ACDC Newsletter

Warm holiday greetings

As this Illinois prairieland settles in for winter season, we extend warm holiday greetings to you. Thank you for your interest in efforts here at the University of Illinois to identify and share useful research, news, and perspectives for strengthening communications related to agriculture, broadly defined and globally.

Here are some holiday ideas from decades ago

Check our new digital exhibit, “November and December holidays from American agricultural publications.” Looking back to 1902, it catches Christmas memories, poetry, recipes, ads for holiday gifts, and do-it-yourself holiday crafts and gift ideas. They come from our new Volume One Number One Collection of Agricultural Periodicals. ACDC crew member Elizabeth Ray developed this special holiday feature.

You can view the 14-slide digital exhibit here .

Announcing the 2016 “Word of the Year”

Those involved in agricultural/rural communications can relate to the new “Word of the Year” announced recently by Oxford Dictionaries. It is:

post-truth (adj.): relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.

The folks at Oxford Dictionaries may have identified “post-truth” as a fitting choice in a year of major political upheaval. However, it also resonates with those involved with interactions related to food, energy, environment and other agriculture-oriented endeavors. The bottom line: it identifies new challenges and needed skills for those who wish to communicate effectively in these complex matters. It presents marching orders for those who teach agricultural communications.

You can read a brief report of the announcement from CopyEditing.com here :

 Three concepts of food

An interview by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) sketched three concepts of “food,” as described by Beverly Bell. She is coordinator of Other Worlds, a women-driven education and movement-building collaborative. “Harvesting justice: Transforming food, land and agriculture” is a program area of the organization.

Here are the descriptions she offered:

Food security – “Everyone has the right to adequate quantity of food, to quality of food and to have food on time, that is, when people are hungry and need it.”

Food justice – “Looks at structural racism in the food system, and looks at the need for local community-controlled production for local consumption.”

Food sovereignty – “The right of all people and all nations to have access to their own food, grown domestically to support local production. Food that is agro-ecologically grown, that supports the environment – not undermines it, as industrial agriculture does. Food that looks at questions of inequity and ensures that small farmers and normally excluded communities actually have what they need to grow, which also means the right to land, the right to water, etc.”

You can read the article here .

 The changing role and work of agricultural journalists – a report of nearly 30 years ago

We appreciate the thoughtfulness of Mary Thompson of the Farm Foundation in providing a 1987 report to the Newspaper Farm Editors of America. “NFEA in a Changing World” is the title of this 98-page addition to the ACDC collection. Here is how author Lee Egerstrom described the purpose of it:

“This study attempts to define the components of modern newspaper farm writing, determine how it is done at different newspapers and who directs it, and provide some suggestions for NFEA to take a more important role in shaping agricultural journalism.”

Check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu if you are interested in learning more about this report of historical interest.

 Fighting the “yuck” factor in eating insects

Providing information about the benefits of eating insects raises intention to eat them – and intention carries over to behavior. Those findings emerged from an experiment in Denmark and Italy. Video interviews informed 282 participants about the individual and societal benefits of introducing insect proteins into human diet. Participants then responded to items about their familiarity with the practice and their intention to follow it. After that, each received a chocolate bar enriched with proteins from crickets. Telephone interviews two weeks later provided follow-up information about consumption of the bars and intentions for consumption of insect-based food. The effects of information from the videos were significant in terms of both intention and behavior.

This 2016 article, “The effect of communication and implicit association on consuming insects,” is not available in full text by open access. You can read the abstract at

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666316300411 , Check with lead author Fabio Verneau at veneau@unina.it about full-text access or contact us for help at docctr@library.illinois.edu

 Communicator activities approaching

January 27, 2017
Deadline for research papers to be presented at the 2017 meeting of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) on June 12-15, 2017, in New Orleans, Louisiana USA. At least one author must be an ACE member.
Information: Research Director Courtney Gibson at Courtney.d.gibson@ttu.edu

February 15-18, 2017
“Innovative approaches to Extension for upliftment of poor and tribal farmers.” 6 ^th International Conference of the International Society of Extension Education (INSEE) in Dawn, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.
Information: http://www.inseeworld.com/seminars.htm

April 2-8, 2017
2017 World Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) in Gauteng and the West Cape, South Africa.
Information: http://www.ifaj-congress.org

April 22-29, 2017
33rd Annual Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA.
Information: http://www.aiaee.org

 Recognizing our careers

We close this issue of ACDC News with the inspirational remark of a new agricultural communications student in college. She was harking back to her 4-H speaking experience at age 8:

“I have been an agricultural communications major for 10 years, but didn’t know it until recently.”

 Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC . And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Five ways to engage the public with climate change

A 2015 article we have added to the ACDC collection featured five “best practice” insights from psychological science about how to improve public engagement with climate change. These insights published in Perspectives on Psychological Science included:

• The human brain privileges experience over analysis
• People are social beings who respond to group norms
• Out of sight, out of mind
• Nobody likes losing (but everyone likes gaining)
• Tapping the potential of human motivation

You can learn more about these insights and the policy implications of them here .

 A case report on marketing soda to children in an era of obesity

We have added to the ACDC collection a 2016 case report about that subject from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Results of a CSPI investigation indicated that some marketing practices of Coca-Cola are inconsistent with the company’s pledges to avoid marketing soda to children under 12 and advertising on children’s television.

“The reason for concern about Coke’s marketing practices is that strong scientific evidence demonstrates that frequent consumption of soda and other sugar drinks contributes to tooth decay, weight gain, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.”

You can read the article here .

 More on the value of repetition in agricultural writing

The “same old, same old” in reporting ag news

In 1906, the editor of Wallaces Farmer put an unusual twist on the content of farm papers. We share this quote from a manuscript we added recently to the ACDC collection:

“Some of our readers are disclosed to criticize the farmer [ Wallaces Farmer ] because it says the same things over and over again at about the same time of the year each year.  Well, then, how can we help it? Our table has been piled up for the last two weeks with letters from farmers asking us what kind of grass seeds to sow under innumerable different conditions, how to thicken up pastures the coming year, how to take care of the spring pigs, etc . . . . we suspect that some of our readers who complain in this way need to learn these same lessons over again, just as many persons who attend church who complain that the preacher tells the same old story.”

Coaching method helps livestock producers (and environment) in Australia

A supported learning methodology based on coaching proved highly effective in achieving practice change and adoption on farm. This finding appeared in a 2016 article in the Rural Extension and Innovation Systems Journal .

Authors described methods and results of an analysis of the Farm300 project of Meat &Livestock Australia. Among the impacts achieved:

• 123 advisors upskilled
• 23 coaches recruited
• 333 producers participated (representing 60,000 head of cattle, 540,000 head of sheep and 455,000 ha of land area)
• Increased profit by 24%
• Decreased total greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent
• Decreased greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 24%

You can read the journal article here .

“Yogurt wars” over advertising claims

We recently added to the ACDC collection two articles on the “yogurt wars.” Two well-known yogurt-producing companies, Chobani and Dannon, had a legal battle over one company’s advertising campaign against the other. Dannon filed an injunction to stop Chobani ads from claiming the chemical sweeteners Dannon uses are possibly harmful. A judge ruling sided with Dannon. This decision still legally allows Chobani to advertise the idea of natural ingredients being better than artificial ones.

You can read more about the matter here .

Farm radio programming valued by Nigerian farmers: a 2016 analysis

All technology transferred to a probability sample of farmers in Imo State, Nigeria, through agricultural radio was relevant to them – and effective.  Those results appeared in a 2016 article in the Net Journal of Agricultural Science . Researcher J.I.K. Njoku invited respondents to assess the relevance of what they learned through radio programming about 10 farming practices. The practices ranged from cropping tips and dry season vegetable production to snailery, fish farming and non-ruminant vaccination.

The majority of farmers considered all the agricultural technologies disseminated to be relevant to their farming needs, with the messaging appropriate and useful.

You can read the article here .

At the 35 ^th anniversary

How many countries are represented in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center?

The ACDC collection currently represents literature about agriculture-related communications in 210 countries.

Communicator activities approaching

February 15-18, 2017
“Innovative approaches to Extension for upliftment of poor and tribal farmers.” 6 ^th International Conference of the International Society of Extension Education (INSEE) in Dawn, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.
Information: http://www.inseeworld.com/seminars.htm

Relating to strangers

We close this issue of ACDC News with something that caught our eye in a recent article published in the journal, American Nineteenth Century History . It featured Joseph Dennie, unfettered editor of the Farmer’s Weekly Museum , Walpole, New Hampshire, during the late 1790s.  According to the author:

“…he never met a stranger he could not look down upon.”

Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC . And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Gathering history of the GM crops debate in the UK

Writing in Nature News, Prof. Vivian Moses of King’s College, London, recently announced an emerging archive. It is being developed to preserve the history of debate in the United Kingdom over genetically modified crops. These resources currently cover the period 1975-2012 and are being collected at the Science Museum in London. The 10 collections identified on the website are from UK scientists and others involved in research, policy and other aspects of GM crops. These materials take many forms. They include media interviews, press clippings, audio tapes of broadcasts, reports and lectures, souvenir items and other communications aspects.

You can read the article, including detailed contact information, here .

Several local story ideas for covering food waste

We recently added to the ACDC collection a brief article by Rian Bosse in the website of the National Center for Business Journalism. Here are some of the ideas offered for local media coverage involving food waste:

• What environmentally-friendly restaurants are doing to reduce their waste
• Steps that local supermarkets are taking to do the same
• What local governments are doing to promote recycling, composting and reduction of food waste

You can read the article, “Food and money: the big problem of wasting food,” here .

Take the spotlight off causes of climate change

That message came from a recent analysis of how climate can be communicated to the agricultural sector. A team of university researchers approached the analysis through a review of research and a survey among climatologists in the Midwest U. S.  Findings led them to encourage climate scientists to emphasize direct impacts of climate on agricultural management systems, providing information that is location-specific and operation-specific. They suggested that by using the concept of adapting to changing conditions, climatologists can minimize the trust-eroding controversy associated with climate causality.

You can read this 2015 article, “Climatologists’ communication of climate science to the agricultural sector,” here .

Some encouraging news
How U.S. consumers have been rating the food industry

Recently we added to the ACDC collection the summary report of a Gallup poll released August 15. It revealed that U.S. consumers consider three sectors of the food industry among their four top-rated business sectors. Respondents were asked to indicate whether their overall view of various business sectors was very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative and very negative.  Here are responses to the four top-rated business sectors:

Restaurant industry:               66% total positive – 7% total negative
Computer industry:                 66% total positive – 13% total negative
Grocery industry:                    54% total positive – 18% total negative
Farming and agriculture:        55% total positive – 20% total negative

The Federal Government emerged as the worst-rated sector.
You can read the full summary of results here .

Thanks to a new contributor

We express appreciation to Paul Hixson, whose contribution of agricultural communications materials was processed recently into ACDC. Paul is retired from his position as chief information officer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His earlier experience included long-time service, including leadership, in the Office of Agricultural Communications (now Information Technology and Communication Services) in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. He has had a wealth of domestic and international experience in this field.

Paul’s contributions include valuable historical and reference materials related to:

• Administration, training activities, newsletters and other resources of the International Program for Agricultural Knowledge Systems (INTERPAKS)
• Helping establish an academic program in rural communication at Bogor Agricultural Institute, Indonesia
• References involving media and methods for Extension communications

You can identify these materials by using the ACDC search system at http://library.illinois.edu/funkaces/acdc . Go to “Start your Search” and enter “Paul Hixson Collection” in the search box. The list of citations will appear.

At our 35 ^th anniversary:

How many authors are represented in resources of the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center?Currently, 34,786 persons are represented as authors of literature in the ACDC collection.

Surefire tool for impressing others with our writing

A classic resource for “writing to impress” came into ACDC recently, as part of the new Paul Hixson Collection. It dates back to 1977 and the author is not identified. However, we all may find it helpful, even today.

The author created an Extension Phrase Generator which “can be of great help when your copy seems too simple, or when you don’t know what to say, but you want it to sound good.”

As a service to readers, the ACDC team now offers this wonderful tool – a surefire way to generate great copy for your Extension (or other) writing. You can retrieve the Phrase Generator here for your impressive writing ahead. Have fun.

Communicator activities approaching

October 21, 2016
Deadline for Professional Development Proposals and Poster Abstracts for the Agricultural Communications Section of the 2017 Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) meeting on February 4-7 in Mobile, Alabama USA
Information: https://sites.google.com/a/extension.org/saasagcomm/

October 30-November 3, 2016
Professional Development Conference of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association in San Diego, California USA
Information: http://ifwtwa.org/2016/04/2016-ifwtwa-annual-conference.html

November 9-11, 2016
“Waves of Opportunity.” Seventy-third annual conference of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri USA
Information: http://www.nafb.com

February 15-18, 2017
“Innovative approaches to Extension for upliftment of poor and tribal farmers.” 6 ^th International Conference of the International Society of Extension Education (INSEE) in Dawn, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.
Information: http://www.inseeworld.com/conference.htm

Early guide to poultry confinement

We close this issue of ACDC News with some advice offered in the February 23, 1906, issue of Wallaces Farmer .  A subscriber talked about the value of giving chickens room to run in the farm yard.

“A yard full of a dozen hens and roosters ought to be 30 feet by 150 feet for the best results.  A hen would pine away in a yard any smaller.”

Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC . And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Talking about agriculture – or listening to consumers?

Both approaches are important, but the latter are more so. Agricultural economists Andrew and Paul W. Barkley offered that perspective in their recent book, Depolarizing food and agriculture: an economic approach . Their analysis prompted them to conclude:

“Educating others about agriculture provides new information and knowledge. In a market-based economy, however, the only source of prosperity is providing consumers with what they desire. … Therefore, economic theory and analysis suggest that the flow of information from consumers to producers may be more important than providing consumers with knowledge about agriculture.”

You can read the description and other information about the book here . Please contact us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining access by inter-library loan, or for selective searching.

Update on adoption of agricultural innovations

Adoption of agricultural innovations stands among the topics of highest interest in the ACDC collection. We have collected nearly 2,400 documents about this subject. They date back 110 years – to 1906 when the innovations involved farmer adoption of telephone service and creation of rural free delivery of mail.

Our latest addition is an update by Professor Philip Pardey, University of Minnesota. His presentation at the 2016 USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum included data from 1930-2010 involving U.S. corn growers’ adoption of hybrid seed, nitrogen, herbicides, insecticides and irrigation. His presentation also featured global trends and challenges in public and private funding for agricultural research

You can view his presentation here .

Is public relations without a future?

Yes — if organizations fail to guard against the ravages of spin. Researchers offered that perspective from southern Africa in the journal, Sociology Mind . They cautioned against:

• Contributing to spin such as the appointment of ill-trained public relations practitioners who are mere order-takers.
• Outsourcing public relations to outside agencies that could not care about the organization’s missions.
• Defining public relations as a mere communication tool used to create favorable impressions at all costs.

Their exploratory factory analysis revealed that responding members of the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA) were “not clear about their potential contributions to organizational value and success, and may be prone to be exploited by the ‘real’ spin doctors – managers with little or no ethical conscience.”

You can read “Is public relations without a future?” here :

Consumers using a rich mix of socio-ethical considerations when they buy

A 2016 journal article that we are adding to the ACDC collection highlighted that pattern. A team of researchers at Purdue University observed the pattern in an online survey among 1,201 U.S. consumers. For example:

• Women, younger respondents and those more educated were more likely to value and support environmental protection aspects of social responsibility.
• Women, younger respondents, vegetarians and vegans were more sensitive to animal welfare concerns.
• Those who traveled, volunteered or engaged in charitable giving also expressed greater valuing of environmental, animal welfare, corporate responsibility and philanthropic dimensions of social responsibility.
• “All demographics reported avoiding companies that used advertisements that were deceptive or depicted minorities negatively.

You can read this journal article here .

Strong consumer support for pro-environmental food policies and purchasing

A recent article in the Appetite journal showed that Australian consumers strongly support environmental food policies (50 to 78%) and purchasing (51 to 69%). Feedback from a sample of 2,204 adults identified active concern about environmental aspects such as:

• Effects of pesticides and fertilizers on the environment (65% concerned)
• Depletion of ocean fish stocks (65% concerned)
• Fertilizer run-off to the ocean (61% concerned)
• Discharge of effluent (sewerage) from intensive animal production (56% concerned)

Authors suggested that “slower forms of pro-environmental communication may influence the population’s stance towards environmental issues.  The indirect associations of ‘health study’ with policy support and with pro-environmental purchasing intentions suggest that education may have positive long term effects.”

You can read the abstract of this article, “Food concerns and support for environmental food policies and purchasing,” at:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666315001336

Or check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining access to the article.

 Thanks and best wishes to Cailin Cullen

We are grateful for the excellent service of Cailin Cullen, who has been graduate assistant in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center during the past year. Cailin recently completed her master’s degree from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science here at the University of Illinois. Her appointment in ACDC continued through July as assistant manager and webmaster.

Communicator activities approaching

September 21-25, 2016
Annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Sacramento, California.
Information: http://www.sej.org/calendar/list/SEJAnnualConferences

November 9-11, 2016
“Waves of Opportunity.” Seventy-third annual conference of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) in Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: http://www.nafb.com

Fireflies really communicating – but how?

Fireflies are putting on a spectacular light show in our lawn and grove during this season. They remind us of an anonymously-authored poem published in the July 1932 issue of Successful Farming magazine:

Firefly lights go on and off
Without electric switches.
Little Sister watches them
In sloughs and over ditches.

She thinks that fireflies carry lamps
And light them as they fly,
But Sister cannot see the lamps,
Nor how they work – nor why.

So she’s decided she will ask
The first one that she catches
How fireflies carry lamps about
And where they get their matches.

Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC . And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Drones – big data – farmer fears – hopes and plans – challenges ahead

Those attending the 2016 USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum heard a bubbling stew about farmer data in precision agriculture. The update by Mary Kay Thatcher, American Farm Bureau Federation, began with U.S. farmer concerns (77 percent worried about data security). It extended through a summary of benefits and risks of big data, principles and steps for privacy and security, and communications challenges.

Big Data is very likely to lead to more rapid consolidation in agriculture, she concluded.

You can view this PowerPoint presentation here .

Attitudes toward animals and propensity for aggression – farmers and meatworkers

A survey among male and female farmers and meatworkers in Queensland, Australia, revealed similar (utilitarian) attitudes toward animals. However, meatworkers showed significantly more propensity for aggression. Researchers from Central Queensland University reported these findings in the journal, Society and Animals . They also unexpectedly found that female participants in both groups revealed less empathy for animals and greater propensity for aggression than the male participants.

Authors called for further investigation of the potential psychological damage done to employees within meat processing plants.

This article is not available by open access. You can read a summary at

https://www.animalsandsociety.org/human-animal-studies/society-and-animals-journal/articles-on-farming-and-farmed-animals/a-different-cut-comparing-attitudes-towards-animals-and-propensity-for-aggression , reach author contact Prof. Tania Signal at t.signal@cqu.edu.au or check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining access to the full article.

Traditional media surviving the test of time

Storytelling, songs, dancing, town criers and other traditional media are holding their own, “notwithstanding the fast means of communication gadgets in our time.” Uche A. Dike of Niger Delta University offered that perspective in a recent issue of the Open Journal of Philosophy . The communicating culture of the Ogba society in Nigeria served as basis for this analysis.

“African traditional means of communication has survived the test of time,” the author concluded. “If democratization of communication means making the communication media to be more representative of the audience, we can practically conclude that the Ogba traditional media and their communication patterns qualify in this connection.”

This pattern matches reported continuities in use of traditional media of all kinds in other cultures.

You can read this open-access journal article here .

“Are food exchange websites the next big thing in food marketing?”

A survey among 6.000 vegetable and livestock producers in four southeastern U.S. states addressed that question. Food exchange websites are operated by university extension services (e.g., MarketMaker) and private organizations (e.g., Local Orbit). Most respondents were reluctant to register in such websites, a result not surprising to the researchers. They noted that relatively few producers currently market products over the internet. Respondents interested in food exchange websites expressed willingness to pay an average of $55.69 a month if an online marketplace is offered. Willingness to pay for advertising on social media averaged $20.43 a month.

You can read this conference paper here .

Can you identify these 10 food words?

We raise that question because of a recent book, 100 words for foodies , added to the collection here.  Executive Editor Joseph P. Picket observed that “no area of English comes from such a wide array of languages as the words we use for the foods we eat.”

Many of our readers are serious about food, we know.  How many of these 10 foods can you (from memory) describe and identify by the countries or regions from which they originated?

• Ponzu
• Gravlax
• Tomalley
• Madeleine
• Biryani
• Waterzooi
• Bruschetta
• Ceviche
• Kimchi
• Gado gado

Please send your total to one of our ACDC cuisine specialists, Cailin Cullen caculle2@illinois.edu or Joyce Wright jcwright@illinois.edu . We may be able to round up prizes for winners. And you might tell us how you happen to know of those foods.

Media use by farmers – 65 years ago (an echo)

Recently we added to the ACDC collection a 1949 Journal of Marketing article entitled, “Farmers’ sources of information.” That research among Iowa farmers invites analysis of changes during the past 65 years. And the findings reveal interesting continuity, even across decades marked by the emergence of television, computers and a stream of other new media serving farmers.

Here are the 1949 rankings among 13 categories of information sources:

General information sources of farm operators:

1. Farm papers and farm and non-farm magazines
2. Radio
3. Newspapers

Advice on present livestock and grain markets

1. Radio
2. Newspapers
3. Farm papers and farm and non-farm magazines

You can read the article here .

Communicator activities approaching

July 13-17, 2016
“Sustainable agriculture – made in Germany.” 2016 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) in Bonn, Germany.
Information: https://ifaj2016.de/en/programm/main-congress/

July 23-27, 2016
“Your gateway to excellence.” Agricultural Media Summit in St. Louis, Missouri. Joint meeting of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA), Livestock Publications Council (LPC) and Agri Council of American Business Media. Also annual meeting of Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT).
Information: http://www.agmediasummit.com

September 21-25, 2016
Annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Sacramento, California.
Information: http://www.sej.org/calendar/sej-26th-annual-conference

November 9-11, 2016
National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri.
Information: info@nafb.com

More on the role of food in mediation

We close this issue of ACDC News with thanks to a memory reported by Dick Schingoethe, RES Ltd., Palatine, Illinois. It parallels our recent item about the role of food in mediation. He recalls this expression from a veteran creative director of an advertising agency, referring to agency/client business, creative conceptualization and campaign development issues:

“You can get a lot done over groceries.”

Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC . And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Organic profitability around the globe – and a call for more information

Organic agriculture was found significantly more profitable than conventional agriculture in a meta-analysis of a global dataset spanning 55 crops grown on five continents over 40 years. Professor John Reganold, Washington State University, reported that finding at the 2016 USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum. Under actual conditions with price premiums, organic agriculture provided 22-35 percent greater net present values.

Can organic farming systems play a significant role in feeding the human population? “Yes,” he reported, “And so can other innovative farming systems, such as conservation agriculture, integrated, mixed farming and alternative livestock systems.” Transitioning to organics can be economically challenging, he said, and more information intensive. You can view this PowerPoint presentation here .

Bucking the trend in covering immigration

“Community journalists, particularly in rural areas of the Midwest and Southeast that are seeing the most rapid growth in Latino immigrant population, would do well to heed the example of the Garden City Telegram and learn from its experience.” Researcher Michael Fuhlhage offered that advice after he examined how a small community daily newspaper in Kansas bypassed the conflict-driven frame for covering the debate over federal immigration reform in the 1980s and 1990s. Instead, the newspaper included Latino leaders in the conversation and promoted immigrants as potential citizens rather than outsiders.

You can read this journal article, “Undocumented workers and immigration reform: thematic vs. episodic coverage in a rural Kansas community daily,” here .

Media urged to challenge the idea that expert views on risk are value-free

An article we added recently from the journal New Genetics and Society explored media coverage of the genetic modification debate in Australia. Findings of researcher Anna Salleh, Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, led her to argue for reframing of risk debates to give more explicit legitimacy to lay expertise and reinforce the idea that technology develops in a social context.

“I argue it is thus important, whatever the medium, to engage specifically with scientific arguments and to challenge the idea that expert views on risk are value-free while citizen views are value-laden .”

The article is not available on the open web. You can read the publisher’s abstract and citation information for “The fourth estate and the fifth branch: the news media, GM risk and democracy in Australia” here . You might invite the article from Dr. Salleh ( anna.salleh@alumni.uts.edu.au ) or check with us ( docctr@library.illinois.edu ) for help in gaining full-text access to it.

How food helps mediate conflicts

Colleen Maher Ernst, a 2014 graduate of Harvard Law School, concedes that science may never be able to craft a peace-creating menu.  However, in an article in Dispute Resolution Journal she examined the power of eating together. For example, she cited a source who observed, “Eating is a social (as opposed to adversarial) activity. It can be a benign way to have parties relax together without conflicting…that encourages parties to communicate.”

This article, “Breaking bread together: the role of food in mediation,” is not available by open access. You can read the introduction at http://arbitrationlaw.com/library/breaking-bread-together-role-food-mediation-dispute-resolution-journal-vol-69-no-2 . Or check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining access.

“Selling our way out of the farm problem”

Recently we added to the ACDC collection a speech of that title by Joseph B. Hall, president of Kroger Company. He presented it 70 years ago (1945) to the Women’s Advertising Club of Washington, D.C. Hall concluded, “Through the years aggressive selling of ideas and products has helped America to grow great. In my opinion, intelligent advertising and sales effort will go a long way toward selling us out of the farm problem.”

Whereas the farm problem at the end of World War II varied greatly from the challenges of today, his basic perspectives about the importance of communicating effectively continue to resonate.

You can read his comments here , as published in “Vital Speeches of the Day.”

We celebrate the 35 ^th anniversary of ACDC

How can it be possible – as 2016 marks the 35 ^th anniversary of the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center? It began with about 15 agricultural communications courses being taught here at the University of Illinois – and a frustrating lack of teaching resources for them. We thought few resources existed, and how wrong we were. They existed, scattered so widely as to be invisible.

Today, the ACDC collection totals more than 42,000 documents about the communications aspects of agriculture, broadly defined.  They involve agriculture-related communications in 211 countries, 79 languages and more than 34,000 authors.  And we are hardly scratching the surface.

You can read a brief feature article about the anniversary here . We express sincere thanks to all who have helped – and are helping – capture and expand the vision, focus the effort, gather resources and make ACDC a valuable resource and service, internationally. A PDF version is available here .

Communicator activities approaching

June 13-16, 2016
Annual conference of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Memphis, Tennessee.
Information: http://www.aceweb.org/page-1854270

July 13-17, 2016
“Sustainable agriculture – made in Germany.” 2016 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) in Bonn, Germany.
Information: https://ifaj2016.de/en/programm/main-congress/

June 16-18, 2016
“May the horse be with you.” Annual seminar of American Horse Publications (AHP) in Orlando, Florida. Information: http://www.americanhorsepubs.org/attending-seminar

June 21-23, 2016
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Information: http://www.agrelationscouncil.org/events/2016-arc-annual-meeting

July 23-27, 2016
“Your gateway to excellence.” Agricultural Media Summit in St. Louis, Missouri. Joint meeting of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA), Livestock Publications Council (LPC) and Agri Council of American Business Media. Also annual meeting of Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT).
Information: http://www.agmediasummit.com

November 9-11, 2016
National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) annual conference, Kansas City, Missouri. Information: info@nafb.com

On being alert as a journalist

We close this issue of ACDC News with a recent observation by Chicago Tribune journalist Patricia Callahan. She was honored earlier this year by the North American Agricultural Journalists organization for her excellence in agricultural reporting:

“I have learned over the years that the story you come across along the way is often far more interesting than the one you originally set out to tell.”

Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC . And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Centennial issue of JAC published

Here are research and professional development articles published this month in Volume 100 Issue 1 of the Journal of Applied Communications . JAC is published by the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE):

• “A review and evaluation of prominent theories of writing” by Holli R. Leggette, Tracy Rutherford, Deborah Dunsford and Lori Costello.

• “Agricultural communications: a national portrait of undergraduate courses” by Karen J. Cannon, Annie R. Specht and Emily B. Buck.

• “Agricultural communications: perspectives from the experts” by Fawn Kurtzo, Maggie Jo Hansen, K. Jill Rucker and Leslie D. Edgar.

• “Coming of age: how JAC is reflecting a national research agenda for communications in agriculture, natural resources, and life and human sciences” by Lulu Rodriguez and James F. Evans.

• “Let’s get theoretical: a quantitative content analysis of theories and models used in the Journal of Applied Communications,” by Lauri M. Baker and Audrey E. H. King.

• “Literature themes from five decades of agricultural communications publications” by Bo/David Williford, Leslie D. Edgar, K. Jill Rucker and Stuart Estes.

• “The spirit lives on: communication seminars as a surprisingly hardy, valuable, and promising heritage of NPAC” by Kerry J. Byrnes and Jim Evans.

You can read these articles by open access at http://journalofappliedcommunications.org

What happens when consumers view a video showing livestock slaughter?

The video increased slaughter acceptance in an experiment reported recently in Science Communication . Researchers used a 20-minute video showing the entire slaughter and meat fabrication process of cattle and swine. They employed a pre-post design among college students not majoring in animal science.  Findings revealed that:

• Students became more positive toward livestock slaughter, even those with high affinity for protecting animals.
• Their expectation of transparency in the livestock industry was high before and after seeing the video.
• While they viewed the term “slaughter” as clearer (even more so after the video), they felt more comfortable with the term “harvest.”

This article is not available by open access.  You can request access to the full text from the contact author at katie.abrams@colostate.edu , view the publisher’s abstract here or check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help.

Even small farmers need crisis communication

That is the title of an article we have added to the ACDC collection from Communication Currents , published by the National Communication Association. This case study is part of a 2015 article in the Journal of Applied Communication Research by Kendra Lancaster and Josh Boyd. In it a fourth generation family farmer faced a huge threat to his business when an activist group posted a video showing instances of abuse to his dairy cattle. The report traced his actions and identified three steps used to address the crisis.

You can read the case study here .

The source article in the Journal of Applied Communication Research is not available by open access.  However, you can read the abstract here or check with us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help.

Fewer rural Americans use smartphones to access public transit information

Only 10 percent of adult rural smartphone owners in the U. S. use their phone frequently or occasionally to get public transit information. This compares with 34 percent of urban smartphone owners and 22 percent of those living in suburbs. These findings were reported in April 2015 by the Pew Research Center.

Among all smartphone users, 67% use their phone at least occasionally to get turn-by-turn navigation while driving. “Indeed, 43% of smartphone owners say turn-by-turn navigation is the only transit-related function they use on their phone at least occasionally.”

You can read the report here .

Career experiences of women editors in Appalachian communities

Interviews with women editors of West Virginia newspapers examined (a) how they described their paths to current positions and (b) how they viewed the role of the regional culture in shaping their careers. Among the findings in this Community Journalism article:

• “The insider/outsider effect was indeed described as significant, yet the role of sex played a distant second to that of membership in the Appalachian community.”
• “The sense of community they described was found in functions of community boosts, complications, and reciprocity. It was tempered by their various insider and outsider statuses, drawing from barriers, integration and womanness.”

You can read the article here .

Communicator activities approaching

June 4-7, 2016
“Get up and GROW in the big O.” Annual Institute of the Cooperative Communicators Association in Omaha, Nebraska. Hosted by the North Central Region of CCA.
Information: http://www.communicators.coop

June 6-9, 2016
“A byte of paradise.”  Annual conference of the National Extension Technology Community (NETC) in Kissimmee, Florida USA.
Information: http://www.netc2016.org

June 9-13, 2016
“Communicating with power.” Annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Fukuoka, Japan.
Information: http://www.icahdq.org

June 13-16, 2016
Annual conference of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Memphis, Tennessee.
Information: http://www.aceweb.org/page-1854270

June 16-18, 2016
“May the horse be with you.” Annual seminar of American Horse Publications (AHP) in Orlando, Florida.
Information: http://www.americanhorsepubs.org/attending-seminar

June 21-23, 2016
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Information: http://www.agrelationscouncil.org/events/2016-arc-annual-meeting

Words to be banished in 2016

Wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University in Michigan are alerting us to words that should be banished this year “from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.”  This year’s list is culled from nominations received by peeved word-watchers. We note that some words on the 2016 list appear frequently in agricultural communications (including some of our own).  Among them:

So – Answering a question by beginning with the word “So.”
Conversation – As in “Join the conversation,” a popular invitation in online publications.
Stakeholder – Now being broadened and watered down.
Secret sauce – Overused metaphor for business success, based on the fast food industry.

You can learn more about these and/or submit your own nominations here .

Best wishes and good searching Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC . And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Signs and effects of not enough local news content

Research reported in a 2014 issue of Community Journalism indicated that rural residents of Washington State lack local news relevant to their interests. Authors conducted an online statewide survey among rural and non-rural adults. Findings led authors to suggest that this shortage may be related to an observed decline in social participation among rural residents – and that a drought of local news can lead to a failure of local democracy.

You can read the article here .

Warning about social and mobile media as new farm accident risks

A safety consultant in the UK suggested recently that the mobile phone and social media bring a risk of higher accident rates – and greater business liability – to farm operations.  “Many farm accidents involving students or casuals can be linked to distraction resulting from social media use,” said Oliver Dale. They also reduce efficiency.

He offered suggestions in an article we added recently to the ACDC collection:

• Consider whether or not to permit the use of personal handheld devices at work at all.
• If persons need a phone or tablet for use as part of their job, provide that equipment. This enables you to restrict access to social media and use of mobile devices.
• Provide a social media policy and communicate it effectively to new staff as part of their induction. Then proactively check the use of it and promote the importance of it.

You can read the article, “Mobile phone and social media use raise farm accident risk,” in Farmers Weekly here .

New ways to promote community by digital media

At their 2015 collaborative prototype event in Austin, Texas, members of the Society for News Design created 10 prototypes of new ways to promote community using digital media. Teams involved designers, developers, product owners, educators and students. Here are sample approaches by various teams:

• A filtering and feedback loop tool for social media managers and reporters
• A system built for community managers to recognize and reward user generated content
• A news utility that helps users see what topics matter most in their communities, make connections and gather resources to further involvement
• A website add-on that creates channels for specific audiences and allows them to post and read relevant information for a hyper-local area

You can read this brief article about the 10 prototypes here .

Advice to innovators in food biotechnology

Researchers Steven M. Flipse and Patricia Osseweijer analyzed media attention to three high-profile GM food cases: the Monarch butterfly, the GM potato and the possibly allergenic StarLink corn variety. Analysis of media attention involved online reports in English-written press. Findings reported in Public Understanding of Science indicated that “it can take more than two years for the scientific community to respond to an issue, whilst it takes the media only days.”

Authors offered two suggestions:

1. Innovator should use transparency that allows public involvement in the production development process for an innovation.
2. Scientists should become aware of the role they play in new and emerging, possibly controversial, science and technology – and to communicate their results.

This article is not available by open access.  You can read the abstract of “Media attention to GM food cases: an innovative perspective” at http://pus.sagepub.com/content/22/2/185 ; check with the lead author, Steven Flipse, at smflipse@TUDelft.nl about full-text access; or contact us at docctr@library.illinois.edu for help in gaining access.

Rural Americans more supportive of gun rights

Compared with urban and suburban adult residents, rural adults show signs of greater inclination to say it is more important to protect the right to own guns than to control gun ownership. A December 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center indicated that 60 percent of rural adult respondents considered gun rights more important than gun control, compared with 52 percent of suburban residents and 42 percent of urban residents. This pattern may reflect greater hunting interest and activity in rural areas.

The survey indicated that for the first time in more than two decades there is greater public support for gun rights than gun control. Among all surveyed American adults, favor for gun rights grew from 46 percent in January 2013 to 52 percent in December 2014.

You can read the survey summary here .

A call to agricultural public relations professionals

Beware of observational studies and sensational headlines. That advice came from Daren Williams, board president of Agricultural Relations Council in the winter 2016 issue of ARCLight Newsletter.

It might help, he said, “if researchers…would take time to explain that observational studies don’t really prove a cause and effect relationship exists.” And he emphasized that the potential for sensational headlines to cause confusion and panic “is why we must work hard as ag PR professionals to educate consumers on how to interpret these studies and put them in context in their lives.”

You can read this commentary here :

Communicator activities approaching

April 24-26, 2016
Annual meeting of North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) in Washington, D. C.
Information: http://www.naaj.net/meetings

May 3-5, 2016
“Steak your claim.” Annual meeting of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) in Omaha, Nebraska.
Information: http://www.toca.org/events/2016-annual-meeting-omaha-nebraska

June 4-7, 2016
“Get up and GROW in the big O.” Annual Institute of the Cooperative Communicators Association in Omaha, Nebraska. Hosted by the North Central Region of CCA.
Information: http://www.communicators.coop

June 6-9, 2016
“A byte of paradise.” Annual conference of the National Extension Technology Community (NETC) in Kissimmee, Florida USA.
Information: http://www.netc2016.org

June 9-13, 2016
“Communicating with power.” Annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Fukuoka, Japan.
Information: http://www.icahdq.org

June 13-16, 2016
Annual conference of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Memphis, Tennessee.
Information: http://www.aceweb.org/page-1854270

June 16-18, 2016
“May the horse be with you.” Annual seminar of American Horse Publications (AHP) in Orlando, Florida.
Information: http://www.americanhorsepubs.org/attending-seminar

June 21-23, 2016
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Information: http://www.agrelationscouncil.org/events/2016-arc-annual-meeting

Trouble with your speaking voice?

We close this issue of ACDC News with thanks to Lyle Orwig for sharing this helpful conversion factor for those experiencing voice problems:

Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower

Best wishes and good searching Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC . And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu

Young farmers/ranchers invite training for communicating online

A 2015 research report we have added to the ACDC collection identified kinds of training needed by young agriculturists in Florida, Georgia and Texas. They were invited to identify the importance of various online communication tasks – and how competent they felt about performing them. Here are the top-rated training needs they identified:

• Websites: creating, using for agricultural business, measuring impact, managing, publishing
• Using computer-based communication technology
• Other online communication tools: using social media to gather information about audiences/consumers, monitoring consumer trends related to their business, understanding how social media (in general) fit into their business strategy; using measurement tools, uploading videos and photos to the web for sharing, using Facebook for engaging people/consumers, and awareness of business risk.

You can read the article, “Identifying agriculturists’ online communication tool training needs,” here .

Accuracy and role of indigenous knowledge in monitoring climate change

A recent report from Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI) sheds useful light on relationships between indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge. Researchers analyzed farmers’ perceptions of climate change in Zambia. Results involving temperature showed clear overlap between farmers’ observations and patterns found in meteorological records. However, records did not match farmers’ perceptions that the rainy season used to begin earlier.

Researchers concluded that a complete picture of climate change requires contributions from multiple knowledge systems, including indigenous.

You can read the newsletter article here .

Effects of food safety education for consumers

In controlled trials, efforts to provide food safety education for consumers in developed countries showed significant effects in some contexts. That was the finding of a review and meta-analysis reported in a 2015 issue of BMC Public Health . However, researchers found that many outcomes were “very heterogeneous and did not provide a strong quality of evidence to support decision-making.”

Authors identified articles through a comprehensive search of 10 bibliographic databases. Relevant articles were selected based on research in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The selection was verified by hand-searching two journals, websites of 24 relevant organizations and reviews of reference lists for 30 articles.

You can read this report by open access here .

“Welcome to the ‘antibiotic-free’ fear factory”

A recent commentary by Angela Bowman in Cattle Network welcomed readers to the “‘antibiotic-free’ fear factory.” She cited examples such as:

• Restaurants joining retailers in marketing their products as antibiotic-free.
• Pediatricians recently being warned that antibiotic usage in livestock is putting children at risk of superbugs.
• A UK newspaper promoting a vegetarian diet to curb the industry’s “overuse of antibiotics.”
• Blogger emphasizing to consumers, the issue is “simple and one-dimensional. It’s not about animal welfare.  It’s not about economics. It’s not about efficient food production. The antibiotic issue is about human health, plain and simple.”

You can read it here .

Public-scientists gap about food and climate: a striking finding from 2015

The Pew Research Center included this gap among 15 “striking findings” from the past year, based on national research surveys. The biggest gap between scientists and the American public involved safety of eating genetically modified foods, use of animals in science, safety of eating foods grown with pesticides and human activity as the cause of climate change.

You can see all 15 “striking findings” of 2015 here .

Establish an agricultural news network for rural community newspapers

Sandra Robinson offered the suggestion in a Grassroots Editor article based on her analysis of agricultural coverage by rural community newspapers in southern Illinois.

She found that community members, news services and other agricultural organizations provide agricultural news, unlike general news content that is primarily produced by reporters. “Perhaps the most beneficial change would be to create a network through which agriculture news and information can easily be shared among rural newspapers and other media outlets. A periphery-to-periphery information system would allow rural communities to share news and information about their experiences with other rural communities.”

This journal article is not available by open access. However, you can read the conference paper on which it is based here .

Communicator activities approaching

April 4-8, 2016
Conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education in Portland, Oregon. Information: https://www.aiaee.org/index.php/conference

April 13-15, 2016
“From the ground up.” Agri-marketing conference of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) in Kansas City, Missouri. Information: http://nama.org/amc/home

April 24-26, 2016
Annual meeting of North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) in Washington, D. C. Information: http://www.naaj.net/meetings

May 3-5, 2016
“Steak your claim.” Annual meeting of the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) in Omaha, Nebraska. Information: http://www.toca.org/events/2016-annual-meeting-omaha-nebraska

June 4-7, 2016
“Get up and GROW in the big O.” Annual Institute of the Cooperative Communicators Association in Omaha, Nebraska. Hosted by the North Central Region of CCA. Information: http://www.communicators.coop

June 6-9, 2016
“A byte of paradise.”  Annual conference of the National Extension Technology Community (NETC) in Kissimmee, Florida USA. Information: http://www.netc2016.org

June 9-13, 2016
“Communicating with power.” Annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Fukuoka, Japan. Information: http://www.icahdq.org

June 13-16, 2016
Annual conference of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) in Memphis, Tennessee. Information: http://www.aceweb.org/page-1854270

June 16-18, 2016
“May the horse be with you.” Annual seminar of American Horse Publications (AHP) in Orlando, Florida. Information: http://www.americanhorsepubs.org/attending-seminar

June 21-23, 2016
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) in St. Paul, Minnesota. Information: http://www.agrelationscouncil.org/events/2016-arc-annual-meeting

Dangers between the ears

We close this issue of ACDC News with a communicators’ Philosofact from the Farmers’ Almanac of 1995:

“It is better that things go in one ear and out the other
than if they go in one ear, get scrambled between the ears,
and come out the mouth.”

Best wishes and good searching

Please pass along your reactions, suggestions and ideas. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ACDCUIUC . And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents we might add to this unique and valuable collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Comm Documentation Center, Room 510, 1101 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801) or in electronic format sent to docctr@library.illinois.edu