This afternoon the full IFAJ Congress group got together on the lawn in front of our hotel for a photo.
I’d like to thank our photographer, Martin Schwalbe of Guelph ON. He used my camera to take a photo for me! Now we have some free time until our closing banquet.
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
Niagra Falls welcomed the IFAJ Congress starting late yesterday afternoon. Here’s one of my best shots of the falls from a walk I took this morning. I’m still drying out after walking through the spray that swirls up and wherever the wind is blowing.
This morning we had a program on sustainability and farm journalism. I’ve been to too many discussions on the subject and used most of that time to see the sights. I think I just added about 70 photos of the falls to the photo album.
In a little while we’re all getting together for a group photo in our IFAJ hockey shirts. Activities conclude with this evening’s banquet and entertainment. However, my coverage won’t be concluded. I’ll have a number of interviews and stories to share in the next week. Tomorrow will be a full day of travel home.
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
All 2011 IFAJ Congress tour groups are now checked in to our hotel in Niagra Falls, Canada. You can see a quick pic of my hotel room view of the falls here.
This is a group of us during our second tour stop today at Jackson Triggs Vintners. We sampled sparkling, red, white and ice wine and left much happier than when we arrived. It was an awesome birthday party for Joann Alumbaugh, (pictured second from left in the second row). Fortunately she turned legal drinking age today and was able to sample some wines with the rest of us grown ups!
Tonight we are heading to the Oh Canada Eh? dinner show and we’ve got just enough time to get ready and update my photos from today.
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
It was a full day of farm touring for the IFAJ Congress today. I’m on the Lake Huron Tour which includes our stopping point tonight on the lake. We got in too late to enjoy the view though. But with the temperatures dropping and the wind howling I am not missing it. We’ll be back on the agriblogging highway early in the morning, winding up in Niagra Falls. Here’s my tour doing a group photo when we stopped at Hensall District Cooperative. I’ve got several more video clips and interviews from today. Our stops included a farmers market and several dairies in addition to an apple packing facility and this cooperative.
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
The first stop for the 2011 IFAJ Congress Lake Huron Tour group today was Martin’s Family Fruit Farm. Our host, Steve Martin, gave us a full tour of their apple packing and storage facility. The short video clip below shows the washing process where the bins unload into a wash tank and then the apples move through an automated process than includes some manual sorting and finally weighing and packing.
We got to take our pick of several varieties after we were done. I chose a Honeycrisp which was delicious. The farm grows many varieties including the MacIntosh which I believe someone said is 200 years old this year. Ontario is the top apple producing province in Canada.
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-BredWhat is not to like about finding CommonGround? National Corn Growers Association Communications Manager Cathryn Wojciki recently did a post on Corn Commentary about how farmers can start a conversation with a simple photo.
From Main Street to MTV, everyone is talking about food. Unfortunately, this conversation does not often include the people who grow it. CommonGround Conversations creates a space for America’s farm families, and the people who support them, to share the story. Here, we have a meeting ground that will let you discover the values and hard work that underlie our nation’s abundant, safe harvest. Help us share our story! By submitting photos of yourself, family and friends waving at the camera, join your voice with like-minded people to open a national dialogue saying, “Hi! I support farmers. Let’s talk about how we grow our food.”
Now’s your chance to join in on the CommonGround movement and let your voice be heard.
Right now, the movement is growing. Help us find the CommonGround between the people who grow food and those who buy it. Start today on CommonGround’s Facebook fan page. Here’s how to join the conversation:
Farm Foundation has launched a new initiative for stakeholders to discuss issues related to food and agriculture.
According to Farm Foundation, “A Dialogue on Food and Agriculture in the 21st Century” will involve multiple activities designed to promote discussions across the food and agriculture value chain—from producers to consumers.
Foundation president Neil Conklin says the project will use such tools as blogs, community meetings, issue papers and conferences, to engage stakeholders across a broad spectrum of perspectives. “The Dialogue Project is not a public relations campaign, nor will it try to drive specific policy agendas,” Conklin stressed. “The intent is to reduce polarization by creating opportunities for participants to expand their understanding of and respect for differing approaches to and opinions on agricultural and food system issues. We want to encourage understanding of the multiple issues, alternatives to address those issues and the potential consequences of those options.”
Find out more here.
Hey IFAJ members. Here’s a way to stay up to date and easily find the latest on what’s going on during our Congress. It’s also great for you non-IFAJ’ers too! It’s the AgWired app for iPhone and Android. Here’s where you can get it.
AgWired is the online community for everyone involved in agricultural marketing and communications. This includes farmers, ranchers, agribusiness, farm groups, ag media, freelancers and advertising and public relations agencies. Keep up with what’s new in the world of agribusiness with the most comprehensive source of agrimarketing news and information you’ll find on the web.
The AgWired App allows you to easily keep up to date wherever you are and provides multiple ways to to see news filtered by key word categories. Additionally, the app has a built in mechanism to provide you with the latest news produced by the ZimmComm News Network on alternative energy, the dairy industry and the latest in precision agricultural farming.
When you open up the app you can use the drop down menu for AgWired to find the IFAJ category. Tap it and it will filter just the content related to IFAJ! Easy.
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
The sponsor of the IFAJ Master Class program is Pioneer Hi-Bred. Representing Pioneer here at the Congress is Lonetta Ragland, seen here talking to the Master Class a few days ago.
I visited with her about the Master Class program. She says that Pioneer is proud to sponsor the program because they fully understand the importance of agricultural journalists especially in countries where there may not be freedom of the press. Like me, Lonetta saw strong enthusiasm, energy and appreciation from the class participants. She hopes to have continued interaction with them after the Congress. Lonetta gave them some real world experience during the program by conducting a “press conference.” She says that feedback from this year’s participants will be used to plan for the next program.
You can listen to Lonetta here: Interview with Lonetta Ragland
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
My kids are off to school. That is, Thelma and Louise have been sent off for about a month for some training … my son thinks they went to horsey school.
This summer, we went to two rodeos and that renewed my desire to ride our horses and learn more about the equine industry rather than to just have two hay burners in the pasture out front. Let me start by saying the last time I was on a horse, I was 10. So along with the girls, I’m going to have to participate in horsey school to learn how to maneuver them, what cues to use and how to discipline them.
And in preparation for back to school, I had to buy a new pair of boots. That’s my excuse for new shoes. Don’t worry, our son got new boots too.
They’ll be gone for about a month and I’m hoping they take the flies with them.
Until we walk again …
Our time in Guelph is at an end at least for the 2011 IFAJ Congress. This evening we had a “taste of Canada.” Here’s the starter display of food art we grazed through this evening.
Following this we were treated to food stations featuring various foods of Canada. I spent quite a bit of time at the fresh shucked oysters station!
Tomorrow we’re all off to one of three different farm tours. I’m on the Lake Huron tour. We’ve got to leave early by bus and I’m guessing we’ll have limited access to the internet. So my posting volume will decline for a couple days until we get to Niagra Falls. So, until then, enjoy the photos.
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-BredUSDA’s proposed Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyard’s Administration (GIPSA) proposal was one example of “How A Broken Process Leads To Flawed Regulations” at a House Committee hearing today, and the committee chairman apparently thinks its a good one.
“GIPSA’s proposed rule change under the Packers and Stockyards Act is a blatant attempt to regulate livestock marketing practices that could literally dismantle the food production and supply markets as we know them,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). “This would mean higher prices and fewer options for consumers, as well as impacts on food producers and firms at every point in the supply chain. GIPSA’s rule was pursued with a woefully inadequate economic impact analysis. Today’s hearing has called attention to this key issue and points out the price paid by producers, distributors and consumers.”
Testimony on how the GIPSA rule if implemented would impact the livestock industry was given to the committee by Robbie LeValley, Colorado cattle producer and part-owner of a small business that sells specialty beef directly to consumers. “Value-based marketing has given our family business the opportunity to compete for market share at the highest level,” she said in her testimony. “We do not need big government setting up shop on our farms and ranches. Government intrusion into the private marketplace is not the answer.”
Listen to Robbie’s testimony here: Robbie LeValley Testimony on GIPSA
In case you are not worried about government over-regulation, here is a scary statistic from the committee hearing description:
Employment at regulatory agencies has climbed 13 percent since President Obama took office, and the number of staff working on regulatory matters is on schedule to increase at a rate of 10,000 new regulatory employees per year in 2011 and 2012.
Yikes!
IFAJ conducted a survey of membership by a strategic committee and providing some results from the survey today was IFAJ Senior VP, Markus Rediger, LID Agricultural Information Center.
The focus was on how to make IFAJ even more global. I’m sure information will be coming out of the IFAJ office after the conference and a report is being produced to suggest ways to further develop IFAJ in the future. The survey asked 30 questions. I’ll let you listen to Markus provide some of the results in his remarks.
You can listen to Markus here: Remarks from Markus Rediger
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
During the delegate meeting of the IFAJ Congress we heard how things are going in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami disaster. As you may know, IFAJ helped organize a call for support and the results were €12,072 Euros being contributed to relief efforts! The donation will be managed by the Japan Agricultural Journalists Association.
With us is a delegation from Japan including Masaru Yamada (at the podium). He gave us some information about the disaster situation and how things have gone since then.
You can listen to remarks from Masaru here: Remarks from Masaru Yamada
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
The 2011 IFAJ Congress kicked off formally today after a meeting of the executive committee. For the delegates meeting the officers got on stage to provide reports on various aspects of IFAJ business. This is the annual business meeting. At the podium is Mike Wilson, Farm Futures, IFAJ President.
I asked him for a state of the union report after the meeting concluded. Mike sees the future growth for IFAJ in developing countries and says that projects like the Master Class program are creating relationships that will have a long term positive impact. He says IFAJ has never been in such good shape financially and credits the sponsors who are making that possible.
You can listen to my interview with Mike here: Interview with Mike Wilson
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
During pre-IFAJ Congress activities we were treated to dinner in downtown Guelph at the Woolrich Arrow. We were also being used in an experiment with a local potato grower. Here’s Kevin Smith, Smoyd Potato Farm, holding some of his product while he talked to us about a new variety we were to have served with our dinner. So we ate some of the first crop of Smoyd red skin roasted potatoes. I’m still here so I think they were okay.
You can listen to a portion of Kevin’s remarks here: Kevin Smith Potato Grower
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
The IFAJ Boot Camp participants, seen here, heard from their sponsor during their pre-Congress program in Guelph. My good friend, Aidan Connolly, Alltech VP, was able to be with us for a while this week.
Aidan told our participants that “food and food policy has never been more critical, has never been more relevant, has never been more times on the front of a newspaper or indeed in the media in general.” That really makes it very important for good quality ag journalism at this time! When it comes to solutions to today’s food problems Aidan suggests there are a number of interventions needed, not just one. He has already seen some online reporting from the class participants so I applaud them for getting right to work.
You can listen to my interview with Aidan here: Aidan Connolly Interview
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
One of the organizers for the IFAJ Master Class and Boot Camp program is Cees van Rij (pictured left), Agriterra. Cees is from the Netherlands.
Cees says his organization is guided by Dutch farmer groups and cooperatives and believes that farmers can do a lot to work with people in poverty stricken areas to help them. That led to the start of an effort called Famers Fighting Poverty. He says this effort needs more communication outreach and hopes IFAJ Congress participants will assist them. He would especially like to see support from companies and organizations in the United States.
You can listen to my interview with Cees here: Cees van Rij Interview
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
The 2011 IFAJ Congress gets into full swing today. There are some business meetings for the organization as well as an afternoon session called Canada Agriculture 101. I visited with Co-Chair Owen Roberts, faculty instructor at the University of Guelph. We were on the bus last night on our way to Mohawk Racetrack.
In the program you can hear Owen describe the difference between the two pre-Congress educational activities, IFAJ Master Class and IFAJ Boot Camp. Then he runs through what all the ag journalists will be doing the rest of the week. We split apart into groups for farm tours upon leaving Guelph but meet back up in Niagra Falls.
Listen to my conversations with Owen in this week’s ZimmCast: IFAJ Congress 2011
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
This week’s program ends with with music from Music Alley. It’s “Journalism 101″ by Highah Seekah. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
2011 IFAJ Congress Photo Album
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Coverage of the IFAJ Congress is sponsored by PIONEER Hi-Bred
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
David conducted a presentation on delivering expert opinion via social media to an audience at the start of International Poultry Expo week. He's got some great information about who consumers trust and how you can use today's consumer behavior to help communicate your message.
