Ray Elizabeth

“Have you kept your weight fairly stable? the doctor asked.

“Sure have,” replied the young man.

“What was the most you ever weighed?

“About 185 pounds.”

“And the least?”

“Eight pounds four ounces.”

Returning to the small corner butcher shop.

As consumers in France faced a new wave of fear about mad cow disease during early November, a report in New York Times indicated that large numbers are spurning the supermarkets.

“Americans might have sought reassurances from large outlets, giving full faith and credence to government inspection and the ability of big enterprises to pay for top-notch technology. But the French turned instead to the familiar face and the romance of the traditional farm, revealing at the same time a great deal about how they think about their government and about fear itself.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Living with mad cows: the French and fear itself”) or author search (Daley) for the full citation.

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Current hot research topics in agricultural marketing communications.

A report in the November/December issue of Agri Marketing magazine explores trends in such research. Researchers featured in the report also identify some “hot topics” being researched today in support of agricultural marketing:

• farmers’ use of e-commerce, and marketing opportunities associated with it
• farmers’ use and marketing of GMO products
• farmers’ use of crop protection products
• pricing and value-added pricing
• new-product research
• farmers’ attitudes about a range of current topics

Reference: Use a title search (“Working as a team: outside research suppliers play a more critical role in delivering timely, actionable information”) or author search (Coakley) for the full citation.

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Ag communicators – in high demand.

That report came to Agricultural Relations Council members from executive recruiter Dennis Bryant during a November gathering in Kansas City, Missouri. News about his remarks appeared in the November issue of ARCLightnewsletter. In it, Bryant was cited as saying that the global economy is creating opportunities for agricultural communicators, as is the Internet. The Internet, he emphasized, is all about communications and he added, “…it’s big and here to stay.”

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Keen eyes on fun, location and challenge. 

At the same ARC gathering, agricultural journalism faculty members Kristina Boone (Kansas State University) and Marilyn Cummins (University of Missouri) said that graduating students make their job decisions based on a variety of factors. High on the list:

• work environment (supportive, fun)
• challenge and respect (“They want to feel that their work makes a difference”)
• location (“family is very important to these students”)
• the appeal of public relations (“few grasp that writing is the heart and soul” of it)

Reference: Use a title search (“The inside track on capturing the best and brightest new college graduates for entry-level positions”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Communicating with animals – also in high demand.

A recent article in Agricultural Research magazine describes efforts by a U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist to communicate by satellite with cattle on open range. The researcher, known as “Cyber Cow Whisperer,” uses a locator/controller cow collar that “whispers electronic versions of the cowboy’s ‘gee’ (go right) and ‘haw’ (go left) into the cow’s ears.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The cyber cow whisperer and his virtual fence”) or author search (Comis) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Concerns about a rural-urban technology gap in the U.S.

During recent years the Economic Research Service, USDA, has described some of them. Examples:

1. “A significant rural-urban gap exists in use of advanced production and telecommunications technologies. The gap appears to be a result of industry structure rather than slower adoption rates in rural areas. … Availability of technical assistance is generally cited as a minor barrier to advanced technology use, but lack of knowledge is cited as the chief barrier to telecommunications use.” (Reference: use a title search [“Is there a rural-urban technology gap?”] for the full citation, including URL for online access)
2. “The local telecommunications service providers surveyed do not expect the 1996 Act to benefit them or their rural customers. (Reference: use a title search [“Impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 for rural areas”] for the full citation, including URL for online access)
3. “Strategic planning for telecommunications can be a time-consuming process, even in small towns.” (Reference: use a title search [“Strategic planning for telecommunications in rural communities”] for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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The laughter of culture.

That’s the title of a thought-provoking article by Arturo Escobar in Development journal. He refers to the laughter of the desperately poor – “a laughter of resistance and pain, of hope and despair at the same time. We may call this laughter the laughter of culture.”

“In the beginning, there was culture,” he says. “Not markets, nor economic growth, nor profits; not experts, nor civil societies, nor global environmental problems; not development, nor globalization. In the beginning there was culture, and in the end – hopefully – culture remains.” He encourages reconceiving and reconstructing the world “from the perspective of manifest local cultures and local ecological, economic and social practices.

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

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Involving Extension volunteers.

A research report that came to the Center recently from Florita Stubbs Montgomery of West Virginia University offers useful guidelines for working successfully with volunteers in Extension programs.

S. Eagan, J.M. Hileman, R. Miller and F.S. Montgomery, Survey of Extension volunteers’ perceived needs and involvement. Extension Service, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV. 1994. 83 pp.

Findings of the survey among 556 Extension volunteers in West Virginia led the research work group to suggest:

• implications for training volunteers
• implications for clarifying roles and decision making
• implications for recognizing volunteers for their efforts
• 15 recommendations for practice concerning Extension volunteers
• 12 recommendations for needed research involving Extension volunteers

Reference: Use a title search (“Survey of Extension volunteers”) or author search (Eagan) for the full citation.

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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.

 

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Seen any self-glowing Christmas trees during this season?

We haven’t seen any yet, despite the fact that the Globe and Mail newspaper alerted us a year ago to their development by British genetic engineers. According to the news report, “Genes that give fireflies their fire and jellyfish their light would be inserted into the tree’s DNA. The hoped-for result: a tree that fluoresces all night long.”

 

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome documents in hard copy or electronic forms. Thank you.

“Somewhere between the hubris and the cold shoulder.”

That’s how N. Chowdhury recently described the potential of the new information and communications technologies for Internet-based commerce. Chowdhury explores the role of ITCs in a concept paper for the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Reference: Use a title search (“Information and communications technologies”) or author search (Chowdhury) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Interested in campaigns (other than election-type)? 

The ACDC collection now contains more than 200 documents that relate to agricultural information campaigns of various types. Here are sample campaign topics featured in documents added since the first of this year: biotechnology, animal rights, organic foods, BSE, environment, crop disease and marketing of extension information.

Reference: You can identify campaign-related literature in the ACDC collection by using a subject search on terms such as “campaigns” and “campaign planning.” Also, check the “Agricultural Communications Case Studies” link on our “Useful Links” page.

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Payback to U.S. dairy farmers from generic advertising.

Between September 1984 and September 1996, U.S. dairy farmers gained more than five times their increased costs under the national dairy advertising programs for fluid milk and cheese. This finding, and others appeared recently in FoodReview, a periodical of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Other results cited:

• Generic advertising under the national dairy advertising programs boosted demand for fluid milk by six percent, for cheese by two percent.
• This higher demand boosted average farm-level milk prices almost four percent higher than they would have been without the advertising programs.
• The estimated average farm-level milk prices received by dairy farmers with and without the advertising programs were $13.05 and $12.59 per hundredweight, respectively.

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

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Putting our unsustainable past behind us.

In a report about sustainable development, J. Murdoch and J. Clark call for a broadened view about the relative value of scientific and other, more tradition-oriented, kinds of information.

“We can begin to imagine sustainable development in terms of a hybrid which explicitly combines the human and the non-human and refuses to accept the ‘Great Divide’.” They suggest that “sustainable knowledge” must be a mixture of the social, the scientific, the local, the technical, the natural, the Western and non-Western – and perhaps even the magical – that refuses a priori to privilege science. “Only when that task has been undertaken will we have begun to put our unsustainable past behind us.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Sustainable knowledge”) or author search (Murdoch or Clark), for the full citation.

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Off the beaten path.

Our search for agricultural communications literature takes us along fascinating, sometimes-productive and often time-consuming trails. For example, here are some of the scholarly journals from which we have identified and collected such literature during the past week: Geoforum, Journal of Information Science, Development and Change, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Telematics and Informatics, Biotechniques.

Much of the information that we find comes from more traditional sources. However, you can see that our searches range widely. They must, in fact, because literature about agriculture-related communicating is so widely scattered. We hope that we add value for you through our efforts off the beaten paths. And a detective spirit in us finds pleasure in the surprises they produce.

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Would you like to help scout?

Please let us know if you would like to help scout for agricultural communications literature. Your efforts might focus on:

• specific localities of interest to you (e.g., your state, nation, region)
• communications aspects of specific agricultural subject areas (e.g., rural development, biotechnology, dairy, forestry, horses, environment, organic farming, sustainable agriculture)
• communications topics and settings of interest to you (e.g., extension communications, agricultural writing or photography, campaign planning, Internet, distance education, event planning, advertising, media selection, risk communicating)
• selected information sources (e.g., government agencies, NGOs, interest groups, universities/colleges)
• selected offline or online sources (e.g., specific trade magazines, scholarly journals, newsletters, newspapers or web sites that you read and wish to monitor)
• specific audiences of interest to you (e.g., farmers, farm women, agribusiness, food industry, agricultural scientists, extension agents)

If you were interested, you could be an important contributor to the ACDC collection, as well as to this entire field of interest. And a global network of contributors/partners, as envisioned, could really multiply the thoroughness and value of it. Get in touch with us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu.

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Boo! Those environmental scares, such as predictions of world food shortages.

They stir up the public, but do they lead to change? What part do the media play in them? The journal Environment and Development Economics hosted a forum on the subject during late 1998. We have included in ACDC some communications-related articles from that forum.

Reference: Use title searches for full citations of articles such as:

• “Environmental scares: plenty of gloom”
• “Do environmental scares provide information?”
• “Environmental scares, science and media”
• “Environmental false alarms and policy implications”

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Approaching professional event:

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/

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Reminder of the day:

“Information is not the same as knowledge, not to speak of wisdom.”

A. Ventura, 1997

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome documents in hard copy or electronic forms. Thank you.

Listen twice as much as you talk.

That’s one of five “quick tips for communicators” as offered by Lani Jordan, president of the Cooperative Communicators Association. The October issue of CCA News includes a personality profile that highlights her career path, her approach to professional communicating and her views about how the jobs of cooperative communicators will change during the next 10 years.

Reference: Use a title search (“CCA President Lani Jordan is at home with a career, life she loves”) for the full citation.

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Agricultural leadership by African women: a case study.

A new report from Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development features a pioneering program that is addressing chronic food shortages in most countries of Africa.

Karen LeBan, African women gain leadership skills to guide agricultural development: lessons learned and best practices first 10 years (1989-1999). 2000. 44 pp.

The featured program, African Women Leaders in Agriculture and the Environment (AWLAE), focuses on increasing the number of female scientists working in agriculture. It also helps African women develop leadership skills and grow professionally.

Thanks to Kerry Byrnes, son of senior editor Francis C. Byrnes, for contributing a copy of the report to the Documentation Center.

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Internet and the StarLink incident.

Pro Farmer editors suggest that the Internet is playing a major role in getting out information on StarLink corn concerns. For example, their article cites several sources of information available online soon after the incident went public. Authors suggest that “this information should be adequate to prevent the kind of consumer panic which set in across Europe and Britain in earlier food scares…” They also conclude that “such information sharing among farmers, grain merchandisers and the public needs doing on a regular basis, not just a crisis basis.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Internet plays healthy role in managing StarLink concerns”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Grateful for the other farmer.

Bob Coffman of AgWeb.com has written a strong piece about the rural spirit – about people on the land who can be bent, but not broken, by hard times. His tribute centers on a farmer who had “given up on traditional crops after battling the elements and the bank no doubt, and was now late in life trying to eke out a living” with his family through direct marketing of vegetables and craft items. “Proud to be farming—anyway they could.”

Coffman observes, with gratitude: “Let us never forget. There isn’t a flood big enough to wash away their spirit or a day hot enough to burn their soul.”

Reference: Use a title search (“The other farmer”) or author search (Coffman) for the full citation.

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“Secrecy and paternalism make for bad government and bad science.”

In the wake of the BSE problems in Britain, a recent official report delivered to Parliament prompts this conclusion in a New Scientist editorial. “Again and again, the report shows that it was the unwillingness of politicians and civil servants to ‘alarm the public’ that led them to stifle the open discussion that would have made it possible to deal with BSE more quickly and effectively. The overwhelming official distrust of the public’s ability to deal with risk consistently forced them to provide false reassurances about the safety of beef.”

Reference: Use a title search (“End of an era: the public should never again be shielded from uncertainty -–however painful”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Getting citizens involved in complex, challenging food issues.

A format described as the “consensus conference” is being used to help citizens take part in policy debates about thorny topics such as food biotechnology. This type of conference brings together a panel of citizens from around the country and a panel of leading experts in a balanced range of fields. Many of the experts hold contrasting views on the relevant issues. The technique is special in allowing the “citizen jury” to identify the issues important to them and decide the key questions they want the experts to address. It is being used successfully in several countries.

If you would like to identify a sample report from a recent “consensus conference,” use a title search (“Lay Panel Report: First Australian Consensus Conference on Gene Technology in the Food Chain”).

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Digital divide? “The U.S. should not fear 

A widening of the digital divide within the country,” according to the “State of the Internet 2000” report from the U.S. Internet Council. This assessment comes from analyses of access and usage based on race, income and gender.

Reference: The report is posted at http://www.usic.org

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But what about the rural-urban digital divide?

On this front, a recent issue paper from the Internet Council raises alarms for the U.S. Author Laurence J. Malone concludes: “If sparsely-populated regions continue to lag in high-speed Internet access, we tacitly accept a New Economy where rural productivity diminishes, rural demand for commodities and services is less substantial, and rural incomes lag as income inequality widens. Those who choose to live in rural America for its environmental attractiveness, low crime, family-centered lifestyle, and democratic educational institutions will be comparatively disadvantaged over the next decades.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Commonalities: the R.E.A. and high-speed rural Internet access”) or author search (Malone) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Also, global concerns expressed about the Internet and rural development.

A Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) consultation during June 2000 also revealed serious concerns about how minorities and the rural poor are getting left behind as Internet use expands. Here are some concerns cited:

• Digital divide. “Internet access is likely to be available only to a small proportion of the people in the poorest countries for the immediate future; within these countries, the rural areas, and specific groups within rural areas (e.g., women), will be left even further behind.”
• Women’s access. The report cites estimates that about 63% of global Internet users are men and 37% women. “Less optimistic is the claim, made by the Association for Progressive Communication, that ‘male domination of computer networks’ is as high as 95%.”
• Skimming the surface. “Users are having to search for information using wholly inadequate tools, as all the major so-called ‘search engines’ index only a very small fraction of the relevant Internet sites. According to various recent independent surveys, such facilities cover only about 2 to 16 percent of the searchable part of the Internet.
• Quality control. “There is no quality control for material on the Internet and the user has no way of assessing material that is indexed by the major search engines.”
• Lack of local, relevant content. “A lack of local or other appropriate content limits the usefulness of the Internet, particularly the lack of content in local or national languages.”

Participants from the 91 member nations of FAO recommended ways in which to strengthen information and knowledge management capacities through international cooperation.

Reference: Use a title search (“Report of the First Consultation on Agricultural Information Management”) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

The gods are drinking milk.

Recently we mentioned a new book that features a “Got milk?” advertising campaign in the U.S. Now we have come upon a 1999 journal article that highlights word-of-mouth diffusion of a major milk-related event in India. During late 1995 researchers traced (by telephone survey in New Delhi) diffusion of news that Hindu deity idols were consuming milk when devotees offered it to them. The event ignited keen public interest. Whereas mass media often predominate in creating awareness, 99 percent of the respondents said they first heard of this event through word-of-mouth.

Reference: Use a title search (“The gods are drinking milk”) for the full citation.

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The public’s healthy return on investment in Extension. 

A new research report from the International Food Policy Research Institute sheds light on the value of agricultural information. This report takes a comprehensive look at rates of return to investments in agricultural research and development since 1953. Authors analyzed 292 studies reporting a total of 1,886 rate of return estimates. The median rate of return estimate for Extension in this group of studies: 62.9 percent a year. Average reported rates of return for public investment in agricultural R&D, generally, were “much higher than is commonly understood, and the range is much greater.”

Reference: Use a title search (“A meta-analysis of rates of return to agricultural R&D”) or an author search (Alston) for the full citation, including a URL for online access.

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Why “target audiences”? An alternative to combat terminology.

Human communication implies cooperative interaction. Yet one-way, coercive strategies are implied in commonly used terminology such as “target audiences.” Three staff members of the Center of Communication for Development, Southern African Development Community, are using an alternative expression: “interaction groups.” They explain:

“Interaction groups are seen as sources of information, initiators of action, and decision makers. They can be individuals, associations, agencies, institutions or cooperatives in and outside the community whose activities, needs, problems affect the people in a positive or negative manner.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Participatory rural communication appraisal (PRCA) methodology”) or author search (Anyaegbunam) for the full citation, including a URL for online access.

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Insensitive (and inaccurate) agricultural reporting.

An article in the September newsletter of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation asks if farm writers need to “look outward” and “set the record straight when we see inaccuracies” in agricultural reporting by general media. In one example cited, a metropolitan newspaper reporter, relying on phonetic spelling, quoted a weather-besieged farmer as having “lost a crapload of pudaydas.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Our role as farm writers”) or author search (Tennison) for the full citation, including the URL for online access.

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Shopper’s choice – pesticides or GM.

What happens if shoppers in a produce market see signs such as these placed by baskets of sweet corn for sale?

• Option A – “This basket of corn is genetically modified, but had no pesticides used.”
• Option B – ” This basket is ‘normal,’ but was sprayed three times with a chemical pesticide called carbofuran.”

A direct marketer in Ontario, Canada, used the approach as an experiment one day this summer and observed that two people out of three opted for the GM corn.

Reference: Use a title search (“Shoppers select genetically modified food”) or author search (Smith) for the full citation.

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Want to choose media for distance education?

Wendy Truelove, communications consultant with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations, recently presented a useful, concise resource for doing so. This planning tool includes:

• Questions to ask for consideration of circumstantial factors (e.g., funds)
• Model for selecting media for distance education

• Ideas for increasing interaction with subject matter using different media

Reference: Use a title search (“The selection of media for distance education in agriculture”) or author search (Truelove) for the full citation, including URL for online access.

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Lots of new farm broadcasting documents

Came into the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) Archives at the University of Illinois during recent weeks. Here are a few sample materials that soon will be processed and made available:

• “Early farm broadcasters in their own words.” Videotape recording. Larry Quinn of USDA interviews NAFB Past Presidents Layne Beaty, Roy Battles and Don Lerch.
• Professional improvement and other presentations made during the 1998 and 1999 NAFB conventions, Kansas City, Missouri. Audio cassettes.
• Sample farm radio program aired almost 60 years ago, during 1941.
• Ag Media Reports 1998-1999.

Reference: You can review, online, a finding aid about materials available in the NAFB Archives. Use the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Archives site on our “Useful Links” page.

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Millions watching the corn grow.

The CornCam that we mentioned several months ago as an example of enterprise agricultural reporting is attracting lots of Internet viewers. This season-long project has involved photographing the growth cycle of corn in an Iowa plot. It “has captured the interest of Internet surfers from around the world,” according to a recent update from AgPRonline. “The CornCam web page recorded its 1 millionth page view before the end of June barely one month after going live.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Iowa Farmer Today CornCam corn harvest”) for the full citation. The CornCam website is www.iowafarmer.com/corncam/corn.html

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New documents from NETC 2000.

Here are some documents that have been added to the ACDC collection from the National Extension Technology Conference earlier this year at College Station, Texas:

• “County Extension web pages: how they’re done and what works”
• “Making the cognitive leap: out of the box and into the future with food tracer technology”
• “Distance education from the learner’s view”
• “AICS: accountability, information and communications system”
• “Distance diagnostics in Georgia”

Reference: Use title searches for the full citations, including noted URLs for online access.

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A learning insight from a rural proverb.

What I hear, I forget.
What I see, I remember.
What I do, I know.

Reference: Use a title search (“Listening to farmers”) or author search (Balit) for the full citation, including URL for online access to the report from which this proverb came.

Latest grants: light on communications research in food and agriculture.

Eighty-six research projects totaling $113 million were selected recently for funding through the 2000 awards program of the USDA/CSREES (Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service). This program, known as the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS), attracted hundreds of proposals. Among the 86 chosen for funding, here are projects that seem most closely related to communications:

• “Measures of consumer acceptance of and willingness to pay for GM foods in the U.S. and the E.U.” 4 years. (audience analysis)
• “Economic performance of market advisory services” 4 years. (accuracy of agricultural information)
• “Bridging the urban/rural divide: marketing local food in the Mid Atlantic” 3 years. (food marketing communications)

Reference: You can see the list of 86 projects at www.reeusda.gov/ifafs/

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A new approach to guide development-related communicating.

A communication center in Zimbabwe has pioneered a people-oriented alternative to traditional communication research approaches. It is called “Participatory Rural Communication Appraisal (PRCA).” An article by Philippe Van der Stichele describes it and compares it with tools such as Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) and traditional communication research. PRCA uses a “starting with people” approach that offers potentials for establishing new communication programs and improving ongoing ones.

Reference: Use a title search (“Participatory Rural Communication Appraisal”) or author search (Van der Stichele) for the full citation, including a URL for online access to the article.

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Resources for covering rural issues.

The Newslab web site (www.newslab.org) has added a new page of links for beat reporters who want resources for covering rural issues. The links involve sites that feature agricultural statistics, rural development, rural policy and other areas of interest. Newslab is associated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

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“You must be a stronger writer than a rider.” 

That career advice comes from Leslie Baker, staff member of the American Quarter Horse Association, in an article deposited recently from the Western Horseman magazine. Baker said that her choice of agricultural communications was a good one for her because it gave her flexible skills she could apply to many jobs.

Reference: Use a title search (“Common and uncommon careers with horses”) or author search (Kreitler) for the full citation.

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Helping agricultural marketers monitor Internet usage.

The newly formed Agribusiness Internet Advertising Council that we mentioned in a recent edition of “News and Announcements” now has a web presence: www.nama.org/aiac.

This website describes the Council’s purpose and lists Council members. It will define key terms used in negotiation between buyers and sellers of Internet advertising. Members include web companies, advertising agencies and advertisers who sell products to farmers. They want to develop a system for auditing results of advertising placed on the Internet.

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How agricultural freelancers are coping with change.

The September issue of ByLine newsletter from the American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA) features an article on how three successful freelancers “are coping with the current climate in agricultural publishing.” It also reflects some of their views about the future.

Reference: Use a title search (“The times they are a changin'”) for the full citation.

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“Am I using the database wrong?”

This question came to the Center recently from an online searcher who would like to get full-text articles rather than citations. Increasingly, we are able to report in the citation how to gain access, electronically, to documents in full-text form. In such cases, the note section of a citation provides a website address that you can use to read (and possibly retrieve) full-text documents of interest.

Copyright issues restrain our efforts to provide full-text information, as you can imagine. Also, full-text access requires the high costs and complexity of scanning thousands of documents. At this stage, we provide a service by helping you identify documents of possible interest. You may be able to gain access to them locally. If you cannot, then let us know the titles and document numbers. We will work with you to help arrange for access from the ACDC collection. One strength of this database is that we have at hand all documents identified in it.

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How rural electric cooperatives are using education and communications.

A nationwide study this year shows that member relations and enhancement of the image of cooperatives in the public eye are the primary goals of such programs today. Increasing business volume and membership rank low among the goals of cooperative education and communications. This master’s thesis project by Michel M. Haigh of Texas Tech University analyzed the organization, staffing, budgets (rising), methods used, gaps and needs of education and communications programs within such cooperatives. Findings also identified deregulation and structural changes as current major subjects of concern for communicators and educators in rural electric cooperatives.

Reference: Use a title search (“A study on member education and communications programs in rural electric cooperatives”) or author search (Haigh) for the full citation.

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Searchers can locate FFA magazines, newsletters and photos

In the National FFA Archives that opened officially during September in the Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) Library. You can check online to see what the collection offers:http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/special/Ffa/Mss035.html. Examples include issues of New Horizons magazine (formerly National Future Farmer) from 1928-1998. Photos in the collection date back to 1916.

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Here are some recent inquiries that have come to us at the Center:

• Attitudes of farmers in India about biotech crops
• Professionalism of agriculture college communicators
• Media or communications companies that invest in agriculture
• Communications aspects of sustainable agriculture
• Public opinion studies related to plant disease
• Using the Internet for agricultural advertising
• Consolidation and concentration in U.S. farm publishing

We enjoy trying to help searchers find information. Please let us know (docctr@library.uiuc.edu) if you are struggling to locate information about agriculture-related communications.

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Professional meetings approaching.

Following are some conferences, workshops and other kinds of professional improvement events for agricultural communicators:

November 8-12, 2000
“Enduring change, embracing opportunities @2000.” Annual meeting of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) at the Westin Crown Center Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: www.nafb.co

November 10, 2000
Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) Networking Breakfast at the Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: Kathleen Montgomery at kathleenm@nama.org

“So I went to rodeos and learned photography by myself.”

A recent article in Western Horseman magazine describes how respected photographer Dan Hubbell developed his skills photographing rodeo athletes. He explains how he got started as a professional and offers advice about this specialized type of livestock photography.

Reference: Use a title search (“Dan Hubbell, the shootist”) or author search (Smith) for the full citation.

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Bucking trends in the publishing business.

One of the most innovative, pioneering efforts in rural publishing came into view during August when Wall Street Journal newspaper featured the Reiman Publications of Greendale, Wisconsin. A front-page article by Paulette Thomas describes how founder Roy Reiman and his associates have bucked major publishing trends in:

• Publishing magazines that contain no advertising.
• Getting most of their editorial content from readers.
• Focusing on the “underserved market that is older, rural America.”
• Building a “family” feel that permeates the Reiman magazines and extends into books, tours, cooking shows, mail order operations and other related enterprises.
• Using no organizational charts.
• Bypassing focus groups and other typical market research tools.

The article describes how the 11 Reiman magazines (including Country Woman, Farm and Ranch Living, Country, Taste of Home and others) now reach a combined circulation of roughly 16 million.

Reference: Use a title search (“Cash cows: a magazine publisher finds fertile ground for profits in farmland”) or author search (Thomas) for the full citation.

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The room goes quiet.

Here’s the interesting introduction of a new report from Ohio on external communications for land-grant universities:

“If there is anything that academia does well, it is making something simple excruciatingly complex. It will try to make a ‘science’ out of it and study it to death. It will beget conferences and workshops and strategic plan after strategic plan. It will hire ‘outside experts’ at great expense. It will change department and college names and design new logos and themes. Buzzwords of the day, like ‘brand marketing,’ will flow freely off administrative tongues. And one will tire of questions like what is our product, who is our audience, what are their needs, how will we reach them? Why don’t more people know about us, what we do, and why we are needed? And then at the end of all this, usually with a strategic plan approved, the biggest, most important question of all surfaces: How are we going to pay for this? The room goes quiet.”

A Project Reinvent Communications and Marketing Vision-Challenge Team at Ohio State University produced this 16-page report, including 30 recommendations for the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

Reference: Use a title search (“Marketing the land-grant university”) for the full citation.

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Farmers as early buyers by Internet.

“You can go back and track that farmers were one of the first to use the Sears catalog. They are displaying the exact same behavior with e-commerce because they see the value in being connected to the Internet.” That’s the perspective of the CEO of CyberCrop.com, an e-commerce hub for producers and buyers in agriculture. He notes that 44% of U.S. corn growers who raise 500 acres or more had Internet access by 1999, compared with 33% of total U.S. households.

Reference: Use a title search (“Enhancing profitability through the Internet”) or author search (Todd) for the full citation.

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Monitoring public knowledge and views.

Here is a research report that we added recently about how communicators “listen” to various publics for agriculture-related information. It discusses implications for communications strategy.

Marshall H. Breeze, “Knowledge and opinion of residents of Dade and Broward Counties, Florida, regarding citrus canker and the Citrus Canker Eradication Program of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.” June 2000. 35 pp.

Reference: This report is available in electronic form from the Documentation Center. Let us know (docctr@library.uiuc.edu) if you would like to receive it.

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Professional meetings approaching.

Following are some conferences, workshops and other kinds of professional improvement events for agricultural communicators:

October 26-27, 2000
“Newsgathering” seminar for media relations staff and news writers from U.S. land-grant universities. Sponsored by the International Association of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) at the Ramada Plaza Hotel O’Hare, Chicago, Illinois.
Information: www.agcom.purdue.edu/AgCom/news/ace/index.html

October 27, 2000
AgCom.com: communications and marketing in the digital age.” Seminar featuring the latest in the growing field of agricultural communications technology. Organized by the Ag and Environmental Communications Alumni Group, University of Illinois, for students, faculty, alumni and other professionals. Takes place on the University of Illinois campus, Urbana.
Information: http://w3.aces.uiuc.edu/advancement/AgCom.com.pdf

November 8-12, 2000
“Enduring change, embracing opportunities @2000.” Annual meeting of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) at the Westin Crown Center Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: www.nafb.com

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Adding a classic book.

We are grateful to co-editor Wayne Swegle for adding to the ACDC collection a copy of Farm magazines, milestones and memories. This 145-page book (1996) was a 75^th anniversary project of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association. It features the development of AAEA, traces the impact of farm magazines in American agriculture, cites changes in farm publishing and highlights dozens of individual farm magazines.

Reference: Use an author search (Swegle or Harvey) or title search (above) for the full citation.

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions or ideas for ACDC — invite help in searching — and suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. Thank you.

Static for Stossel.

Quite a few reports have entered the Documentation Center recently in connection with ABC reporter John Stossel’s tangle with the organic food industry. His airing on February 4 and July 7 of a controversial “20/20” television segment that questioned the safety of organic food has stirred considerable response. This debate is focusing mainly on accuracy in reporting about organic foods. It also is sparking discussion about earlier reporting that led to what is known as the Alar Scare involving apples.

Reference: Use a subject search with terms such as <organic> or <accuracy AND reporting>.

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Journalists’ dilemmas in covering agricultural issues these days.

Several reporting dilemmas came under discussion during a special session at the U.S. Agricultural Communicators Congress in Washington, D.C. The panelists – a farm magazine editor, farm broadcaster and beef producer – cited dilemmas such as:

• Evaluating news from organizations that have “agendas.”
• Balancing editorial with the drive for profits and prices.
• Competition among farm media, leading to ethical compromises.
• Pressure from advertisers and publishers.
• Determining how much the public needs to know about specific topics.

The discussion also identified some suggestions and ideas for agricultural reporting in a volatile industry environment. Examples:

• Apply doses of “healthy skepticism” about what is going on.
• Sort various claims, charges and challenges before reporting them.
• Use source identification and attribution carefully and extensively.
• Cover not only the changes taking place, but also the effects of changes.
• Work hard for editorial balance and independence, even in the face of business-side pressures.

Reference: Contact the Center (docctr@library.uiuc.edu) if you are interested in notes from this session. No full text of presentations or discussion is available.

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Sharper focus for agricultural television.

Farm telecaster Jerry Lackey of the Texas AG TV Network urges stations and networks with farm broadcasters to sharpen their focus to stay in touch with a changing environment. His article in the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Chats Newsletter suggests that NAFB can help telecasters prepare for opportunities through new technologies such as webcasting and streaming of video. He also urges the organization to promote farm television more actively among marketers. More than 200 television stations and affiliates feature NAFB voting members, he reports, and he provides some recent data about U.S. farmers’ use of television for gathering information about farm news, farm markets and weather.

Reference: Use title search (“Promoting farm television, important part of NAFB”) or author search (Lackey) for the full citation.

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“Information can be disseminated, knowledge cannot.” 

Anamaria Decock, communication specialist with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of United Nations, makes this point in a paper about the importance of varied ways in which people communicate.

“This is at the heart of any participatory process,” the author explains. “Folk media contain that common knowledge and involve everyone because such media are everyone’s heritage.” Alternatively: “Modern media generally lack credibility and therefore cannot reshape cultural traditions.”

This paper focuses on the role of traditional media in developing countries. The principles emphasized seem relevant in any country, culture and time.

Reference: Use title search (“Wireless networks”) for the full citation. Text is available online at http://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/sustdev/dodirect/doengB05.htm

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Getting rural communities onto the Information Superhighway.

Following are some related documents that have been added recently to the ACDC collection:

• “Rural telecommunications: why your community isn’t connected and what you can do about it” (U.S. experience)

• “Information technology (IT) in developing nations” (Excerpt: “97 percent of all Internet hosts are in developed nations, home to 16 percent of the world’s population.”)

• “Stuck in the ruts on the information superhighway” (Nigeria experience)

• “Africa on the line?”

• “Specific issues concerning the application of information systems in developing countries”

• “The new communications media in livestock development”

Reference: Use title searches (above) to get full citations and details about how to gain access to these documents. Some are available online. You can identify other documents about this topic by using a subject cross-search (e.g.: <communities AND “information technology”> or <internet AND “rural communities”>.

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Educating the next generation of agricultural journalists.

That is the title of a recent article describing an effort by the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists. The article appeared in the July 2000 issue of International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) News.

“For the past 10 years, the main means of doing this has been through a week-long training program, sponsored by John Deere Ltd. and known, consequently, as the John Deere Training Award,” Don Gomery explains in describing the effort.

Reference: Use a title search (above) for the full citation. Full text is available on the IFAJ website: www.uoguelph.ca/research/ifaj

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Helping small producer groups get started – and survive.

Today’s era of finding niche markets, adding value and gaining market power is bringing agricultural producers together in new and dynamic ways. Partnerships, cooperatives, networks, associations and other kinds of alliances are appearing. Some flourish. Others languish, fade or disappear.

The Administrative Committee on Coordination, United Nations, has produced an issue paper that can help guide those who want to succeed in such group efforts. The title: “Forming sustainable small farmer group associations (SFGAs): more difficult than first thought.”

This 18-page paper examines problems that such groups face. It also suggests keys to organizing and running a successful small producer group.

Reference: Use a title search (“Forming sustainable small farm group associations”) or author search (Cracknell) for the full citation. Text is available online at:
http://www.accnetwork.net/en/themes/SFGA-e.htm

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Another new useful link.

You will find that the website of the North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) organization has been added to our “Useful Links” page, for your convenience. This professional group was formerly known as National Association of Agricultural Journalists and, before that, as Newspaper Farm Editors of America. It includes agricultural journalists in North American who report or edit agricultural news for newspapers, magazines, wires and syndicated services and are independent of agricultural organizations and businesses.

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Professional meetings approaching.

Following are some conferences, workshops and other kinds of professional improvement events for agricultural communicators:

October 8-10, 2000
“Engaged institutions’ role in biotechnology education.” Symposium at Iowa State University, Ames. For representatives of educational institutions as well as producer, media and business/industry partners in biotechnology education.
Information: www.biotech.iastate.edu/symposium_oct2000.html

October 22-25
Annual meeting of Communications Officers of State Departments of Agriculture (COSDA) at Holiday Inn Westpoint, St. Louis, Missouri.
Information: sally_oxenhandler@mail.mda.state.mo.us

November 15, 2000
Deadline for proposed papers to be presented at the 2001 joint meeting of the International Association of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) and the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC).
Information: www.ifas.ufl.edu/~conferweb/acenetc/

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions or ideas for ACDC — invite help in searching — and suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. Thank you.