By Tyler Harris, Alltech Cultivating Young Journalists Award Winner and Editor, Nebraska Farmer
One of the perks of being an ag journalist is the occasional opportunity to travel across the country – whether it’s to learn about agriculture in another part of the U.S., or bring home some knowledge to improve your own reporting and writing. So, as one of the recipients of the Alltech Cultivating Young Ag Journalists stipends this year, I was all-in when the opportunity arose to attend Ag Media Summit and the preceding ag tours in Arizona this year.
“Ag tours?” you ask. Yes – the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona may not be the first place you think of when you think of agriculture, but the Gila River Valley, where several tour stops were located, has historically been a hotbed (pun intended) for cotton, alfalfa, durum wheat and grain sorghum.
One of the most surprising stops was Pinal Energy of Maricopa – which highlighted a local connection to the Corn Belt. The bulk of the corn supply at Pinal Energy (the first ethanol plant in Arizona) comes from Midwestern states like Iowa and Kansas – and most of the coproducts produced at the plant are fed to dairy cattle in the area. In a sense, Midwest corn helps sustain the dairy industry in the desert.
Of course, a focal point of AMS is educational workshops – and there were plenty to choose from this year. Highlights included Podcasting 101 (even for those who consider themselves veteran podcasters, there were some good takeaways here), Writing About Science the Right Way (a big deal for those of us covering the finer details of agriculture), and Mastering the Writing Process.
However, what’s more illuminating is the people you meet, and learning about their experience and process for covering agriculture in their part of the world. One of the reporters at AMS this year was Lloyd Phillips, a senior journalist at Farmer’s Weekly in South Africa. Lloyd and two journalists from the U.S. shared their experience and process for covering agriculture in their respective regions during one of the workshops at AMS.
It goes without saying that South Africa is a different world than the U.S., agriculturally speaking. In post-apartheid South Africa, the economic disparities between farmers are much bigger than those in the U.S. – particularly between developed and developing farmers. So, in addition to the range in livestock and cropping systems that go with such a large, diverse area, ag journalists like Lloyd are tasked with covering the range in demographics among farmers.
Hearing about the experiences of journalists like Lloyd and other journalists through workshops at conversations at AMS is not only a networking opportunity, but a learning opportunity – and in some cases, may help refine your own reporting and writing. Or, it may be a good chance to rehash the fundamentals of journalism (i.e. commitment to accuracy and providing content useful to farmers and ranchers). To paraphrase one journalist at AMS: Farmers and journalists alike, no matter how seasoned, always need to keep the fundamentals in mind.