The dedication of the participants is staggering & the speed of information even more so.  Participants are simply requested to state their name, location and interest in agriculture for participation.  The entire conversation is conducted in the open of Twitter, bared to the scrutiny of all.  A remarkable act of openness for an industry that has been under legislative attack from both environmental and animal rights groups.  The visibility has, of course, made the entire endeavour into a target of attack, as illustrated by Paula Crossfield of Civil Eats blog in her article, “Crashing the Twitter Agchat”. 

The un’Civil Eats’ attack gives the appearance of spawning from two main items:

• Pique that hobby-level farming is not accepted as being capable of producing at the same level as commercial-level farming.  Unfortunately, hobby-level farming is the equivalent of amateur level sports participation it just isn’t the same game as the big leagues.  A very few amateurs may be capable of performing at the professional level but the majority don’t have the skill or ability, let alone the dedication.  However, a great number of amateurs are fantastic at Monday Morning quarterbacking those performing at the highest levels.
•  Pure jealousy that neither Ms. Crossfield or one of her peers came up with the Agchat idea first, as demonstrated by the beginning her own competing Twitter chat within 48 hours of participating in her first Agchat session.  I was present for Ms. Crossfield’s participation in the May 5th Agchat and noticed no significant difference in the treatment of her questions over anyone else’s.

To the regular contributors to Agchat, I can only say thank you for the openness demonstrated so far and to remind them of  two age old sayings “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and “T’aint nothing but sour grapes, anyhow”

Copyright 2009 by Erica Saundershttp://AR-HR.com
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