AgWired

Since our sponsor for coverage of this year’s IFAJ Congress is Pioneer I couldn’t help but post a picture of Jurii Mikhailov, Univest Media, Ukraine. Jurii was sporting his Pioneer t-shirt during our first full day of activities. We’ve had a chance to spend some time talking with Jurii and like with all the participants there’s lots we can learn …

A main sponsor for the IFAJ Congress here in Japan is Alltech. One of their representatives traveling with us is Billy Frey. He was onstage presenting the IFAJ-Alltech Young Leaders in Agricultural Journalism Awards. Cindy was there while I was working in another location at the time so I’m not sure who is on stage with Billy here. Maybe somebody …

I’m back online here in Sendai, Japan on Thursday morning. It’s a beautiful day here. Cindy and I elected not to tour today. We were so exhausted by the time we got in last night that we needed some time to relax. Most of our IFAJ group is out on one of 4 different tours. They’re going overnight and won’t …

This is an unusual way to make puffed rice but it works. Somehow they have this little cannon type thing that once it heats up you bang on it and it explodes and the puffed rice pops out into a basket. This was one of the many interesting little things we got to experience at our reception at the University …

I not only have a fascination with the production and promotion of food but I like to eat it too. One of the cool things about an IFAJ Congress is you’re assured to try something new. Here’s lunch on the bus this afternoon. I would detail all the contents of the box but I’m not sure what they all were. …

The 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 …

Here’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, …

After 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 …

We’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 …

I 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 …