Click here for a printable version of these rules SYNGENTA CROP PROTECTION AND FARM PRESS PUBLICATIONS Future of Southern Agriculture Student Essay Contest NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. CONTEST DESCRIPTION: Future of Southern Agriculture Student Essay Contest ("Contest") is a skill Contest open to undergraduate and graduate students at universities with accredited agriculture programs in the following regions. Region 1: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia (South of I-64); or Region 2: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri (South of I-70), New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Entrants must submit one original essay with a minimum of 750 words and a maximum of 1,000 words to address the assigned essay topic. Entries are to be submitted in one of the two judging categories (undergraduate or graduate). ELIGIBILITY: Entrants must be undergraduate or graduate students currently attending one of the eligible universities. This Contest is void where prohibited by law. Employees, officers and directors of Syngenta Crop Protection and Farm Press Publications ("Sponsors") and each of its respective parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotional agencies and members of their immediate families (spouse, children, siblings, parents), and persons living in the same household (whether or not related) are ineligible. By participating, entrant agrees to these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsors and/or their independent judges, which are final and binding in all respects. TO ENTER: Beginning February 22, 2010 until April 15, 2010 ("Promotion Period") go to www.FutureofSouthernAg.com ("Web site"). Click on the icon, banner or text link to access the Promotion registration page, and then follow the directions to enter the Contest. When online, you will need to accurately enter your full name, address, city, state, ZIP code; phone number and e-mail address where you can be reached during summer 2010; region, university, graduation semester and year, degree major/minor, academic advisor, and your category (undergraduate or graduate). All entries must be received and recorded by Sponsors’ computer (the official Contest time keeping device) by 11:59 PM C.T. on April 15, 2010. Limit one entry per person/e-mail address. Robotic, programmed, script, macro or other automated entries or entries using third-party Web site or software are void. Any attempt to enter the Contest more than one time by using multiple/different e-mail addresses, identities, or any other prohibited methods will void that entrant from participating in the Contest. Each entrant must complete the entire Entry Form; including the original essay using 750 to 1,000 words; not including words associated with charts and/or graphics corresponding to the topic. The entry information provided is subject to the Privacy Policy on Sponsor’s company Web site. To read that Policy, visit http://www.syngenta-us.com/legal/privacypolicy.html. Once an essay is submitted, it cannot be changed, altered, or modified. Correspondence and inquiries concerning the Contest will be accepted via e-mail communication addressed to FOSA@gibbs-soell.com. Entries will become the property of Sponsors, and will not be acknowledged or returned. All entries must be typed, or they will not be considered in the Contest. Essays must be the original and sole creation of the entrant, and all rights, title and interest in the essay must be owned solely by the entrant, (b) may not have been submitted in any other competition, (c) may not have been published; (d) must be in English; (e) must not be defamatory or obscene; and (f) must not infringe upon any third party's rights, including, but not limited to, copyright, patent or trademarks/tradenames/logos, or rights of privacy or publicity. Each entrant warrants and represents that their essay complies with all of the preceding conditions. Entries must be submitted by the person who is entering to win the Contest. Any entry, in the sole opinion of the judges and/or Sponsors, found to contain dangerous, harmful or objectionable content, or deemed to be inappropriate for publication, will be deemed ineligible. Any additional materials mailed to Sponsors (such as photos, artwork, samples, etc.) will not be included in the judging process, nor will they affect, in any way, the outcome of the Contest. Winners will be selected based solely on essay content. In the event of a dispute, all entries will be deemed to have been submitted by the owner of the e-mail account listed on the entry form. For these purposes, an e-mail account holder shall mean the natural person assigned to such e-mail account by the Internet access provider, online service provider or other organization responsible for the assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with such e-mail account. No forms of entry other than as stated in these Official Rules will be accepted. JUDGING: Essays will be judged during the months of May 2010 through July 21, 2010. Essays will be judged on a regional level first, and the semi-finalist essays will advance to the national judging level. Those entries that qualify as eligible entries will be judged by independent judges, whose decisions are final and binding on all judging matters related to this Contest. Judging will be rated on a scale of 1 (lowest score) to 100 (highest score) based on the following criteria: 1) Creativity/Uniqueness of idea (30 points), 2) Flow/Organization (30 points), 3) Functionality/Professional appeal (20 points) and 4) Free of grammatical/typographical errors (20 points). Four Regional Finalist Essays (two from each Region) will be chosen per category: undergraduate and graduate. The essays with the highest cumulative scores in each category and Region will then be judged again using the same judging criteria as outlined above to determine one Grand Prize Winner in each category. In the event of a tie in either category, the entrant whose essay has the highest score in the Creativity/Uniqueness of idea criterion from judging will be declared the winner. If tie continues, the essay with the highest score in the Flow/Organization criterion will be declared the winner. If tie continues, the tied entries will be re-judged by a new, independent judge, who will use the same judging criteria as stated herein to decide which of the two tied Finalists is the Grand Prize Winner in that category. The remaining finalists will be the Runner-up Prize Winners. The Prize Winners will be determined on or about July 23, 2010, and the Sponsors will attempt to notify the Prize Winners on or about July 29, 2010. CLAIMING PRIZE/RELEASE: Prize Winners must complete, sign and return, within fourteen days of the date of notification, an Affidavit of Eligibility including your valid Social Security number and a Liability/Publicity Release where lawful. If the Releases are not returned timely or if any prize notification or any prize is returned as undeliverable, or if a Prize Winner is found to be ineligible or declines the prize or otherwise is not in compliance with these Official Rules, the prize may be forfeited, and the prize will be awarded to an alternate winner based on the judging criteria outlined herein. If any Prize winner or guest is a minor in their state of residence, the parent or legal guardian of the winner must sign the documents on behalf of the minor child. PRIZES: Two Grand Prize Winners – One from each Category (undergraduate and graduate) will each be awarded $6,000. Two Runner-up Prize Winners – One from each Category (undergraduate and graduate) will each be awarded $4,000. Winners will have choice of accepting prize in cash and be responsible for any Federal, State and local taxes, or accept prize money as a scholarship to be directly applied to tuition for an educational degree (to be verified by university where student is enrolled), thereby making the prize money tax exempt. GENERAL: By participating in Contest, entrants agree to release and to indemnify and hold harmless Sponsors and their parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotion fulfillment and/or judging agencies, and all of their respective officers, employees, directors, representatives and agents (individually and collectively "Releasees") from all liability, claims, action, or proceedings, losses, injuries and damages to person(s), including death and property, or violation of intellectual property or personal rights (such as but not limited to, copyright, patent, trade name/trademark, and/or rights of privacy or publicity or portrayal in a false light) due in whole or in part to acceptance, possession, misuse or use of any prize; or participation in this Contest, or participation in any Contest related activity. By claiming a prize, Prize Winners consent, and agree to confirm that consent in writing upon request, to Sponsors and those acting pursuant to the authority of Sponsors, the right, in perpetuity, to the use of his/her name, voice, picture, and likeness and essay, (and notwithstanding anything to the contrary in these Official Rules, Prize Winners license the use of their essays to Sponsors, which may be altered, changed, modified, edited, used alone, together or with other works, and/or in distorted form, as solely determined by Sponsors) at any time(s) and in all media now known or hereafter discovered, worldwide, including on the Internet and World Wide Web, for advertising, commercial, trade and promotional purposes without additional compensation unless prohibited by law, and without notice, review or approval. Each entry will be deemed a Work Made For Hire under the Copyright laws of the United States, but if it cannot be so deemed, then the Prize Winners irrevocably assign and transfer to Sponsors all of his rights, title and interest in and to their essays, including, but not limited to, all copyright and trademark rights which they may have in the United States and worldwide, for consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged. Upon request of Sponsors, Prize Winners shall execute and deliver such additional instruments of assignment as may be solely deemed by Sponsors to be reasonably necessary to establish the ownership of record of the right, title and interest in and to the entry essays and of the copyrights and trademarks transferred under these Official Rules. Should Sponsors fail to request the said assignments as stated herein, that shall not be deemed a waiver of Sponsors’ right to do so, and Sponsors may at a later time request the assignments, and the Prize Winners shall, by acceptance of the prizes, agree to honor such a request. LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY: Releasees are not responsible for lost, late, stolen, illegible, misdirected, separated, or non-delivered entries; or for lost, interrupted or unavailable satellite, network, server, Internet Service Provider (ISP), Web site or other connections availability, accessibility or traffic congestion, or miscommunications, or failed computer, network, telephone, satellite, or cable hardware, software or lines, or technical failure, or jumbled, scrambled, delayed, or misdirected transmissions, or computer hardware or software malfunctions, failures or difficulties, or other errors of any kind whether human, mechanical, electronic or network or the incorrect or inaccurate capture of entry, essay or other information or the failure to capture, or loss of, any such information. Releasees are not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by Web site users, or by any equipment or programming associated with or utilized in this Contest, and assume no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect or delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or tampering with or hacking of Web site. Sponsors reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to disqualify any individual found to be tampering with the entry process or operation of the Contest or Web site, to be acting in violation of the terms of the Web site or to be acting in a disruptive manner, or with intent to threaten, abuse or harass any other person. Releasees are not responsible for injury or damage to entrants’ or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participating in this Contest or downloading, printing or copying materials from or use of Web site. If, for any reason, Contest is not capable of running as planned by reason of infection by computer virus, worms, bugs, tampering, hacking, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes which, in sole opinion of the Sponsors, corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Contest, Sponsors reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend Contest, and determine the winners from eligible entries received prior to action taken, or as otherwise deemed fair and equitable by Sponsors. In the event Sponsors do so, Sponsors shall post notice at www.FutureofSouthernAg.com. Any attempt to deliberately damage any Web site or undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest is unlawful and subject to legal action by Sponsors or their agents. IN NO EVENT WILL RELEASEES BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OR LOSSES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE WEB SITE OR DOWNLOADING FROM AND/OR PRINTING MATERIAL DOWNLOADED FROM SAID WEB SITE. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, EVERYTHING ON THIS WEB SITE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. SOME JURISDICTIONS MAY NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS OF EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. CHECK YOUR LOCAL LAWS FOR ANY RESTRICTIONS OR LIMITATIONS REGARDING THESE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS. JURISDICTION/CHOICE OF LAW: By entering, entrants agree that this Contest shall be governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, with venue and jurisdiction in Greensboro, North Carolina. WINNERS LIST REQUEST: To view the Finalists, log on to www.FutureofSouthernAg.com after August 18, 2010. Winners will be posted online until January 1, 2011. SPONSORS ©2010 Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. 410 Swing Road, Greensboro, NC 27409. ©2010 Penton Media, Inc., Farm Press Publications, P.O. Box 1420, Clarksdale, MS 38614.