2007 Star Prize Winner for Agricultural Journalism Marleen van Sleuwen was awarded the 2007 IFAJ Star Prize for Agricultural Journalism, sponsored by John Deere. The winner was announced and honoured at the 51st congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ), held in Japan last week (September 17 to 23). The young Dutch journalist focussed on the ethical dilemmas facing farmers when managing unhealthy piglets in her prize-winning article, “Patch up or eliminate? Killing weak pigs can reduce infection sources”, published in Boerderij in May 2006. “Animal welfare is very high up on the agenda. Even if it is not economical, many farmers do everything they can to get their piglets healthy when they are sick,” she said. “Advisors say that it could be more economically correct to kill the weak piglets, but that creates an ethical dilemma.” Van Sleuwen wrote her article after only five months as a working journalist. One of more than 200 delegates attending the IFAJ Congress, she was both very surprised and happy when the announcement was made. “I did not expect it, not at all but I am very happy of course,” she said. “It is a great feeling!” Runner-up in the competition was Crystal Albers from the Angus Beef Bulletin in the USA, for her article, “Don’t let your cattle get lost in translation”. Judges for the award were Aad Vernooij from the Netherlands, Hugh Maynard from Canada and Niels Jørgensen from Denmark.
	Read the winning story here