2011 Award Winners

Since 2003, Lloyd Philips has been a journalist for South Africa’s leading English agricultural magazine Farmers Weekly. He writes all sorts of Farmers Weekly articles, including short news stories, news features, farm production features, interviews with prominent people in agriculture and even farming motor vehicle reviews. Philips mainly writes stories about the province of KwaZulu-Natal but sometimes covers stories in other areas of South Africa or in different countries. 

With a background in dairy farming, Sjoerd Hofstee has been writing for the agricultural, dairy newspaper Nieuwe Oogst in the Netherlands for three years. When he is not writing news stories, background articles, analyses or interviews, Hofstee is most likely coordinating Nieuwe Oogst’s weekly content for all livestock news.

Born and raised in his parent’s guest house on a small farm and forest in Göttingen, Germany, Christian Mühlhausen has worked for numerous agricultural and forestry magazines and was an economic journalist before he started his own business, called Landpixel, in 2005. Landpixel is an editorial office and agriculture-picture database that is now one of Germany’s leading agencies with more than 50,000 online pictures, one employee, six freelancers and customers in Europe and across the world. Currently, Mühlhausen finds himself busy travelling to many agricultural regions including Europe, Brazil, Ukraine and Russia and independently managing a small farm and forest. 

Anna Nilsson is an enthusiastic journalist from Sweden, reporting for the weekly-agricultural magazine, “Land Lantbruk.” In the past, Nilsson has studied rural development, crop production and political science and has a deep interest in international relations and development issues. She is particularly interested in food security, rural development and sustainable development and is very glad she gets the opportunity to travel to Canada to meet people with similar interests.

For the past 13 years, Holly Spangler has covered Illinois agriculture in the United States. She began her career with Prairie Farmer and has won numerous writing and photography awards, along with being named a Master Writer in 2005. Now Prairie Farmer’s associate editor, Spangler covers a range of topics including production, management and issue-oriented stories and also has a monthly column called My Generation as well as a blog. Spangler is able to bring real-world production agriculture experience to her writing as she and her husband, John, and their three children farm in western Illinois.

After studying history and geography, Michael Wahl has been writing for the Agricultural Information Centre in Bern, Switzerland since April 2010. His weekly articles are mostly written for not only farmers but also the public. Outside of work, Wahl enjoys playing the trumpet, reading and spending time outside.

Markus Habisch is a communicator and journalist in Graz, the capital of Austria’s federal state, Styria. He works at the Styrian Farmers’ Association as the assistant to the CEO and manager of the Styrian Young Farmers’ Association. Here, he helps in defending and assuring the rights of Styrian and Austrain farmers by communicating suggestions and strategies to politicians, members and partners. Habisch writes for the Styrian Farmer’s Association weekly member magazine, Neues Land, and is also responsible for the association’s news releases. Additionally, Habischwrites the Styrian section in the quarterly, nationwide rural newspaper Forum Land.

A Spanish agricultural engineer, Jesús López Colmenarejo began writing in 1998 for a magazine called Agricultura. Since then, he has been coordinator of the livestock magazine Ganadería and participated in the Instituto de Empresa’s Advanced Program of Business Publishing in 2005. Now, Colmenarejo is the Deputy Director of the Editorial Agricola Española SA, where he is responsible for the development of publications including Agricultura and Ganaderia. He remains a regular contributor of these magazines and has two coordinated publications, one released in 2002 called Robotic Milking and the other released in 2004 called Animal Welfare. Colmenarejo also has a monthly section in the Italian journal Agricoltura Nuova called Here Madrid, which covers agricultural news in Spain.

Canadian Lisa Guenther is a writer and communications consultant in the province of Saskatchewan. She does contract work for a range of clients in the agricultural industry and her freelance writing has appeared in the Western Producer, North Battleford News-Optimist and UFA Connect. Lisa grew up on a ranch and continues to help her parents with their cattle operation.

Terhi Torikka is a journalist from Finland. She writes for the country’s main agricultural newspaper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus (which translates to Future of the countryside). She lives and writes about activities in eastern Finland, with a particular emphasis on stories concerning farm animals.

Deanna Lush began her journalism career with Australia’s Rural Press. She then became the Premier’s Media Unit advisor for the Minister of Water. In 2010, Lush became the editor of the Stock Journal newspaper where she manages 10 staff members as well as numerous contributors to deliver the latest agricultural news, analysis and opinion to the state’s farmers. Currently, Lush is studying her Masters of Business Administration and has a small farm in Palmer.

Sabrina Sweeney is a Broadcast Journalist working at BBC Northern Ireland in radio and television. In her role, Sweeney produces and presents a daily program called Farmgate for the morning and evening radio drivetime shows. She covers a wide range of stories, from the methods farmers can use to contribute to reducing methane gas emissions, to the measures they are taking to maintain and protect the countryside. Sweeney is the secretary of the Northern Section for the Guild of Agricultural Journalists in Ireland.