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IFAJ Officers Take the Stage

Chuck Zimmerman

IFAJ OfficersThe officers of the IFAJ took the stage this afternoon to lead the Annual Meeting. After reading off the delegates roll call it was down to business.

One of the things that was approved was a change recommendation to the IFAJ constitution and rules to make some corrections and update them. These were done with the help of Paul Queck and had been proposed and discussed at past meetings. I’m sure the changes will be published to the membership after the meeting.


IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by: Pioneer-HiBred

IFAJ, Pioneer

Ag School Welcome

Chuck Zimmerman

President of Tokyo University of AgricultureHere’s Dr. OHSAWA Kanju, President of Tokyo University of Agriculture who welcomed us at the start of our activities here at the school.

I’ve only seen a small part of the school but they have a very nice setup with interpreters, making it easier for all these multi-cultural ag journalists to communicate.

His President’s message from the school’s website says, “Tokyo University of Agriculture offers a unique, integrated approach to agricultural education. Studies in the core areas of Agronomy, Life Science, Environmental Science, and Bio-industry Science serve to advance agriculture and to support agriculture’s related industries.”


IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by: Pioneer-HiBred

IFAJ, Pioneer

Tokyo University of Agriculture

Chuck Zimmerman

Tokyo University of AgricultureAfter all the city scenes it was nice to pull into the Tokyo University of Agriculture campus and walk through some trees.

This is our group walking in to the main auditorium from the buses. This afternoon we’ve got a program that includes the annual delegates assembly of the IFAJ, multiple simultaneous educational sessions and a press conference with the Japan Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.


IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by: Pioneer-HiBred

IFAJ, Pioneer

Crosstown Tokyo Traffic

Chuck Zimmerman

Tokyo TrafficWe’ve already seen a lot of this here in Tokyo. In fact, we got almost 2 hours worth on the way to the Tokyo University of Agriculture where our afternoon program is taking place today.

This is one big city and one of the things that really hits you is the buildings of all shapes and sizes that are built almost touching the raised highway.

I’m in a press center they set up here at the school. However, we’re not allowed to connect our computers directly to the internet but have to use the ones they’ve provided us. Where there’s a will there’s a way I always say. I’ve updated the photo album thanks to being able to download and install the Flickr uploader to this computer and transfer my pics on a memory stick.


IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by: Pioneer-HiBred

IFAJ, Pioneer

On Tour at ZEN-NOH in Japan

Chuck Zimmerman

Fresh Fruits in JapanI found a very nice man here in the ZEN-NOH Fresh Produce Marketing, Co. in Tokyo who is letting me use his internet connection to post a quick picture from our first tour.

I tried to load pics to the photo album but I couldn’t get connected so I’ll be adding quite a few later. This is a very large marketing firm for the Japan Agriculture Cooperative which has most of the farmers in the country as members. Cindy just conducted an interview with the head of their fresh produce marketing division.

ifaj-07-10.jpgAs you can see we got to sample before leaving. Cindy likes raw vegetables and fruit better than the sushi so she was real happy about that.

One of the things we’re getting plenty of is green tea. This line of bottles shows that they were ready for us. I wish I could say that I drink it but it’s just not my cup of tea. I’ll be interested in the sake samples later.

Right now we’re in a question and answer session in the main meeting room and I’m at the head table looking like I have some other purpose than borrowing a computer that’s connected to their internal network.


IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by: Pioneer-HiBred

IFAJ, Pioneer

IFAJ Congress in Japan

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-137 - IFAJ Congress 2007Hello from Japan. This week’s program is coming to you from Tokyo.

Cindy and I start out with a review of our trips last week to Canada, Germany and Belgium. Then you can hear an interview with International Federation of Agricultural Journalists President, David Markey.

Me interviewing David MarkeyDavid says that IFAJ is now over 5,000 members strong worldwide. He says we’ve got about 240 registered here at the Congress which is quite a few more than I think they expected.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 137 (30 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:

zimmcast136-9-18-07.mp3

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

Audio, IFAJ, Pioneer

Big Blue Fin Tuna Cutting Show

Chuck Zimmerman

Big Blue Fin Tuna Cutting ShowWhen I mentioned that we were served food at our welcoming reception I neglected to say the word “fresh.”

These guys here are about to slice up this big fish. The Big Blue Fin Tuna Cutting Show was really interesting. The best part was eating some fresh cut sushi as they worked on this big guy.

Cindy shot video of it which I’ll try to get posted later when we’ve got more time and energy. We’re a little concerned about internet access here since we have none available in our rooms and the only place we can get online is in the press room. We’ve got some pretty lengthy tours on the agenda during the days so hopefully we’ll have some time to do some editing and posting. It’s a challenge still getting meeting organizers to realize how important putting time into the schedule for us journalists to work and have the internet access we need to get our postings done.


IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by: Pioneer-HiBred

IFAJ, Pioneer

Marketing Headline

Cindy Zimmerman

BASF ButstraenBASF Headline fungicide has become a major crop protection product for corn in just the past two years, not as a fungicide but as an overall plant health product. In fact, it has become a real success story in agricultural marketing and the ability to take advantage of favorable market factors.

BASF Vice President for strategic marketing of ag products Emmanual Butstraen says once the plant health effect of Headline was recognized they focused on marketing the product for corn. “Because the market conditions of this year were high commodity prices, business went up substantially.”

Headline is a real bright spot in the BASF portfolio, but there are others in the pipeline. “The challenge for BASF is bringing innovation to the farmers,” Butstraen says.

He also talks about the BASF partnership with Monsanto. “Monsanto and BASF together are stronger than any single other company for the farmer.”

Listen my interview with Emmanual from my visit to Germany here:
basf-emmanuel.mp3

View the Flickr Photo Album from BASF in Germany and Brussels

Audio, BASF, International

IFAJ President David Markey Welcomes Us

Chuck Zimmerman

IFAJ President David MarkeyAlso welcoming us to Japan this evening was David Markey, IFAJ President.

David says that IFAJ is now over 5,000 members strong worldwide. I interviewed him for my weekly ZimmCast but will have to post that later since I’m running out of steam at this point.

IFAJ is made up of all kinds of journalists involved in agricultural communications including publication editors, broadcasters and an increasing number of web editors.


IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by: Pioneer-HiBred

IFAJ, Pioneer

Yokoso Nippon IFAJ

Chuck Zimmerman

Japan Agricultural Journalists Association LeadersWe were welcomed to Japan (Yokoso Nippon) by Kazumasa Numura, president of the Japan Agricultural Journalists Association (left) and Masaru Yamada, the main coordinator.

Our welcoming reception included lots of food and beverage. Just what you need when you’ve been on the go sitting in an airplane for over half a day. Besides welcoming comments we were also entertained with music and just the fun and fellowship of meeting with ag journalists from all over the world.

In his invitation letter Mr. Numura said, “The theme of the Congress is “Explore the land of Mizuho.” Mizuho is the meaning of “Ear of rice” in Japanese. With a history of more than thousands years with rice, we call our country the land of Mizuho. Every September is the time to harvest for rice. In 2007, you will discover secrets of the land of Mizuho.” We’re certainly looking forward to it.


IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by: Pioneer-HiBred

IFAJ, International, Pioneer