These are the things I gleaned from our conversation.

1. Becky explained her division's role and placement a NDSU, "Even though we're funded almost exclusively by Extension, we serve all of Agriculture and are called Agriculture Communication. We also serve Extension specialists in the College of Human Development and Education (4-H, food and nutrition, child development and family science)."
2. There is concern about terminology in Ag Communication, especially in relationship to bio-engineered crops. Should it be referred to as GMO or transgenic or something else? Rich Mattern in Ag Comm is a good person to talk to about this issue.
3. In relationship to RR wheat and the co-existence focus group, good people to talk to are Al Schneiter, Head of Plant Sciences, and Duane Hauck, Director of Extension.
4. Why was GM wheat more controversial than beans or corn? More directly tied to food: wheat, flour, bread. Also, the North Dakota Wheat Commission (ndwheat.com) held up a red flag. Contact people there would be Neal Fisher or Jim Peterson. The commission is motivated by market concerns. Becky clarified this organization's funding: "Not all of the N.D. Wheat Commission checkoff goes to U.S. Wheat Associates. Quite a bit stays in the state to work on issues that are specific to N.D., for example trade issues with Canada. Also, the N.D. Wheat Commission supports other national groups such as the National Pasta Assocation and the Wheat Foods Council, which both focus on domestic consumption of wheat products. U.S. Wheat Associates focuses on exports."
5. I learned more about the role of the wheat commission and how it is funded. It is a “self-supporting state agency.” When farmers sell wheat, part of the money is “donated” to the state, which moves it to the national level. From there it is dispersed back to the local level to be used to develop and promote markets.
6. The Canadian Wheat Board is more powerful because farmers must sell to them, she thinks.
7. About Ag Communication. Ag Communicators attempt to make “research-based” information available. They used to use the term “unbiased” but have moved away from it. They have basic journalistic values—objectivity and newsworthiness. There is now a little pressure to do more PR work—awards and CYA news releases. They develop news releases that go out to the media (indiscriminate), but they know certain releases are targeted toward producers or the general public and that they will be picked up by different publishers. They know who pays the bills, so ultimate allegiance is to Ag college: “We help Ag faculty (both research and extension) and extension faculty in the College of Human Development and Education get the message out."
8. Was Ag Comm involved with the RR wheat issue? Not really—they weren’t called in because communication was being taken care of at a different level, especially through the co-existence group.