Londonderry, N.H.-based ice cream maker Stonyfield Farm launched a blog to focus on various aspects of the company’s programs and mission. These include the environment, organic farming, women, children, and the company. The company’s CEO, who supported Howard Dean for president during the Democratic primaries, got the idea from the impact the blogs of Dean and his supporters had on the campaign.

According to an article appearing today in CFO.com, the company hired a writer who shadowed CEO Gary Hirshfield for a month to “gather information on the company’s philosophy and corporate culture” before launching the blogs which (the article says) have been successful judging by comments and subscriptions.

Is a company blog valid if it’s written by a writer hired for that purpose? Why isn’t Hirshfield writing it himself, or designating someone in the company (like Cathleen Toomey, vp of communcations) to handle it? To paraphrase my friend Allan Jenkins, commenting on one of yesterday’s posts, blogs that are little more than shameless PR will wither on the vine. “And these blogs will be quietly taken down before, one hopes, they become a corporate embarrassment.”