New educational programming.

The Friday program for the NAFB Convention will move from the traditional "newsmaker" concentration to focus on educational programming for attendees.

The day's first session will feature Abner W. Womack and Jack Huggins discussing "Making Sense of a New Agriculture Model." Womack's presentation will focus on "How and Why FAPRI Forecasting Matters." He is a Professor of Agricultural Economics and Co-Dir of the Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri.

Huggins will discuss land values and ownership, as well as implications of "crops for energy." Huggins is the Watersheds Program Dir, Illinois Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. He was the Pres/CEO of the second-largest producer and marketer of ethanol in the U.S. and is a past chairman of the Renewable Fuels Association.

The second session scheduled for Friday morning with Brian Briggeman and Brad Schu is titled "The Changing Producer/Consumer Audience."

Briggeman, Asst Professor at Oklahoma State University, will speak on today's "Typology of U.S. Farm Households." Briggeman's research focuses on analyzing the Agriculture Resource Management Survey (ARMS) data set to develop a typology of U.S. farm households and better understand their resource allocation decisions. He studies the behavior and decision of U.S. farm households in allocating labor, borrowing, investment, and consumption decisions.

Schu, with Land 'O Lakes Purina Mills, will speak about the geography and demographics and opportunities of the rural lifestyle marketplace, including the diversification within it. Ideas will be shared about how farm broadcasters and agri-marketers can further reach the rural lifestyle audience and make themselves more valuable to this audience.

Also scheduled is a "Cabinet Parley." Guests invited include the USDA Secy Mike Johanns, Secy of Interior Dirk Kempthorne, and EPA Administrator Steve Johnson.