Florida Farm Bureau Names Newspersons of the Year

CONTACT: Rod Hemphill, director, Public Relations, 352-374-1516
Kathy Richardson, manager, Public Relations Programs, 352-222-3651

(DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.) — Florida Farm Bureau Federation honored several members of the media for outstanding coverage of agriculture and farming issues over the past year.

Jan Hollingsworth, a reporter for The Tampa Tribune, was named the “2007 Newsperson of the Year” in the daily newspaper category.

In the community newspaper category, David and Deborah Brown were honored for their monthly newspaper Neighbor to Neighbor, which covers Clay County.

In a new award begun this year, the Florida Farm Bureau named an Ag Journalist of the Year to recognize those members of the trade media that cover agriculture within the industry. This award went to Gary Cooper and Robin Loftin of SouthEast AgNet.
The awards were presented Oct. 11 during the Federation’s 66th Annual Meeting at the Daytona Beach. Hollingsworth was honored for her outstanding coverage of Florida’s agriculture industry.

“Journalists like these keep their readers and listeners abreast of developments in agriculture, an industry that is of increasing economic importance to the state,” said Rod Hemphill, director of public relations for Florida Farm Bureau, the state’s largest general-interest agricultural organization. “Greater understanding translates into more favorable public policy for agriculture.”

The Florida Farm Bureau Federation is the state’s largest general-interest agricultural association with more than 140,000 member-families statewide. Headquartered in Gainesville, the Federation is an independent, non-profit agricultural organization and is not associated with any arm of the government. More information about the convention and Florida Farm Bureau is available on the organization’s website, FloridaFarmBureau.org.