Adobe Dreamweaver

I’ve recently been taking a Web design class to refresh my Dreamweaver and HTML skills, and I’m learning a little more about how to integrate Fireworks, Flash, CSS, PHP and MySQL into Web projects. Here’s the thing: even after the four-month class, I’ll still know only the very basics. I’ll probably never do any programming on a professional level. I’m enjoying what I’m learning, but in a couple of years, from lack of direct practice, I’ll probably forget 80 percent of it (and frankly, assuming I’ll retain 20 percent represents a certain optimism on my part.)

So why do I bother? As a writer and editorial consultant who spends increasing amounts of time working on Web-based projects, I’m betting that keeping my technical skills fresh will help keep me employed.

Other writers, journalists and marketing communications professionals should take note here. As my instructor nicely put it, to become a leader in the communications profession, you’re going to need at least a basic idea of how Web sites work. You may be good at developing content or planning marketing campaigns, but when it comes to implementing any of those projects on the Web, you’ll probably be working with teams of designers, coders and perhaps even usability specialists to get the job done. Knowing the basics of Web technologies will help you communicate better with these technical experts, and if you’re leading the team one day, this knowledge is essential.

In addition, I think knowing something about the technical details of what can be done and how it gets done boosts idea generation during the creative process, and I know from experience that these skills also come in very handy when using blogging applications or other content management systems.

Most communications pros know a bit about the technical details of print design, the print production process, paper types and distribution methods, and they probably consider this knowledge essential to being a professional. Why should the Web be any different?

AgWired Blog Screen Shot

Brief, informal thoughts on some agricultural industry blogs that I like and some food for further thought. Have some additional opinions on the subject? Leave a comment below, or let me know by e-mail.

Best use of a variety of new media tools

Ag Wired. An interesting hybrid journalism/PR/paid content blog that’s skewed towards white-collar marketing types that work in the agriculture industry. It’s got content, content and more content, and these guys are using everything available to them, podcasts, photo streams, video clips, Twitter, Twitter chats and more. Bonus points for organizing all this into a usable design. Result? If you’re in their target audience, you’ve probably heard of the Zimmermans.

Best analysis

Fresh Talk blog. The national editor of The Packer, a trade publication aimed at the produce industry, goes deep into his niche and uses his long-time industry experience to post analysis and content that you can’t find anywhere else. I highly suspect University of Illinois’ Farm Gate could vie for best in this category as well, but I don’t read it as frequently.

Best corporate blog?

Dosatron. I love the concept of this blog, especially the posts that show unique ways to use the company’s products. The practicality appeals to me. And they illustrate the concepts with on-site photos. It’s a fairly new blog, and they haven’t posted a massive amount on ag or hort, but I’m looking forward to seeing more from these guys.

Getting into the game yourself?

For corporate blogs: Think hard about your intended audience. Are they really interested in hearing about John Doe’s appointment to middle management? They might be, but remember to think critically when you’re looking for topics. Give your audience a reason to come back to your site or to continue opening your e-mail newsletter. Give them something they can use.

For journalistic or content-focused blogs: Are you really putting some effort into it and not just re-hashing your Google news feed? (Been there, done that. It works to a certain extent, but if that’s all you have to offer, you aren’t doing squat to build a long-term relationship with your audience.) Frequency is important but quality, original content is key. A balance of both shows you’re serious and builds traffic and your online reputation. 

First Lady Michelle Obama joins kids to help harvest vegetables from the White House Kitchen Garden.

A good bit of my writing and communications work has involved the agriculture industry. I started in this line of work about a decade ago, but it’s only been recently that anyone at social gatherings seemed to be even remotely interested in what I did for a living.

I’m not sure to what degree this indicates a national phenomenon, a local movement or that I’m somehow improving on previously poor conversational skills. I find the last unlikely, so I’m inclined to ascribe this moderate level of new-found popularity to the first two.

It seems as if everyone is talking about food and agriculture these days (to prepare for your next party, see popular subjects Omnivore’s Dilemma, Food Inc. and/or the Obamas’ White House Garden.) It’s also interesting to note developments on a more local level, such as the recent developments at the Agroecology Minor Program at nearby land-grant university N.C. State. (See this recent article on the school’s program in Edible Piedmont, a new magazine about local food in my region of the country.)

A friend recently invited me to a charcuterie class at the Raleigh Whole Foods. This was the first time I had been to the Raleigh store, although I had known it to be a popular lunch spot for many of my colleagues over the years. The place was packed with customers, and it surprised me to hear that the Raleigh location is a leader or strong No. 2 in sales for many product categories amongst the chain’s southeastern stores. I was also struck by the number of people in the class who were genuinely interested in where their food came from, not to mention the number who, unlike me, already seemed to know what charcuterie meant.

Whatever you call it—alternative agriculture, slow food, the sustainable food movement—I’ve never seen the subject rise so high in general public discourse, as well as in the social circles I run in. As for the surging local interest, I don’t know if this is a reflection of the larger national trend or if a lot of people in Raleigh are especially into this stuff.

I’ll be sure to ask at the next party I’m invited to. Look to hear from me on the results in at least the next couple of years.

So you may have seen a few of my twitter posts on the new Google Voice service. A couple of weeks after my request, I received my invitation to set up my Google Voice number. After playing with it for an hour, I saw that it could have a number of benefits for journalists and other communicators:

• It doesn’t cost anything to use the service or place calls within the U.S.
• It’s easy to use.
• It allows you to set up a central number that will ring any or all of your various phones–work, mobile, home. Great for roaming journalists waiting on a call back from a source.
• Pressing “4” on your phone during a call will start recording a call after notifying both parties. The call recordings are sent to your in-box for playback or download. I tested it and it works well.
• For those of us who conduct interviews by phone with international sources who don’t use a free service such as Skype, check out a selection of these cheap per-minute rates to other countries (prices in U.S. dollars.)
  • Canada $0.01
  • China $0.02
  • Germany $0.02
  • India $0.07
  • Russia, St. Petersburg $0.03
  • South Africa $0.06

There’s probably a number of other advantages you could find as you get more into it. There are a number of companies that offer these types of services, but I haven’t seen one that offers so many, in one place, in an easy-to-use format, that’s also free of charge (with the exception of international calls.) It’s worth checking out.

The Hansen Writing Ball, which went into commercial production in 1870, was the first commercially sold typewriter.

As promised, I’ve been reformatting the blog and Web site for a few weeks now. I’ve been pretty much absent from the blogging world for the last two years. I did a stint in public relations, working at agencies for crop protection companies such as Syngenta and BASF. I was never prohibited from blogging, both of the agencies I worked for seemed to encourage it, but it felt somewhat like a conflict of interest to be reporting on the business of agriculture while I was in those positions, so I didn’t post much.

Right now, I’m freelancing, doing both public relations and journalistic writing, which leaves me with more time and freedom to post. (I’ll mark my writing with full disclosure should one of the subjects I cover overlap with the work of a client.)

I would also like to use this time to pursue some additional interests on the blog. Prior, my posts had been limited mostly to news about the world of agricultural biotechnology because I was interested in the subject and was using my blog to explore the viability of a trade publication aimed at that market. I’m still interested in agricultural biotechnology and will continue to write about it from time to time, but I would also like to explore other topics as well. I’m interested in the agriculture business in general and how an agricultural product makes it from the field to final consumer product. I’m also interested in closely allied industries, such as the lawn and landscape industry, and the public perception of agriculture and related industries.

So look for more posts on these expanded topics and a few posts on journalism, public relations and my worklife as well. This scope may prove too broad to manage appropriately, so this may be subject to change, but if it does, I’ll let you know.

Another excellent blog from my friend Taco Tuinstra at Tobacco Reporter magazine. This time, Taco is back in Africa, following a shipment of Malawi burley tobacco as it makes it way from the Lilongwe auction floors to the port of Beira in Mozambique.

Entertaining in itself, but also an interesting look at how a raw agricultural product travels through the logistical chain in this part of Africa.

http://www.movingtobacco.blogspot.com/

One of my favorite sources for agricultural biotech information, Checkbiotech, has changed the appearance of its Web site and added new coverage to include news coverage of biofuels, alternative energy, life sciences (in Switzerland only, it appears) and orphan.

While I like the look of the site, I hope that they continue their outstanding newsgathering of ag-biotech articles and related e-mail newsletter.

For more about the change, see their press release on Growers for Biotechnology>>

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the surge in corn demand, Monsanto has raised its annual profit forecast after second-quarter earnings rose 23 percent. Increased planting caused Monsanto to sell out of its “triple-stack” seeds.

But, more surprisingly, is that Monsanto’s gain, the largest one-year gain ever, may allow the seed maker to pull even or pass DuPont’s Pioneer unit in U.S. corn, according to this Bloomberg article.

Bayer CropScience announced Friday the completion of two acquisitions that advance the company’s strategy in expanding its cotton seed business. In separate transactions, Bayer CropScience purchased the assets of California Planting Cotton Seed Distributors, Bakersfield, Calif., and the assets of Reliance Genetics LLC, Harlingen, Texas. The combined price for the related transactions amounts to about US$ 20 million.

Read the rest of the press release here>>