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. …
Wine Queen of Slovenia
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 …
Food and Farming Canada
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 …
Franz Fischler Concludes The Congress
I like the way Fran Fischler, President of the IFAJ Congress 2008, started his remarks at the end of the event. “Everything has already been said but not by everybody.” He then proceeded to thank all the people who worked to make this Congress a reality, including all the sponsors. He pointed out how different farming is around the world. …
Mike Wilson is New IFAJ President
The new President of IFAJ is Mike Wilson, Farm Progress Companies. On one of the early nights of the IFAJ Congress we held a little private reception for Mike after a dinner in Graz, Austria. It was a surprise and I think you can see that in his face in this picture. We were at a very nice place right …
David Markey Relinquishes The Reins
The final night’s activities at the IFAJ Congress was a historic event for me. The only IFAJ President I’ve ever known up until this Congress was David Markey and this was when he turned the reins over to a new leader. I can tell you one thing. When you’ve got a group of people from countries all over the world …
When Did You Use One of These Last?
Here’s something you just don’t see much any more. Telephone booths. I remember when we used to be able to unscrew the mouthpieces and plug our recorders into them with alligator clips to send audio back home. I also remember moving to Missouri and stopping at one of these in north Illinois during the winter to call home when the …
Passing The IFAJ Flag
The IFAJ Congress has concluded but AgWired coverage of the event has not. Over the next several days I’ll be featuring more interviews and video clips. Our schedule and internet access has worked against me a little bit. Cindy and I just got back into Graz where we’ll fly out early tomorrow for St. Louis. At the moment, the internet …
Portoroz From The Dock
Portoroz is a beautiful little town on the Adriatic coast. The weather changed last night as we came in from Austria and we’ve been getting some light sprinkles all morning. Cindy and I are getting ready to take an online break and will be meeting up with the rest of the Congress participants this afternoon. We’ve got a full evening …
Slovenia Minister of Agriculture
Greeting the IFAJ Congress at our first dinner in Portoroz was the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Iztok Jarc. He had a challenge because just prior to our dinner the weather changed completely and we had a drenching lightning storm. It forced the restaurant to make some major adjustments to the settings but finally we got everyone under cover …