Young leaders look at IFAJ 2010 Congress
The IFAJ-Alltech Young Leaders award winners give their unique perspectives on the IFAJ 2011 Congress in Belgium. To read or listen to their reports, click here...
Annual congress IFAJ 2011
It’s Canada’s turn next!
By Lilian Schaer, IFAJ 2011 Co-Chair
The IFAJ torch – or should I say flag – has officially been passed to Canada as we formally assumed the role of host nation at the farewell banquet of this year’s congress in Belgium.
The International Federation of Agriculture Journalists (IFAJ) hosts its annual conference, called a congress, in a different member country every year. In 2011, Canada will be welcoming farm writers and agricultural communicators to our country for the first time in over forty years. More...
Brochure about the IFAJ
Events
The history of the IFAJ
By Paul Queck
An organization that later became known as the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) was first formed in 1956. Interest in organizing an international organization of agricultural journalists can be traced back to 1933 when an International Federation of the Agricultural Press was founded at Ghent in Belgium; two years later, during the Brussels International Fair, a congress was organized and attended by journalists from 18 countries. The outbreak of WWII set an end to the first federation's activities.
Shortly after the war a number of agricultural journalists again took up the idea of forming an international organization.
The actual proposal to create the “International Union of Agricultural Journalists” was launched in Paris in March 1954 by a group of German and French agricultural journalists who were attending a meeting of agricultural journalists from various countries. It is worth mentioning that there were only a few national associations of agricultural journalists at that time, and not in France nor in Belgium, although journalists from those two countries took part in initial discussions.
That year a seminar was organized by the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) in Sweden on the subject of "the role of the agricultural press in the work of the agricultural consultant." During this conference a number of participants also discussed the need for an international organization of agricultural journalists.
The idea was taken up six months later by a group of participants in a seminar on the utilization of publications for the popularization of agricultural know-how, organized by the OEEC and held at the House of the Press at Bonn, Germany.
After thorough discussions, the group decided to establish a provisional committee with the task of laying the foundations for an international federation. Members of this provisional committee were France-Pierre Couvreur, chief editor of the Journal de la France Agricole of Paris; Hans von Örtzen, chief editor of Der Tierzüchter of Bonn; Arthur Gobbe, Director of the Agricultural Information Services of the Belgian Ministry of Agriculture in Brussels; Mr. Håkansson, Director-General of the Information Services of the Swedish Ministry of Agriculture in Stockholm; and Mr. Waldhuber, chief editor of the Farm Youth Journal of Vienna.