While you’re attending this year’s Agricultural Media Summit/IFAJ Congress you’ll have a chance to support student attendees and ARC. In fact, you can help out right now by donating an item for the auction.
Auction proceeds will go toward underwriting a lowered student registration fee for AMS, thus ensuring participation by the maximum number of potential industry newcomers. We need your help in gathering great items for the auction! Please donate an item to the auction. Remember, in addition to the traditional AMS attendees, we’ll also have more than a
hundred international visitors. And, we promise to find every opportunity possible to share news about your generosity.
We ask that you donate an item or items that value at least $50 each, and we’ll need to know your donation plans before July 29. You may actually bring the items when you come, or just ship to us prior to the event. We must receive all items(or know they are coming with you by July 29.
The items can range in size and scope. Den Gardner has donated a one week stay at a Florida condo, subject to availability. Mace Thornton of the American Farm Bureau Federation has donated two autographed Michael Martin Murphy CDs, and Amy McDonald of McDonald Marketing Communications has donated three cases of Dublin Dr Pepper (made with pure cane sugar). Jeri Omernik of Rocky Mountain Marketing Communications has donated a western art coffee table book.
If you would prefer, we’ll gladly accept your cash donations … with which we will buy some “Texas flavored” items for the auction.Want to donate a Stetson cowboy hat, a pair of cowboy boots or some western décor or jewelry? Leave the legwork to us, and just send us the request and funding! We will give you and your company full credit for the item, providing paperwork as needed.
Last week’s World Agricultural Forum World Ag Congress attracted a great crop of journalists, both locally and internationally. Pictured here interviewing keynote speaker Paul Collier (left) are two leaders of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) - current president Mike Wilson with Farm Futures magazine and senior vice president Markus Rediger of Switzerland’s LID Agricultural Information Center.
Collier is a professor of economics at Oxford University and author of a book on global poverty, “The Bottom Billion”. He contends that there are three major policy changes that can be made by nations that would alleviate hunger in the poorest countries. One is biofuels subsidies. “I’m not against biofuels, I’m against subsidies for biofuels,” Paul says.
Not sure I agree with him on that one, but I do agree with his second premise that the ban on genetically modified crops in Europe and Africa should be lifted. “Europe shot itself in the foot and in the process it shot Africa in the heart because Africa really needs to adapt to climatic deterioration and a rising population and genetic modification of crops is potentially a godsend,” said Collier.
The third policy mistake Collier notes is the over emphasis in Africa on “peasant farming” and the resistance to commercial agriculture. “This has tended to be imposed on African by the agenda of some NGOs and development agencies who have a romantic attachment to the vanished peasant lifestyle,” something he says is very self-serving, “trying to impose our fantasies on the poorest people on Earth.”
You can listen to my interview with Paul Collier here:
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To help you keep up with what’s going on at this year’s IFAJ Congress a new Twitter account has been set up: @IFAJ.
The beautiful background is the U.S. delegation to last year’s IFAJ Congress.
For you Twitter experts, please remember to use the #IFAJ hashtag in your posts on Twitter. That will make it easy for all of us to follow along with all that’s being said about IFAJ in the Twitterverse.
Thank you to Greg Lamp for pointing out that you can attend post IFAJ/AMS tours this year even if you’re not a member of AAEA, LPC or IFAJ. So how about some NAFB’ers joining in the fun?
Looking for a whole new way of seeing the U.S.A. this summer? Look no further. The Ag Media Summit in conjunction with the International Federation of Ag Journalists is offering three post tours immediately after the Summit. What an opportunity to see more of Texas than just Fort Worth, and be able to get photos and stories along the way.
There’s no early sign-up discount for these tours so you can mull it over for awhile before you decide. Also, if you want to bring a friend or family member along, there are no restrictions. You don’t have to be an AAEA, LPC or IFAJ member to join this inquisitive group of Texas travelers.
For details on the three tours, log on to www.agmediasummit.com or www.ifaj2009.com. In the meantime, here’s a quick recap of the Texas tours planned for you this summer. (more…)
I found the IFAJ/AMS planning committee meeting. Fortunately for me I walked in just as it ended! Actually I just couldn’t get there earlier but I wanted to. If you haven’t registered yet for this year’s combined meeting please try to do so soon.
I interviewed Andy Atzenweiler and will post it when I get back to my room later. He says that the program is finalized and I got a copy of it. You can see the latest version on the Ag Media Summit website. It sounds like we’re a little ahead of normal with sponsors and the program but then we’ve been planning this one for two years since we’re overlapping with the international folks from IFAJ.
You can listen to my interview with Andy here:
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I hope to see a lot of you in Texas.
AgWired coverage of the Agri-Marketing Conference is sponsored by: and .
In this week’s program we’ll get an update on the IFAJ and Ag Media Summit program from Joann Alumbaugh, Farms.com. Joann is co-chair of the program committee this year.
Our planning committee for the conference met after Commodity Classic in the Worthington Hotel, Ft. Worth, which is where we’ll be at the end of July and first of August. To start things out we’re going to have a debate between former Congressman from Texas, Charlie Stenholm and Barry Flinchbaugh, Professor Emeritus, Kansas State University. That should be not only an entertaining but thought provoking session. We’ve got sessions over several days on a variety of topics from photography to writing and you can find the schedule here.
This week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s a song called, “Fort Worth Stomp” by the Defibulators. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 211 (11 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
The IFAJ/AMS planning committee got together since so many of us ag media types were in town for Commodity Classic. Yesterday the group went to Billy Bob’s and the Stockyards before heading to the upcoming conference hotel, the Worthington Hotel in downtown Fort Worth.
Cindy and I joined the group for a reception meeting last night. The local convention and visitor’s bureau and hotel provided a tour and hosted our reception. We covered the program, which is mostly set now, including speakers. I’ll have more information about this shortly here on AgWired and I’ve got quite a bit of new information to get posted this week on the IFAJ 2009 Congress website.
For those who don’t know, this year the Ag Media Summit is overlapping with the IFAJ Congress for the first time. It’s going to be a big meeting and I’m looking forward to a great program.
Registration is open for the IFAJ Congress 2009. This is a “must-attend” event for anyone in agricultural communications. I don’t care if you’re a farm broadcaster, podcaster, editor, publisher, blogger or agriblogger. You need to be there.
It’s not just that there will be good professional development sessions although that’s reason enough. It’s also because this is your chance to interact with some great people from around the world who will be attending. Many of them will be coming to the United States for the first time. Let’s give them a fantastic welcome.
It’s the first time that the IFAJ Congress has been combined with an event like the Agricultural Media Summit and I think it’s going to go down as the best ever. There are a lot of people working to make it so. Maybe our new administration in DC will find a way to participate.
So get the dates on your calendar and get your registration in as soon as you can! You can keep up on what’s being planned either on the AMS website or at IFAJ2009.com.
Our Green Week eyes and ears have reported in again today from Berlin. Here’s a story on what’s happening from Janet Kanters:
During International Green Week (IGW) in Berlin, ministers of agriculture and leading representatives of agriculture and the food industry from all over the world will be discussing global solutions.
German industry is using the Green Week as a platform where global solutions for safeguarding world food supplies can be discussed with more than 30 ministers of agriculture and over 1,000 experts from agriculture and the food industry.
The 1st Berlin Summit of Agriculture Ministers, the 2nd International Conference of Agriculture Ministers and the International Forum for Food and Agriculture (IFAE), all taking place on January 17, are the most important conferences in the history of the Green Week.
“Never before have the leading representatives of every stage in the value-added chain of agri-business been able to engage in such high-level discussions and on such a global scale with agricultural policymakers on issues of vital importance to the future of humankind,” says Dr. Christian Göke, chief operating officer of Messe Berlin GmbH, organizer of IGW Berlin 2009.
The Federation of German Food and Drink Industries, the German Farmers’ Union, the German Agricultural, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation and the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations are jointly staging the first IFAE on the subject of ‘World food situation 2020 – innovative solutions in the face of limited resources’.
Over 1,000 experts from agriculture and the food industry from all over the world will be meeting here in order to present new approaches and models, to introduce more sustainability to the debate and to discuss recommended courses of action.
In addition to the plenary session dealing with the ‘World Food Situation 2020′, there will also be three panels, which will investigate what strategies can be adopted by agriculture and the food industry to cope with climate change, as well as asking why agriculture, which has been neglected for so long, is now seen as the key to global development processes, and also why safeguarding livestock health makes a decisive contribution to providing humankind with healthy food.
Thanks to on-the-scene-reporter Greg Lamp, Corn & Soybean Digest, I’ve got some information to share from Green Week and the IFAJ meeting taking place in Berlin. Here’s Greg’s report, along with photos. This one is of Mariann Fisher Boel (EU Commission of Agriculture), Michael Mann (seated) and Mike Wilson, Farm Futures.
Nearly 1,000 journalists began their reporting today at Messe Berlin, billed as one of the largest consumer food shows in the world. It is also part of what the Germans call Green Week.
As part of that event, the International Federation of Ag Journalists (IFAJ) assembled their executive committee to hammer out objectives for the coming year.
Fortunately, the EU Commissioner of Agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel, was able to meet with the IFAJ group for a special Q&A session. Although many of the questions revolved around a change in a European dairy policy, she did comment on biotechnology issues.
When asked about the zero tolerance rules for genetically modified (GM) crops, she said she has “launched a discussion to have an adventitious presence,” or minimum acceptable threshold level. Right now, she says, “Zero tolerance means zero, not even .0001%. We don’t want GM food causing damage to humans, but GM is here and here to stay. We can’t do without them.”
The dilemma, however, according to Ilse Aigner, German Minister of Agriculture, is that “Consumers don’t want biotech in their foods, but we also don’t want our farmers to lose out on the technology.”
Post Update: Janet Kanters has provided an update too, via her Facebook page and with permission to post here:
Greetings from the IFAJ executive committee to IFAJ members.
We are currently meeting in Berlin, during International Green Week. For those of you not familiar with this event, the International Green Week (IGW) is a one-of-a-kind international exhibition for the food, agricultural and horticultural industries. Established in 1926, it invites producers from all over the world to test-market food and luxury items and establish a brand image. Exhibitors often organize around national, regional or product themes. Presentations feature fresh produce, fish, meats and dairy products. These combine with a vast selection of international wine, beer and spirits specialties, to satisfy every culinary palate. Right in line with consumer trends, the IGW also includes direct agricultural sales and the BIO MARKT organic products section. The IGW also features commercial and non-commercial agricultural, forestry, and landscaping exhibits.
The IFAJ executive committee has a full schedule while here, meeting in the various sub-committees, providing feedback and ideas for the ongoing IFAJ website development, and connecting with journalists from around the globe.
U. S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer held a conference call with reporters to discuss accomplishments of the Bush administration. We were on the call and I thought I’d share a segment with you in this week’s program.
I’ve been pointing out the increased investment in rural broadband through the Rural Development department here on AgWired since we got started and the Secretary mentioned it in his remarks.
Since 2001 this administration has shown its commitment to rural America by investing an average of $14 billion a year in rural development, 36 percent higher than the level of spending when we took office. Those investments have created 2 million new jobs, they’ve expanded broadband service, upgraded health care and emergency response services, and supported renewable energy and energy efficient projects.
I hope we’ll see continued investment in rural broadband with the new administration.
In this week’s program I’ve also got an update on the IFAJ 2009 Congress/Agricultural Media Summit from Greg Lamp, Corn & Soybean Digest. There are updates to the schedule, including post-Congress tours on the Congress website and according to Greg plans are moving along smoothly.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 203 (13 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists’ new website kind of snuck up on me but it’s now live.
The IFAJ has a new website. The site carries many of the same features as before, but with a fresh new look, and in a format that is much easier to nativigate. Work is still being done on expanding and refining the content. In the meantime, we would be pleased to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
But that’s what the IFAJ newsletter is for. To let us know what’s going on. You can find the latest edition here. In it is a link to new IFAJ President, Mike Wilson’s first column.
I’m deeply honored and humbled to be taking on the leadership reins of the IFAJ following the successful terms of our past president David Markey. I plan to give this challenge my best effort and I know I can count on the support of my colleagues here at home as well as overseas. I’m really looking forward to working with the new IFAJ presidium, as well as the new executive committee. (more…)
Bring a wafer-thin slice of Vulcano to your mouth and savour the magnificent aroma of the dry-cured ham before allowing the full taste to develop on your tongue. That’s the translated version of the sales pitch for Vulcano Ham company in Austria.
This was our last stop before leaving Austria for Slovenia on the 2008 IFAJ Congress trip and it was an interesting one. In the photo you see Bettina Habel, the wife of one of the three main proprietors of Vulcano, mingling with the herd at the farm, including big Leo (who is the “mascot” of the operation and not for consumption!)
Vulcano specializes in air-cured hams that are sold for a premium only to high-end consumer markets. The regional trademarked product is manufactured from hoof to ham in the same location.
I was happy to be able to put a brochure from one of our sponsors, Novus International, in Bettina’s hands, as well as give one to their veterinarian who was our local guide and interpreter for the visit. They did seem interested in the animal health and feed products Novus offers for hog producers - and I pointed out that their website is also available in several languages, including German!
One of the highlights of the 2008 IFAJ Congress in Austria was the visit to a traditional mountain farm. All of the participants in that tour just raved about the pastoral scenery on such a perfect day they expected to see Julie Andrews dance up over the hillside singing the “Sound of Music.”
Unfortunately, Chuck and I did not get to go on that tour, as it was sold out immediately. There were three different tour options for the trip, which is really kind of a shame - everyone would have enjoyed getting to see this.
These pictures were provided by one of our Canadian friends, Lilian Schaer of Agri-Food Project Services Ltd. She and Kelly Daynard with the Ontario Farm Animal Council both went on that tour and wrote about it on the blog, Food and Farming Canada.
Lilian wrote:Much of Austria is covered in pastoral mountainside fields – beautifully scenic but largely unsuited for agriculture.
But in the mountainous northern regions of the Austrian province of Styria, some entrepreneurial farmers are not only making a living by farming on the alpine pastures, they’re also revitalizing rural communities and keeping ancient traditions alive.
In Kelly’s post, she began: High up in the mountains, the scenery fulfilled every stereotype I’ve ever had about this country. Cow bells could be heard in the distance. A babbling brook twisted alongside the roadway. Every home was a flower-laden chalet and, to the eye’s delight was mountain after mountain after mountain. I could have stayed there forever.
What made it even more unusual was that we were touring an average mountain beef farm. I’ve been to a lot of impressive beef farms in Ontario but none have the view of these, to be sure.
Be sure to check out the rest of their blog posts to read their impressions about the trip. Thanks for sharing the photos, my friends!
I don’t know when the first Quasimojo performance was at an IFAJ event but they’re still going strong.
This year’s Congress found them playing on stage after our final dinner in Portoroz, Slovenia. We had just finished all the speeches and awards and were full and it was late. The band has a kind of flexible membership and somehow seems to crank out the same great music to entertain us.
Our program for the final dinner called for some “traditional dancing.” That’s something I’ll have in a different post.
While Quasimojo was playing however, we had anything but traditional dance. This pictures shows the international understanding of how to dance to rock and roll though.
A year before the IFAJ Congress 2008 we were given packets of pumpkin seeds to plant and then we were supposed to send in or bring photos of our pumpkin plants. I tried but let’s just say growing pumpkins isn’t one of my things.
We saw lots of pumpkin fields but never got to visit any when we were in Austria. However, at our last dinner we did receive a bottle of pumpkin seed oil.
Now if I could just get home to use it with some new culinary feast.
While we were in Slovenia at the IFAJ Congress one of our hosts was Ciril Smrkolj who is President of the Slovenia Agriculture and Forestry Chamber, a primary ag group in the country.
I spoke with him at our closing dinner. He’s very much a pro-agriculture kind of guy. He says that his organization does work on promotion and marketing. He says that the globalization of farming has made it difficult for their small farmers. They have to import a lot of the food they eat in their country and he says the transition from communist rule has been a good one but it has opened up their market and that’s what’s causing some problems for them. He says they don’t have enough protection and support from their government either.
You can listen to my interview with Ciril here:
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The Wine Queen of Slovenia this year is Svetlana Sirec.
She got quite a bit of attention from the boys here in her wine queen dress, complete with red and white grapes.
I spoke with her at our last dinner of the IFAJ Congress. She basically works to promote wine in country and I wish I could point you to her favorite but I didn’t get her to write it down. Perhaps you can tell when she says it in our interview.
You can listen to my interview with Svetlana here:
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The traveling agriblogger is now resting comfortably in Chicago O’Hare, waiting on the next flight. So far, so good this morning. You can see what the sunrise looked like outside my plane in Columbus, OH this morning using this link.
While doing some more email work I noticed that Lilian Schaer, Food and Farming Canada, is now following me on Twitter. That led me to her blog where I read her post about returning from Portoroz, Slovenia and the IFAJ Congress with much sympathy and understanding. If you haven’t done any international travel then you haven’t had some of these kinds of “adventures.” I think those of us who have can, all relate though. Besides blogging away, it looks like Lilian is an excellent Tweeter!
More posts from the IFAJ Congress will be showing up on AgWired in coming days.
Guess how many photos we've got in our archives that are tagged "farm." Let's just say, it's a lot..
Twittering Farmer
Farmers are twittering and then there's The Twittering Farmer.
He's Steve Tucker and my interview in this week's program. Steve and I discuss the story that featured him on CNN today and the feedback he's received which has been kind of overwhelming. He's a great advocate for agriculture who now has more Twitter followers than there are residents in his home town.
Last week’s World Agricultural Forum World Ag Congress attracted a great crop of journalists, both locally and internationally. Pictured here interviewing keynote speaker Paul Collier (left) are two leaders of the 
Have you made your reservation for the 
Thank you to Greg Lamp for pointing out that you can attend post IFAJ/AMS tours this year even if you’re not a member of AAEA, LPC or IFAJ. So how about some NAFB’ers joining in the fun?
I found the IFAJ/AMS planning committee meeting. Fortunately for me I walked in just as it ended! Actually I just couldn’t get there earlier but I wanted to. If you haven’t registered yet for this year’s combined meeting please try to do so soon.
In this week’s program we’ll get an update on the 
July and first of August. To start things out we’re going to have a debate between former Congressman from Texas, Charlie Stenholm and Barry Flinchbaugh, Professor Emeritus, Kansas State University. That should be not only an entertaining but thought provoking session. We’ve got sessions over several days on a variety of topics from photography to writing and you can find the schedule 
The IFAJ/AMS planning committee got together since so many of us ag media types were in town for Commodity Classic. Yesterday the group went to Billy Bob’s and the Stockyards before heading to the upcoming conference hotel, the 
and 
Our Green Week eyes and ears have reported in again today from Berlin. Here’s a story on what’s happening from Janet Kanters:
“Never before have the leading representatives of every stage in the value-added chain of agri-business been able to engage in such high-level discussions and on such a global scale with agricultural policymakers on issues of vital importance to the future of humankind,” says Dr. Christian Göke, chief operating officer of Messe Berlin GmbH, organizer of IGW Berlin 2009.
Thanks to on-the-scene-reporter Greg Lamp, 
When asked about the zero tolerance rules for genetically modified (GM) crops, she said she has “launched a discussion to have an adventitious presence,” or minimum acceptable threshold level. Right now, she says, “Zero tolerance means zero, not even .0001%. We don’t want GM food causing damage to humans, but GM is here and here to stay. We can’t do without them.”
I’ve been pointing out the increased investment in rural broadband through the Rural Development department here on AgWired since we got started and the Secretary mentioned it in his remarks.
In this week’s program I’ve also got an update on the IFAJ 2009 Congress/Agricultural Media Summit from Greg Lamp, 
The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists’ 
Bring a wafer-thin slice of Vulcano to your mouth and savour the magnificent aroma of the dry-cured ham before allowing the full taste to develop on your tongue. That’s the 
Vulcano specializes in air-cured hams that are sold for a premium only to high-end consumer markets. The regional trademarked product is manufactured from hoof to ham in the same location.
Unfortunately, Chuck and I did not get to go on that tour, as it was sold out immediately. There were three different tour options for the trip, which is really kind of a shame - everyone would have enjoyed getting to see this. 
In 
I don’t know when the first Quasimojo performance was at an IFAJ event but they’re still going strong.
Our program for the final dinner called for some “traditional dancing.” That’s something I’ll have in a different post.
A year before the IFAJ Congress 2008 we were given packets of pumpkin seeds to plant and then we were supposed to send in or bring photos of our pumpkin plants. I tried but let’s just say growing pumpkins isn’t one of my things.
While we were in Slovenia at the IFAJ Congress one of our hosts was Ciril Smrkolj who is President of the Slovenia Agriculture and Forestry Chamber, a primary ag group in the country.
The Wine Queen of Slovenia this year is Svetlana Sirec.
The traveling agriblogger is now resting comfortably in Chicago O’Hare, waiting on the next flight. So far, so good this morning. You can see what the sunrise looked like outside my plane in Columbus, OH this morning 
Farmers are twittering and then there's The Twittering Farmer.
