Agricultural Journalist

Agricultural journalists distribute information about the agriculture industry to the public, legislators, commodity groups and government agencies through broadcast, print or web-based media. They can work for federal-government agencies, such as the USDA, the U.S. Department of the Interior or the U.S. Department of State, or with divisions of state governments. Some agricultural journalists work with advertising or public-relations agencies, while others are employed by food companies. They may also work to publicize the research of state land-grant universities.

By definition, agricultural communicators are science communicators that deal exclusively with the diverse, applied science and business that is agriculture. An agricultural communicator is "expected to bring with him or her a level of specialized knowledge in the agricultural field that typically is not required of the mass communicator". Agricultural communication also addresses all subject areas related to the complex enterprises of food, feed, fiber, renewable energy, natural resource management, rural development and others, locally to globally. Furthermore, it spans all participants, from scientists to consumers - and all stages of those enterprises, from agricultural research and production to processing, marketing, consumption, nutrition and health.

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