ACDC Newsletter

Going online for further information. 

Internet users in rural areas (45%) and small towns (47%) were more likely than those in large cities (38%) or suburbs (39%) to go online for additional information about stories they first saw in traditional media. These findings came from a 1996 Pew Research study that we added recently to the ACDC collection. Researchers observed considerable crossover among online users between use of traditional media and use of the Internet. They speculated that rural-urban differences may reflect “the limitations of the traditional media available to [rural and small town residents] locally.”

Reference: Use a title search (“News attracts most”) for the full citation. The summary of findings was posted on: www.people-press.org/reports

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Rural and urban views of wilderness. 

Similar, but quite different. That’s what researchers found in a study of attitudes and perceptions of wilderness in the U.S. Survey findings indicated that both rural and urban respondents expressed a positive attitude toward wilderness and a relatively high degree of environmental concern. However, findings from a photo task revealed that rural and urban residents differed in their understanding of what constitutes wilderness – and perceived the same environment in different ways.

Reference: Use a title search (“Wilderness”) or author search (Lutz) for the full citation.

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Accuracy and appeal of those TV weathercasts. 

Researcher Jeffrey Demas noted recently that television weather has not been studied in a communication journal since 1982. So he analyzed the accuracy of weather forecasts in central Ohio (USA) and interviewed 315 residents of that area. Among his findings:

• Stations were very accurate in predicting within 48 hours, but quite inaccurate in extended forecasts.
• The surveyed residents said they not only rely on the five-day forecasts, but also believe them to be accurate.
• Most respondents said they choose weather forecasts for reasons other than perceived accuracy.

Reference: Use a title search (“Weather accuracy”) or author search (Demas) for the full citation. The research paper was posted (September 2002, Week 1) on:
http://list.msu.edu/archives/aejmc.html

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Looking for agriculture-related literature on weather reporting?

We actively collect documents about this subject because weather information is often critically important to agricultural producers. You can identify dozens of documents if you search the ACDC collection using “weather” or “weather reports” as subject terms on the “Real Search” page. And you will see need and opportunity for more research about this aspect of agricultural communications.

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Surprises off the beaten path. 

It’s always a surprise to see the wide scatter of literature about the communications aspects of agriculture, food, rural affairs and related topics. As you know, we actively search for such literature, wherever it originates. Here are several examples of diverse periodicals from which we gathered articles during recent weeks: Ambio, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, American Behavioral Scientist, Ziff Davis Smart Business, Choices, Economic Botany, Journal of Community Psychology, Public Management, Agroforestry Systems, Expert Systems with Application, Substance Use and Misuse, and Food Policy.

As always, we welcome leads from you. Our limited efforts hardly scratch the surface in identifying and helping make available the global body of information about this important subject.

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We are not alone in struggling to identify literature related to the communications aspects of agriculture. 

After all, what should be defined as agriculture? Agricultural librarians and documentalists have wrestled for decades with this question, globally.

“I find it difficult to bring to mind a single subject that may not be implicated [in agriculture],” D. Leatherdale put it in 1973. According to B. Oviss Oruma in 1987, “Agriculture before the 20th century was understood to be related rather narrowly to farming. Since then, however, documentalists, agriculturists and agricultural researchers have redefined agriculture so generally as to make it unmanageably vast. So broad has agriculture become that it now embraces animal sciences, crop husbandry, forestry, fisheries, human food and nutrition, rural development and sociology, biotic resources, environmental sciences and much more.”

Today, we can add substantially to that list as agriculture is seen to encompass the entire food chain and the public/consumer aspects related to it. And, of course, every part of agriculture involves communications – the other partner concept of interest to us.

Reference: Use a title search (“Problems of information management in agriculture”) or author search (Oruma) for the full citation.

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At the same time, our knowledge base is deteriorating – physically. 

We are continually challenged by reports such as one in 1992 from the National Agricultural Library. The title read, “Study finds nation’s agricultural knowledge in danger.” Findings indicated that more than one-half of the monographs and serials in that important collection were disintegrating. More than one-fourth were brittle at that time, the contents in need of transfer to another medium.

We at ACDC share in the urgency of that mandate. Our role must involve not only helping identify and gather useful information, but also helping preserve it.

Reference: Use a title search (Study finds agricultural) or author search (Norris) for the full citation.

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Risks of reporter specialization. 

What happens when newspapers use specialized reporters on the news staff? Will specialized reporters increase the diversity of media content and help the public become informed about a wider range of public problems?

A research report that we added recently to the ACDC collection provided little support for such a scenario. Instead, researchers concluded: “What specialist reporting provides, these findings suggest, is another mechanism that makes it more likely that elites will be presented repeatedly as experts in news reports.” Findings such as these sound a caution note for agricultural reporters, among others.

Reference: Use a title search (“Specialization among reporters”) or author search (Griswold) for the full citation.

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When consumers get positive and negative messages.

A recent study reported in Food Policy examined how consumers react when they are exposed to favorable and unfavorable information about food irradiation. Researchers reported:

“The surprising result is that when we presented both positive and negative information simultaneously, the negative information clearly dominated. This was true even though the source of the negative information was identified as being a consumer advocacy group and the information itself was written in a manner that was non-scientific.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Experts and activists”) or author search (Hayes) for the full citation.

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Professional activities approaching

April 15-17, 2003
“Keep it fresh.” Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show at San Diego, California. Sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc

June 18-22, 2003
“Farming under the public eye.” Meeting of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists at the Agricultural University of Wageningen, The
Netherlands. Information: http://www.ifaj2003.nl

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

Why the farm press concentrates on conventional agriculture and downplays alternative agriculture.

Pressures from advertisers or other interest groups? Desire to avoid controversy? Lack of reader interest? Results of graduate research by Sharon Wood-Turley suggest another reason. “This study reveals…that the explanation for the concentration on conventional agriculture in the farm press is closely related to the ideological leanings toward the technocracy that prevail among many of the agricultural journalists who write for mainstream farm publications.”

The study involved use of Q-methodology to define the attitudes of a sample of farmers and agricultural journalists, university researchers and government workers. Most members of the farm press fit within a type identified as “Technocrats with Blinders,” that is “enamored with technology.” The author examined implications of these findings and suggested communication strategies “that would lead to more thoughtful, balanced reporting of technological advances in agriculture and to greater coverage of alternatives to those technologies.” Findings also carry implications for those who help aspiring agricultural journalists prepare for their careers.

Reference: On the ACDC “Real Search” page, use a title search (Assessment and comparison of attitudes) or an author search (Wood-Turley) for the full citation.

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Rural communities as forgotten resources.

“Villages: the forgotten resource” is the title of an article written 20 years ago about communications needs in “developing countries.” The author, chief of a United Nations communications unit, sounded a note similar to today’s experience in the U.S. as many rural communities face decline. He argued that local communities hold untapped potentials. Some governments, he noted, were looking toward small industries and other approaches to help rural areas and take advantage of the potentials within them.

“That is where communications will play a big part,” he suggested, especially with training of rural residents and marketing of their outputs. What parallels hold, or might hold, today?

Reference: Use a title search (Villages: the forgotten resource) for the full citation.

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Innovative local uses of new information technologies. 

Here are several examples that we have found in documents added recently to the ACDC collection:

• In India, an experimental network of village centers provides weather reports, produce prices and other local and global information via Internet. Reference: Use a title search (Village-life.com) or author search (Le Page) for the full citation.
• In rural Malaysia, mobile Internet units are used to provide computer training for teachers and students. Reference: Use a title search (Internet on wheels) or author search (Wong) for the full citation.
• In Australia, several kinds of online conversation groups permit interaction of rural and urban women across state and national boundaries. Reference: Use a title search (Voices from elsewhere) or author search (Grace) for the full citation.

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One of the highest adoption rates. 

The global area of transgenic (genetically modified) crops increased 35-fold during the past seven years, according to an annual global review conducted by Dr. Clive James. Commercial transgenic crops totaled 58.7 million hectares in 2002, compared with 1.7 million hectares in 1996. “This ranks as one of the highest adoption rates for crop technologies,” according to the summary report.

Reference: Use a title search (2002 global GM crop) or author search (James) for the full citation. The summary was posted on: http://www.isaaa.org/kc/

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Five mistaken marketing assumptions about biotechnology. 

A recent article in the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology described “mistaken marketing assumptions about biotechnology:”

• “The biotechnology controversy will be forgotten”
• “Science sells and fear fails: people will be biotech advocates once they have the facts”
• “Consumers buy products, not processes”
• “Good for medicine means good for food”
• “Biotechnology education is a trade association issue”

Researchers Brian Wansink and Junyong Kim also suggested some implications for effective consumer education and marketing.

Reference: Use a title search (Consumer marketing of biotechnology) or author search (Wansink) for the full citation. The article was posted on:
www.consumerpsychology.net/insights/pdf/marketingofbiotech.pdf

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Coverage gaps and bias – agricultural and general news perspectives. 

“What agricultural industry communication specialists perceived as important issues in agriculture was different than the pattern of coverage of those issues in popular periodicals.” So concluded Barbara Whitaker in her master’s thesis about coverage of agricultural and food safety issues in the U.S. Content analysis also indicated that the three selected news periodicals (Newsweek, Time and U.S. News & World Report) provided more coverage (62%) of such issues than did the selected agricultural periodicals (Farm Journal, Progressive Farmer and Successful Farming) (38%). An analysis of news bias indicated “both news and agricultural periodicals contained biased reporting.”

Reference: Use a title search (comparison of levels of bias) or author search (Whitaker) for the full citation.

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Other recent research about media coverage of agriculture.

 Are you interested in other recent documents about this lively topic? If so, do “Subject” cross-searches on the “Real Search” page of the ACDC web site, using subject terms such as:
<“mass media” coverage>
<“mass media” reporting>
<accuracy reporting>
<bias reporting>

Some are available in full-text electronic form.

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Pioneering Canadian agricultural communications students.

During late January a group of about 25 University of Guelph undergraduates formed the first international chapter of Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow. It’s the Canadian Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (CanACT) and it is affiliated with the U.S.-based National ACT organization. President Kendra Kelton of Oklahoma State University was on hand to help celebrate this initiative.

Members will use CanAct to “help connect budding professional agricultural communicators with those in industry.” A news report explained that approaching events of the Guelph chapter include discussions with guest speakers about topics ranging from agricultural communications through radio and television to how to get started as a freelance writer.

Reference: Information about CanACT is posted at: http://www.uoguelph.ca/~canact.
Information about National ACT is posted at http://natact.ifas.ufl.edu/

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Professional activities approaching

April 15-17, 2003
“Keep it fresh.” Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show at San Diego, California. Sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc

June 18-22, 2003
“Farming under the public eye.” Meeting of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists at the Agricultural University of Wageningen, The
Netherlands.
Information: http://www.ifaj2003.nl

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

See new agricultural communications research papers on the “New Features” page of this ACDC web site.

You can get full-text copy of nine papers presented recently to the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS). Members met in Mobile, Alabama, during early February.

Reference: On the ACDC home page, click on “Feature Articles” (left side menu).

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Remembering the value of research-based communicating. 

“It was the experiment station and not the agricultural college that has wrought such a marvelous change in the farmers of America toward scientific agriculture,” said Frank H. Hall in 1904. He was speaking at a meeting of the American Association of Farmers’ Institute Workers in St. Louis, Missouri.

Hall explained: “It was my privilege to compare the agricultural conventions of this state…at two periods separated by a decade within which the experiment station became a potent influence. The dominant intellectual and moral attitude of the earlier period was distinctly disputatious and dogmatic. … In the second period the dominant attitude was that of scientific conference.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Relation of the agricultural college”) or author search (Hall) for the full citation.

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Horses and houses in competition. 

A newspaper in the heart of Kentucky’s Bluegrass country helped local citizens find common ground for community development through an award winning series of articles. “Common ground: deciding how the Bluegrass should grow” was the title of this eight-part series published by the Lexington Herald-Leader. “We wanted to get past pat phrases and ideological camps,” explained the editor. The series won first prize for investigative reporting from the Kentucky Press Association.

Reference: For a case report of the effort, use a title search (“Lexington builds common ground”) or author search (Ford) for the full citation. The report in Civic Catalyst Newsletter was posted on:
www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/civiccat/displayCivcat.php?id=256.

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Attitudes of newspaper editors toward agriculture? 

Generally positive, according to the results of a recent study among daily newspaper editors in Arkansas. Researchers found that editors “possessed positive attitudes toward the agricultural industry, although they were less positive about the image of agriculture or about agriculture’s performance in educating the public about the agricultural industry.”

Editors also “agreed that journalists should receive instruction in agriculture and that K-12 students should be required to take at least one course in agriculture.” Researchers offered recommendations for such efforts.

Reference: Use a title search (“Attitudes of Arkansas”) or author search (Cartmell) for the full citation. The research paper was posted on:
http://aaaeonline.ifas.ufl.edu/NAERC/2001/Papers/cartmell.pdf

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Media still struggling to cover biotechnology. 

An article in the December issue of “AgBiotech in the News” explored some of the dilemmas facing mass media as they attempt to cover complex issues related to agricultural biotechnology. Among these dilemmas cited:

• The typical journalistic approach of seeking balance by pitting one side against the other creates problems. Opposing voices selected for coverage may be extreme, or they may be unbalanced in the depth and soundness of arguments they present.
• Some opposing voices may have more resources with which to gain public attention.
• Scientists often don’t want to comment on “hot-button” issues.
• Coverage varies widely from one mass medium to another, and within media.
• There is a tendency for some media “to cast players in over-simplified roles.”
• International differences may influence media coverage of biotechnology. For example, reporting in Europe may reflect more environmental or health concerns than that in the U.S. because Europeans “have lived through a number of food crises and tend to have less faith in regulators.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Odd couple”) for the full citation. The article was posted on: http://pewagbiotech.org/buzz/display.php3?StoryID=87

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The most important form of grassroots communicating in the world. 

It’s community radio, according to Charles Fairchild in a new book, Community radio and public culture. “Community radio is fast becoming the most important form of grassroots communication in the world,” he argued. Why? “…this is due in large part to the strong reactions by many people to the aggressive expansion of specifically American media worldwide, especially in Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

“As corporate entities become increasingly distant and untouchable, local media institutions are developing that are immediate, participatory, and increasingly able to contact and talk to one another. They are no competition for direct broadcast satellites and probably never will be, but they are the only possible institutions that can be controlled and directed by the local population and made to serve their interests, needs and desires.”

Fairchild included some rural dimensions in his thought-provoking examination of media access and equity in Canada and the United States. Examples include the respected Farm Forum programs in Canada and a case study of a community radio station serving native Canadians in the rural Six Nations and New Credit Reserves near Brantford, Ontario.

Reference: Use a title search (“Community radio and public culture”) or author search (Fairchild) for the full citation.

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“Are your livestock depressed?” 

An online commentary from the United Kingdom raised that question recently, in the wake of traumatic disease scares. Commentator Mike Meredith reported on research that described signs of “depression” in farm animals: reduced activity, loss of reactivity, heads drooping, eyes half-closed

“Could it be that stress, or even more specifically ‘depression,’ is at least as important as the infectious agents that we usually focus our disease preventive attention on?” Meredith asked. Referring to a trend toward a more holistic approach to human health — one that involves beliefs and faith along with medicines and surgery — he concluded: “Is there a livestock equivalent of ‘faith, hope, and compassion’?”

Reference: Use a title search (“Are your livestock”) or author search (Meredith) for the full citation. The commentary was posted on:
www.smartgroups.com/message/viewdiscussion.cfm?gid=774210
&messageid=7014

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First specialized agricultural periodical in the U.S. The Horticultural Register was America’s first specialty paper devoted to a branch of agriculture – founded in January 1835. That’s according to Frank J. Holt in an historical analysis of the agricultural press of America, 1792-1850. Holt carried out this research project for a master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin.

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Professional activities approaching

April 15-17, 2003
“Keep it fresh.” Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show at San Diego, California. Sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc

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Who might have known this?

Could today’s scholar in agricultural journalism gain ready access to this kind of insight about the history of farm publishing in the U.S.? This piece of the past came from a master’s thesis. How many master’s theses get distributed widely, summarized in scholarly journals, or otherwise reported for long-term access?

We ask these questions for a special reason – to encourage you to let us know when you see theses or dissertations that are not already in the ACDC collection. Please help us identify and make available these valuable materials that often sit on library shelves, little known and little used.

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

A newspaper’s unique experience covering a farm worker issue. 

Transportation safety problems facing farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley of California prompted the Fresno Bee newspaper to try something new, using the Internet. The result: “Editors, publishers, webmasters, California Highway Patrolmen and California Assemblyman Dean Florez all came together for the first live bilingual forum on fresnobee.com, December 8.” According to a case report added recently to the ACDC collection, 1,500 people “hit” the forum on Internet.

Reference: Use a title search (“forum for all”) or author search (Ford) for the full citation. The report from Pew Center for Civic Journalism was posted on: www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/spotlight/displaySpotlight.php?id=30.

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What is information worth to food shoppers?

Plenty, according to a study reported recently in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Purdue University researchers used a marketplace experiment to learn how shoppers in Mali decided what infant food to buy. “Regardless of income or education, mothers refuse to buy the unknown,” according to the researchers. Findings showed that “a lack of information about food safety is causing many impoverished mothers in Africa to buy brand-name infant food that costs about five times more than the generic brand.” Authors discussed the need for food certification systems, as means of building trust.

Reference: Use a title search (“Ag economist calculates”) for the full citation.

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Rural areas — promising growth sectors for telecommunications in India. 

“…changing the policy environment to create incentives to serve previously ignored and underserved populations is likely to be the fastest and most equitable means of achieving the goal of universal access to telecommunications and information technologies and services throughout India.” That was the counsel of Heather Hudson in a new book, Telecommunications reform in India.

Several of her points:

• Rural demand may be much greater than assumed.
• Rural areas may not be as expensive to serve as is often assumed.
• Rural benchmarks need not be set lower than urban benchmarks.
• Some rural areas may be viable for commercial franchises.

She offered policy suggestions for increasing rural teledensity in India from 0.4 lines per 1,000 population in 2000 to the national teledensity target of 7 per 100 by the year 2005 and 15 per 100 by 2010. Overall teledensity during 2000 was about 3 lines per 100.

Reference: Use a title search (“Lessons in telecommunications policy”) or author search (Hudson) for the full citation.

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What students need in agricultural communications courses.

A national Delphi study conducted by researchers at Texas Tech University identified 76 competencies that are appropriate for high school students who complete courses in agricultural communications. Results showed these competencies fall within 11 topic areas:

• Writing
• Computer/Information technology
• Agricultural industry
• Communications history
• Professional development
• Research/Information gathering
• Ethics
• Public relations/advertising/marketing
• Leadership development
• Legislative issues
• Communications skills

Reference: Use a title search (“High school agricultural communications”) or author search (Akers) for the full citation. The research paper was posted on: http://aaaeonline.ifas.ufl.edu/NAERC/2001/Papers/akers.pdf

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An enduring challenge to ag journalism students (and others). 

“Your work here is to study…nature in her manifold aspects,” said W. H. Burke to 18 class members in the first agricultural journalism course taught at the University of Illinois (Spring 1907). “But when you go out to engage in your life work…remember always and everywhere that the most important thing on earth is human nature; and human nature should be our chief study and the service of man our highest earthly aim.” Burke was a guest lecturer in the new course. He edited The Strawberry, published at Three Rivers, Michigan.

Reference: Use a title search (“Literary side of agricultural journalism”) or author search (Burke) for the full citation.

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You’ve been had! 

Is the title of a recent book subtitled, “How the media and environmentalists turned America into a nation of hypochondriacs.” The author, Melvin A. Benarde, is retired director of the Environmental Issues Center, Temple University. His wide-ranging analysis of what he considers scares and misinformation includes the health aspects of food and diets as well as air quality, nuclear power, hazardous waste and other matters. He cites examples of what he considers poor media coverage.

His central remedy: scientific literacy. “I propose a national campaign of scientific literacy that requires that all students demonstrate an understanding of the workings of science, religion, and pseudoscience. Such demonstration must put the media and environmentalists on notice: prepare for hard, searching questions.”

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

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Pending demise of debated university/corporation partnership. 

A commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle noted “the pending demise” of a biotechnology-related research partnership between the University of California-Berkeley and the Swiss firm Syngenta. “The five-year, $25 million deal, which began in 1998 when the sponsoring firm was named Novartis, became the flash point in a debate about whether university researchers were getting hooked on corporate cash.”

“This will probably delight critics and demoralize supporters of genetically engineered foods, and each side will credit — or blame — the small but vocal group of opponents based in the environmental movement.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Agriculture, biotech mix”) for the full citation. The commentary was posted (December 24, 2002) on:
http://131.104.232.9/agnet-archives.htm

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How about these rules for punctuating?

Some years ago, one typesetter explained his guidelines to a visitor in his printing office: “I set as long as I can hold my breath and then put in a comma. When I yawn I put in a semi-colon. And when I want a chew of tobacco I make a paragraph.” From The Typist.

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Professional activity approaching

April 15-17, 2003
“Keep it fresh.” Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show at San Diego,
California. Sponsored by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).
Information: http://www.nama.org/amc

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions, and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

Framing agricultural (and other) issues better. 

Jan Schaffer, executive director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, has argued that civic journalism can help reporters do their job better by framing stories better. At a workshop in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Schaffer cited an example from the editor of the Wichita Eagle newspaper. The editor described a “classic pro-con environmental story involving Kansas farmland in which his reporter decided to go and find the farmer who was neither totally for nor totally against the proposal, but was in-between.” The farmer as ambivalent, “like most readers.”

“Yet how often do we journalists play up the conflicts – the opposite sides or poles of an issue — rather than report the concerns of most of our readers. I’ll tell you one thing. It’s a lot harder to write about the gray area. We all know how to write the black and white.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Tapping hidden stories”) or author search (Schaffer) for the full citation. The speech was posted on: www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/speeches/s_tapping.html

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New way to promote a farm paper — host a wedding. 

“The P.V. Collins Publishing Company desires the honor of your company at the marriage of the Prettiest Farm Girl in the Northwest to The Lucky Man of her choice.” Where? At the Northwestern Agriculturist Cottage of the Minnesota State Fair. When? September 5, 1907. This wedding involved Mildred Nulph of Wyndmere, North Dakota, and Julius E. Watkins of Walcott, North Dakota.

We don’t know how many guests attended or new readers subscribed.

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Coverage of the recent U.S. farm broadcasters conference. 

Thanks to the National Association of Farm Broadcasters, we have added to the ACDCcollection 10 compact disks that feature program sessions at the 2002 NAFB conference in Kansas City, Missouri. Here are some of the topics addressed in these audio accounts:

• “How to sell farm broadcasting” (Panel of farm broadcasters.)
• “How to buy farm broadcasting” (Panel of agricultural marketing communicators.)
• “How to use farm broadcasting” (Panel of commodity representatives and farm broadcasters.)
• “The Wizard of Ads” (Creativity session that featured David Stanley, managing partner of Wizard of Ads, Inc.)
• “The digital edge” (Professional improvement session that featured web site construction, electronic editing, alternative editing and one farm broadcaster’s use of a web site.)
• “The best care in the air” (Session about organizational change and marketing strategies, featuring the approach used by Midwest Express Airlines.)

Reference: Check with us at the Center (docctr@library.uiuc.edu) if you are interested in these presentations.

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Also – we’ve added 33 remarkable farm radio interviews to the ACDC collection.

They are on audio cassettes in a three-volume series, “Lee Kline’s Iowa Notebook.” Lee Kline selected these interviews from his 40 years of farm broadcasting on WHO Radio, Des Moines, Iowa. He is widely known and respected for his effectiveness as a farm broadcaster – and especially for his creative human interest programming, his unique interviewing style and his emphasis on using sound, functionally. Students of farm broadcasting will find in these interviews some excellent examples of these skills. You can tell from interview titles such as:

“Perry Popcorn Lady”
“Riding in a Glider”
“Mule Power”
“Jumping Tractors”
“Sounds of Farm Machinery”
“The Auctioneers”
“Walking the Beans”

Reference: Contact the Center (docctr@library.uiuc.edu) if you are interested in further information about these three audio cassettes.

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When farmer-owned cooperatives go bankrupt. 

Eyes turn to communicators and educators when the post-mortems come out — suggesting that directors and other shareholders and publics need to be better informed and educated. That was the theme of a recent article in Rural Cooperatives magazine. The article reported on a timely panel discussion at the 2002 conference of Cooperative Communicators Association.

Reference: Use a title search (“Business failures underscore”) or author search (Campbell) for the full citation.

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How farmers prefer to learn. 

Here are the learning styles identified in a recent Iowa State University study among Iowa farmers:

• Active experimentation (learning by doing) seemed to be the preferred learning mode for topics related to physical farming resources (land, crops, livestock, machinery and buildings).
• Abstract learning (by observing others) seemed to be preferred for critical thinking activities such as markets and prices, whole farm planning and financial management.

Farmers in the study also rated the effectiveness of 26 different learning activities and information sources.

Reference: Use a title search (“Assessing the learning styles”) or author search (Trede) for the full citation. The research paper was posted on: http://aaaeonline.ifas.ufl.edu/NAERC/2000/web/g2.pdf

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“Large livestock farms viewed a ‘threat’.”

That title reflects findings from recent research among about 4,000 Ohio residents. Researcher Jeff Sharp of Ohio State University found that one-third said they are familiar with issues pertaining to large-scale poultry and livestock facilities. Among those, 71 percent said they are concerned that the farms pose a threat to Ohio’s water and stream quality.

Sharp recommended more public education about agriculture and more networking between farmers and non-farmers.

Reference: Use a title search (“Survey: large livestock farms viewed”) for the full citation. The report was posted on:
www.agriculture.purdue.edu/aganswers/2002/12-20_Large_Livestock_Threat.htm

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Check our latest “Feature Articles” page.

Labeling of biotech foods is a lively communications topic these days. If you are interested in it, we have identified some handy information for you on the ACDC web site. You will find nine documents (all retrievable in full text) about aspects such as need/value of labels, consumer attitudes toward them and consumers’ use of them.

Reference: On the ACDC home page, click on “Feature Articles.”

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Professional activity approaching

February 1-5, 2003
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) at Mobile, Alabama.
Information: www.saasinc.org

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

Farmers adopting GM crops, but not feeling well informed about them.

In both 2001 and 2002, South Dakota ranked first in the proportion of total cropland area devoted to transgenic corn and soybean varieties among the major U.S. corn and soybean producing states. Even so, fewer than one-half of the South Dakota farmers who took part in a recent survey indicated they were well informed about transgenic crops. Researchers found: “Less than one-third stated that farmers in general have sufficient knowledge, and another one-third suggested that farmers do not have sufficient relevant knowledge, of biotechnology. Nearly a third of the respondents attributed the lack of knowledge of agricultural biotechnology to the difficulty in gaining access to objective information.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Farm level transgenic crop adoption”) or author search (Van der Sluis) for the full citation. The summary in Information Systems for Biotechnology News Report was posted on: www.isb.vt.edu/news/2002/news02.oct.html

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Reporters are “underaggressive” in covering genetically modified foods. 

Marc Kaufman, science reporter at the Washington Post, expressed that view at a recent conference on the role of media in keeping the public informed – or frightened – about the growing presence of biotechnology in food production. “It is unclear to me that the public is getting as much information on this as it should,” Kaufman said. Other panelists noted that the public’s lack of knowledge about this subject is not surprising, given the questions that still can’t be answered, even by experts.

Reference: To see a summary about this conference, use a title search (“Conference looks at role”) or author search (Powell) for the full citation. The summary article in Harvard University Gazette was posted on: www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/12.05/11-biofood.html

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Health claims on food labels often confuse consumers

According to research carried out on behalf of the Food Standards Agency of the United Kingdom. A recent summary from the Agency identified sample sources of confusion on food labels. Here are some of the confusing terms identified, along with comments offered about them:

• Fresh, Pure, Natural “Consumers are dissatisfied with, and distrust, a wide range of [such] marketing terms,” which are not defined in law.
• Lite, Light The law doesn’t say what these terms mean, so manufacturers can use them to convey different qualities of a food, such as texture or calorie content.
• Low fat, Fat-free Such claims “should not be taken at face value.
• No added sugar, Unsweetened “This doesn’t mean to say that the food will not taste sweet, or that it will have a low sugar content.

Reference: Use a title search (“Health claims confuse”) for the full citation. The summary was posted online at: http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/98783. A further title search (“Health claims on food packaging”) will identify detailed findings of the consumer research. This research report was posted at: www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/healtclaims.pdf

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Ag scientists being “harassed.”

According to an article in the Des Moines (Iowa) Register, some university and government scientists studying health threats associated with agricultural pollution say they are being “harassed by farmers and trade groups and silenced by superiors afraid to offend the powerful industry. … The heat comes from individual farmers, commodity groups and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which finances and controls much of the research.”

Reporter Perry Beeman described examples of such pressure and included responses from government and commodity representatives.

Reference: Use a title search (“Political pressure”) or author search (Beeman) for the full citation. The article was posted on: http://desmoinesregister.com/business/stories/c4789013/19874144.html

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Organic foods going mainstream.

“Gone are the days when organic foods were just for a small group of health fanatics,” said e-Brain Market Research in a recent research summary. An e-Brain Online Poll indicated that “nearly every American is not only familiar with organic products, but 58% of the public has purchased a food item labeled organic.” What’s driving this interest? Results of this web-based survey involving a national sample of 1,000 U.S. households point toward:

• Increased awareness of health issues
• Concerns about genetically modified food
• Concerns about chemicals

The summary also reported responses about where shoppers buy organic foods and where price fits into their buying behavior.

Reference: Use a title search (“Americans hunger for healthy options”) for the full citation. The report was archived (December 10, 2002) at: http://131.104.232.9/agnet-archives.htm

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When bad becomes normal (in the minds of those who work with poultry).

“Chicken producers have grown so used to seeing birds in cages with half their feathers missing that they believe it’s normal.” That’s the observation of livestock behaviorist Temple Grandin at a recent meeting cited in The Western Producer. The article by Mary MacArthur reported examples of problems on farms, in hatcheries and in processing plants. “This has got to change,” Grandin argued in her call for changed attitudes and higher standards. “This is absolutely totally awful.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Analyst says poultry growers”) or author search (MacArthur) for the full citation. The article was posted on: www.producer.com/articles/20021212/news/20021212news19.html

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Headed toward “that fiery land.” 

These days, many farm periodicals go to their readers without charge, through free controlled circulation. Subscription payments were more important (often troublesome) to publishers in earlier days of farm publishing. We can get a sense of friction in this short poem from a farm publisher’s autobiography in the ACDC collection. The poem is an editor’s preachment to readers:

The man who cheats his paper
Out of a single cent
Will never reach that heavenly land
Where old Elijah went.

But when at last his race is run,
This life of toil and woe,
He’ll straightway go to that fiery land
Where they never shovel snow.

Reference: Use a title search (“My first 80 years”) or author search (Poe) for the full citation. Page 89.

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Please let us know if you would rather not receive ACDC News. 

As Year 2003 begins we want to tell you how much we appreciate your interest in this e-newsletter. We hope it is helpful and convenient for you. However, we do not want to send something to you that you would rather not receive. So at any time please let us know if you would like to be removed from the list. You can do so by using the Documentation Center e-mail link below.

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Other persons to suggest? 

Also, let us know of associates or other persons you think might like to receive ACDC News through our free e-mailings of it.

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Professional activity approaching

February 1-5, 2003
Annual meeting of the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) at Mobile, Alabama.
Information: www.saasinc.org

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801) or electronic form (at docctr@library.uiuc.edu).

Season’s greetings as we close out 2002.

All of us in the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center send you our holiday greetings. This has been an active, progressive year for the Center as we passed the 20,000-document mark and took other steps forward. More are ahead. Thanks to you for your interest, words of encouragement, suggestions and support.

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Champagne campaign on a beer budget.

That’s the title of a recent summary of one presentation at the Cooperative Communicators Association meeting earlier this year. The account appeared in CCA News. Here are several of the tips that Roberta MacDonald of Cabot Creamery of Vermont offered to communicators about how to “make a modest marketing budget look like a million:”

• Do not spend money on public relations or advertising without research
• Take your goods or services to where “like” people are
• Put the faces and farms of members on center stage
• If there isn’t a contest in your field, make one up and win it

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

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“Maybe an increase in local programming is in order,”

Wrote Ken Root, executive director of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters, in a recent issue of NAFB Chats. He made this observation in the context of the trend toward station mergers, satellite feeds, computer automation and packaged programming. “Technology has allowed multiple stations to be operated with a small staff and the end product sounds great, but many stations have lost their unique local appeal.” He suggested ways in which farm broadcasters can remain “live and local.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Live and local”) or author search (Root) for the full citation.

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His suggestion reminds us of a type of news coverage

Called “basic shoe-leather interactive” – not necessarily “online interactive.”

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How farm broadcasters are adjusting to changes.

We in the Center watch for information about how professional agricultural communicators are adapting to change. Here are a few recent examples that involve adjustments by farm broadcasters. You can identify the following documents by title searches or author searches on the ACDC “Real Search” page.

• A change in the airwaves” by Daniel J. Grant
• Some farm broadcasters switching tune to survive” by Daniel J. Grant
• East” by Rita Frazer
• Stations cut farm news to consolidate” by Charlyn Fargo
• The medium affects the message” by Robynne M. Anderson
• Farm broadcasting beyond the studio”

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You can identify other documents about trends in farm broadcasting

By conducting subject searches and cross-searches on the ACDC “Real Search” page, using terms such as:

Rural broadcasting
Trends “rural broadcasting”
Radio
Trends radio
Television
Trends television

Let us know when you see documents about this subject that are not in the ACDC collection now.

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Media partnering: an example of effective coverage.

In recent issues of ACDC News we have cited samples of weak or shoddy media coverage of agriculture-related matters. We also note, with pleasure, an example of innovative, effective coverage. A report from the Pew Center for Civic Journalism described how four Idaho newspapers and television stations recently cooperated to shed light on the state’s ailing rural areas. The partner media polled rural residents and dug into documents that showed how rural resources were used. Resulting news reports “prompted two public-policy organizations to generate a…conference and a white paper that proposed steps for the state legislature to shore up rural Idaho.” Human stories had the most impact, according to one of the editors involved.

Reference: Use a title search (“Idaho partners”) or author search (Ford) for the full citation. The report was posted online at:
www.pewcenter.org/doingcj/civiccat/displayCivcat.php?id=317

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Something missing in our talk about the future of communications.

 (Like the food in army mess halls.) “In all our talk about the future of communications, content is often the thing that is not discussed,” observed Theodore Peterson in a 1966 speech to the Wyoming Press Association. “We tend to focus on technology, not on what the technology is to be used for. The value of the technological apparatus depends ultimately on the value of the content it carries. The army mess halls that I used to know had the finest stoves and mixers and steam tables in the world; alas, they seemed incapable of turning out edible food.”

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Another question for ag journalism history buffs.

What was the first specialty periodical devoted to some branch of agriculture?
Please forward your reply to ACDC News at evansj@uiuc.edu by January 30.

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Shopping in town – not what it used to be.

Is holiday shopping on your mind these days? Quite a hassle? Well, it seems that shopping was getting complicated long before our time. We close this issue of ACDC News by recalling a poem that appeared in Agricultural Advertising nearly 100 years ago:

“Used to drive up to the store,
Leave the team out by the door,
Trade our truck for calico,
Tea an’ sech; and off we’d go.
Goin’ shoppin’, ‘pears to me,
Isn’t what it used to be.
Nowadays ye’re at a loss
To pick out the real boss.
They don’t stop to tell you jokes.
Never saw sech dressed-up folks.
An’ the goods that they display
Fairly takes your breath away.

Everything’s trimmed up so grand –
Looks to me like fairyland.
An’ the goods you kin procure –
Garden tools and literatoor,
Furniture with spindle legs,
Turkish rugs an’ fresh-laid eggs.
Everywhere you cast your eye
There is things you’d like to buy,
All tired out when night arrives,
Couldn’t stop to save our lives.
With the mornin’s earliest ray
All on hand for bargain day.
Goin’ shoppin’! Gracious me!
“Tain’t what it used to be.”

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu)

Current environmental worries of Americans.

Agriculture-related aspects of the environment are on their minds these days, according to results of a national sample of adults surveyed in the Gallup Poll of March 2002. Following are the top five environmental problems about which respondents said they “personally worry…a great deal:”

• Pollution of drinking water                                             57%
• Pollution of rivers, lakes and reservoirs                        53%
• Contamination of soil and water by toxic waste            53%
• Maintenance of the nation’s supply of fresh water
  for household needs                                                     50%
• Air pollution                                                                   45%

Reference: Use a title search (“Environmental problems”) for the full citation.

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Media in the doghouse? “Maybe we deserve it.”

Hans Matthiessen, president of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists, expressed that view recently in a blistering editorial. Triviality. Banality. Withering civil engagement. “News” talk shows that have “degenerated to tribunals.” Docu-soaps pretending to present reality. News broadcasts that are “a mere disaster.” Simplification. Sensationalism. These were among the concerns that Matthiessen expressed in his challenge: “It’s time for us to rekindle that flame between media and society.”

Reference: Use a title search (“If media”) or author search (Matthiessen) for the full citation. The editorial was posted on: www.ifaj.org/newsletter/index.html

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Recently reported shortfalls in covering food and agriculture.

Here are a couple of the examples that we have seen recently and added to the ACDC collection:

• “Significant gaps in coverage.” An article in Columbia Journalism Review looked at how the media have covered two food safety issues (antibiotics fed to poultry and listeria poisoning) over the past few years. “We found significant gaps in coverage, and with few exceptions, little enterprise reporting or explanation of what an action or lack of one means to ordinary people.”
  Reference: Use a title search (“Food for thought”) or author search (Lieberman) for the full citation. Posted on: www.cjr.org/year/02/5/listeria.asp
• “A little slight of hand” by the BBC. Cited as having referred to a food-related interest group as an independent watchdog.
  Reference: Use a title search (“Media bias”) or author search (DeGregori) for the full citation. Commentary posted on:
  www.cato.org/cgi-bin/scripts/printtech.cgi/dailys/11-02-02-2.html

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Another report of media bias in covering agriculture.

This time it involved the meat industry. And it concerned the New York Times, a newspaper not known for getting it wrong. “Wow,” said Dan Murphy in his recent commentary in ‘The Meating Place,’ “where do we start cataloguing the errors in this story?” He described errors and imbalances in a Times article about proposed guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture involving tests for E.coli at meat packing plants.

Reference: Use a title search (“NY Times twists story”) or author search (Murphy) for the full citation. The commentary was posted online October 1, 2002, at: http://131.104.232.9/fsnet-archives.htm

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You can find other documents about media coverage…

By conducting “Subject” searches on the “Real Search” page. Here are some subject terms you might use:

• Mass media
• Coverage
• Reporting
• Media effectiveness
• Accuracy
• Bias

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“Can TV cooks become food safety celebrities?”

Maybe, said Douglas Powell, scientific director of the Food Safety Network, in a recent commentary. But they need to clean up their act. He and his associates studied more than 160 hours of television broadcasts featuring celebrity chefs.

“Based on 29 hours of detailed viewing, we observed basic food safety errors about every five minutes, especially cross-contamination…and time-temperature violations. Few used meat thermometers. And no one talked about how they ensured the safety of ingredients entering the kitchen.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Can TV cooks become”) or author search (Powell) for the full citation. The report was archived October 17, 2002 at:
http://131.104.232.9/fsnet-archives.htm

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Farm periodicals – “the greatest agency for agricultural improvement.”

J. Clyde Marquis, editor of Country Gentleman magazine, made this observation during 1912 in a report about the social significance of the agricultural press. He pointed to the constant dissemination of information by hundreds of farm periodicals sent by the millions of copies each week to rural homes throughout the U.S. – “without ceasing and with growing force.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Social significance”) or author search (Marquis) for the full citation.

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One of the most respected U.S. agricultural editors died on November 23.

He was Cordell Tindall, 88, long-time editor of Missouri Ruralist (1938-1979) and vice-president of Harvest Publishing Company (1971-1979). A 1935 agricultural journalism graduate of the University of Missouri, he was employed by an Illinois newspaper and by Capper Publications in Kansas before he became editor of the Missouri Ruralist. He served as president of the American Agricultural Editors’ Association in 1964.

An associate, Larry Harper, observed that “Cordell believed you had to have some fun while you were working. He enjoyed writing and writing about Missouri people.”

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Chickens not birdbrains. More than dumb clucks.

Chickens are more intelligent than most people believe, according to researchers at the University of Bristol, England. Findings reported at a recent conference indicate that chickens can learn from each other. They can be taught what food to eat or avoid, adapt their behavior and learn to navigate.

Now, who can break their language code and permit ag communicators really to interact with them?

Reference: Use a title search (“Intelligence of pigs, chickens”) for the full citation. The news report was posted September 11, 2002, on: http://131.104.232.9/animalnet-archives.htm

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu)

Another study in counter-attacktics.

Communicators who follow the agricultural biotechnology “debate” found another spurt of criticism, name calling and number juggling in September. That’s when the UK Soil Association released a report, “Seeds of Doubt,” claiming:

• Use of genetic engineering and biotechnology in U.S. agriculture has been an unqualified disaster.
• It has severely disrupted GM-free production.
• It has destroyed trade and undermined the competitiveness of North American agriculture.
• It is endangering the environment.

Pro-biotech interest groups in various countries responded vigorously, countering those claims and describing the Soil Association report as politically motivated, confusing, misleading, dishonest and containing false notions.

Reference: For some sample references in the ACDC collection, use title searches such as: “Farmers not stupid” and “Let the facts speak for themselves” (posted online September 18, 2002, at: http://131.104.232.9/agnet-archives.htm) and “U.K. report offers ‘little more than confusion'” (posted online at www.lifesciencesnetwork.com/news-detail.asp?newsID=2489). You also can use a subject search (“biotechnology”) to identify other recent perspectives and concerns.

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“…University food scientists need to…speak out on the GE food issue.”

A commentary from the Food Safety Network, University of Guelph, Canada, posed that argument recently. Justin Kastner and Doug Powell said: “When they do not think, when they do not speak out, scientists abdicate their leadership responsibilities and leave students to form their opinions in a sea of websites, conversations rooted in caffeine-stimulated intuition, and conspiracy-theory speculations.” They described and recommended an instructional strategy modeled more than 100 years ago by an agriculture professor at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Reference: Use a title search (“Lecturing and leading”) or author search (Kastner) for the full citation. The commentary was posted September 29, 2002, on www.foodsafetynetwork.ca

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Top health and food concerns of Asian consumers.

A recent survey by ISIS Research among consumers in China, Thailand and the Philippines revealed the following as top-rated food and health concerns:

• nutritional quality
• microbial (germ) contamination
• animal diseases that may be passed to humans

“Biotechnology foods was rated as the issue of least concern.”

Reference: Use a title search (“What citizens in Asia”) for the full citation. A news release about this study was posted by the Asian Food Information Centre at www.afic.org.

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Americans on a mission to lose 20 pounds (but not to diet). 

A survey early this year by NPD Group revealed that nearly two-thirds of American adults wanted to lose 20 pounds. That was up from 54 percent in 1995. However, if history is any indicator, only about 25 percent began the year on a diet. Furthermore:

“Even though weight is on the minds of more Americans, Eating Patterns in America respondents are less concerned with fat, cholesterol, salt and other nutritional issues than they were in the ’90s.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Americans are on a mission”) for the full citation. This summary was posted on: www.npd.com/corp/content/news/releases/press_020103.htm

When food shoppers enter a dirty-looking store.

More than half (52 percent) would leave a dirty-looking grocery store immediately without buying anything. Nearly three-fourths (74 percent) would immediately leave a dirty-looking fast food restaurant. These reactions were identified during August in a national U.S. survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation International. In addition:

“Grocery store and fast-food patrons spread the word about dirty conditions as well. In fact, a vast majority (90 percent) of those surveyed said they would tell friends and family not to patronize a grocery store or fast-food restaurant they found dirty.”

Reference: Use a title search (“New national survey uncovers grocery”) for the full citation. This news release from PRNewswire was posted September 18, 2002, on FSNet and archived at: http://131.104.232.9/fsnet-archives.htm

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“Online surveys that any communicator can do.”

Members of the Cooperative Communicators Association got ideas about online surveying when they attended the annual CCA meeting earlier this year. The ideas came from Ron Levesque, member relations supervisor for Co-Op Atlantic, based in New Brunswick, Canada. He explained how he and his associates use Microsoft FrontPage to invite subscriber feedback, then use FileMaker Pro to convert the results into something they can calculate and display.

Reference: Use a title search (“Online surveys”) or author search (Levesque) for the full citation.

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Lying to the end.

Early farm journals (and other kinds) tried to lure readers and advertisers by claiming circulation levels “far in excess of the truth.” You might appreciate this example from a 1885 issue of Western Plowman:

“The editor was dying, but when the doctor placed his ear to the patient’s heart and muttered sadly: ‘Poor fellow, circulation almost gone.’ [the editor] raised himself and gasped: ‘Tis false! We have the largest circulation of any paper in the country!’

“Then he sank back upon his pillow with a triumphant smile upon his features. He was consistent to the end – lying about his circulation.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Eastern and Midwestern Agricultural Journalism”) or author search (VanDerhoof) for the full citation.

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Question of the Day – too tough.

It’s not surprising that no one correctly answered the question we raised in Issue 02-20: “What was the first attempt to form an association of agricultural editors in the U.S., and when?”

No, the American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA) was not the first such group formed. According to an item in the February 1969 issue of the AAEA Newsletter:

“…the first recorded attempt to form an association of Agricultural Editors came about 1858 when the editor of the AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST called a meeting in connection with the annual American Pomological Society. An organization was formed with H. P. Byram of the Valley Farmer, Louisville, Kentucky, as President, and Orange Judd of AA as Secretary.”

Whew. That’s much earlier than we would have guessed.

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu)

Challenges to farm publications (from nearly 40 years ago).

Advertising agency executive Bob Palmer offered these predictions about farm publications when he wrote in a 1963 issue of Agri Marketing magazine:

• Advertising copy will become highly technical and media selection will be acutely affected.
• Agricultural advertisers “will be deeply involved with the selection of those media that reach – and more importantly, influence – their primary market – the one-third of all farmers who will control all but 10 percent of the business.”
• Consumer goods advertising in farm publications will decline rapidly.
• Good farmers will need all three types of information: specialized, state (translate national into local application) and national-regional.
• By 1970 fewer wives will be assistant farm managers; traditional women’s pages will create “an inconsistency of presentation which will seriously inhibit the development of your businesslike image.”
• Subscription prices “must be high enough to guarantee that a publication is truly important to subscribers.”

Reference: Use a title search (“A challenge to farm publications”) or author search (Palmer) for the full citation.

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And today? Tomorrow?

Results of a recent survey among 2,418 U.S. farmers identified agricultural magazines and newspapers as their first-ranked medium for continuing education and for awareness of new products, equipment and suppliers. Findings also indicated that 58 percent believe agricultural publications will be “more important” or “much more important” in the next 3-4 years. Only 8 percent said they believe ag publications will be “less important” or “much less important.” This pattern held across farmers of all ages, according to the findings by Martin Akel & Associates in an independent study sponsored by the Agri Council of American Business Media (ABM).

Reference: Use a title search (“Adoption of agricultural brands”) for the full citation. We have added a paper copy of the report to the ACDC collection. In addition, the report was posted on the ABM web site:
www.americanbusinessmedia.com/councils/agri/index.htm

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New resources for research about agricultural publishing.

We are delighted to report that the historical materials of the Agricultural Publishers Association (APA) are finding a home in the University of Illinois Archives. APA officially dissolved as an independent organization during October and became the American Business Media (ABM) Agri Council. The APA materials will be processed into the University of Illinois Archives during the months ahead. During that process we in the Center plan to review them and identify for ACDC searchers those documents that may hold broad interest for researchers, students, teachers, practitioners and others. By so doing we can help expand the access and usefulness of information in the APA Archives.

APA materials seem especially relevant to the University of Illinois Library, which contains one of the most extensive research collections of U.S. farm periodicals.

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What it takes to live 100 years.

 In the previous issue of ACDC News we noted that Successful Farming magazine is observing its 100th birthday. If you, your students or others want to learn more about the keys to this unusual achievement, we may be able to help you do so. The ACDC collection contains dozens of documents about the origin and progress of Successful Farming, as well as the philosophies that have guided it. You can identify such documents through “Subject” searches on the “Real Search” page, using terms such as:

• Successful Farming
• Meredith
• “farm journals” history

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Planning to call a CEO this evening?

“You wouldn’t call a CEO of a company in the evening and expect him to respond,” said farmer panelists at an Agricultural Relations Council meeting during September. Similarly, they argued, evening phone surveys directed at farm homes are unprofessional. Members of the panel also offered other suggestions about how agricultural firms and organizations can communicate with – and for – today’s producers. A summary of the panel discussion appeared, along with other meeting highlights, in a special edition of ARClight Newsletter.

Reference: Use a title search (“Producer panel provides”) for the full citation. The issue was posted online at:http://www.nama.org/arc/arclight/september/02/special.htm

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Consumers confused about nut labeling.

“Labeling of products that may contain nuts is inconsistent and often confusing,” according to a report from the Food Standards Agency in the United Kingdom. The report noted that consumers with nut allergy have to be extremely careful that the food they eat does not contain nuts and is not contaminated with nuts during production. “But the new report…shows that manufacturers use a wide variety of phrases to describe traces of nut contamination and the warning is often difficult to find on labels.”

Reference: Use a title search (“Nut labeling”) for the full citation. A summary of the report was posted on:www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/nut_labels

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Best predictors of nutrition label reading.

Results of a national study reported in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association identified these attitudinal factors as strongest predictors of label use among adults:

• Believing in the importance of eating a low-fat diet.
• Believing in the association between diet and cancer.

Label use was significantly associated with lower fat intake, but not with the consumption of fruits and vegetables. Researchers also examined demographic characteristics and health behavior of label readers.

Reference: Use a title search (“Use of food nutrition labels”) or author search (Neuhouser) for the full citation.

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Slim odds of dying from food.

According to the National Safety Council, the odds during 1998 of Americans dying from consuming food and poisonous plants were 1 in 90,082,667. Lifetime odds are 1 in 1,174,481. “In most states, you have a better chance of winning the lottery than of dying from bad food,” observed a recent Lean Trimmings item that reported these findings. The most recent data, compiled from statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, are from 1998.

Reference: Use a title search (“What odds”) or author search (Kernellu) for the full citation. The news item was posted on FSNet (September 4, 2002) atwww.foodsafetynetwork.ca.

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Some recent reactions from Documentation Center users:

• “I’ve found it to be very helpful. Lots of good information and a great links page.”
• “Your news looks like a great resource.”
• “Congratulations to the founders and those who have done the work necessary to collect and make available 20,000 documents. Mind boggling.”
• “Thanks for another excellent ACDC News.”
• “…really appreciated your good advice and information.”
• “Thanks for your help.”
• “An especially rich collection of materials…”

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Do pigs discuss flying?

From G.K. Chesterton: “I have myself a poetical enthusiasm for pigs, and the paradise of my fancy is one where pigs have wings. But it is only men, especially wise men, who discuss whether pigs can fly; we have no particular proof that pigs ever discuss it.”

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Best regards and good searching.

Please pass along your reactions, questions and ideas for ACDC. Feel free to invite our help as you search for information. And please suggest (or send) agricultural communications documents that we might add to this unique collection. We welcome them in hard copy (sent to Ag Com Documentation Center, 69 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801) or electronic form (docctr@library.uiuc.edu)