Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. I’m Chuck Zimmerman.

I started in a career of agricultural communications back in 1983 and in all these years it is amazing how much has changed. Technology has played a major role and that includes the ability today to easily communicate about agriculture everywhere in the world. Having said this I’m going to have a conversation with Dr. Owen Roberts. He is a good friend and we first met being involved at events of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists. 

Owen Roberts, Ed.D.

Lecturer and Director, Dr. Jim Evans Agricultural Communications Initiative; Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications program; College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

He is also involved with a new initiative at the University of Illinois’s College of Agriculture. And that’s the subject of this podcast episode.

Plans have been made for a global center for food and agricultural communications and it is named after another good friend, Dr. James Evans. 

The James F. Evans Global Center for Food and Agricultural Communications

That’s the ZimmCast for this week. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

In this week's program I'm going to cover a couple of different topics, although there are some common elements from an educational perspective.

First up is Joanna Guza, Digital Communications Manager, Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative and also volunteer with GMO Answers. We talk about social networking as a tool to reach people about topics like GMOs, especially during Dairy Month. Joanna has some great insight and advice for using the tools we have.

Next I talk with Paul Teutul, Jr., Paul JR Designs and Discovery's American Chopper. Paul built two motorcycles that run on E-85. One bike is for the Sturgis Buffalo Chip and the other for the Renewable Fuels Association. During the project Paul learned a lot about ethanol and shares some of what he learned. The whole project is part of an on-going educational effort by RFA and uses a lot of social networking.

This is why I love my podcast. I get to talk with some awesome people in all kinds of places and about all kinds of topics!