2009 NAAJ Writing Contest Winners

 (to be presented April 26, 2010 at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.)

NEWS

Judged by George Edmonson, retired Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter and editor
George Edmonson retired in 2005 after nearly 35 years of newspaper work. He started as a reporter at his hometown P.M., the Richmond (Va.) News Leader. Subsequent jobs included metro editor at the Baltimore News American, assistant managing editor/news at USA Today, assistant managing editor at the Rocky Mountain News, managing editor at the Omaha World-Herald and a variety of editing and writing roles at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. After stints as assistant managing editor and as the AJC’s first public editor, Edmonson worked from 2000 to 2005 in the Washington bureau. For the first couple of years, he concentrated on the Georgia delegation and issues related to the state. After covering the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon, he covered military affairs for the Cox bureau until his retirement.

He retired to Tarpon Springs, Fla., a Greek-influenced small town about 45 minutes north of St. Petersburg with a tradition of sponge diving. In addition to judging the occasional journalism contest, Edmonson writes periodically for a couple of cigar Web sites.

Judge's comment on the category:
"I was impressed by the entire field. There were many excellent stories that tested my abilities to sort them out into first, second and third.''

First place – Chris Clayton, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Biomass Mess'' --- Nov. 11 & 13, 2009
Judge: "Thorough, detailed reporting forms the foundation of this excellent package that is of interest to those both in agriculture and out. Peeling back the curtain on a program created by the Farm Bill, the reporter provides the news and assesses its impact. A first-class report deserving wide readership. ''

Second place – Lori Potter, Kearney (Neb.) Hub
"Pounded, shredded, bruised'' --- Aug. 8, 2009
Judge: "This project is intensely local, intensely moving and intensely informative. With a series of on-scene stories, it explores the impact of a major event in ways big and small. The writing carries the reader along and the variety of topics provides great depth.''

Third place – Whitney McFerron, Bloomberg News
"Pork plummets 30% in futures as swine flu cuts Chinese imports'' --- Aug. 17, 2009
Judge: "On the one hand, this is something of a classic news story: catchy lead, factual backup and explanatory quote. But it is also much, much more. The scope and specificity of the reporting, rendered in clear, crisp prose makes for an extraordinarily revealing story. ''

Honorable mention – Kieran Gartlan, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Ethanol and the environment in Brazil'' -- Aug. 7, 2009
Judge: "This story takes the reader beyond sound bites about Brazil's ethanol leadership to explain and illuminate the situation.''

Honorable mention – Alan Bjerga, Bloomberg News
"Cargill, Bunge win most export aid since 1992 as credit slows'' -- May 27, 2009
Judge: "A clear, nicely reported examination of a major government program and where the money actually goes.''
Honorable mention – Jim Patrico, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Machinery sales boom slows'' -- April 1, 2009
Going inside what might look, on the surface, to be a disaster shows the reader an unexpected situation.''
Honorable mention – Ron Friesen, Manitoba Co-operator
"Pork industry's chickens come home to roost'' -- July 2, 2009
Judge: "Terrific reporting and excellent combination of the facts and the human dimension.''

SPOT NEWS
Judged by Bill Felber, executive editor Manhattan (Kansas) Mercury.
Executive editor since 1986. Also a former member of the board of directors and treasurer of APME, a national organization of newspaper editors. Author of three books: "125 Years of Professional Baseball" (1994), "The Horse in War" (2001), and "The Book on The Book" (2005).

Judge's comment on the category:
The winning entry was the only one that represented what I will call a story progression. That is, the entry contained a first blush article, then a fuller article some time later, then quick expansions and follow-ups. In olden days I would have thought it appropriate to send along only the last version. These days, however, I found the progression approach was very smart on the assumption that these stories were posted to a website more or less in real time. That would be a classic definition of spot news, and a definition I could see becoming more important in future spot news contests. This might even imply an expectation that entrants would furnish the published progressions of a story within a 24-hour period.

First place – Christine Stebbins, Reuters
"CME Group says to implement variable storage rates for CBOT wheat with July 2010 contract, pending CFTC approval'' Nov. 11, 2009
Judge: "A prodigious amount of both backgrounding and legwork is displayed in this entry, which begins with a bulletin report and in the span of one news cycle has fleshed that out into a full report with a react, a fact box and what could be characterized as an explainer. It was written in clear, understandable terms within the grasp of both the layperson and expert. This is how you get the job done on short notice.''

Second place – Allan Dawson, Manitoba Co-operator
"Crops hit by June 6 frost'' June 11, 2009
Judge: "Wide-ranging and well-written look at the problems created by a weather event. Even for the pros, seeding schedules can be tricky, yet I felt that the reporter made sense of the complicated. It was also well-sourced.''

Third place – Pat Hill, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Vomitoxin, other mycotoxins reportedin parts of the Corn Belt'' Nov. 16, 2009
Judge: "If I told you that this was the best story I've ever read on vomitoxin, that wouldn't mean much. So I'll say instead that this story conveyed the gravity of the situation in an appropriate fashion. Its only weakness was in the writing, which while solid and professional perhaps lacked a bit of the dynamism of the two entries ahead of it.''

Honorable mention – Chuck Abbott, Reuters
"USDA chief says carbon bill won't hurt farmland'' Dec. 15, 2009
Judge: "I want to recognize this piece for the good job it did of putting a government official on the spot about his conclusions. That's difficult to do without appearing to convey an editorial agenda, and I thought this article managed that.''

Honorable mention – Chuck Abbott, Reuters
"Big U.S. soy, corn crops may deflate price boom" Aug. 12, 2009
Judge: "As with the other honorable mention, I thought this one did a good job of applying context to a government decision.''

FEATURES

Judged by Deanna Sands, retired managing editor of the Omaha World-Herald.
Sands is a former president of APME. She now manages the family farm in southeast Nebraska.

Judge's comment on the category:
"The quality of the entries was quite high, making this a tough category to judge. In fact, the overall quality is the best I've seen in quite awhile.''

First place – Cheryl Tevis, Successful Farming
"Ramping Up Ag's Infrastructure'' --- Oct. 1, 2009
Judge: "This is a good heads-up story. The reporter did solid research for data that explain the scope of the problem. Good context and a broad range of sources. Well-written with appropriate human touch. This story makes sense to farmers and non-farmers.''

Second place – Marcia Zarley Taylor, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Farmers Get Squeezed by Tight Credit '' --- December 2009
Judge: "It's hard to humanize numbers, but the reporter used context and charted change over time to paint a coherent picture of a complicated situation. Crisp writing and smooth transitions make a numbers story easy to comprehend.''

Third place – Mary Baxter, Better Farming
"Road salt: The silent enemy'' --- August-September 2009
Judge: " This is not a topic that springs immediately to mind as a problem for farmers. The reporter spotted the situation, did a good job of getting sources who could explain the problem from the human perspective and outlined the consequences of inaction. Solutions are presented, too.''

Honorable mention – Cheryl Tevis, Successful Farming
"Work Site Safe'' --- June 1, 2009
Honorable mention – Victoria G. Myers, Claire Vath and Dan Miller, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Animal Health Care in Crisis'' --- Sept. 1, 2009
Honorable mention – Karl Plume, Reuters
"Welcome to the Clone Farm'' --- Nov. 13, 2009
Honorable mention – Mikkel Pates, Agweek
"Stepping Up'' --- Oct. 5, 2009
Honorable mention – Dan Looker, Successful Farming
"Capturing carbon'' --- Mid-March 2009

SERIES
Judged by Dan Day, director of interactive media at the Modesto Bee
Day is in charge of all aspects of The Modesto Bee's online operations, including editorial content, advertising, blogging and social networking. He joined the Bee in 2005 as managing editor. A journalist since 1980, Day started his career as a reporter at the Daily Times in Ottawa, Ill. A year later, he started a 23-year stint with the Associated Press as a newsman and broadcast editor in Milwaukee. He later was chief of bureaus in Omaha, Seattle and Trenton.

Judge's comment on the category:
"It was a pleasure to judge this category, and there was some outstanding work. Some of it zapped me back to my Nebraska days, which was an extra treat. I can't tell from the instruction sheet how "series" was defined. My view is that a series is a special set of stories on a particular topic. A few of the entries were a string of spot news stories on a topic, and they didn't meet my definition of a series. However, even if they were appropriately entered, it would not have changed my judgment on the winners and honorable mention recipients. The bulk of the entries, I'm guessing, were printed out on plain paper in plain text. In an ideal world, I'd like to see all entries printed that way. However, I followed the instructions and ignored layout, photos, and so forth and judged strictly on the writing.''

First place – Marcia Zarley Taylor, Elizabeth Williams, Dan Miller, Des Keller and Jim Patrico of DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Young farmers'' --- January-November, 2009
Judge: "This series is brilliant. The writing is crisp, clear and engaging. The stories of the young farmers profiled are compelling and display multiple facets of the industry. The writer (writers?) used well-chosen details and terrific quotations to bring these stories to life. I was particularly impressed with the skillful way the writer wove Census and other industry data into the narrative. This series had substance and style aplenty. Outstanding journalism, outstanding writing, for an ag audience or a general audience.

Second place – Marcia Zarley Taylor, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Financial fallout'' --- Sept. 9-11, 2009
Judge: "This series was a masterful explanation of a highly complex situation, the fallout in the ag industry from the general financial crisis that has gripped the nation through the long recession. The lucid writing of this series guides the reader with astonishing ease through the tangle of agencies, institutions and policies playing such a critical role in shaping the future of the industry. The writer shows a thorough grasp of the subject, and presents in clear and compelling fashion.''

Third place – Kieran Gartlan, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Brazil's broken dreams'' --- Nov. 17-20, 2009
Judge: "What a fascinating series of tales of dreams and dreams dashed this is. The profiles of American farmers who moved to Brazil to farm are lively and illuminating. They give the reader a clear picture of what can go right and what can go wrong when pulling up stakes to farm in an area of wide-open opportunity and high-level risk. ''

Honorable mention – Chris Clayton, Katie Micik, Susanne Stahl of DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Climate change'' -- June 24-25, 2009
Judge: "A thoroughly reported, clearly explained package of stories.''
Honorable mention – Gil Gullickson, Successful Farming
"Your soybean profit'' -- September-December, 2009
Judge: "An enjoyable series of stories on soybean farming from multiple perspectives.''
Honorable mention – Todd Neeley and Cheryl Anderson, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Ethanol's promises'' -- Oct. 26-30, 2009
Judge: "Excellent coverage of what became of the recent ethanol boom, clearly explained.
Honorable mention – Katie Micik, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Animal ID: What's next?'' -- Oct. 13-16, 2009
Judge: "A thorough treatment of a complex topic.''
Honorable mention – Kurt Lawton, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"Fertilizer spotlight'' -- Jan. 1, 2009
Judge: "Although heavy on ag jargon, this series did a remarkably thorough job on the subject.''

COLUMNS & ANALYSIS

Judged by Chuck Haga, Grand Forks Herald
Chuck Haga, 60, worked for newspapers in his native North Dakota before joining the Star Tribune of Minneapolis in 1987. He took a buyout and early retirement in 2007 and returned to Grand Forks, N.D., where he writes for the Grand Forks Herald. He has taught journalism at the University of North Dakota and St. Cloud (Minn.) State University and led writing workshops in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska and North Dakota and for the American Press Institute.

First place – Dan Zinkand, The Byline
"Communicate the Art of Agriculture to Reach Millions of People off the Farm'' --- April 2009
Judge: "This is a thoughtful and perceptive consideration of language as it applies to agriculture and the sometimes strained relationships between producers and consumers. Farmers must grow weary of the fickleness of consumers who demand high quality, variety, low prices and ready availability but rail about what’s required to make all that happen.

The writer’s answer is better communication, and by communication he doesn’t mean more agencies and departments churning out dry-as-dustbowl news releases about acreage and yields and inputs. Farming is and must be a blending of science and art, he reminds us, and maybe farming – with its rush to identify with science as a way perhaps to raise its stature – has forgotten the power of art in its message. That art is found in a knowing farmer “picking up a handful of soil and clenching it between palm and fingers, testing to see if a field is ready to plant.” I have never farmed, save for one unhappy day spent picking rock on an uncle’s place, but I could feel that fistful of soil, and smell it, as I read the words. And I could sense the knowing and almost see the caring in the farmer’s eyes.

Second place – Urban Lehner, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"The limits of eating local'' --- Jan. 16, 2009
Judge: "This is the sort of column I love to read: thoughtful, reasoned and personal, a newsy and fairly balanced assessment of the “buy local” movement. The writer has a clear point of view but doesn’t scream it, and there is empathy, not condescension, for those who hold to a different perspective.

Much as I dislike the wanton coining and craven embracing of new words (such as “garvest” for garden harvest), the term “locavore” does have a certain appeal in its brevity and kinship with such legitimate fancy words as carnivore. Anyway, the writer here did not invent the term.''

Third place – Lori Potter, Kearney (Neb.) Hub
"Absorbing glimpses of 'beautiful nothingness''' --- Oct. 2, 2009
Judge: "This is a lovely and not overly sentimental piece that provides a sense of place and helps to explain why people who live and work and play there love it so. The excerpts from a dead friend’s column, written a quarter century ago, bring history and continuity and personality into the story. The delighted response of a newcomer shows that the land has a future, or should.

I would have liked a brief bit of dialogue illustrating how Mary Jane “nearly picked Lyn’s brain clean with questions …” Show me that exchange and make the narrative seem more natural, a lead-in to the delightful quotes from her journal. Anyone who has ever rambled across rough prairie knows about “tennis shoes in a dryer.”

Honorable mention – Dan Zinkand, The Byline
"Is the “Locavore” Movement Really “Loco-vore?”' -- May 2009
Judge: "A good sifting of issues often overlooked in “buy local.”

Honorable mention – Terry Fries, The Western Producer
"Conflicting data on GHG makes solutions difficult'' -- Nov. 19, 2009
Judge: "Makes the case for science “trump(ing) emotion and politics” in the climate change debate.''

Honorable mention – Urban Lehner, DTN/The Progressive Farmer
"If Trade’s the Question, Asia’s the Answer'' -- Nov. 6, 2009
Judge: "A reasoned and easily grasped explanation of a problem and a solution.''

Honorable mention – Mikkel Pates, Agweek
"It's all good news'' -- Nov. 16, 2009
Judge: "It’s a little inside-baseball, but a message every reporter yearns to shout.''

Honorable mention – Rod Nickel, Reuters
"U.S. food safety worries hit Canadian canola meal'' -- Aug. 10, 2009
Judge: "A “he said, she said” sort of story, this would have benefitted from more dialogue between canola people and food safety people on what the bottom line is here.

SPECIAL PROJECTS
Judged by Mike Toner, retired Atlanta Journal-Constitution science writer.
Toner was a science writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Miami Herald. In 1993, he received the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting for "When Bugs Fight Back," his Atlanta Journal-Constitution series about organisms and their resistance to antibiotics and pesticides. He grew up in the small Iowa farming community of Humboldt, where he was one of the "city" kids who walked across the street to go to school. He is the brother of the late Ann Toner Gottwald, a former NAAJ president and recipient of NAAJ's Cunningham Award as ag journalist of the year.

Judge's comment on the category:
The changing face of agriculture – human as well as technological – is a common thread that echoes through all of these top-rated entries in this year’s North American Agricultural Journalists special projects category. The quality of all four pieces made it unusually difficult to rank the projects in order of their merit. All four teams and individuals should be proud of their projects.

First place – DTN/The Progressive Farmer (Gregg Hillyer, Sherry Collins, Tom Dodge, Kurt Lawton, Mark Moore, Daniel Davidson, Greg D. Horstmeier, Dan Miller and Jim Patrico, Barb Baylor Anderson)
"Break your corn yield barrier'' --- December 2009
Judge: "Articles that fall into the category of “here’s what the experts say” too often take the form of talking heads. This admirable project avoid that pitfall by tapping an array of “hands on” experts – the farmers themselves -- who practice what they preach in the pursuit of higher corn yields. The result was a masterful overview of a variety of yield-enhancing strategies packed with information that others farmers could use, But it also made compelling reading for casual readers who might never have more than a passing curiosity about what’s happening on the cutting edge of agricultural practice.''

Second place – Mary Baxter, Better Farming
"Women's changing role on the farm'' --- May 2009
Judge: "Farm families, no doubt are fully aware of how the role of women in agriculture has changed in recent decades, but for the rest of us, this project provided a eye-opening glimpse – replete with personal vignettes – of just how sweeping the changes have been across Canada. Whether such changes have been spurred by necessity or enterprise, the diversity of new ideas and skills women bring to farming bodes well for the future of the industry – and perhaps for 21^st Century version of the family farm as well.''

Third place – DTN/The Progressive Farmer (Barb Baylor Anderson, Chris Clayton, Sherry Collins, Tom Dodge, Des Keller, Kurt Lawton, Dan Miller, Jim Patrico, Elaine Shein, Susanne Stahl, Marcia Zarley Taylor, Urban C. Lehner and Gregg Hillyer)
"Can farmers still feed the world?'' --- Mid-November 2009
Judge: "Too early to tell, this project replies in answer to the question in the title, but not too early to take stock of the formidable challenges the agricultural industry faces in trying to keep up with a world population racing toward 7 billion. And take stock this project does well – from the hurdles posed by finite water supplies and changing climate to the double-edged sword of genetically engineered crops. Rather than portraying each challenge with a dry recitation of statistics, however, this team told their stories through the eyes of individual farmers who grapple with the challenges on a very real and human scale.''

Honorable mention – Laurie Potter, Successful Farming
"Hands off!'' -- Nov. 1, 2009
Judge: "Pilots do it all the time, so why not farmers behind the wheel? A little GPS, a few black boxes and voila, you have auto-tractor. Taking precision farming to a new level, auto-steer systems for farm equipment not only promise to make farming more efficient, but make field work easier for the farmer. This report, although short and to the point, left me wanting to read more about the subject – a darn good measure of its overall readability.''