'Unexpected Guests’ On Osaka TV
“Nakodo” is a Japanese word which means “go-between.” And thanks to the efforts of Foreign Agricultural Service employees acting as a “nakodo,” some U.S. agricultural products got an unexpected boost on a popular TV show airing in Osaka, Japan.

Ritsuko Nomura, FAS office coordinator of the agency’s Agricultural Trade Office in Osaka, explained that “Wide ABC...” is the name of a weekday afternoon TV show whose purpose is to entertain Osaka homemakers with 'slices of life’ from their city.

Officials from the TV show contacted the FAS office in Osaka with a proposal. “The show was willing to provide some visibility to U.S. agricultural products,” recounted Dan Berman, currently director of FAS’s Agricultural Export Services Division who was then FAS’s Agricultural Trade Officer in Osaka. “However, the catch was that the TV show would have the final say as to what was going to be mentioned on the air about those agricultural products.”

“This package of U.S. dried fruits on this videotape,” notes FAS’s Ritsuko Nomura, “is similar to those U.S. agricultural products we recently spotlighted on Osaka TV.” --Photo by Eiko Tsumura

Under the leadership of Terrence Barber, the Tokyo-based executive director of FAS’s Agricultural Trade Office in Japan, FAS maintains close relations with over 50 U.S. agricultural “cooperators,” or trade associations, which are based in Japan and which promote their agricultural products in Asia, the U.S.’s largest export market.

“But, look, we knew that if we merely gave the TV officials our contact list of names and addresses of the agricultural cooperators, and then merely counted on both sides to hopefully get in touch with each other, we wouldn’t be taking fullest advantage of this opportunity which fell in our lap,” Berman noted.

Accordingly, Nomura took the initiative of following up with each of the 20 most appropriate agricultural cooperators as a “nakodo” to help those who were interested to contact the TV station. She then helped to get firm commitments of TV air times for several of the agricultural commodities.

Berman noted that part of the FAS strategy was that, once his office knew which FAS cooperators were ready to supply the agricultural items to be mentioned on TV, the Agricultural Trade Office recommended to TV officials only those products that Japanese consumers could see, remember, and buy the next day at the store.

“Some of the FAS cooperators advised Ritsuko that they didn’t want to participate because they couldn’t control what would be aired about their agricultural product,” Berman said.

“But others basically said 'Any publicity is better than none’.”

The result? Nomura said that, as an example of FAS’s efforts, on two different episodes of “Wide ABC...” last year, there were 'unexpected guests:’ carrots and grapefruit from the United States.

On one show, she recalled, a TV reporter proclaimed a sample of California carrots “delicious cooked or raw and very healthy” and are “very convenient to use” since they come packaged pre-peeled and bite-sized. He then poured Italian dressing on a bowl full and 'gobbled them with gusto.’

On another show, an announcer, bundled up in a blue ski jacket, extolled the health benefits of Florida grapefruit as snowflakes fell on her.

“As part of FAS’s mission to expand U.S. agricultural exports,” Berman affirmed, “we were happy to facilitate this visibility of U.S. agricultural products before Japanese consumers on a popular TV show.”

- -Jill Lee

Cultural Heritage In Florida
“The Perdido Bay Indian Tribe doesn’t have any federal reservation land--so maybe there’s a way we can help them promote their cultural heritage.”

That was John Harper’s thinking back in 1995 when he first became interested in this general subject. Harper is a soil conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and coordinator of the Three Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Council near Pensacola, Fla.

“There are over 200 tribal members of the Perdido Bay Indian Tribe of the Southeastern Lower Muscogee Creek Indians who live in Escambia County, Florida,” he recounted.

Back in 1993 officials of the Perdido Bay Tribe had set up a Cultural Resource and Education Center in a storefront in Pensacola. Its purpose was to help explain the culture of the Perdido Bay Tribe to the residents of northwestern Florida and to visitors from around the country. “But it was in need of funds to continue operating,” Harper advised.

Accordingly, in 1995 Harper helped to initiate a partnership between the Three Rivers RC&D Council and Perdido Bay Indian Tribal Chief Bobby “Bearheart” Johns.

The Council initially provided a $5,000 grant to help the Center continue its operations. Harper explained that the financial assistance helped tribal representatives to continue to provide a variety of educational programs including high school seminars, college presentations, and various Native American ceremonial performances in the local area.

“We were able to get involved financially,” he noted, “because one of the functions of the Resource Conservation and Development programs is to assist locally sponsored resource conservation projects that benefit the environment and/or the economy of local areas.”

“What’s the latest entry on the Center’s home page?” NRCS’s John Harper (left) asks Perdido Bay Indian Tribal Chief Bobby “Bearheart” Johns, as they get ready to access the web site of the Perdido Bay Tribe Cultural Resource and Education Center--while both are surrounded by artifacts at the Center. --Photo by Dorothy Staley

“Does it matter if I’m left-handed or right-handed?” quips NRCS’s John Harper (left), as he is about to get a lesson on how to play a Perdido Bay Indian wooden flute from Perdido Bay Indian Tribal Chief Bobby “Bearheart” Johns. They are standing in front of the Perdido Bay Tribe Cultural Resource and Education Center in Pensacola, Fla. The two have been working together to help preserve the cultural heritage of the Perdido Bay Indian Tribe by strengthening the operations of that Center. --Photo by Dorothy Staley

“This project seemed like a good way to accomplish that mission, plus add to the cultural heritage of our local community.”

“The story of the Perdido Bay Tribe of the Lower Muscogee Creek Indians has not been widely told,” added Bearheart. “But it is our purpose to share our story and our rich culture with everyone who comes through our doors.”

To date, the assistance of the Three Rivers RC&D Council has totaled $35,000 in grants. Harper noted that its assistance has helped the Center to continue adequately telling the Creek Indian history through such initiatives as developing a partnership with the Pensacola Historical Society. “For instance, last fall we provided funds to them,” he noted, “to renovate a classroom at the Historical Society.”

“That classroom is now being used by local schools and community groups in a monthly hands-on discussion with sixth graders about the history of the Creek Indians in northwestern Florida.”

Bearheart added that this October, as part of the annual three-day 'cultural roundup’ put on by a local Pensacola church, Perdido Bay Tribal members will recreate an entire Creek village. “Through this 'living history’,” he said, “we hope to show an estimated 150,000 visitors how we would bake bread and carve flutes in traditional palmetto huts and grow corn and beans in traditional garden plots.” He noted that the Three Rivers RC&D Council’s financial assistance will be supporting that re-creation.

“As I learn more about the work and traditions of the Perdido Bay Tribe from the storytelling, carvings, and music of Chief Bearheart,” Harper said, “I remind myself that the American Indians were this country’s first farmers and conservationists.”

- -Dorothy Staley

From Anyplace On The Planet
After undergoing a 17-month-long renovation, the National Agricultural Library’s public service areas officially reopened on April 12 with a dedication ceremony.

According to Joe Swab, acting NAL public affairs officer, this wasn’t just another case of a federal building getting a makeover. He said that NAL’s renovation should offer newer, expanded, and easier opportunities for agricultural research for both USDA employees and any other interested persons--whether located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area or at a site anyplace else on the planet.

Swab coordinated many aspects of the NAL renovation. “We’ve turned ourselves into not only a resource for books and other printed documents, but also a resource for a vast quantity of electronic materials,” he affirmed.

“Although NAL has been developing electronically for the last three decades, as of now any agricultural researcher, located anywhere in this country or any other country for that matter, can access us electronically. The renovation, along with staff reorganizations, streamlines the Library’s public services and improves public access.”

The physical changes in the newly renovated public areas include an abundance of new computer stations for customers, customer work areas with improved lighting and sound control, and an efficient new information and help desk staffed by NAL librarians and information specialists. “The modifications help that staff serve our on-line and remote users far better than ever before,” he said.

The National Agricultural Library is a 15-story building located on the grounds of USDA’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Md., and is part of the Agricultural Research Service. It is one of only four national libraries, the other three being the Library of Congress and the National Library of Education, both in Washington, DC, and the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Md.

“Hey, I think she’s stuck under there!” laughs NAL computer specialist Diana Claburn (2nd from left), as she and fellow NAL computer specialists Sue Phelps (2nd from right) and Darcel Cuthrell (right) work with contractor Elizabeth Rivera (far left) to wire new computer work stations in NAL’s renovated service area. --Photo by Joe Swab

According to NAL Director Pamela Andre, the Library began its renovation in 1998 for several reasons. “A severe shortage of storage space for the collection, a need for more customer-friendly user areas, a need to upgrade the building infrastructure, and a desire to meet the new millennium with the most modern facilities we can develop led NAL to undertake the renovation,” she said.

Alvetta Pindell, head of NAL’s Information and Research Services Branch, noted that NAL has a collection of over 3.3 million items. “They include books, research reports, audiovisual materials, electronic information items, and artifacts,” she noted. “The materials date back to the 16^th century and include items from some of the most esteemed names in agriculture and science--and a nearly comprehensive collection of the writings of USDA researchers.”

A part of NAL’s 'new millennium of service’ that has major implications for global access is NAL’s increased emphasis on “AgNIC.” Melanie Gardner, an NAL librarian and coordinator of AgNIC, said that the NAL-coordinated Agriculture Network Information Center, or AgNIC, is an Internet-based system for gathering, storing, and disseminating quality agricultural information. “The key,” she explained, “is that AgNIC relies on an alliance of collaborating institutions around the world to manage all this electronically-stored information.”

For instance, each of AgNIC’s current 25 partners--which are generally public, land-grant colleges and universities--offers expert informational coverage of a “narrow slice” of agriculture, such as tree fruits, maple syrup, forestry, or animal welfare.

“This is valuable,” said Jim Horsfield, chief of the Research Support and Training Branch in the Economic Research Service and a member of the 'AgNIC alliance,’ “because USDA and the land- grant institutions together produce the most significant agricultural research and information in the world--and AgNIC serves as a portal to disseminate that information.” AgNIC is available on the Internet at www.agnic.org

Another important aspect of NAL’s electronic services is the AGRICOLA database, which includes bibliographic records for scientific literature in all forms, including books, journal articles, microforms, and electronic journals. It is available at www.nal.usda.gov/ag98

“NAL is relied on by policy makers, scientists, and extension workers the world over to provide crucial agricultural information,” Andre noted. “And we’re now offering a new millennium of service.”

- -Ron Hall

Inside the "USDA NEWS" News and Current Information	Past Issues USDA's ...Homepage