Random thoughts ...

Happy New Year! What an incredible start to the new year ... and what a finish to the old year. The outlook for crop prices is very bullish, and the year-end discovery of mad cow here in the United States has put the livestock industry in a tailspin. It is ironic that a part of the recent upsurge in cattle prices in the prior year was due to the same reason for its current slide. We now feature daily price and market commentary from the Doane economists at www.agrimarketing.com to aid in your understanding of the underpinnings that shape our markets. And as we have done in the past, in this issue we offer our pick of the top 10 events of 2003 impacting agriculture.

Some other new items are appearing in this issue. We are pleased to begin featuring the "wacky" perspective of Leigh Rubin in our magazine, appearing in this issue on page 29. His cartoons appear in many ag publications, but who better to view his work than the Agri Marketing audience. We will also feature an ongoing column from Purdue University. The Center for Food and Agricultural Business does an incredible job with research and study of this industry and the dynamics that are changing it.

And look what is coming up ...

In March, we focus on the rural lifestyle opportunity and how industry players are tapping into it. We also review the response to the mad cow crisis.

In April, it is the annual Best of NAMA winners issue, and in May we salute the Agri-Business Person of the Year and focus on the role that communications agencies play in shaping and executing marketing strategies.

Bill Schuermann, Publisher/Editorial Director

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