One of the highlights of the agricultural journalism calendar is on the horizon as hundreds of communicators from across the world prepare to attend the 2022 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists 2022 Congress.
And, as usual, the British Guild is set to be well represented.
Freelancer Petra Jacob is the winner of this year’s Joe Watson Legacy Fund stipend and will be attending her first IFAJ Congress taking place in Denmark from 27 June to 3 July.
The Joe Watson Legacy Fund aims to improve the understanding of agriculture and provide better education for journalism and communications. The fund was established in the memory of former Guild Chairman and highly regarded Scottish agri-journalist Joe Watson, who died in 2014.
Petra Jacob says: “I feel honoured and grateful to be a recipient of the stipend. A dream of many years to attend an IFAJ Congress finally comes true, thanks to the Joe Watson Legacy Fund. I am looking forward to the programme, the theme of the Congress is ‘smarter farming and food production for green and sustainable growth, a subject that is close to my heart.
“I am looking forward catching up with old friends and making new ones. I am also excited to experience a new country and learn about its agriculture; and in the end create stories of valuable content to bring back to my readers.”
For Guild members who are considering attending this year’s Congress, there are a limited number of places still available.
Direct links to the sign-up page and links to the Congress handbook (available to everyone, even non-participants) can be found here.
For those who can’t travel to the event, there is an open invitation to attend the Congress opening session and the VIP seminar, both of which will be live streamed from Denmark.
Participants in the VIP discussion will include:
- USDA Counsellor and Agricultural Attaché David Leishman, from the US Embassy in Paris
- The US Ambassador to France, Denise Baur
- FAO’s Director for Climate Change, Environment and Biodiversity, Eduardo Mansur
- President of World Farmers Organisation, Theo de Jager
- A minister from the Danish government
- And more to be confirmed in the coming days
Other BGAJ members have also benefited from the opportunities that stem from the IFAJ Congress.
Ruth Wills, from Agri-Hub, who was an Alltech IFAJ Young Leader in 2021, was given the opportunity to travel to Lexington, Kentucky, to attend this year’s Alltech ONE Conference.
For the past two years, the Alltech Young Leaders have had to make do with a virtual Boot Camp.
Alltech invited the 2019, 2020 and 2021 winners to the 2022 ONE to receive their awards in person and experience the buzz of the event.
Ruth Wills (second from right), from Agri-Hub, an Alltech IFAJ Young Leader in 2021, with other 2021 winners IFAJ Presidium members and (far right) Jenn Norrie of Alltech
BGAJ has a Young Leader this year too – Hannah Binns, News and Business Reporter at Farmers Guardian.
This year’s programme, sponsored by Alltech, honours 10 young agricultural journalists and communicators who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in reporting as well as excellent potential as leaders of the industry in the years to come.
They were chosen by an international jury among applicants from many of the IFAJ’s 56 member countries.
