ACDC News – Issue 99-01

Happy new year from all of us in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center. May you have a fine year ahead.


 New study on attitudes about biotechnology in Japan.

We recently received the following report of a study designed and analyzed by a researcher at North Carolina State University:

“Japanese consumers’ awareness and attitudes about biotechnology”
June 1998.  20pp.

The project, sponsored by Monsanto, involved telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,000 Japanese consumers.  It paralleled a similar study conducted three years earlier.  Among the results:

  •  Support for agricultural biotechnology tends to have risen between 1995 and 1998.
  • Awareness of biotechnology among Japanese consumers remains low.
  • Overall, consumers continue to trust independent, scientific experts.  Trust of government agencies has dropped since 1995.
  • Japanese consumers who were better educated were more positive about biotechnology.

Contact us if you would like more information about the study.


“Connecting the Country” conference in Australia.

Several Australian organizations sponsored a rural communications conference on September 28-29, 1998.  It explored the uses and potentials of new communications technologies and services in rural and regional Australia.

Organizers included the National Farmers Federation, the Communications Law Centre and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.  Here are some of the topics addressed:

  • “Rural and regional communications: the debate”
  • “Agriculture and the Internet”
  • “The future: key questions for rural and regional communications”
  • “Launch of the National Landcare Information Service”

You can view some of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation coverage of this conference at the following web site: www.abc.net.au/rural/connect


 U.S. farm broadcasters really gathered. 

More than 1,000 people attended the National Association of Farm Broadcasters convention on November 11-15 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The December issue of NAFB Chats newsletter reports that highlights included “a full house at Trade Talk, professional improvement sessions, marketing and promotion activities, and lively voting member business sessions.”


 More survey reports available on food safety.

We reported in Issue 98-15 having received a copy of the “1998 CMF&Z Food Safety Survey.”  The survey is conducted each year in conjunction with the Industry Council on Food Safety, a restaurant and food service industry coalition.

Now, through help from CMF&Z Public Relations, the Documentation Center also has copies of the national food safety surveys conducted during 1995, 1996 and 1997.


Special thanks to Carol Bodensteiner

President of CMF&Z Public Relations, for this contribution to our growing collection of literature about food safety communications.  And congratulations to Carol.  The Business and Professional Women of Des Moines, Iowa, recently honored her as “Business Woman of the Year.”


Congratulations to Frank Byrnes

Senior associate of Winrock International and widely recognized leader in international agricultural communications.  The College of Agriculture at Iowa State University honored him during October with the Henry A. Wallace Award for outstanding service to agriculture at the national and international levels.

You can find some of his professional literature in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, using an “author” search.  He recently contributed materials to the Center, as a way in which to make them more widely available.


Let us know if we can help you announce a meeting or event related to agricultural communications.

Contact:  Jim Evans at evansj@uiuc.edu


Unforgettable letters to Santa.

The U.S. Postal Service features on its web site what it describes as “unforgettable Dear Santa” letters that come to its attention.  We close this issue of “News and Announcements” with a letter written to Santa by a six-year-old:

“I want a racecar.
I want a electronic motorcycle racecar.
I want a lot of love.”


Best regards and good searching. 

Please let us know if we can help you find information and/or if you can suggest documents that we might add to this collection.

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