After lunch on day two it was workshop time. There were 4 workshops on topics such as “New Challenges For Swiss Agriculture Policy,” “New Agriculture, New Technologies,” “Retailers, Consumers and New Agriculture” and “New Agriculture, Cultural Landscape and Tourism.”
Here’s workshop number three in progress. This is the one on Retailers. Everybody was able to participate in two workshops out of the four. After the workshops it was time to rest for a short while before we had to get ready for a fantastic dinner.
AgWired reports on IFAJ Congress 2005 are sponsored by Pioneer Hi-Bred.
The Seepark Hotel where we’re staying here in Thun is located right on the lake and it is beautiful! We’ll be out on the lake tomorrow evening for our farewell dinner and have pictures from that to show you then.
I just have to give a plug for this guy. At lunch he was creating tasty little flowerets of an excellent cheese. He’s not a monk, just looks like one. That’s because this cheese was originally made by the monks of the Monastery of Bellelay. They don’t anymore but the tradition continues. The cheese comes with the little “pirouette” tool that you turn and slice the cheese off in a ribbon. You can order it online now from 
After the morning general sessions we all had time to browse various exhibits set up outside the main hall. Lunch was also served. This was a cheese fest! I don’t know how many kinds of cheese there were. I tried them all and they were all delicious. 
I mentioned before how there was tremendous flooding in Switzerland just a week or so ago. Outside our hotel here at the IFAJ Congress they’re still pumping water out of the basement. This has been going on since we arrived without stop. The hotel is on the edge of Lake Thun and became a temporary island during the worst of it.
On the second day of the IFAJ Congress it was time to get to work, beginning with general sessions at the Schadausaal. The focus of the Congress is “The New Role of Agriculture.” Speakers included: Manfred Boetsch, Director of the Swiss Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Luzius Wasaescha, Ambassador, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Hansjoerg Walter, President of the Swiss Farmer’s Union and Walter Huber, CEO of Emmi. 
I mentioned singing in a previous post and that’s what we did at supper. The first song was a German song – Mir Senne heis lustig. 
Honored at last night’s dinner was Rolf Haeberli, Switzerland, who is one of the founders of IFAJ. In fact, Rolf, who’s a young 85 years old, says they got this organization started in Paris in 1956. I didn’t want to tell him that I wasn’t even born yet! Way to go Rolf.
Giving us a hearty welcome before dinner was the IFAJ Congress planning committee chairman, Hans Mueller. He did a great job in at least 2 languages as I recall. In fact, that’s something that really strikes you at an international conference like this. The diversity of language. There are almost 300 people here from over 30 countries! I think I heard that we have new members attending from Nepal even. This is an excellent opportunity to meet with and talk to ag journalists from other countries. I’m sure we’re making contacts that will last a lifetime.
Before dinner opening day we heard from Elisabeth Zolch-Balmer, Minister of the Department of Economic Affairs and a member of the government of the Canton of Berne. Elisabeth talked about how the government is working to save and restore small Swiss farms through the use of payments. She said they’ve had a real decline in the number of these small farms but that it has stabilized. The farms are actually important to more than just the agricultural industry. They’re very important to tourism as well.