The President of the IFAJ Congress 2008 is Franz Fischler, former Commissioner of Agriculture for the EU. Last year in Japan at the IFAJ Congress he promised us some fine Austrian wines. Tonight he made good on that with a toast at our dinner.

Prior to the dinner I spoke to him and he said that attendance exceeded their expectations. He says they have some specific objectives with the Congress. “We want to show how we organize the agricultural sector, which policy objectives we have, but would also like to show our guests concrete examples because I think this is the basis then for a good story and this interests journalists more than anything else.”

He says we’re in the southeast part of the country, called Styria, which is also the home of our “Governator,” Arnold Schwarzenegger. He told me that Austria joined the European Union in 1995 and that it has a common border with a number of the countries that also joined then. He says this has helped improve their economy and improve their output.

You can listen to my interview with Franz Fischler here: ifaj-08-fischler.mp3

Here is our welcome by Mr. Fischler at the evening’s opening dinner:

IFAJ Congress 2008 Photo Album

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