Give IMC Global, CF Industries and the PotashCorp high marks for effort, initiative and creativity. These three fertilizer companies dominate the U.S. market. Independently, they have assembled materials intended to influence U.S. opinion about crop fertility.

Self serving? You betcha. Savvy and effective? Yep. Add in creative, thoughtful and very useful.

For the record, IMC Global is the world's largest producer and supplier of concentrated phosphates and potash fertilizers.

CF Industries, Inc., is the interregional cooperative, which is owned by eight regional farm supply cooperatives. MFA Incorporated is a founding member. Its nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers reach more than one million farmers and ranchers in 48 states and two Canadian provinces.

The PotashCorp produces nitrogen, phosphate and potash. As a three-nutrient company, PotashCorp is the world's largest producer of industrial nitrogen products.

IMC's promotional efforts focus on producers and industry participants. The company built a producer-friendly Web site chockfull of agronomically sound, economically advantageous and environmentally responsible information on fertility called Back-to-Basics (www.back-to-basics.net).

Through this site, producers have access to timely, accurate and useful articles by agronomy experts throughout North America. In addition, the site hosts (by region) updates, tips, facts, charts and nutrient deficiency symptoms.

MFA's agronomists are enthusiastic about the site and the reliability of its information. In fact, it will soon be a feature of MFA's own Web site (www.mfaincorporated.com).

For its approach, CF Industries focused on schools. Each year the interregional awards small grants to educators who find innovative ways to incorporate agriculture or the environment into a classroom project. Since 1998, CF has awarded more than $250,000 in grants distributed among more than 500 teachers and thousands of students. For specifics, contact CF Industries at www.cfindustries.com or (847) 438-9500.

PotashCorp's Fertileminds (www.fertile-minds.org), on the other hand, is a multimedia presentation based on the concept of proactive versus reactive. Its media kit boldly states, "Because what the environmental movement really needsƒis a real environmentalist."

The package features step-by-step instructions on how farmers and agribusinesses can approach "the four key local audiences" best influenced: local government and business leaders, local media, local school systems, and friends and family.

Fertileminds contains speeches, presentations, promotional materials, press releases, audio files, radio scripts, letters to the editor, facts and a host of other materials. The entire program is built around 5 key messages:

Fertilizers are drawn from nature--they are not man-made.

Farmers are not adding fertilizers to the ground. They are replacing nutrients lost at each harvest.

The world has no choice but to use fertilizers. Without them, 2 billion people would starve.

Fertilizers are responsible for the greatest land conservation achievement in human history, making recreational land and wildlife habitats possible.

Farmers are the best-qualified environmentalists.

Included are CD-ROMs, a videotape and explanatory material. What more could you ask for?

So there you have it. Three companies. Three approaches. Use any or all at a "key local audience" near you. We all win.