There is an official IFAJ Congress Blog. The coordinating organization for the event is the Japanese Agricultural Journalists Association.
Make sure you stop by for a visit.
IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by: 
We started out a very long day of activities here at the IFAJ Congress with a sort of a press conference at the “Imagine” studio of the Japan Broadcasting System, NHK. You can see the title on the glass wall of the studio here with the activities going on inside. I don’t have the information on what the building is but I’m sure someone can supply it. Apparently they had to acquire the rights to the name from Yoko Ono. The words to John Lennon’s song are also on the wall and there’s a plaque inside explaining this.
Anyway, we heard from several people including the director of agricultural policy for the Japanese Agricultural Cooperative system.
He included a very well done video explaining how and why the system came into being and how it has evolved over the years. There are about 9.9 million cooperative members with almost half of them being classified as associate members.
You can listen to his remarks here: ifaj-07-cooperatives.mp3
IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by:
Have I mentioned sake yet? This is sake country and at one of our receptions in Tokyo I think we had at least 13 companies exhibiting with sake tasting galore.
Cindy and Diane Johnson, LPC, were certainly enjoying the sake tasting. A couple of my favorites were the champagne sake and red rice sake. Cindy likes a white zinfandel when it comes to wine so the red rice sake was one of her favorites too.
I was having the jet lag catch up by the time we hit this reception so I stopped after sampling about 6 (or was it 9) different kinds. One thing was obvious to me and that was that the sake you find in most American restaurants does not even come close to comparing with what’s available.
IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by:
I’m starting to get caught up on my posting here in Japan. As you’ve been able to see, Cindy has certainly found time to do some editing of content from her trip to Germany last week!
I posted a picture from our reception in Tokyo the other night and now I’ve got a video clip to go with it. Cindy picked up a flyer that describes this. It’s pon-gashi which is basically a snack made from grains like rice and corn. You can call the rice version, kome-haze.
IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by:
Here on a rooftop overlooking the research facility is where we said auf Wiedersehen to BASF at Limburgerhof before we headed off to Brussels, so this is where my coverage of that event comes to a close.
However, I will be posting some more from that trip on Domestic Fuel, since biofuels were a major topic there and in Brussels, as well as here in Japan.
To our BASF and Quarry friends, I say “Danke, dank.”
Before those treated seeds can be planted in a farmer’s field, BASF has to make sure they will germinate and grow successfully, and that is the job of Dr. Michael Merk – just call him “the Germinator.”
“We test all different seeds in terms of germination,” he says. “The germination is very important to see if there is any damage in terms of germination on the roots or any delays.”
Merk says doing the germinating in the lab as opposed to in the field speeds the whole process because it can be done quickly and at any time of the year.
Listen to my interview with Dr. Merk here:
basf-merk.mp3
View the Flickr Photo Album from BASF in Germany and Brussels
Our final stop at the BASF research facility last week was the seed treatment center where we heard from Dr. Andreas Landes who is in charge of the center.
“Our goals here are the development of products which are easy to use,” said Dr. Landes. “Seed treatment is one of the most target oriented crop protection measures you can imagine.”
Like everything else in BASF product development, quite a bit of work goes into creating treated seeds. “We are involved from the early development stage, from the research phase,” he said.
The result of their efforts is a rainbow of seeds carrying chemicals right on them to make crop protection easier, safer and more effective for farmers.
Listen to my interview with Dr. Landes here:
basf-landes.mp3
View the Flickr Photo Album from BASF in Germany and Brussels
Okay, so if Dr. Speakman was excited about fungi, Dr. Christoph Kunast is simply buggy about insects.
Kunast’s job with BASF is ecotoxoxicology, which he explains “is the science of side effects of chemicals against living organisms.”
“What we must ensure for registration purposes is that these side effects are acceptable,” said Kunast. What that means is politically driven to some extent, he says, and can be some what of a moving target as the criteria keeps getting more stringent.
Dr. Kunast spent some time talking about Colony Collapse Disorder and its effects on his honey bee friends and what might be causing it. He also showed us his little hissing cockroach friend – a short video we’ll post here soon.
Listen to Dr. Kunast’s opening monologue about ecotoxicology here:
basf-kunast.mp3
Post Update: Here’s that video.
View the Flickr Photo Album from BASF in Germany and Brussels
This is a guy who really loves fungi.
Mycologist Dr. John-Bryan Speakman is a research scientist with BASF Fungicide Research and you wouldn’t believe how excited he can get talking about fungi. But some of them are really very pretty. I never knew there were so many different types of fungi with so many colors and shapes and sizes. We thought BASF could start a new business making paperweights and jewelry out of them!
“The mycologists estimate there are about 1.6 million fungal species,” says Speakman. “To date we have identified about 85,000 of these. There are about 8,000 plant pathogenic fungi in the world.” And can you guess what plant is the most impacted by fungi? It is actually grass – some 160 fungi can create problems for turfgrass and golf courses.
Dr. Speakman also demonstrated BASF’s new Stargate method of applying test compounds to plants. “It enables us to reduce the amount of compound being sprayed,” Speakman said. It also runs by computer to reduce human exposure to unknown compounds. I shot a little video of that which is being edited and we should be able to post here before too long.
Listen my interview with Dr. Speakman here:
basf-speakman.mp3
Post Update: Here’s that video.
View the Flickr Photo Album from BASF in Germany and Brussels
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 from our counterparts in other countries around the world. This is one of the great benefits of being active with IFAJ. I wish more U. S. ag journalists would take advantage of this great resource.
IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album
AgWired coverage of IFAJ 2007 is sponsored by:
