06/05/07 Ag Blog

Ag Blog. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Years ago there was a song by the group the Monkees that had the line, "We're the young generation, and we've got something to say." And so it seems every young generation has something to contribute to the world. As we have entered the 21st Century and computers are an every day fact of life so the blog has come into its own. What's a blog? Chris Chinn is the Chairperson for the new Farm Bureau Young Farmer & Rancher Blog. CHINN: A blog is just a comment or a thought that a writer, a person in general. It doesn't have to be a writer, a farmer, anybody and you type it in on the internet, you post it on a web page and you leave a link to where people can come in a comment on it. Sort of like writing thoughts in your diary and then leaving it out in the open for people to read and add comments on. Chinn says they hope the new online blog will help more people understand farming. CHINN: The purpose of the Young Farmer & Ranger Blog is for the general public to be able to come to our web site to be able to speak one on one with producers, to learn more about agriculture and actually get to talk to a farmer and get a farmers perspective on topics that affect agriculture. There is hope to that the blog will connect farmers from across the country as well. CHINN: We are also hoping that the site will generate conversations between farmers you and old just to get conversation going, networking, share ideas. And while the average age of a farmer is around 60, the Farm Bureau blog is open to all ages. CHINN: Our hope is that not only will young people use it but older people as well. We don't want to put a gender or age limit on the blog. We want it to be a place where people of all ages can come and get an idea of what's going on in young producer's minds. Right now it is the young farmers who are hosting the blog but that's not to say that won't change in the years to come. You can access the blog from the Farm Bureau web site at www.fb.org. Chinn invites everyone to read the entries. CHINN: If anyone wants to leave a comment they're more than welcome. We encourage them to do this. After you read the blog entry there is a link at the bottom of that entry that says "leave a comment" or it will say the number of comments that are there. You click on that and you can read everybody's comments, read conversation that's going on back and forth about the article and then you can post your own blog comment. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.