So who woulda thought that the little blog that began four years ago would reach it's 400th post, and in the process become the wildly successful accounting of life at the NCRS as well as a source of agricultural information and entertainment from around the country? (Whoa, that sentence almost had 400 words itself.) I am pleased and shocked. I don't think I've ever done anything 400 times. Well on purpose anyway.
But as we celebrate, there is a serious agricultural concern going on right now. This is a call to action, and every one of you reading this can help. Now surely everyone enjoys it when various Liquid personnel appear on TV on RFD Live or Rural America. And who doesn't look forward to the weekly education and antics on Ag PhD? Plus market and industry news, plus entertainment. And where else could you watch the proceedings of the National FFA convention? Well all of this is on RFD TV. It is unique in the airwaves, and something those of us in agriculture have come to count on. But there is a crisis looming. On Rural America Live tonight, the founder of RFD TV, Mr. Patrick Gottsch was on telling of a threat to this great channel. One of the carriers of RFD TV is Comcast, the cable company and they are seeking to merge with Time Warner, another cable carrier. Together they would be even huger. But Comcast is wanting to drop RFD TV, and in fact, did so last year in Colorado and New Mexico. At hearings about the merger before a Congress committee, a Comcast VP explained the drops because they are "primarily an urban-cluster company". Well some kind of cluster certainly comes to mind. Especially since two days later they added the Al Jazeera network. How American is that? Well RFD TV is a voice of rural news, but there are many urban followers as well. It is explained at the RFD TV website. They need your help in notifying the FCC that you are a follower of RFD TV. Comcast already upset rural Congressmen on the panel, but it takes more than that to get action. They need many thousands of comments from the public. Go to the website and click where it says.
Then you will get a description of the issue, and how you can help. Click where it says, but remember the number 14-57, as it says this is the proceeding number for this....proceeding.
You will go to the FCC comment site. And click the 14-57 place. You are more than welcome to comment on the many other proceedings, but do the 14-57 first.
You have to give your name and address, I mean this is official Congressional business. And then you can add your comments of what Rural and RFD TV means to you. This is my comment, I mean it's now public information anyway. Click Continue to review and then Confirm and they are off to the FCC. You will get a website (shown) where you can track your comments, and others too, I presume. This is also important to show other cable and satellite carriers that RFD TV has a large and vocal following. (Fortunately I get mine from Dish, who is evidently RFD friendly.)
Now what else is going on in the Ag info-world? Well did you see this? Last week USA Today put out a supplement about agriculture. It was pretty big with all sorts of farming and ranchingi information, and about our food source. And there was this cool ad from...AgroLiquid, Ag PhD and the Responsible Nutrient Management Foundation. We all want what he wants..affordable and abundant food.
So these two issues are certainly related. They all center around telling the viewing and reading public how our food continues to be the envy of the world...affordable and abundant.
