Farmers and others in agriculture are just like everyone else these days. For the vast majority of us, computer usage is becoming a part of our everyday lives, if it hasn’t already taken it over!
That’s why all commodity organizations are becoming more adept at using the internet to reach out to growers and peanuts are no exception. That’s why you are reading this post right now. The Southern Peanut Farmers Federation made the decision to use the new media tools of blogging and podcasting to reach out and provide information on this year’s conference to anyone and everyone who has access to the World Wide Web through this site.
Joy Carter with the Georgia Peanut Commission, who is also editor of Southeastern Peanut Farmer magazine and responsible for outreach to media and growers, came up with the idea of using the blog for conference coverage.
“We wanted to open the door for more farmers and industry representatives not able to attend the conference to be able to see who the speakers are, see photos from the conference and hear more about issues within the peanut industry,” Joy said. The website is also being promoted to agricultural media who can download the photos and audio to use.
Joy also talked about the Georgia Peanut Commission website “AmericanPeanuts.com” which was started two years ago to help growers learn more about legislative issues and what they can do to provide input. “They can register on the website and receive email alerts and updates that we send out and it also gives them an outlet to contact their congressmen on specific issues.”
Even though the website is funded by Georgia, the website is geared toward all peanut producers who want to be informed about legislative issues. Joy says it has been very well received and has proven to be a very useful tool for the industry.
Listen to an interview with Joy here:
Joy Carter (4:00 min MP3)