In this week's program we'll get a preview of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists annual Congress which will take place in the Netherlands this year. I spoke via Skype with one of the organizers of the Congress, Jacqueline Wijbenga, Adjunct-uitgever, Eisma Businessmedia. We discussed the program and the theme of this year's Congress.
The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) annually organizes a world congress. Alternately, the congress takes place in Europe and on another continent. After previous editions in Germany (2016) and South Africa (2017) the conference will take place in the Netherlands in July 2018. The congress organization is appointed by the IFAJ at the request of the NVLJ, the Dutch Association for Agricultural and Horticultural Journalism. The conference will hook on to the centenary that Wageningen University & Research (WUR) celebrates in 2018. The congress organization is controlled by the independent foundation Dutch Roots, which is based on the voluntary commitment of NVLJ members and a conference manager who partly receives paid hours of work.
The Dutch Roots board has set Dutch Roots: small country big solutions as the denominator for the Dutch agricultural product chains. The starting point for the IFAJ2018 World Congress program and the route towards it, is that the foundation and its activities provide a platform for numerous journalistic productions for (agricultural) journalists worldwide.
Looking ahead, the IFAJ Congress in 2019 will be held in the United States in the Minneapolis, MN area. More information on that will be forthcoming.