ACDC Newsletter

New campaign for local gardening (at the White House). A recent article we added to the ACDC collection from the Boston Globe described a campaign to get a kitchen garden growing on the White House lawn.  Author Ellen Goodman explained that Roger Doiron of Kitchen Gardeners International “is pushing for edible landscapes everywhere from schoolyards to governor’s mansions to empty urban plots.  But Doiron set his eyes on everybody’s house, the White House.”  His campaign urges the presidential candidates to pledge they’ll turn a piece of the 18-acre White House terrain into an edible garden.

Actually, Doiron argues, this will be a return rather than something new.

• John Adams, the first president to live in the White House, had a garden to feed his family.
• Woodrow Wilson had a Liberty Garden and sheep grazing during World War I.
• The Roosevelts had a Victory Garden during World War II.

Title: Growing at the White House

Posted at http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped

The darker side of recent developments in communications. A background paper for the World Congress on Communication for Development identified several new issues and challenges in the past decade.  They relate to global liberalization of media, rapid economic and social changes, and emergence of new information and communication technologies.  What does this mean for those living in many rural areas?  The report suggested:

• Liberalization of media “has led not only to greater media freedoms, but also to the emergence of an increasingly consumer led and urban centered communication infrastructure, which is less and less interested in the concerns of the poor.”
• A general global trend towards greater media freedom sometimes “has been confined largely to urban metropolitan middle classes rather than the population as a whole.”
• Women and other vulnerable groups – and rural populations in general – “continue to suffer marginalization in and from communication networks, and evidence of the scale of discrimination within the media itself is growing.”

Title: Communication for sustainable development

Posted at: http://www.fao.org/sd/dim_kn1/docs/kn1_060602d1_en.pdf

Impact of the farm press .  Hal Taylor, former deputy director of communications for the U. S. Department of Agriculture, recently passed along this report.

“Years ago when I ramrodded commercial interests for the USDA Centennial, the USDA historian Wayne Rasmussen told me there wouldn’t have been much interest ever in agriculture as a possible cabinet department had it not been for the pressures brought on by the agricultural press which was quite active in the Philadelphia area in the late 1700s.  Rasmussen also was quite interested in the organization then called “AAACE” and often said it was really an off-shoot of the 1790s when interests were so high in getting a cabinet office established.  Finally, as you know, Abe Lincoln got the cabinet office planned and a Secretary was named as a cabinet officer a few years later.”

We appreciate this piece of history about influences of the farm press and welcome other examples or references you may be able to provide.  Send them to us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu .

Teaching a fresh view of “outsourcing” and international cooperation. Think about this. Students in a Midwestern U. S. university class on computers and community were assigned to experience being offshore web-designers for a handloom weaver located in rural South India. Furthermore, the students had no prior knowledge about computer programming or website construction.

This innovative assignment helped students gain a fresh perspective on who is “developed” and how to communicate and operate across cultures.  Radhika Gajjala (in the U. S.) and Annapurna Mamidipudi (in India) were the collaborating teachers.  They reported on their project at a meeting of the World Forum on Information Society.

Title: Who is “developed” and who is not?

Abstract posted at http://www.irfd.org/events/wf2005/abstracts_t15.htm

How rural Americans are perceived . Rural Americans are most often perceived as extremes, according to a campaign-oriented video from the Center for Rural Strategies.  The Center, located at Whitesburg, Kentucky, is a communications organization that seeks to improve rural life by increasing public understanding about the importance and value of rural communities.

You can view the brief presentation at: www.ruralstrategies.org/campaign/images/flash.swf

The growing angst in rural-urban relations .  Agricultural journalists around the globe are facing an expanding menu of rural-urban issues to cover, according to a recent analysis. Owen Roberts, University of Guelph, and Jim Evans of the ACDC staff sketched this challenge in a recent issue of IFAJ eNews from the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists. They identified more than 100 rural-urban issues calling for coverage in categories such as these:

• Differences in what people know and believe
• Lifestyle issues
• Equity issues
• Infrastructure issues
• Natural resource issues
• Policy issues
• Property rights and wealth distribution issues

Title: The growing angst in rural-urban relations

You can review the feature online at http://www.ifaj.org/news/IFAJWebFeatureAngst05%2008_or.pdf

Communicator activities approaching

More groaners from the lexophiles (lovers of words). We close this issue of ACDC News with yet another set of head-shaking insights that touch on food, agriculture and communications. Are you ready?

• Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
• A backward poet writes inverse.
• To write with a broken pencil is pointless.
• When fish are in schools, they sometimes take debate.

Can you add to this sad collection?  Send them to us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu .

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

Get in touch with us when you see interesting items in the ACDC collection and can’t gain full-text access through information in the citation, or through online searching.  We will help you gain access.

2008-01-15

Meteorologists need communicator help? “There are good theoretical arguments for expecting seasonal forecasts to be valuable for agriculture,” say the authors of a new article in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology .  They explain, however, why such forecasts are still the subject of considerable controversy.  Authors recommend ways to improve the reliability of forecasts, including more use of qualitative social science methods “for understanding the determinants of information use and value.”

In so doing, they open the door for communications researchers and professionals to collaborate with climatologists in adding economic value to forecasting efforts.

Title: Economic value of seasonal climate forecasts for agriculture

If you lack access to this journal, contact author:  Francisco J. Meza at fmeza@puc.cl

Looking at food safety through YouTube. A review of 76 videos posted on YouTube during a four-week period of 2007 revealed that the information presented about food safety was only moderately credible.  Researchers Emily Rhoades and Jason Ellis suggested that agricultural communicators place attention on two key areas as they consider providing food safety information through new media channels such as video social network Web sites:

• Increase evidence of content credibility by using information from third-party informants such as interviewees, or by citing non-biased sources.
• Include a dimension of entertainment in videos to develop and maintain viewer interest, as well as perpetuate video popularity and sharing.

Title: Food tube: online coverage of food safety

For full-text access, contact the lead author at rhoades.100@osu.edu

“World’s longest running rural radio program breaks new ground.” That’s the title of an article in a recent issue of IFAJ e-News , published by the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists.

“The Country Hour,” a long-running rural radio program recognized by the Guinness Book of Records, “is breaking new ground by leveraging the latest technology to stay relevant to its audiences across Australia after more than 60 years.  National rural editor Leigh Radford explains how websites, 3G telephone links, geo-tag phones, blogs and podcasts enable a network of 75 specialist rural reporters to share their distinctly Australian stories on the air, on television and on-line with audiences around the world.”

Title: Longest running rural radio program

Posted at http://www.ifaj.org > May-June 2008 issue

How Europeans view farmers, farming and agriculture .  We have added to the ACDC collection a summary of findings from a late 2006 survey by the European Commission among 24,732 citizens in the 25 member states, Bulgaria and Romania.  It reveals views about topics such as:

• Importance of European agriculture and the rural areas
• Knowledge, awareness and information about agriculture and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
• Role of farmers in society
• Trust in sources of information on farming and EU agricultural policy
• Topics on which the public would like more information

Title: Europeans, agriculture and the Common Agricultural Policy

Posted at http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_276_en.pdf

Increasingly, local knowledge is being valued.  Then again… We recently added to the ACDC collection “An overview of indigenous knowledge (IK) and how it relates to modern science.” It came from the Science and Development Network, London, England.

This four-page report described how awareness of the value of indigenous knowledge (especially in sustainable development and poverty alleviation) is “growing at a time when such knowledge is being threatened as never before.”  Among the important questions involved:

• Who owns IK and who may use it?
• Who decides how to use IK and for what purpose?
• How should its owners be compensated?

These questions about local and traditional knowledge cut across all societies. And they challenge agricultural development as well as other dimensions of development.

Title: An overview of indigenous knowledge

Posted at http://www.scidev.net/en/editorials/opening-minds-to-indigenous-knowledge.html

IFAJ reminder to agricultural journalists .  Planners of the 2008 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) are inviting agricultural journalists all over the world to provide information for a special session.  Uschi Raser explains that the session will focus on the topic:  “To whom are agricultural journalists responsible?

Program planners have arranged to carry out an online survey.  Results will be presented at the Congress by Joschi Schillhab from the Opinion Research Center, Oekonsult. If you are an agricultural journalist you are invited to take part in the survey.  Go to: www.oekonsult.at/ifaj2008

The Congress will take place in Austria and Slovenia during September 10-14. You can learn more about it at www.ifaj2008.com .

Communicator activities approaching

Farm equipment never sounded so good. If you aren’t acquainted with the video, “University of Iowa Farm Machine Music,” you might want to check it out – even if it is a prank of sorts. A widely circulated e-mail message described it as a collaborative effort between a music conservatory and school of engineering at the University of Iowa. Nearly all of the components came from farm equipment, said the message, and a team invested 13,029 hours in set-up, calibration and tuning before the filming.

Actually, this 3:24 video, “Pipe Dream,” is the creation of a company in Texas with no farm equipment involved. According to information on the web site the graphics and music are entirely digitally synthesized.  “Virtual instruments are invented by building computer graphics models of objectives that would appear to create the sound of the corresponding music synthesizer track.”

View the video at: www.youtube.com > Search on “Amazing Music Machine.”

Review a report about the prank at: www.hoax-slayer.com/issue-68.shtml#5

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

Get in touch with us when you see interesting items in the ACDC collection and can’t gain full-text access through information in the citation, or through online searching.  We will help you gain access.

2008-01-14

Issue 08-13

The price of privatized extension services. Privatization of extension services since the 1990s is having important “privatizing” effects, beyond the question of who pays. Evidence emerged in a conference paper we added recently. Pierre Labarthe and Ismaïl M. Moumouni found some shared North/South themes when they analyzed effects of privatization of extension services in the Netherlands and Benin.

• In the Netherlands:  (a) Numbers of farmer groups decreased sharply, reducing the sharing of information among farmers. (b)  Linkages weakened between extension services and other organizations involved in agricultural knowledge systems and innovation. (c) In many cases, commercial extension companies invested neither time nor money in agronomic experiments to evaluate and improve local techniques and systems.
• In Benin: (a) The number of farmers disconnected from the extension service increased considerably. (b) Many farmer contact groups disappeared, weakening connections for sharing information. (c) Increased conflict among farmer organizations “strongly damaged the collective generation, the sharing and circulation of agricultural information and knowledge.”

Posted at http://www.aiaee.org/2008/papers.htm > Scroll to this research report.

Surprising results about attitudes toward climate change. The February issue of Risk Analysis included some unexpected results of research among a representative sample of Americans. Among the findings:

• Respondents who were better informed about global warming felt less personally responsible for it – and less concerned about it.
• Respondents with high confidence in scientists felt less responsible for global warming – and less concerned about it.
• Trust in the media was unrelated to the sense of concern and responsibility for global warming.

Title: Personal efficacy, the information environment, and attitudes toward global warming and climate change

IFAJ invites views of agricultural journalists .  Planners of the 2008 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) are asking agricultural journalists all over the world to provide information for a special session.  Uschi Raser explains that the session will focus on this topic:

“To whom are agricultural journalists responsible?

Program planners have arranged to carry out an online survey.  Results will be presented at the Congress by Joschi Schillhab from the Opinion Research Center, Oekonsult. If you are an agricultural journalist you are invited to take part in the survey.  Go to: www.oekonsult.at/ifaj2008

The Congress will take place in Austria and Slovenia during September 10-14. You can learn more about it at www.ifaj2008.com .

What journalists in Mali consider most important about their work. We recently added to the ACDC collection a conference paper about a project in which agricultural communications faculty members helped strengthen the professional development of media specialists in the Republic of Mali, West Africa.

Feedback from 16 journalists revealed that they considered these aspects of their jobs most important:

• Chance to influence public affairs
• Chance to develop a specialty
• Amount of “creative freedom” they have in reporting
• Chance to help people

These aspects were considered more important than others such as job security, promotion, salary and benefits.  The report also identified journalists’ views about the importance of various functions of the news media, ethical issues journalists face and the role of free speech in a democracy.

Title: Developing press system

Posted at http://www.aiaee.org/2008/papers.htm

New guidelines to help clear confusion about food terms .

“Fresh.” “Pure.” “Natural.” “Handmade.” “Quality.” “Selected.” “Premium.” The Food Standards Agency, an independent government department of the United Kingdom, has revised its guidance on the use of these and other marketing terms. Guidelines also involve business names, trademarks, photographs and illustrative representations on labels and in advertisements, leaflets and on web sites.

In addition, you will find (in Part 2, “General best practice advice”) four overarching principles for food marketers to consider and apply.

A news release about the revised guidelines is posted at www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2008/jul/marketing

Details are available at:

www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/markcritguidance.pdf

www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/consultationresponse/mtermsresponses.pdf

Communicator activities approaching

Describing what those tools really do. We might close by passing along a set of “Tool Descriptions” that John Otte of Farm Progress Companies called to our attention recently.  Here are a few samples:

• Pliers:  Used to round off bolt heads.  Sometimes used in the creation of blood blisters.
• Table Saw:  A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.
• Skil Saw:  A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.
• Tweezers:  A tool for removing wood splinters and wire wheel wires.
• Belt Sander: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.
• Two-Ton Engine Hoist:  A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

For reasons perhaps obvious we will not be entering this document into the ACDC collection. However, check with us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu if you want to see the full set of descriptions.

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

Get in touch with us when you see interesting items in the ACDC collection and can’t gain full-text access through information in the citation, or through online searching.  We will help you gain access.

2008-01-13

New evidence of need for food manufacturers to protect their brands. A report from Food Product Design summarizes survey findings by Deloitte, New York, that food safety fears have escalated of late.  Here are signs of need identified through this nationally representative survey during April among U. S. consumers:

• 57% said they have stopped eating a particular food, temporarily or permanently, as a result of a recent recall.
• 75% are more concerned about the foods they eat than they were five years ago.
• 78% are most concerned by beef recalls; 67% by chicken recalls; 53% by fresh fruit and vegetable recalls; and 58% by dairy recalls.
• 89% would like to see food stores sell more fruits and vegetables that come from local farms.

“Food manufacturers may consider taking a total approach to ensure the safety of their brands, all the way from the farm, to the supply chain, the store shelves, and even the consumer’s pantry,” observed Deloitte executive Pat Conroy.

Title: Survey illustrates consumer food-safety fears

Posted at www.foodproductdesign.com/hotnews/survey-illustrates-consumer-food-safety-fears.html#

Food – not like cell phones in the minds of consumers. The new European Union member states or transition economies need structured dialogue between science and society, according to a 2008 journal article added to the ACDC collection.  Writing in Trends in Food Science and Technology , D. Bánáti emphasized how consumers require much more information, precaution and patience about their daily foodstuffs and health than about new technologies such as cell phones.  The article includes guidelines for improving risk communications in European settings and advises helping agricultural ethics “find its proper place in the system of modern ethics.”

Title: Fear of food in Europe?

Check with us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu about full-text access.

TV chefs boosting interest in free-range poultry production. A recent article we have added from Scotland on Sunday reports that demand has doubled for birds reared in less intensive conditions.  The British Poultry Council (BPC), which represents producers, says a television series by chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall helped spark that demand. Earlier this year the chefs aired a television series “which highlighted appalling conditions in giant broiler chicken production farms in England.”

Some of Scotland’s leading producers are meeting this demand by turning to more natural, free-range production.  “Producers are reacting to that [demand] and that is good news for consumers,” said BPC Executive Officer Jeremy Blackburn.

Title: TV chefs spark boom

Posted at http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/

Farm readers (and advertisers) tuning into online video . “Online video a win-win” is the title of a recent article in AgriMarketing magazine. Author Ryan Hunt of Meredith Corporation observed that “broadband video streams are no longer nifty extras or at work time-wasters.  Video is quickly becoming a useful, valuable standard of Web content.”

According to the article, a recent survey found that 95% of Agriculture Online’s user panel members have watched an online video.  And thousands of visits have been posted since November when Agriculture Online introduced AGOL-TV, which houses every video that has been featured.  The article reports that advertisers as well as farmers are connecting with this new venue.

Title: Online video a win-win

Posted at http://www.agrimarketingdigital.com/?iid=7453&startpage=32&crd=229,4136,2036,329,00FF00zz

Signs of trouble in use of the Farmer Field School approach. Mark Schut and Stephen Sherwood of the Wageningen University and Research Centre, Netherlands, found erosion of the Farmer Field School concept in three Ecuador case studies.  The FFS approach to providing information for farmers is known for being farmer-centered, problem-based and oriented to self-discovery.

“Despite much enthusiasm over early results, eight years later we observed that professionals and their institutions apply the FFS approach in diverse and contradictory ways,” the authors reported in a recent journal article. Findings revealed a shift to more conventional, technology-centered designs.

Title: FFSs in translation: scaling up in name, but not in meaning

Posted at www.leisa.info > Search > Title

Communicator activities approaching

Budding novelists with rural interests show their stuff. It’s time again to recognize exceptional rural writing talent identified in the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.  In constant search of such talent, we monitor this international literary parody contest that challenges entrants to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Here are a couple honored examples from the 2007 contest. It is sponsored by the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose State University:

Winning entry – Western Literature (from Glenn Lawrie, Chungnam, South Korea)

• “The easy and comforting roll of the saddle was second nature to Luke, and as he gazed off into the distant setting sun, he wondered whether he had enough change for one more ride at the supermarket before he had to return home.”

Runner-up – Children’s Literature (Julie Jensen, Lodi, California)

• “Mary had a little lamb; its fleece was Polartec 200 (thanks to gene splicing, a diet of force-fed petrochemical supplements, and regular dips in an advanced surface fusion polymer), which had the fortunate side effect of rendering it inedible, unlike that other Mary’s organic lamb which misbehaved at school and wound up in a lovely Moroccan stew with dried apricots and couscous.”

You can see other inspiring 2007 entries at http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2007.htm .

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

Get in touch with us when you see interesting items in the ACDC collection and can’t gain full-text access through information in the citation, or through online searching.  We will help you gain access.

2008-01-12

Six new agricultural communications research reports . Here are reports presented early this month at a session of the Research Special Interest Group of the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) in Traverse City, Michigan:

• Eric A. Abbott and Lulu Rodriguez, “Genetically modified crops in developing countries: a meta-analysis of mass media coverage, public knowledge and attitudes.” Abstract . Contact: eabbott@iastate.edu
• Katie Chodil and Courtney Meyers, “Conversations with gatekeepers: an exploratory study of agricultural publication editors’ decisions to publish risk coverage.” Abstract. Contact: kchodil@ufl.edu
• Katie Chodil, Courtney Meyers, Tracy Irani and Lauri Baker, “Branding the land-grant university: agricultural producers’ and community leaders’ awareness of the tripartite mission.” Abstract. Contact: kchodil@ufl.edu
• Kelsey Hall and Emily Rhoades, “Student publications’ place in agricultural communication curriculum.” Abstract. Contact: hall.700@osu.edu
• Erica Goss Irlbeck, Cindy Akers and Mindy Brashears, “A content analysis of food safety measures on television’s Food Network.” Abstract. Contact: erica.irlbeck@ttu.edu
• Emily Rhoades and Jason Ellis, “Food Tube: online coverage of food safety.” Abstract. Contact: rhoades.100@osu.edu

Please check with the authors if you would like to review full reports.

Getting basic: land, water, assets – and education. World Development Report 2008 cites these four as key instruments in using agriculture for development. “Education is often the most valuable asset for rural people to pursue opportunities in the new agriculture,” according to the report. “Yet education levels in rural areas tend to be dismally low worldwide.”

In this report, “education” was interpreted broadly. It included nonformal training and information services to provide technical and business skills useful in the new agriculture – and the rural non-farm economy.

Posted at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/intwdr2008/resources/wdr_00_book.pdf

Not much interaction on the Web about genetically modified food . If that statement sounds impossible you may find interest in research reported in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication . Using as many as 107 search engines over two stages, researchers Paul Wouters and Diana Gerbec uncovered relatively little interaction.

“The overwhelming majority of results we obtained were postings of information about GM food. Most of these were clippings and articles from traditional media. Even within the domain of discussion and news groups, most hits were less dialogical than they seemed. It is striking how often discussion groups and e-mail forums are used for the distribution of printed articles about GM food. The mountain of information about GM food that we uncovered gave birth to a very small mound of mediated interaction.”

Title: Interactive internet?

Posted at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol8/issue4/wouters.html

A call for more consumer research about meat information systems. An article we have added to the ACDC collection reports findings of a survey among meat purchasers in Scotland. Results revealed that consumer views on meat production varied widely, and that consumers had concerns about food safety, animal welfare and meat purchasing.  Beyond that, consumers showed limited knowledge about the underpinning standards and systems of meat safety (such as food registration, labeling and information available).  Authors recommended “much wider research” among consumers about their understanding of, interest in, and trust in these dimensions of their food supply.

Title: Consumer perceptions of meat production

When bottom-up development becomes top-down . You probably are familiar with the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach in agricultural and rural development. Introduced in the late 1990s, has become increasingly popular, internationally, as producer centered, locally led, problem based and oriented to self-discovery.

However, an article we added recently to the ACDC collection raises a bright caution flag. Marc Schut and Stephen Sherwood cited three case examples in Ecuador of ways in which the FFS approach became eroded. “Supporting farmers to local innovations became technology transfer again, and the farmer-led, demand-driven character was replaced by externally-driven development.”

Title: FFSs in translation

Posted at: www.leisa.info > Magazine > 23(4)

How agricultural communications began: a helpful reminder. Thanks to Bob Kern, emeritus faculty member of Iowa State University, for this report. He says a recent note in ACDC News about long-ago agricultural communications stirred something in his memory.

“Many of us in agricultural communication tend to assume the field didn’t really get started until our medium came on the scene. For me, that’s leaflets, journals, newspapers, etc. But people were sharing technical information long before then, I surmise.

When I was reading for my second language requirement as a Ph.D. candidate at University of Wisconsin (1958), I practiced on a volume of memoir of Napoleon III, the leader credited with razing and rebuilding what thrills us now as the center of Paris. In addition to recounting all the bridges he stimulated, he reported some items tracing to his forebear, Napoleon I. One note especially took my eye–and I still remember it. He recalled that Napoleon I had advised farmers of the day to seek the best methods for culture and husbandry by sending a son to work for six months or more with the best farmer in the area.

That was well before, in the third quarter of the Twentieth Century, Isaac Asimov led off an article with the sentence (probably re-phrased): We will be in the Information Age when we realize that we can move information without moving people.”

Communicator activities approaching

Voices from the Dust Bowl . “These people were dying to sing about their plight,” said Charles Todd in describing his recording experiences in California migrant worker camps during 1940-41. Through a Farm Security Administration program, he and Robert Sonkin recorded songs of rural families who had been forced westward by economic depression and prolonged drought in the Dust Bowl of the Midwest. According to Todd, the camps were full of singers and guitar, banjo and mouth harp players.

You can listen to songs from these camps and review other materials about the plight of those migrant farm workers by visiting the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tsme.html .This site, “The migrant experience,” includes live links to an assortment of recorded songs.

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

When you see interesting items you cannot find locally or online , get in touch with us. We will help you gain access.

2008-01-11

Meet a rural broadcasting “bloke on a bike.” You can track the travels of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) rural reporter who has been broadcasting across Australia from a motorcycle. During the early months of this year, Drew Radford of ABC “Country Hour” has been traveling nationwide “on a quest to find the innovative and the interesting, the clever and the just plain strange in rural Australia.”

He is broadcasting using 3G telephone network technology mounted on a motorcycle.  He also is testing a geo-tag 3G phone, which has a 5 mega-pixel camera. The system permits him to upload geo-tagged photos onto the web from wherever he is. You can hear interviews, see photos and watch videos.

Title: Say g’day to a bloke on a bike

Posted at http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2007/s2156047.htm

Strong support for country of origin labeling (COOL) . We recently added to the ACDC collection a report of survey research about this subject among a sample of residents in New Jersey. About 84 percent of respondents said they would like markets to provide information about country of origin of fresh produce. The Rutgers researchers found that those who were married, self-employed, had higher incomes or possessed more education were more likely to support COOL.

Title: Country of origin labeling of fresh produce

Posted at http://dafre.rutgers.edu/documents/ramu/countryoriginjun_2006.pdf

Is fast-food promotion a significant cause of obesity? That’s a good question, according to results of a diary survey among a sample of Canadian households. Researchers Timothy Richards and Luis Padilla used econometric analysis to examine data that involved more than 5,600 restaurant visits and 262 individual foods chosen over a five-year sample period. They focused on price-promotion strategies and not mass advertising.

Findings suggested that “the principal effect [of price promotion] is to cause fast food consumers to purchase more often, or buy more on each visit. While this is likely viewed as a welcome outcome by marketing managers in the food industry, from a public policy perspective it provides support for those who argue in favor of regulating the marketing of fast food to groups at risk of obesity.”

Title: Promotion and fast food demand: where’s the beef?

100th anniversary prompts many orange smiles. The “Sunkist Smile” has been generating a lot of camera activity throughout the U. S. You can see some of the results on the web site of Sunkist Growers, a cooperative owned by more than 6,000 citrus producers in California and Arizona. Be prepared to see smiles from babies, puppies, Charlie Chaplin, Mickey Mouse, Superman and a host of others.

“Slice and Click” is the theme of this anniversary contest that began during February and ended in mid-May. Contestants submitted photos of themselves online with Sunkist Smiles (orange wedges in their mouths) and 25- to 40-word captions about why or how they enjoy Sunkist citrus.

The Cooperative Communicators Association newsletter, CCA News , explains: “Some of those images will travel worldwide in promotional materials. And later this year, the Sunkist Smile will be featured on the huge display screen in New York’s Times Square.”

Visit the “Sunkist Smile” at www.sunkist.com/smiles/

Caught in the middle: extensionists/advisers and agri-environmental policy. Pressures for standardized, tightly-focused delivery of programs implementing the European Union agri-environmental policy (AEP) may be limiting extension efforts, according to research in England and Finland. Such pressures may also be “failing to bring about the long term shift in thinking and action that will be necessary if farmers are to learn about, and implement, environmental management in any more thoroughgoing sense.”

Those insights come from research findings reported in Sociologia Ruralis . Interviews with extensionists and advisers in those countries revealed two themes:

• In Finland, some advisers’ desire to cultivate the trust of farmers led them to communicate a vision of AEP as foremost an income support measure and only incidentally environmental in scope and purpose.
• In England, particularly, bureaucratic desire to program efficiently through “arms length” management by advisers limited their exercise of professional judgment.

Researchers suggested giving extensionists/advisers a much wider exercise of autonomous professional judgment to achieve outcomes that are tailored to specific settings and sensitive to the preferences and knowledge of farmers.

Title: Interpreting and reinterpreting agri-environmental policy

“Communicating science in the evolving world of social media” is the title of a recent article in Food Insight newsletter from the International Food Information Council.  Blogs, vlogs, RSS feeds, wikis, podcasts and other user-generated content provided through Web 2.0 offer “tremendous opportunity for those willing to step out of their ‘first generation’ comfort zones.”

This article describes new efforts of the Council to communicate science using social media.  It also offers guidelines for operating successfully in this dynamic landscape.

Posted at http://ific.org/foodinsight/2008/jf/socialmediafi108.cfm

Communicator activities approaching

“Stand by your ham” is the title of a lively YouTube video intended to alert consumers to economic problems in the UK pig industry. Yes, it plays on the popular song, “Stand by your man.” A group of pig producers recorded it recently in a London studio. You can view this “new media” effort in rural-urban communications by going to YouTube www.youtube.com , then conducting a site search on the title.

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

When you see interesting items you cannot find locally or online , get in touch with us. We will help you gain access.

2008-01-10

Record-breaking campaign celebrates food that Britain produces .  A news report we have added to the ACDC collection describes results of the national British Food Fortnight campaign that took place September 22-October 7, 2007.  The report gives details about this sixth annual “Buy British” campaign that reached and involved an unprecedented audience.

• Thousands of food festivals, promotions, exhibits and other events took place.
• Media coverage included BBC News, Radio 2, ITV, QVC, every national newspaper and publications covering “an enormous breadth of interest groups.”
• The “Buy British” message was seen or heard more than 300 million times.
• The BFF website received 5.8 million hits and was visited by 340,000 people.
• A volunteer network of 9,000 chefs helped schools teach children how to cook.
• Hundreds of schools organized visits to farms and toured local butchers and greengrocers.
• Food service organizations put British food on thousands of menus in pubs, restaurants and hospitals.

Title: British Food Fortnight

Related article posted at: www.britishfoodfortnight.co.uk/media-area/press-statements/biggest-ever-national-celebration-of-british-food

Facing the risky side of rural journalism. The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) recently reported how some journalists covering rural affairs were swept up in danger and conflict during 2007.  This report was based on research we provided through the IFAJ/ACDC partnership for professional development.

You can monitor the experiences of 12 journalists who were killed, arrested, assaulted or otherwise harassed in their efforts to cover rural affairs in nine countries.

Title: Rural coverage risky (again) in 2007

Posted at: http://www.ifaj.org/news/Web%20feature_Journalistdeaths.pdf

“I believe the song is pretty much the same.” In the previous issue of ACDC News we noted a question on the minds of some retired U. S. communicators. They had been invited to consider speaking at a conference of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) during June. “Have technologies and processes changed so greatly that insights of earlier years now hold little value?” they wondered.  Here are two reactions:

• “I think that while technology changes, the heart of communicating to the various audiences we reach does not.”  (Joanne Littlefield)

• “As a bystander from the many years of participating in and watching Agricultural Communication content and methods, I believe the song is pretty much the same.  The technology used to communicate the messages isn’t the message.  The content may be organized somewhat differently, but the sources and users are still much the same.”  (Bill Tedrick)

Your thoughts also are welcomed.  Send them to us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu . (Note: a panel of ACE retirees is scheduled to speak during June at the ACE conference.)

Passing of a pioneer .  We join others in recognizing the life and contributions of William B. Ward who died April 27 at the age of 90. During 26 years as head of what is now the Department of Communication at Cornell University, he provided national and international leadership in education, scholarship and program development in journalism and communication related to agriculture. The unit he led became one of the largest and most emulated of its kind. His book, Reporting Agriculture , was among the early and influential references for professional education in this field.  International experience during his career included service in the Philippines, Argentina, India, Nigeria, Syria, Indonesia, Guatemala and Honduras.

You can learn more about his career at: www.legacy.com/theithacajournal/obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=108658677

“Acclaimed photo was faked.” That headline from the European Journalism Centre alerted readers to this cautionary tale about ethics in digital natural resource photography:

“An award-winning photograph of a herd of endangered Tibetan antelopes apparently undisturbed by a passing train on the controversial Qinghai-Tibet railway has been exposed as a fake. The image was widely hailed in China as a symbol of harmonious co-existence between man and nature and strong testimony against any adverse effect of the new railway on the animals.”

Title: Acclaimed photo was faked

You can view the report and photo at: http://www.ejc.net/media_news/acclaimed_photo_was_faked

When food consumers fear agro-terrorism. Growing consumer interest in local rather than imported foods is often related to concerns about agro-terrorism, according to research by a team of Rutgers University economists. Their findings revealed that one-third of the consumers they surveyed said the threat of agroterrorism had caused them to think locally when it comes to their produce purchases.  Findings also suggested some specific attributes common among consumers who show such a preference.

Posted at http://dafre.rutgers.edu/documents/ramu/agroterrorism.pdf

Communicator activities approaching

Insights from the lexophiles (lovers of words). We close this issue of ACDC News with some eye-opening insights that involve food, agriculture and communications.  The contributor of them may wish to remain anonymous. With our apologies:

• Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
• He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
• A boiled egg is hard to beat.
• A chicken crossing the road – poultry in motion

Can you add to this sad collection?  Send them to us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu .

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

When you see interesting items you cannot find locally or online , get in touch with us. We will help you gain access.

2008-01-09

Could cloning generate something like the biotech “frankenfood” saga? An article in The Economist addressed that question soon after an endorsement by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration early this year. The endorsement declared food derived from the offspring of cloned cows, pigs and goats to be safe for human consumption.

This article identified three reasons to think that food from clones need not spark the same kind and level of concern among consumers as had the arrival of biotechnology in agriculture more than a decade ago.

Title: Son of Frankenfood?

Posted at: www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10534084

On the birth of Frankenfoods and the power of metaphors. We recently added to the ACDC collection an article in PR Reporter that describes the origin of the word, Frankenfoods. Author Jay Byrne of v-Fluence Interactive Public Relations also explored food-related wording used in verbal battlefields related to biotechnology and organic methods of producing food.

“Language counts,” he concluded.

Title: Attack of the killer labels

Posted at: www.v-fluence.com/home/resources/articles/attack-of-the-killer-labels.html

European citizens express their views about animal welfare . “Attitudes of EU citizens towards animal welfare” is the title of a March 2007 report of research by the European Commission. According to the conclusions:

• There is a considerable interest in animal welfare standards. On average, citizens rated the importance of the welfare of farmed animals at almost 8 on a maximum scale of 10.
• Most expressed some willingness to change their usual place of shopping in order to purchase products more friendly to animal welfare.
• They expressed need for improved information about welfare conditions that lie behind the products seen on shelves. Labeling was identified as particularly important.
• Most said they believe that animal welfare standards in individual EU countries have improved over the last decade.
• Citizens consider farmers to be best-placed to ensure these welfare improvements.
• Television is the source by which citizens said they would most like to receive more information about this subject.

Title: Attitudes of EU citizens towards animal welfare

See the report at: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_270_en.pdf

Communicators offer winning tips for judging dairy cattle. Thanks to staff members at AgriMarketing magazine for alerting us to sure-fire tips for winning the annual Hoard’s Dairyman cow judging contest. These techniques came from the creative staff of Charleston/Orwig, a marketing communications firm headquartered in Wisconsin dairyland.

You can see this video at: http://blog.fieldassignment.com

Go to Archives > March 2008 > Scroll to “Making the grade.”

“It may be time to drop the term ‘precision agriculture’.” Prairie Farmer columnist Willie Vogt offered that thought in a recent issue. He cited a specialist in emerging technologies who suggested that all agriculture is precision agriculture. The specialist was referring to the increased use of technologies for autosteering, grid soil sampling and use of management zones for managing crop fertility.

Title: Rethinking the role of precision

Contact us by return e-note if you would like to see this column.

Nine new agricultural communications research papers . Here are nine papers presented in the agricultural communications section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists. This meeting took place during February in Dallas, Texas.

• “Usability evaluation of an online media resource guide” by Cindy Akers, David Doerfert, Todd Chambers, Kim Cooper and Chad Davis
• “Research themes, authors and methodologies in the Journal of Applied Communications : a ten-year look” by Leslie D. Edgar, Tracy Rutherford and Gary Briers
• “A curriculum for university agricultural communication programs: a synthesis of research” by Tammy M. Ettredge, and Kimberly A. Bellah
• “UF’s [University of Florida’s] scientific thinking and educational partnership: an approach for genetics outreach” by Lisa Hightower, Ricky Telg, Courtney Meyers, Tracy Irani and Maria Gallo
• “A national evaluation of the beef cattle industry’s use of communication channels to obtain information regarding food safety” by Moriah Jennings, Todd Brashears, Scott Burris, Cindy Akers and Mindy Brashears
• “Feeding the debate: a framing analysis of the news media coverage of organic food” by Courtney Meyers and Katie Chodil
• “Examining JAC: an analysis of the scholarly progression of the Journal of Applied Communications ” by Traci Naile, Tanner Robertson and Dwayne Cartmell
• “Louisiana consumer perceptions of environmental practices in farming” by Robert J. Soileau and Joe W. Kotrlik
• “Usability evaluation of the Cotton Economics Research Institution web site” by Samantha D. Yates, Cindy Akers and Erica Irlbeck

You can review these papers at: http://agnews.tamu.edu/saas/saasproceedings.html

Communicator activities approaching

Instant messaging in agriculture . Writing in Southwest Farm Press , Ron Smith observed that a system of abbreviated messages might help farmers as they communicate by instant messaging. Kids do it, he said (e.g., ur for you are). Why shouldn’t busy farmers have a specific language to handle the technical aspects of daily life and work? Here are some of the examples he offered:

Lgf – let’s go fishing

Lgfn – let’s go fishing now

Cro – cows are out

Tnd – truck in ditch

Gtnrn – getting any rain?

Title: Abbreviations might help ag

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

When you see interesting items you cannot find locally or online , get in touch with us. We will help you gain access.

2008-01-08

Creating internet field days . A farmer-driven agricultural organization in Victoria, Australia, is using the internet to keep farm business members posted on progress in crop trials throughout a growing season. An article we added recently explains how the Birchip Cropping Group (BCG) uses “Virtual Agronomy” as a supplement to field days, technical fax bulletins, newsletters and a manual of trial results.

For example, during a recent crop season farmers could monitor progress in a variety trial of canola, monola and crambe. They received written information, along with photographs, video footage and/or audio recordings. So at various stages they could see what crambe looks like, view images of canola and crambe at flowering stages, and observe how crambe produced only one seed per pod.

Title: Internet field days: helping farmers to make better decisions

Visit the BCG web site at www.bcg.org.au

A 20-year review – U. S. news media coverage of biotechnology. We are pleased to add to the ACDC collection a speech on this subject by Jim Webster, president of Webster Communications, Washington, D.C. He spoke on January 16 at a Farm Foundation conference that focused on the second decade of crop biotechnology.

In his experience, the mainstream U. S. news media have done a reasonably fair job of covering the progress of crop biotechnology. He described several factors that have led him to that conclusion. In addition, he identified topics to which he believes media have not given adequate attention. Among them:

• The question of “whether we have the regulatory scheme right.”
• Long-term effect on the wheat industry of the “collective split decision” to resist biotech wheat.
• Environmental and safety impacts of plant biotechnology.

Title: Crop biotechnology going forward: a news media perspective

Does the song remain the same across the years? That question came to the minds of some retired U. S. communicators when they were invited to consider speaking at a conference of ACE (Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences). They wondered:

• How valuable today is the wisdom they gained through their experience?
• “From 16 mm film through Beta and 3/4 tape to the digital age,” have technologies and processes changed so greatly that insights of earlier years now hold little value?
• Or is there a core of enduring professional insight and wisdom that communicators can share? As one communicator put it, “Does the song remain the same?”

Please pass along your thoughts. Send them to us at docctr@library.uiuc.edu

Forty-plus years of change in agricultural communications . We appreciate receiving a radio interview aired during January on the “Georgetown University Forum” in Washington, D.C. It featured more than 40 years of transition in agricultural communications in the U.S. through the career experiences of Larry Quinn, Assistant Director, Office of Communications, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

He described some of the information technologies he has seen and used, beginning with rural telephone service to their Oklahoma farm home during the 1940s. Looking back, he noted, those “party lines” provided his first experience with teleconferencing. His career took him into rural programming via radio, television, motion pictures, satellite live television, video webcasting and beyond.  Communications doesn’t stay still very long, he observed, and he identified several trends and future directions. Check with us if you are interested in this half-hour interview, which is archived in CD format.

Title: Communications in transition

“How thorough is communication in your projects?” Geoff Thompson asked that question of agricultural development associates in a recent article we added to the ACDC collection. He is with the Centre for Alleviation of Poverty through Secondary Crops Development in Asia and Pacific (CAPSA), a United Nations subsidiary. His article addressed the vital role of effective communications in the success of agricultural and rural development programs.

Title: Key issues in research communication

Posted at: www.uncapsa.org/flash_detail.asp?VJournalKey=%20%20%20%20%20590

“Not very thorough” seems to be the disappointing international answer to his question . A background paper for the World Congress on Communication for Development (October 2006) put it this way:

“Despite increasing recognition of the central role that communication plays in promoting agricultural and rural development … national and local rural development plans hardly include communication components and there are limited examples of communication for development services to improve living standards in rural areas.”

This may sound sadly familiar if you are a veteran of communicating about – and within -agricultural and rural development programs of any kind. Thousands of documents within the ACDC collection testify to this challenge. Please let us know ( docctr@library.uiuc.edu ) if you would like to see examples – or can provide examples.

Title: World congress on communication for development

Posted at: www.fao.org/sd/dim_kn1/docs/kn1_060602d1_en.pdf > page 8

Dirty laundry is helping promote cotton . The cotton industry is using a mobile marketing event – “Cotton’s Dirty Laundry Tour” – to attract a new generation of young consumers to cotton.  An article in Southeast Farm Press called attention to the purpose and approach of this “experiential marketing” effort. Last year Cotton Incorporated visited 11 college campuses to involve students in interactive educational games and activities. Among them: cotton origami, denim fit guide, color sort game, cotton fabric trends and a denim drive.

Title: “Dirty Laundry” college tour aims at creating cotton loyalty

Further information about the activity is posted at: www.accesscotton.com

Communicator activities approaching

We close with a theological question of the day . It came to light in this recent headline in a farm periodical:

“Horses’ prayers answered by Kentucky rescue farm”

The article described activities of a charitable organization that takes in unwanted or neglected horses, nurses them back to health and finds new homes for them. At a deeper level, does the headline invite thought about a matter that may hold special interest for agricultural communicators – the communications patterns and prayer life of horses?

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

When you see interesting items you cannot find locally or online , get in touch with us. We will help you gain access.

2008-01-07

New series about boosting rural readership .  During recent months the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists web site has featured a series of articles about ways to attract rural readers.  Uniquely, this series has roots in a set of guidelines described a half-century ago by Donald R. Murphy in a book, What farmers read and like . It summarized findings from more than 20 years of readership surveys and experiments (1938-1961) among farm men and women in two Midwest states.

Our ACDC staff, in producing this series through partnership with IFAJ, invited IFAJ members to review some of those guidelines and evaluate how well they apply today.  Click on these live links to review the reactions and advice online:

“Are guidelines timeless for attracting farm readers?”

“How to create front covers that attract rural readers”

“How to choose subjects and headlines that pull in readers”

“Using color today to boost your rural readership”

“How to use photographs to boost your rural readership”

We extend special thanks to the professionals who contributed to this series and invite any reactions and suggestions you may have.

Traffic light labeling of foods .  If you are not acquainted with this labeling system in the United Kingdom you may be interested in a report we added recently from the Food Standards Agency.  According to the report, a growing number of UK supermarkets and food manufacturers are using traffic light colors on the labels of some products to help consumers make healthful choices.  How does it work?  Each label contains four panels that show at a glance if the food has high, medium or low amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt.

• A red panel in the label means the food is high in one of those nutrients we should be trying to cut down on:  fat, saturated fat, sugars or salt.
• An amber panel means the item is “an OK choice most of the time, but you might want to go for green for that nutrient some of the time.”
• A green panel means that food item is low in fat, saturated fat, sugar or salt.

The more green lights, the healthier the choice.  You can see sample labels in the article.

Title: Traffic light labeling

Posted at http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/foodlabels/trafficlights

Why the internet is no substitute for a library .  Our experience in developing the ACDC collection during the past 25 years has taken us face-to-face with this topic. Internet research helps us find amazing information. Yet from experience we have discovered some limits of it – and some strengths of library collections and services.  So it was a pleasure recently to read a 2007 book by Mark Y. Herring, Fool’s gold: why the internet is no substitute for a library. Herring’s analysis led him to suggest:

“We should be adapting the web as a tool of the library rather than changing the library to fit the web.”

What a day! Staff members of Farm Journal magazine are helping readers share photos of some of their frustrating experiences and activities. For example, a photo in the February issue featured a tractor that had slid into a pond.

“If you’ve had one of those days…we’d love to share it with our readers,” the staff members explained. They invited prints, slides or high-resolution digital images.

You can see an example at: www.agweb.com > Search > “what a day” tailgate

Communication – at the heart of change .  Open, participatory information and communication processes lie at the heart of sustainable human and social development.  That message came through strongly in a 2007 report commissioned by the Department for International Development, United Kingdom Government. The report emphasized how media and effective communication processes are often poorly understood, downplayed, used in fragmented ways and feared by those in power.  However, they are:

• The lifeblood of healthy political processes
• At the heart of good governance
• Fundamental to a vibrant civil society
• A key to efficient, equitable economics

“Helping billions of people currently living in a state of absolute poverty to improve their lives is the greatest challenge facing the world over the next 20 years,” the report concluded.  It suggested ways in which to strengthen communications in that effort.

Thanks to Geoff Thompson in Indonesia for alerting us to this report. Effective work of agricultural journalists and communicators will be vital to success in the challenges it identifies.

Title: At the heart of change

Posted at: www.panos.org.uk/pdf/reports/heart_of_change_web.pdf

Communicator activities approaching

How to stir the creative juices .  We close this issue of ACDC News with a comment by Grant Wood, as reported in a recent issue of the Stockyards Collector .  He created the classic “American Gothic” painting and many others that revealed Midwest folklore and life in the countryside during the early to mid 1900s.

“All the really good ideas I ever had

came to me while I was milking a cow.”

Would you like to see a few examples of Grant Wood creations? Check these sites:

http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/w/p-wood2.htm

www.crma.org/collection/wood/wood.htm

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

When you see interesting items you cannot find locally or online , get in touch with us. We will help you gain access.

2008-01-06