The slogan for this year’s IFAJ Congress is “Feed Your Senses.” That’s what we’re doing all right.
It’s the battle of the bulge as we watch our waistlines. We have a “walking lunch” where you can sample everything from mare’s milk that’s been enhanced with a little vodka, fruit juice and curacao to sliced cheeses, elk sausages and my favorite, ice cream.
Yeeow.
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To help entice us to come to Japan next year, the Japanese delegation here distributed bottles of very fine Kikkoman soy sauce.
Kikkoman is my favorite brand too. I’m sure my bottle will go on a nice stir fry supper at home.
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We’re just now receiving a presentation from next year’s IFAJ Congress host country, Japan.
This sounds like a fascinating program so if you couldn’t be here in Norway, plan on Japan next year.
You can watch a short video clip of the presentation: 
IFAJ Japan Presentation (3 min WMV)
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Marcus Rediger, Switzerland, is the IFAJ money man who presented the financials, budget and also introduced a project for IFAJ’s 50 year anniversary this year. A DVD has been produced that chronicles some of the history of the organization as well as just helping explain what agricultural journalism is like around the world.
The DVD is available by ordering from IFAJ directly or you can contact your country guild office. In the United States that would be the American Agricultural Editors Association.
You can watch a short video clip of the beginning of the DVD as it was first presented here: IFAJ DVD Presentation (1 min WMV)
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Next up on the awards program is the IFAJ Photography Awards.
After seeing each of the 28 entries:
Honorable mentions were presented to 12 of the entrants but I don’t have the list.
Second place was presented to Mark Rozin, “Capital Press”, USA.
First place was won by John Eveson, “Farmers Guardian”, United Kingdom.
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The business meeting just concluded and now it’s time for awards. First we have the IFAJ Star Prize for Agricultural Journalism.
Right now we’re seeing a listing of the entries. And the winners are . . .
The second place winner is Andries Gouws, “Landdbou Weekblad”, South Africa.
First place winner is, Andrew Blake, “Farmers Weekly”, United Kingdom.
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The business meeting of IFAJ is underway. Here’s the leadership at the head table.
We just had elections for the parliament of officers. President is David Markey (Ireland) and Vice President, Mike Wilson (United States).
Right now we’re getting a budget report for the coming year which will include funding to help up to 5 students attend next year’s Congress in Japan.
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I’m not really sure what/who this is. If anyone has more information, please share.
Before we left the lakeside stop on the way back to our hotel, three of these “troll ladies?” showed up screeching and attacking men.
It was also getting very foggy out which plays havoc with a flash.
Here’s a poor guy getting a dose of whatever these ladies were dishing out.
Can you say “crazy Norwegians?” This all has a lot to do with agriculture as I’m sure we’ll find out in coming days.
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After we left the play last night and got on our buses it’s hard to describe what happened next. I heard we were stopping for a surprise.
The surprise was going to be “night bathing” in a lake. Yeah, right!
But that’s exactly what happened. Some serious Viking souls got in the lake. I have pictures of them but deemed them inappropriate for a family website. Email me if you’d like a copy.
For those who didn’t do a little night bathing, we had some really good ham/bean soup and beers in the semi-darkness. This was about 11:30pm and it still wasn’t full dark yet.
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One of the locals working at Peer Gynt said we were very lucky to have such good weather for the play.
I guess it can rain and get even colder but the play still goes on.
One thing we got lucky with was a beautiful sunset.
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