This is the U.S. Grains Council Pioneer Mission group I traveled with back in 1998. Our fearless leader then was Rick Tolman (pictured in the center), now CEO of the National Corn Growers Association. We toured Brazil, Columbia and Mexico. It’s hard to believe that just eleven years ago I didn’t have a digital camera and website to post onto. I had to scan this photo from my photo album that sits on a shelf in my office. I did have a Sony recorder though as I recall that let me record onto a disk and I could send audio reports back via phone line. That was when I managed the Brownfield Network.

Times have changed. Beginning tomorrow I’ll be leaving on a USGC Corn Mission to Morocco, Egypt and Jordan and hope to document it digitally. In doing so, I’ll be sharing information with an international audience via the web. Let’s just say I’m hoping for good internet access opportunities and the time to use it. As I recall, we keep up a pretty brisk pace during these trips.

I just did a little bit of online searching and found very little about that trip back in 1998. I’m just guessing that won’t be the case for this trip by the time we’re finished!