article in Agri Marketing magazine describes results of Purdue University research about marketing patterns of mid-size agribusinesses in the U. S. This survey compared use of various marketing tools for capital products (such as tractors and buildings) and expendable products (such as seeds and fertilizers). Among the comparisons:

• Share of expenditures for print, radio and television.
• Share of expenditures for collateral materials, shows, public relations, direct marketing, gifts and company web sites.
• Share of expenditures for market research.

Title: Trends in marketing spending
Posted at http://www.agrimarketing.com/show_story.php?id=43346

Building personal relationships over the Internet – a key for agri-marketers.

According to a 2004 article in the Review of Agricultural Economics, this may be a key to expanding farmers’ e-commerce activity. Using 1999 survey data, researchers found that most agricultural input firms used company Web sites and adopted some type of Internet strategy. However, responses from managers of such firms led researchers to observe:

“Firms wanting to expand e-commerce sales to farmers must address the security and privacy concerns that make farmers hesitant regarding e-commerce. Firms must also overcome the difficulty of building personal relationships and providing after sales service over the Internet that served as barriers to farmer e-commerce adoption in 1999.”

Title: Internet and e-commerce adoption by agricultural input firms

“Rural Minnesota Radio”

Emerged recently from the Center for Rural Policy and Development, a non-partisan, not-for-profit policy research organization at St. Peter, Minnesota. Since February 2005 it has been producing programs of discussion and information on rural issues to residents. Some recent topics featured:

Small rural schools
Ethanol policies
Latino education
Jobs and job quality in rural areas
Rural health issues
Small town vision
Broadband access in rural communities

Programs are available to any Minnesota radio station free of charge.
Posted at: http://www.mnsu.edu/ruralmn/radio.php

Canadian college on wheels.

Historical dimensions of the ACDC collection got a boost recently from a New York Times article we added about Quebec ‘s farm train. In December, 1922, this train had just completed a six-week tour of the Province. More than 100,000 persons throughout Quebec had viewed the agricultural exhibits in a 14-car “college on wheels.” Educational materials featured livestock, field crops, poultry, horticulture, farm engineering, sugar making, beekeeping and home industries.

The Provincial Department of Agriculture, agricultural schools and Canadian Pacific Railway organized this traveling extension service. It proved “more successful than was ever hoped for.”

Title: Farm train

Communicator activity approaching

“We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan, “before the year is out.”

We close this issue of ACDC News with a classic Australian Bush poem sent earlier this month by associate Liz Kellaway. She explains that the current drought there – one of the worst in a century – reminds her of the poem, “Said Hanrahan.” It examines the strange relationship farmers have with the weather.

It was “written in 1921 by a bloke called John O’Brien,” Liz reports. “I remember hearing it recited many times at community concerts and country gatherings as I was growing up.” You can read “Said Hanrahan” at: http://web.library.uiuc.edu/asp/agx/acdc/poem.html

Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Reach us at docctr@aces.uiuc.edu. Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.
Best regards and good searching.

November 2006

ACDC News – Issue 06-21

Posted on January 2, 2006 by Elizabeth Ray

Are we communicating effectively?

That question got featured attention on June 13 when the Food Safety Network hosted its first food safety communicators’ conference. The event took place at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. An international cadre of presenters focused on:

Consumers, society and risk analysis
Current and emerging issues
Lessons learned from crisis situations (three case reports)
Where the information high is leading
Using message and communication to promote change
Food safety – who’s in control?
Innovative approaches to food safety and agricultural communications

Summaries are available in proceedings that the Network announced recently.

Title: Getting the word out
Posted at: http://www.foodsafetynetwork.ca/articles/947/Conference_proceedings.pdf

Everett Rogers looks at a half-century of the diffusion model.

The name of this communications scholar probably is familiar to you – especially if you have become acquainted with research involving the diffusion and adoption of agricultural and other innovations. From the mid-1950s onward, he actively helped develop this broad stream of scholarship that has had international impact. Shortly before his passing, he shared a “prospective and retrospective look” at it in a Journal of Health Communication article we have added to the ACDC collection.

Title: A prospective and retrospective look at the diffusion model.

Managing a high-profile agricultural conflict.

A recent article in Public Relations Review examined conflict resolution processes, using media content analyses of four high-profile conflicts. One case involved conflict between the U. S. Department of Agriculture and African American farmers who alleged the USDA had discriminated against them.

Authors described the conflict as it played out in press coverage, summarized the resolution of it and offered perspectives on processes through which such conflicts are resolved.

Title: Going head to head

The costs to producers of not adopting Bt cotton.

An article in AgBioForum summarized the global impacts of Bt cotton adoption in the United States and China, based on results from a three-region model of the world cotton market. Findings prompted authors to conclude, “The results provide an indication of the costs of not adopting Bt cotton.” Reasons cited:

Bt cotton reduced insecticide use and per-pound production costs in both countries.

Higher yields and production contributed to a 1.4-cent per pound reduction in the world price of cotton.
Net global benefits were $836 million.
China captured 71 percent of this benefit, the U. S. captured 21 percent and the rest of the world captured the remainder.
Rest-of- the- world cotton purchasers benefited from lower cotton prices while returns to rest-of-the-world producers fell.

Title: Bt cotton adoption in the United States and China: International trade and welfare effects
Posted at: http://www.agbioforum.org/v9n2/v9n2a01-frisvold.htm

Teaching agricultural communications – without experience.

Agriscience teachers in Texas high schools raised concerns about this several years ago in a study examining the agricultural communications curriculum of that state. In a research report we added recently to the ACDC collection, authors reported:

“This study found that 67% of the teachers had little or no experience in the field of agricultural communications, but they agreed the competencies related to communication techniques and procedures should be incorporated in the agricultural communications curriculum. Agriscience teachers also indicated their perceived level of teaching skill pertaining to communication techniques and procedures ranged from fair to good.”

Title: Analyzing the Texas high school agricultural communications curriculum
Posted at: http://pubs.aged.tamu.edu/jsaer/pdf/Vol51/51-00-138.pdf

Reminiscences of an innovative agricultural communications educator.

We appreciate having received a new autobiography, “Rural Reminiscences,” by John H. Behrens, professor emeritus of agricultural communications, University of Illinois. The career section reveals his special creativity, leadership and service. Examples:

Creation of an instructional resources program for the College of Agriculture.

Early use of new presentation technologies – overhead projectors, cassette tape recorders and closed loop motion picture projectors – and multi-media learning units that students used in individual study carrels.
Early use for agriculture instruction of a technique called Telenet, through which one or several persons could address large groups over telephone lines from remote locations.
Three-projector, multi-screen slide presentations for showing and comparing concepts.
Development of a new course, Teaching College-Level Agriculture.
Leadership in developing communications facilities and services for agriculture universities in India, West Indies, Indonesia and Pakistan.

Title: Rural reminiscences.

And welcome to a future agricultural communicator.

We extend a hearty welcome to Kelly Wagahoff, new student associate in the Center. She is a sophomore in the agricultural communications curriculum with a concentration in advertising.

Raised in a small rural town – Raymond, Illinois – Kelly became interested in agricultural communications through her love of people and the agricultural industry. She gained communications experience in high school through writing and photography for her school yearbook and through news writing for her FFA chapter. She hopes one day to work in agricultural sales and marketing communications.

“My experience in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center has been great so far,” she reports. “I feel it will help prepare me for my career because I have had the opportunity to look at and work with documents that will help me in the future. It will also be very beneficial once I start working with the online database because I will have a better understanding of formats and how to work with databases.”

Online auctions for farm products (more than 70 years ago).

We recently added to the ACDC collection a 1933 New York Times article that described plans for a new teletype network in the U.S., creating a daily nationwide auction of perishable farm products. This commercial enterprise, called Farmers Market System, was to be based in New York City.

“Descriptions of the products offered for sale by farmers would be flashed to all the market cities, where the buyers, gathered at the local headquarters of the organization, could immediately offer their bids, which in turn would be flashed to every other teletype centre. In this way definite markets would be assured for farmers before their produce has started its journey, and conditions of glut in certain sections of the country and scarcity in others would be avoided.”

Title: Teletype service planned for farms

Spinach takes a musical hit.

A musical video posted recently on YouTube suggests “The Spinach is Bad” and adds to the grief for spinach generated recently by E-coli problems in the U. S. According to the promotional brief, “deep in our brains we know it’s just not right to eat this vile little leaf.”

Title: The Spinach is Bad – music video
The video is posted at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLS5mKH5kks

Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Reach us at docctr@aces.uiuc.edu. Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.
Best regards and good searching.

November 2006

ACDC News – Issue 06-20

Posted on January 1, 2006 by Elizabeth Ray

How U. S. producers are gathering farming information by radio and the Internet.

Here are some results from the National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s 2006 Qualitative Survey of Commercial Producers. Findings reflect research by Ag Media Research involving 1,003 Class 1+ producers in 12 Corn Belt states. Among the sampled producers:

Seventy percent with gross farm income (GFI) of $40,000-$100,000 and 78 percent of those with GFI of $250,000+ said they use radio daily for farming information.
Daily Internet use for farming information ranged from 26 percent (producers with $40,000-$100,000 GFI) to 42 percent ($250,000+ GFI).
Internet usage is limited by lack of access to high-speed connections. By GFI category, 16-34 percent reported having high-speed access.
Downloading of audio from the Internet for any purpose remained very low, at 2.3 percent overall.

Summary posted at: http://www.nafb.com/nafbfiles/AMRPresentation-5-23-06.ppt

Wide range in awareness of genetically modified foods.

This pattern appeared in a recent survey by Synovate, a global market research company, among 3,127 respondents in five countries.

“While 84 percent of Greeks are extremely or somewhat familiar with these products, 92 percent of Indonesians have not heard of that term. A majority of respondents in South Africa and Poland are also familiar with genetically modified foods, while 65 percent of Singaporeans profess ignorance.”

Title: GM foods ok as long as they taste good
Archived August 15, 2006, at http://archives.foodsafetynetwork.ca/agnet-archives.htm

When farmers establish web sites for direct marketing.

We have added to the ACDC collection a research paper identifying characteristics of northeastern U. S. farms that established web sites for direct marketing.

Researchers Alexander Baer and Cheryl Brown of West Virginia University found that some sales locations and product types, advertising diversity, high speed Internet connections and gross farm sales were significantly related to website adoption.

Title: Adoption of e-marketing by direct market farms

An innovation that farmers rejected.

Initial research suggested they would adopt a new soil nitrogen technology. However, a follow-up case analysis published in Technology in Society revealed otherwise:

“…the N-Trak late spring soil nitrogen test was not adopted and did not diffuse in Iowa as predicted by the manufacturer or university researchers. Despite growing environmental concerns and interest in sustainable agriculture, late spring soil nitrogen testing in general has not rapidly diffused in the state.”

Authors concluded that results point to the problem of generalizations that take place within innovation theory.

Title: Evolution of an agricultural innovation

Global coalition provides greater access to food and agriculture journals.

“More than 100 of the world’s poorest countries will now be able to access leading food and agriculture journals for little or no cost,” according to a recent report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

A public-private partnership known as Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) is making the program possible. Through it, 37 of the world’s leading science publishers, FAO and other partners are providing access to more than 900 agriculture-related journals. Through a recent expansion, AGORA is now serving eligible universities, colleges, research institutes, government ministries and non-governmental organizations in 106 countries that have a per capita GNP of US$3000 or less.

Title: The power of information – closing the knowledge gap
Posted at: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000406/index.html

Welcome to a new ACDC associate.

We are delighted to welcome Kathy Novotney as a new student associate in the Center, on a part-time basis. A sophomore in the agricultural communications curriculum, she is getting acquainted with the Center, helping maintain the collection and processing new documents into it.

“With each different task, I see different aspects of agricultural communications,” Kathy reports. “The thousands of articles could provide me with a very rich background. I am enjoying working there a lot!”

Kathy found pleasure in her agriculture classes at Seneca ( Illinois ) High School and wanted to pursue a career in writing as well, so decided to combine those interests. Responsibilities as FFA chapter secretary and president helped her develop skills as a writer and speaker. During her senior year she wrote a monthly column for a local newspaper and, during the past summer, covered agriculture for the same paper.

The “loving pigs” and other classic rural photos by Joe Munroe.

Few readers may be familiar with Joe Munroe, a leading U. S. agricultural photographer during the mid-1900s. However, we believe many fans of skilled rural photography may appreciate images being preserved in the Joe Munroe Archives of the Ohio Historical Society.

Munroe’s rural photography appeared regularly in the respected Farm Quarterly magazine, beginning in the 1940s. His classic “loving pigs” photo graced one of the most memorable FQ covers and circulated internationally as a poster.

Title: Joe Munroe Archives
You can see the nuzzling pigs and a variety of other rural images in the Munroe collection. Visit: http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/audiovis/munroe/munroe.html

Communicator activities approaching

November 9-11, 2006
Fifth Conference of the Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture (AFITA) in Bangalore, India.
Information: http://www.insait.org/afita0.pdf

November 15-17, 2006
“Farm and rural horizons.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: www.nafb.com

Crowing low. Roosting high.

We close this issue of ACDC News by featuring a conversation style that may interest rural reporters who like to hone their interviewing skills. It comes from a book, Cow People, and takes place in open range country during the early 1900s.

A traveling salesman comes upon a man of the land, J. M. Shannon.

“What part of this country do you live in, anyway?
“Oh, out yonder,” Mr. Shannon replied.
“What do you do?”
“I take care of things.”
“What sort of things?”
“Well, sheep, cattle, horses, windmills, fences – things like that.”
“You must live on a ranch.”
“That’s right.”
“Whose ranch”?
“People call it mine.”
“How big is it?”
“Several sections.”
“How many cattle do you own?”
“For taxable purposes, several hundred, I guess.”

Yes, you are correct. The traveler was talking to one of the richest men in west Texas.

Title: Cow people

Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Reach us at docctr@aces.uiuc.edu. Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.

Best regards and good searching. Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801 ) or electronic form at docctr@aces.uiuc.edu

October 2006

ACDC News – Issue 06-19

Posted on January 1, 2006 by Elizabeth Ray

How cut flowers stay fresh, from Holland around the world.

Have you ever wondered how this is possible for such a highly perishable, fragile product? If you have, you will find helpful insights in an article published by the Journal of Strategic Information Systems. Authors Judith Heezen and Walter Baets describe the Dutch Flower Auctions and reveal the vital role of accurate, fast-moving information. They also analyze the potentials and impacts of information technologies, including video auctioning.

Title: Impact of electronic markets

International lessons for better farmer-scientist communicating.

A United Kingdom case study has led to suggestions “inspired by communication models in developing countries.” Writing in Science Communication, Belinda Clarke notes that farmers in Europe and North America tend to obtain information about new research from the agricultural press or, increasingly, from representatives of companies promoting new products. “There is little opportunity for direct communication between farmers and researchers.”

Clarke’s global tour identified several universal needs and prompted recommendations for:

More one-on-one interactions between farmers and researchers.
Movement away from one-way lecture formats.
More use of participatory approaches.

Title: Farmers and scientists
Abstract available free and full-text available by subscription from: http://scx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/25/2/198

Cycling onto the Internet.

An article in Appropriate Technology describes an innovative way to provide agricultural information.

“When Laotian farmers in Phon Kham village want to see the price of rice in their nearest market town, they can do it now by accessing the Internet, but it’s a two person operation. The second person is needed to pedal a bicycle-driven generator which produces the power to work the computer. Once up and running, the farmer can see the price of rice, find out what the weather is doing or send an e-mail to a friend.”

Title: Laotian villagers cycle onto the Internet

Tips on photographing livestock.

Do you photograph livestock? If so, you might check a new “how-to” feature on the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) web site. Tips offered in the feature come from several award-winning livestock photographers, the ACDC collection and other sources. We produced it recently through a professional development partnership with IFAJ.

Title: In the blink of an eye
Posted at: http://www.ifaj.org/pd/photographing_livestock.htm

“Who speaks for the journalism of Main Street?”

We do, said H. Brandt Ayers, publisher of a community newspaper, the Anniston Star (Alabama USA), in a recent column about his craft. “…and we think we have something to teach Big Journalism media who seem to have lost connection with the people they serve.”

Here are several ingredients Ayers identified for effective Main Street journalism:

• Stand up for justice. “We did some old-fashioned crusading.”
• Hop on the Big Story. “That lights our fire.”
• Clothe a tough or complex story in “the simple uniform of normality.” Examples: (1) A reporter’s moving biography of the family’s irascible, beloved mule charted 50 years of Southern economic change. The last line: “They came and dragged Kate away with a tractor.” (2) A reporter told how “morale rose and anxiety over integration eased at a rural high school when new black football players helped the team to a winning season.”
• Keep it local. “Sometimes it gets bumpy, because our relationship with community is less distant than a corporate chain newspaper, more caring. We scold, support, console and chide. We hurt and are hurt, and we love – like any slightly dysfunctional family.”
• “Get it straight; get it whole … and give a damn!”

Title: Above all, give a damn
Posted at: www.annistonstar.com/opinion/2006/as-columns-0521-bayerscol-6e19q0346.htm

New video – “Telling the World about Agriculture.”

Those who attended the recent Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) in Norway viewed a new anniversary film. Journalists from throughout the world took part in “Telling the World about Agriculture.” According to producer Markus Rediger:

“They talk about globalization and other current questions from their point of view. All stress the meaning of a world-wide network for the exchange of information, opinions and questions.”

The film, in DVD format, is financed by sponsors and can be ordered free of charge. A short version is available for viewing from the home page of: www.lid.ch (scroll down).

It is not enough to ask consumers if they would or would not eat GM foods.

Results of recent research in Australia suggest that such questions do not do justice to the complexities of public attitudes about genetically modified foods. For instance, a study for Biotechnology Australia led Craig Cormick, Manager of Public Awareness, to report how consumer attitudes may depend on the type of food.

“For example, Australians claim they are more likely to eat packaged foods containing GM ingredients and GM cooking oils than they are likely to eat GM vegetables.”

Title: Public attitudes towards GM foods
To see similar articles, search for Craig Cormick at: http://www.biotechnology.gov.au

Communicator activities approaching

October 25-27, 2006
World Congress on Communication for Development in Rome, Italy. Organized by the Development Communication Division, World Bank; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; and The Communication Initiative.
Information: http://www.devcomm-congress.org/worldbank/macro/2.asp

October 25-29, 2006
Annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Burlington, Vermont USA. Information: http://www.sej.org/confer/index1.htm

November 9-11, 2006
Fifth Conference of the Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture. (AFITA) in Bangalore, India.
Information: http://www.insait.org/afita0.pdf

November 15-17, 2006
“Farm and rural horizons.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: www.nafb.com

On making things clear in the rural wilds.

We close this issue of ACDC News with an example of how easy it is to stumble over our wordings and meanings. We found it in an August, 1878, issue of the Chicago Tribune, via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

“The Rev. Murray has been bitten by a wildcat in Maine, but the cat was old and tough, and will probably get over it. – Free Press. “

Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Reach us via contact form. Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.

October 2006

ACDC News – Issue 06-18

Posted on January 1, 2006 by Elizabeth Ray

The Elvis of E. coli – still singing.

Want to hear some lively food safety songs by Carl Winter, a toxicologist at the University of California? Earlier, we mentioned his unusual approach to public education, putting his wording to contemporary tunes. You can listen to snippets of samples aired recently during an interview on National Public Radio.

Can you guess the tunes from the rhythm of the words?

“Goin’ to be a stomach ache tonight”
“Don’t get sickie wit’ it”
“I will survive”
“That’s how you wash your hands”

Posted at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5764064

Citizen juries used in rural India.

Various institutions in India are using citizen juries to involve a diverse array of farmers, food processors and marketers, consumers, government officials, scientists and others in discussions about current rural issues. An article in Leisa Magazine reported on procedures and results involving two juries. One assessed the pros and cons of using genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in small scale farming in India. The other examined three visions of farming and food processing for the next 20 years.

In both uses of this participatory method, jury members listened to testimony and cross-examined witnesses, then developed and presented their verdict.

Title: Citizen juries on GMOs and farming future in India
Posted at: http://www.ileia.org/index.php?url=article-details.tpl&p[_id]=12549

Update on rural broadband access in the U.S.

Twenty-four percent of rural Americans had high-speed internet connections at home at the end of 2005, according to a daily tracking survey for the Pew Internet and American Life Project. This compared with 39 percent of urban/suburban dwellers and revealed a continuing gap in access and adoption.

The 10-page summary also identified sources of broadband access, frequency and intensity of online use, and the kinds of activities for which rural residents use the internet.

Title: Rural broadband internet use
Posted at: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Rural_Broadband.pdf

Role of government in rural broadband internet.

Ashley Ruiz analyzed this dimension during 2004 in a 31-page report that focused on:

• Size and nature of the rural-urban digital divide
• Effectiveness of previous and current federal programs
• Commonalities in rural electrification and broadband deployment
• Diverging views about the role of government
• Types of government support

Title: Broadband internet and rural America
Posted at: www.comm.ucsb.edu/publications/Ashley%20Ruiz.pdf

A barn-raising for community rural radio.

We recently identified a report about a “barn raising” that birthed a low-power FM station for a community-based farmworker organization in southwest Florida. In a two-day period, associates of the Prometheus Radio Project helped the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) construct a building and put Radio Conciencia on the air.

“In the past two days, we had experienced the magic of community collaboration. In a time when the airwaves are becoming increasingly monopolized, Radio Conciencia represents an accessible space and a powerful local resource, as well as a viable model for other communities.”

Title: Barn-raising on air
Posted at: http://www.prometheusradio.org/news_archive/articles_about_prometheus

Six special qualities of those who photograph the farmworker story.

Richard Steven Street, in his recent book entitled Photographing farmworkers in California, identified what he considered six resonating qualities “rarely found together:”

Profound sincerity and complete dedication.
Refusal to pander to cruelty.
Shared belief that the most interesting photography is human photography.
An easy union of aesthetics and politics, pictorial structure and content, seen in tender faces or grizzled hands, making it impossible to ignore even the subject’s most gritty and disturbing circumstances.
Concern for the broad range of human experience that rejects no detail as mundane or insignificant.
Willingness to confront reality. “To reveal the essence of a moment one must see it first; and to best see it, one must walk right up to it and face it head-on.”

Title: Photographing farmworkers in California

An alternative perspective on competition.

In an era of competitive, winner-take-all striving it is unusual to see the perspective offered by Jane Vella in her book about the power of dialogue in educating adults. Vella described her experiences in rural and other settings around the world. She said she puts learners to work in teams and soon sees evidence of competition among the teams. However, she explained:

“…not a destructive competition but a natural com + petition, asking together how the job could be done well, done better ( com: with, petition: asking).”

Title: Learning to listen, learning to teach

Communicator activities approaching

October 8-11, 2006
“Delivering information for the new life sciences.” U. S. Agricultural Information Network conference at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Information: http://usain.mannlib.cornell.edu

October 12-13, 2006
“Newspapers and community-building.” Twelfth annual symposium co-sponsored by the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media and the National Newspaper Association Foundation in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Information: http://huckboyd.jmc.ksu.edu/symposium/papers.html

October 25-29, 2006
Annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Burlington, Vermont USA. Information: http://www.sej.org/confer/index1.htm

November 9-11, 2006
Fifth Conference of the Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture. (AFITA) in Bangalore, India.
Information: http://www.insait.org/afita0.pdf

November 15-17, 2006
“Farm and rural horizons.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: www.nafb.com

A closing note on dieting.

Why not have it all? We close this issue of ACDC News with a dieter’s dream, an oxymoronic observation from Arthur Baer:

“She used to diet on any kind of food she could lay her hands on.”

Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Reach us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.

September 2006

ACDC News – Issue 06-17

Posted on January 1, 2006 by Elizabeth Ray

The rural roots of service journalism.

Recently we added to the ACDC collection an article that featured a pioneering U. S. agricultural publisher, Edwin T. Meredith. He founded Successful Farming (1902), still published today by Meredith Corporation, Des Moines, Iowa. He also served as U. S. Secretary of Agriculture.

According to author Gael L. Cooper, “Meredith’s primary legacy was in the field of journalism, where he gave force to a publishing concept now called “Service Journalism.”

Title: Edwin Thomas Meredith: service was his secret to magazine success

What keeps food companies from openly communicating?

Here is how e-version readers of the Food Systems Insider newsletter responded to that question:

Competition 31.8 percent Legal fears 18.2 percent
Accountability 4.5 percent All of the above 36.4 percent

This brief summary of the online survey includes a reader’s caution that times are changing. If the food company does not have a good story to tell about a product “someone will be willing to share the real story for you.”

Posted at http://www.foodsystemsinsider.com (E-newsletter issue of November 18, 2005 )

“A marketplace of misleading labels.”

Commentator Herb Weisbaum recently took after food marketers that use “misleading labels…to grab a shopper’s attention and move product.” Among the examples cited:

“Whole wheat” products with “very little whole wheat.”
A “peach papaya drink” that contains mostly water, sweeteners and some pear juice – no peach or papaya juice.
Create-your-own definitions of “natural” foods.
“Trans fat free,” easily interpreted to mean fat free.

Title: When grocery shopping, read the fine print
Posted at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12803309

Recognizing the pioneers and concepts of development communication.

Several journals recently published informative historical reviews of the discipline and practice of development communication. They describe six schools of thought about development communication, from the 1940s to date: Latin American, Bretton Woods, Los Baños, African, Indian and Post-Freire (Participatory). The articles also recognize pioneering contributions of Dr. Nora Quebral, University of the Philippines at Los Baños.

“CFSC pioneer: honouring Nora Quebral.”
Posted at http://www.communicationforsocialchange.org/mazi-articles.php?id=272

“Manifesto for development communication: Nora Quebral and the Los Baños School of development communication”

“Nora Cruz Quebral: writer and thinker par excellence” Posted at: http://webzone.k3.mah.se/projects/gt2/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=47&issueID=5

Thanks to a contributor in Australia.

ACDC staff recently added documents that focus on new food labeling policies in Australia and New Zealand. Our thanks go to Tanoj K. Singh, a research scientist for Food Science Australia.

Singh contributed a consumer brochure, “Country of Origin Food Labelling.” Published by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, it describes recent changes in rules for such labels. Also, a 2006 report on Australia’s dairy industry includes survey data showing that since 2004 producers have become more confident about the future of the industry.

Title: Country of origin food labelling
Posted at: http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfiles/CoOL_brochure_2006.pdf

Title: Dairy 2006, situation and outlook: report to the Australian dairy industry
Posted at: http://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=278&Itemid=1

We appreciate these contributions and welcome agricultural communications documents from any community or region.

Communicator activities approaching

October 1, 2006
Deadline for research or professional papers to be submitted to the Agricultural Communications section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists meeting February 3-7, 2007, in Mobile, Alabama.
Information: contact@mail.ag-communicators.org

October 25-29, 2006
Annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Burlington, Vermont USA. Information: http://www.sej.org/confer/index1.htm

November 9-11, 2006
Fifth Conference of the Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture. (AFITA) in Bangalore, India.
Information: http://www.insait.org/afita0.pdf

November 15-17, 2006
“Farm and rural horizons.” Annual convention of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Information: http://www.nafb.com

So you follow the classified ads?

In that case, we close this issue of ACDC News with several from the Advertisers’ Almanack, as reported in a 1908 issue of Agricultural Advertising magazine.

• For sale – Capes, victorines, etc., made up for ladies out of their own skins. • Wanted – A furnished room for a single gentleman looking both ways and well ventilated.
• For sale – A bulldog. Will eat anything. Very fond of children.

Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Reach us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.

September 2006

ACDC News – Issue 06-16

Posted on January 1, 2006 by Elizabeth Ray

Sparks out of the plowed ground.

That title identifies the most ground-based book we have read about radio in the communities of rural America. Author Bob Doll, long-time publisher of the Small Market Radio Newsletter, brought 45 years of experience to this effort. Using statistics, dozens of station case reports and other sources, he:

Tracked the history of small-town radio – from unauthorized “Station BOB” in 1919 through a 1995 survey among owners about the future of their stations.
Analyzed trends and forces such as changing program formats, automation, regulation, emergence of FM, consolidation, and social and economic factors.
Identified elements of success and failure in small-market radio broadcasting.

Title: Sparks out of the plowed ground.

The difference between journalists and communicators for development.

Luis Ramiro Beltrán, a former journalist and pioneering development communicator in Latin America, recently described it this way:

“The main difference … is that the latter understand communication mainly as a tool for enhancing people’s education for the betterment of their lives. The main thrust of journalists is news, whereas the development communicator struggles for a change in behaviour, so people can succeed in overcoming underdevelopment, injustice and authoritarianism.”

Title: Interview with Luis Ramiro Beltrán
Posted at: http://www.communicationforsocialchange.org/dialogues.php?id=233

Welcome, Sara.

We are delighted to introduce Sara Thompson as new graduate assistant and coordinator in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. Sara’s experiences and interests will help her contribute in special ways to the mission of this Center.

She brings seven years of work experience in academic libraries as she enters the University of Illinois graduate program in library and information science.
An honors graduate of Eastern Oregon University, she joins us from the Oregon State University Valley Library, where she coordinated branch and distance education services. She also served as liaison to a lending and borrowing alliance of 30 academic libraries in Oregon and Washington.
Her earlier experience at Eastern Oregon University included a project that involved 70 rural libraries.
She studied abroad in Germany and has taken two years or more of coursework each in German, Spanish and French.

Thanks to another helpful collaborator.

We are grateful to an associate in Sudan who has alerted us to – and provided – some useful, timely documents. Thanks to Rafaa Ashamallah Ghobrial, Head of Information Services and Systems in the Documentation and Information Centre, Khartoum. A couple examples:

” Towards an agricultural information network in Sudan ”
Posted at: http://www.livelihoods.org/post/Docs/iaald/014Rafaa.doc

” Sudan agricultural information management system: challenges and opportunities”

Cautions about biases reflected in words we use.

Sometimes we are struck by the submerged messages and meanings in materials we read. The following examples from rural development documents reflect mindsets about producers and what they know:

“Farmers and experts talk about teleconferencing”
(Who are seen as holding the knowledge of most value in this exchange?)
“Peasant expertise and formal science”
(Which dimension of this duo is implied as most credible?)
“Farm scientists communicate to farmers”
(How much dialogue and sharing of insights is implied here?)
“Traditional knowledge”
(Sometimes used in ways that treat it as second-class knowledge, “fixed, mummified, and unfit for modern times”)
http://www.grain.org/jargon/?id=7

And submerged meanings in the biotech debate.

Along the same line, Guy Cook, professor of applied linguistics at the University of Reading, England, has analyzed discourse surrounding the international debate about agricultural biotechnology. His book is entitled:

Genetically modified language: the discourse of arguments for GM crops and food

Communicator activities approaching

September 14-17, 2006
Annual conference of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation in Winnipeg, Canada.
Information: http://www.cfwf.ca

October 8-11, 2006
“Delivering information for the new life sciences.” U.S. Agricultural Information Network conference at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Information: http://usain.mannlib.cornell.edu

Communicating when times turn dry and desperate.

We close this issue of ACDC News with a few tales of life in rural America during the depression and drought years of the 1930s. These examples come from the Wessels Living History Farm, York, Nebraska.

Kansas farmers had to pay taxes in Texas because that was where their farms had blown.
Fish swam up stream and left a cloud of dust behind them.
One dust storm was so thick that a salesman saw a prairie dog 20 feet above ground digging frantically to get back to earth.
It got so hot that hens were laying hard boiled eggs.

Writer Bill Ganzel noted in presenting these examples:

“As Nebraska folklorist Roger Welsch has written, ‘Nowhere are water and life more appreciated than where they are a gift, not an assumption.’ When the gift doesn’t arrive, we turn to humor, ‘jokes that are not meant to bring forth laughter but give a common ground for the sufferers, jokes that blur the pain and sharpen the hope’.”

Reference: http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_09.html

Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online.

Reach us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.

August 2006

ACDC News – Issue 06-15

Posted on January 1, 2006 by Elizabeth Ray

Helping agricultural journalists work ethically.

A master’s thesis added recently to the ACDC collection reveals that Karen A. Simon has advanced recent discussions about how to preserve the ethical integrity of agricultural media in the U.S. Her thesis, submitted earlier this year, examined accountability systems “to put ‘teeth’ into the existing code of ethics” of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association.

She identified and discussed various media accountability systems, in terms of the agricultural publishing industry. Among her recommendations:

“We must begin now,” she said, noting a publisher’s comment that reversing breaches of ethics is extraordinarily difficult.
The entire editorial team should be taught the process of ethical decision-making.
“We must make a conscious effort to employ [accountability tools] industry wide. By forming a united front – reporters, editors, publishers and the sales force – we can preserve our integrity…and our readers’ trust.”

Title: Standing our ground
Note: This thesis is available in electronic or printed format (cost-recovery basis). Check with us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu.

What will it take to globalize extension services?

How can extension services provide leadership in the mounting challenge of demonstrating local implications and potential consequences of global interdependence? Here are barriers and needs identified by a recent survey among extension agents, specialists and administrators in Virginia Cooperative Extension (U.S.):

Lack of financial support.
Lack of programming priority.
Lack of time to devote to it.
Need for guidance on what a “globalized” program looks like, including specific ideas that extension personnel can put into their programs.
Need for specific training, such as foreign language competencies.

Findings revealed that 92 percent of the respondents were involved in international efforts within the past five years. As a group, respondents expressed positive attitudes toward globalizing the extension program in that state.

Title: The attitudes of extension faculty
Posted at: http://www.aiaee.org/2006/Accepted/380.pdf

Covering rural aspects of the complex U. S. immigration debate.

“There are a lot of different aspects to this issue – wages, fiscal costs, citizenship issues, security issues,” says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

Krikorian’s research organization established the annual Katz Award for excellence in immigration coverage to honor journalists “who best challenge the norm of immigration reporting.” Recent award winners include Lou Dobbs, anchor and managing editor of CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”

We recently added to the Center collection several documents that highlight media coverage and public opinion of the immigration debate as it touches on food and agriculture. “There is a steady and strong demand for migrant workers from Mexico in agriculture,” according to a 2005 survey by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Title: 2004 Eugene Katz Award for excellence in the coverage of immigration
Posted at: http://www.cis.org/articles/Katz/katz2004.html

Title: No consensus on immigration problem or proposed fixes: America’s immigration quandary
Posted at: http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/63.pdf

Communicator activities approaching

September 13-16, 2006
Annual conference of the Association of Food Journalists in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Information: http://www.afjonline.com

September 14-17, 2006
Annual conference of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation in Winnipeg, Canada.
Information: http://www.cfwf.ca

Thanks, Carolyn, and best wishes.

With this issue of ACDC News we extend sincere thanks and best wishes to Carolyn Sanford. She completed her graduate degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois in May and leaves the Center this month after a year of service as graduate assistant. Her new responsibilities as assistant director of the Learning Resources Center at Richland Community College, Decatur, Illinois, begin September 5.

Carolyn brought to the Center a background and interest in public affairs (media relations, writing and editing), librarianship, teaching and international affairs. She has contributed valuable leadership in identifying and processing documents, providing timely information services and strengthening the international, gender and other subject areas of this collection.

New words related to agriculture.

Thanks to Marilyn Cummins of Cummins Consulting for alerting us to the latest crop of new words in the 2006 update of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. This 11th edition contains several related to agriculture. Examples:

Avian influenza
Biodiesel
Agritourism
Aquascape

We would add Mouse Potato to the list, except that it refers not to a genetically engineered vegetable but to a person who spends a great deal of time using a computer.

Best regards and good searching.

Please get in touch with us when you see in this collection interesting items you cannot find, locally or online. Reach us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu. Tell us the titles and/or document numbers. We will help you gain access.

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas for the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 510 LIAC, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form at docctr@library.uiuc.edu.

August 2006