AgWired

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. I was hungry enough to eat most of it. We had shrimp, rice, beans, cabbage and what I’m sure was some kind of tofu among other items. Notice the fork although we did have chop sticks available to us. The whole thing was gift wrapped making for a very nice presentation.

Not shown is the dessert. I don’t remember what it was called but it was kind of like some white Silly Putty wrapped around some sweet tasting filling and a very large thing that I think our guide said was a sweet bean?

IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

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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 and had been proposed and discussed at past meetings. I’m sure the changes will be published to the membership after the meeting.

IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

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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, “Tokyo University of Agriculture offers a unique, integrated approach to agricultural education. Studies in the core areas of Agronomy, Life Science, Environmental Science, and Bio-industry Science serve to advance agriculture and to support agriculture’s related industries.”

IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

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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 Japan Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

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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 almost touching the raised highway.

I’m in a press center they set up here at the school. However, we’re not allowed to connect our computers directly to the internet but have to use the ones they’ve provided us. Where there’s a will there’s a way I always say. I’ve updated the photo album thanks to being able to download and install the Flickr uploader to this computer and transfer my pics on a memory stick.

IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

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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 marketing firm for the Japan Agriculture Cooperative which has most of the farmers in the country as members. Cindy just conducted an interview with the head of their fresh produce marketing division.

As you can see we got to sample before leaving. Cindy likes raw vegetables and fruit better than the sushi so she was real happy about that.

One of the things we’re getting plenty of is green tea. This line of bottles shows that they were ready for us. I wish I could say that I drink it but it’s just not my cup of tea. I’ll be interested in the sake samples later.

Right now we’re in a question and answer session in the main meeting room and I’m at the head table looking like I have some other purpose than borrowing a computer that’s connected to their internal network.

IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

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When I mentioned that we were served food at our welcoming reception I neglected to say the word “fresh.”

These guys here are about to slice up this big fish. The Big Blue Fin Tuna Cutting Show was really interesting. The best part was eating some fresh cut sushi as they worked on this big guy.

Cindy shot video of it which I’ll try to get posted later when we’ve got more time and energy. We’re a little concerned about internet access here since we have none available in our rooms and the only place we can get online is in the press room. We’ve got some pretty lengthy tours on the agenda during the days so hopefully we’ll have some time to do some editing and posting. It’s a challenge still getting meeting organizers to realize how important putting time into the schedule for us journalists to work and have the internet access we need to get our postings done.

IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

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Also welcoming us to Japan this evening was David Markey, IFAJ President.

David says that IFAJ is now over 5,000 members strong worldwide. I interviewed him for my weekly ZimmCast but will have to post that later since I’m running out of steam at this point.

IFAJ is made up of all kinds of journalists involved in agricultural communications including publication editors, broadcasters and an increasing number of web editors.

IFAJ Congress 2007 Photo Album

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