My Take On The Yahoo Story on Ag

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By now most of us have read the recent Yahoo article regarding useless college degrees. Topping the list was a degree in agriculture. The 4th useless degree was animal science. The author points to data from the US Department of Labor that projects a net job availability decrease of 64,000 jobs in agriculture over the next 7 years.

The natural first reaction (if you work or are studying agriculture) when confronted with this is to become a little offended. How can someone so removed from agriculture call what I spent (currently spending) my entire college career studying useless? We can’t survive without food. The nerve of that guy, right?

Well, I see it completely different. I am not offended. All the author was doing was taking data from the Department of Labor, that does indeed show job declines, and then correlating that to the ability to find a job based on said major. I don’t see it as a personal attack, and I certainly don’t believe that the author is trying to be disparaging toward agriculture. It is just data.

We need to take a step back and remember that we don’t need to defend our degrees. We need to show our passion for the field that we love so much. We need to be transparent in how we operate and why. We need to continue to reach out and engage the public.

At the end of the day, maybe it will be harder to find a job as a farm manager over the next 7 years. It could be just as difficult to find a job in business development or graphic design or whatever. I still believe you should pursue your passion. And we all know that there are plenty of other roles besides farm manager!!

I am proud to be involved in agriculture. I am proud to provide services to farmers and others in food production. I am proud to be an #agnerd. I am proud to be “useless.” How does that sound all you “useless” aggies!!!!

5 Reasons Why Wireless Access Is Integral To Agriculture

I just finished reading a short article in Fast Company that discussed President Obama's push to make Wi-Fi more accessible to rural areas throughout the United States. I applaud this initiative and hope it gets the support it needs on The Hill.

In today's world of agriculture access is critical. Making the right decision is crucial to continued farm profitability. One sub-par choice like entering a field when it's to wet, planting to early, or applying fertilizer to late/early can heavily impact the bottom line in the downward direction. This is bad for the companies providing custom services to the farmer, bad for the farmer(s) who work tirelessly to supply us with food, feed, fuel, and fiber and can also be bad for the consumers if this leads to further consolidation in the marketplace led by decreased competition. Here are 5 reasons I think Wi-Fi everywhere is good for agriculture.

1.) Access Information Anywhere - We all know that farmers are traveling more and more to spread the word about the benefits of a healthy agriculture system. And crops are not malleable in their timing. When it is time to plant, it is time to plant. When it it time to do anything related to crop production, it is time and the window of opportunity is small. So having access for the on the go farmer is of utmost importance. Being able to hop on the web with a smart device will allow farmers to obtain the information they need to make the best decision for their farming activities

2.) Knowledge Sharing - With the rise of social media, more and more farmers are sharing information about their activities. This "real-time" sharing of information is helping other farmers throughout the growing season make better decisions and plan for future activities. For example, if you know a heavy rain is coming because Jim just posted a tweet, sent you a text message, or posted it on the social web, then you can plan accordingly and move your equipment where it needs to be.

3.) Agvocating - As we all know, the conversation about food has been elevated to a place where everyone is engaged. As such, there is a ton of misinformation out there. Having ubiquitous access to the web will allow farmers and ranchers to share their story not only from the office, but the field as well. Consumers want to know where their food comes from and who produces it. A direct connection to the farmer, even virtually, will enhance the trust between consumer and farmer and help build this much needed bridge

4.) Small Business Growth - We all know the the lifeblood of economies around the world is the small business. And the days of desktop applications are numbered. There are already a number of companies looking at their web-based strategy as well as a number of start-ups utilizing the web to deliver their service (shameless plug - My start-up is doing this). Increasing access to the web allows more companies to provide the level of service farmers and ranchers need to be successful in todays agricultural system as the market increases with increased access to the internet. The larger the market, the more opportunities available for entrepreneurs to form new companies and create more well paying jobs.

5.) Data Acquisition - It's all about the data folks. Data is what drives decisions, even the absence of data! At this point it is quite difficult to collect all the data we would like, at the resolution we need, to really make data-driven decisions. If we do collect the data, it is cumbersome and very time consuming, not to mention the possibility of errors. The more and more we increase access to the web to transmit data back to a smartphone where decisions can be made, the more profitable a farming operation can become. As OEM's work toward building sensors and telecommunications companies work toward access everywhere, we can work on how this real-time data can be used. Can anyone say agronomic, soil, and weather models? I sure can.

As I look toward the future, I see multiple data sets being integrated into a service to enable sound business decisions aided by stellar applications delivered over the mobile web.

What do you see? What benefits to agriculture do you see with increased access to the mobile web? Let us know in the comments.

Regards,
Nate J. Taylor
(814) 441-1867
natesuetaylor@gmail.com

Interested in more of my gibberish? You can follow me on Twitter @natejtaylor

Photo Credits
Flickr User Claudian-
Flickr User james_clear
Flickr User ShowGood

A Rumble With The Wrong Group

Today was like any other day. Frigid temperatures outside, tons of work to do to get the startup I am involved in up and running, kids basketball and swimming practice, a crazy amount of errands that seem impossible to complete, and an insane amount of data integration from multiple spreadsheets and databases.

And then there is this.

By this, I mean a blog post by Nathan Winters (@follownathan). In this post it is stated that The AgChat Foundation is as follows:

 ....Hide behind and exploit the American Farmer at any cost.

 I am all up for a discussion and debate about the US food system; inadequacies included. And there are certainly inadequacies. A food supply chain is complicated enough at the local level and the complexities compound exponentially once we hit the global agri-supply chain. But the notion that the newly formed Agchat Foundation is hiding behind and exploiting the American Farmer is...how should I put this...false seems to be fitting. And naturally the comments section is full of folks that have yet to engage the foundation directly. Or if they have, it is already from a position of  "I know what I know" so all discussions just serve to further their view point. Hey, if all you have is a hammer, everything you see is a nail, no? Sure does make it easy and simple, and not the simple we should strive for on the other side of complexity.

Complexity is easy to talk about

Speaking of simplicity and complexity, The Agchat Foundation has reached the simplicity level, thus the angst. It is easy to deal in complexities and very hard to deal in simplicity. The purpose and mission of the foundation is clear - empower farmers to share their story through social media. It doesn't say, implicitly or otherwise that it is for "large" farmers to share their story, organic farmers to share their story, grass-fed ranchers to share their story, or any of the other farming designations. It is simply for ALL farmers and ranchers to share their story. Let's be clear: ALL farmers and ranchers to share their story.

So, while it is all well and good to rumble with "BigAg", let's be sure you are in the right ring. Maybe the actual issue is with larger corporations holding such power in our democracy? I can understand that. Maybe it is due to lack of competition in the marketplace due to bad policy? That is worth discussing at length in more than just agriculture. There are a myriad of issues to fight for and I applaud people taking a stand for what they believe in. To call on a personal example if I may, I feel strongly that we have an access problem in certain parts of our country, indeed the world. But where I can make a difference is focusing on my community to build that access and create jobs. A robust, thriving local food economy with access to healthy calories is important. I, along with a few other passionate individuals are working to make this happen in my community and others. And it will take everyone. The farmer with 5 acres, the farmer with 5000 acres, local governance, local processing facilities, and retail establishments. At the same time, I know that there are other areas in our country and the world that need food, and I salute and support wholeheartedly the folks that are trying to deliver on this need as well.

But I digress from the actual point.

Nathan, if it is a rumble you want, by all means have at it. But your focus on a grassroots foundation that has open arms to every single farmer and rancher is misguided. It is at best cynicism and at worst detrimental to the field of agriculture. In all of your accusations, have you once attempted to attend one of the conferences that were published to everyone? I have, on my own dime, as did all the other attendees. Maybe, before making bold assertions, you should do what you did in order to research your book? Meet the faces of the foundation yourself, engage them, and then take quill to paper.

Regards,
Nate J. Taylor
natesuetaylor@gmail.com

Photo Courtesy of Flickr user PhOtOnQuAnTiQue

Being A Vegan? Don't Ask Oprah

Oh boy, another "vegan" challenge, but this time it wasn't from Peta or HSUS. It was from Oprah. At first, I thought maybe it would be a good discussion talking about the benefits of increasing the amount of fruits and veggies in your diet, but alas it was nothing of the sort. It was, once again a simplistic, emotional, appeal to not eat meat.

Image from Mas-Luka on Flickr

First, let me say that everyone I know involved in livestock production take excellent care of their animals and treat them like members of their own family. Folks like Mike Haley, Jeff Fowle, Ray Prock, and Chris Chinn provide the utmost care for their animals. As a matter of fact, I believe I can speak on their behalf that they feel it is a privilege to raise animals to provide the rest of us with food (and other items I will mention later).

In case you missed it, Oprah challenged her staff and others to go "vegan." Well I am here to tell you that going vegan is much more complex than just not eating meat or food products from animal agriculture. 

Enter The Agchat Foundation

I have the pleasure of serving on the advisory board of The Agchat Foundation. As such, I have created freindships that otherwise would not exist given the simple fact of geography. For this I am eternally grateful. But The Agchat Foundation serves a much greater purpose for the agriculture industry as a whole.

The State of Social Media

It is now common knowledge that social media is here to stay. It is not a fad. Businesses are leveraging multiple social media platforms to build and monitor their brand, interact with their customers, conduct customer service, and much more. Individuals are using these same platforms to share their knowledge, life, and connect with like minded individuals from disparate geographies. One of these platforms, blogging, is an excellent way to share your story. And people are reading blogs multiple times a day.



So if you have not considered making the leap into blogging, what are you waiting for? Folks want to hear what you have to say. They love original, insightful, personal content. Don't believe me? Look at this:



If blogging is a bit overwhelming, you can also have a go at micro-blogging; The tool most used for this is Twitter. Twitter quickly became the social media platform in 2009-2010. People are sharing, sharing, and sharing some more; everything from how to tips, recipes, day in the life, technolgy trends, planting and harvesting activities, and family life. The sheer volume of tweets is astounding.



And let's not forget about Facebook, one of the most, if not the most, popular social media platform in the world.

Enter The Agchat Foundation

The Foundation was formed by farmers for farmers with this mission: Empower farmers and ranchers to connect communities through social media platforms. As you can see from the aforementioned data, social media is here to stay and is only going to become more ubiquitous in our every day life. The farmers that started The Foundation knew full well that the agriculture story needed to be shared. Not only that, it was well understood that the best folks to share the story of agriculture were farmers and ranchers.

In the coming years I firmly believe that The Agchat Foundation will play a critical role in connecting farmers and ranchers to the general public. It will be instrumental in educating the agriculture community on the use of social media and it's importance for farmers and ranchers everywhere.

I encourage you to visit The Foundation website. All of the vlunteers are here to help you enter into the "social world". Let their be no doubt that YOUR story is important; People want to hear from you, and the only person who can share your story is......YOU!

Source(s): All charts are graphs courtesy of HubSpot



Farmers, I THANK YOU

Thanksgiving is upon us, and I just love this time of year. Waking up to a brisk autumn morning looking out onto the beautiful countryside of harvested fields and freshly raked piles of leaves is invigorating. It is both tranquil and exciting all at once. 

I am fortunate that I get to see, touch, and smell these fields. It adds to the connection I already have with agriculture and serves as a reminder that farming isn't for the faint of heart. I am privileged to work with the farmers across this country and intend to continue working with them in bringing food to plates around the world.  

As you may be aware, The Agchat Foundation started a campaign called #foodthanks. If you are not aware, read my previous post and go to the Foodthanks site. The idea behind it is to remember that the food on your plate was produced by someone. I, for one, am very thankful that there are folks out there who produce more than what they need for their family so my family can have safe, affordable, nutritious food. So to all the farmers out there..please accept my

FOODTHANKS

So take some time and express your gratitude and foodthanks to the hard working women and men producing our food.