Thanks Andy for this update.
I think any blog that appears to be a personal blog that is funded by any organization needs to be clear about their relationship. While the Feedyard Foodie blog does have a "Funded by The Beef Checkoff" logo, it is below and to the right (not obvious). It would be better served if at the top.
One could also say that the Federal Trade Commission's guidance on endorsements would apply (see http://agtoday.us/lo0Y6S ). I think it is important to be clear and up front about the sponsorship and support in the personal looking blogs. People derive trust from the connections they make. When consumers' sniff test starts to turn bad due to "corporate" influence they will turn against the site and the industry. | Checkoff-funded social media holds potential risks |
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Companies and industry organizations are seeking the best way to turn agriculture’s most credible experts – farmers themselves – into social media superstars. This effort, however, continues to raise interesting, and potentially dangerous, questions about the role of social media in our efforts. |
Last week, however, we learned that producer-funded organizations, including the Beef Checkoff, are now funding the design and launch of producer-owned and operated websites and blogs. From our sources within the industry, we believe the Beef Checkoff is not “paying” producers to blog on an ongoing basis per se, but rather buying domain names, designing, programming and launching sites like Nebraska rancher Anne Burkholder’s “Feedyard Foodie.” |
Let’s be clear about two things: first, this has nothing to do with Burkholder. Quite honestly, I’d never heard of her before she blasted Feedstuffs via Facebook. |
Secondly, Checkoff dollars can and should be used for advertising and marketing beef. Helping producers tell the story of beef production via the internet is clearly part of that mission. It is our job, however, as stakeholders and steak lovers to ask tough questions about these types of practices. |
…especially when so many people so close to this issue are so jumpy about being asked in the first place.
Andy Vance is an agricultural journalist, commentator and entrepreneur who most recently led the broadcast team at Agri Broadcast Network and is an active member of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Vance grew up on a farm in Hillsboro, Ohio, and raises registered Shorthorn cattle and breeding stock. Vance's web site, "The Angle," is andyvance.com. He can be contacted at andy@andyvance.com. |
This is so serious yet contrastingly humorous. Note the speck labeled "Proposed cuts to Republican House of Representatives operating budget" ($35M) on this hugh map of $1.23T (T for Trillion)!
The effort to get the USA's spending will require everyone (>everyone<) to reduce their "cut of the pie". And that will not be easy. I fear that what the article suggests, civil unrest (i.e.; riots) and revolt, may have to occur for there to be real change. It was the most startling of warnings. If the US does not get its finances in order “we will have a European situation on our hands, and possibly worse”, claimed Paul Ryan, the new Republican chairman of the House of Representatives budget committee. |
The failure of the Simpson-Bowles commission to reach the required threshold is what left America’s fiscal fate in the hands of the ordinary political process, from the White House to congressional leaders such as Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate budget committee, as well as Mr Ryan. Turning back to Europe’s debt woes, Mr Ryan declares: “This is not who we are, and this is not the fate that we want to have.” |
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