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IFAJ launches new webinar programme, ‘Sharing the Knowledge’
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First three events across November and December
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Line-up includes Professional Development, Subject Matter Experts and World Food Day
IFAJ’s members consistently cite the webinar programme as a major member benefit. Where other webinars in food and agriculture necessarily serve a diverse audience, IFAJ’s member-only webinars are compiled with our journalist and communicator members in mind – truly focused, tailored to members’ needs, providing not just knowledge, contacts and insight, but thought-provoking discussion too.
We kick off our 2024/25 webinar season with an exciting trio: two events facilitated by IFAJ’s new Global Network Partner, Syngenta, and the third organised by IFAJ’s Freedom of the Press sub-committee.
Nov 26 – Understanding Plant Breeding
Our season opens on November 26 with ‘Understanding Plant Breeding’, the first in IFAJ’s new ‘Sharing the Knowledge’ initiative. Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel famously laid down the plant breeding framework in the 19th century; 21st century plant breeding still leans heavily on their original ideas. In this webinar, Syngenta’s Uri Krieger and Ian Jepson use the history of plant breeding as a context to better understand its importance in successful crop production, including how we can use it to develop the resilient crops needed to help growers tackle an increasingly volatile climate.
Uri, Global Head of R&D for Syngenta’s Vegetable Seeds and Flowers businesses, and Ian, Technology Leader for Field Crop Seeds, will explain different plant breeding approaches, from conventional breeding to genetically modified crops to the rise of genome editing.
As with any IFAJ webinar, the presentations will be followed by open Q&A: here’s your chance to put your burning questions to two highly respected plant scientists who share more than 50 years of variety development and technology implementation between them.
Uri Krieger, Global Head R&D Vegetable Seeds and Flowers, Syngenta
Ian Jepson, Technology Leader for Field Crop Seeds, Syngenta
What’s more, for the first time with an IFAJ webinar, it’s going to be truly global: we’re running it twice – both times live – to enable participation regardless of time zone!
Understanding Plant Breeding: Tuesday, November 26 & 27
- First session: 15:00 GMT, November 26
- Second session: 02:00 GMT, November 27
- 60 minutes
Dec 5 -World Soil Day
Then there’s no better subject than soil for the subject of our next ‘Sharing the Knowledge’ webinar, on December 5, as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of World Soil Day.
This year’s theme of “Caring for Soils: Measure, Monitor, Manage” focuses on the role of soil data and information. How can we use it to understand soil characteristics and support farmers’ decision-making on sustainable soil management for food security?
Helping us articulate these thoughts will be Syngenta’s Chief Soil Scientist, Matthew Wallenstein. Matt joined Syngenta in April 2022 after 16 years as a professor, and latterly head of the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, at Colorado State University.
Soil health is the key to climate-resilient agriculture, says Matt, as well as supporting human well-being and livelihoods, and restoring biodiversity and ecosystem function. His role at Syngenta accurately reflects this year’s WSD theme: he’s building a soil health platform that uses big data to inform practices that will regenerate soils.
Again, this is a webinar that we’ll run twice: don’t worry about missing it because of the time zone! Matt will be presenting both sessions and participating in Q&A.
Understanding Soil Health: Thursday, December 5
- First session: 02:00 GMT, December 5
- Second session: 15:30 GMT, December 5
- 60 minutes
Dec 12 – Principles and Principals: Balancing the Roles of the Journalist and the Communicator
IFAJ may be ‘the only global network of agricultural journalists’, but in reality our membership is diverse. Not only do we welcome journalists from across the ‘four cultures’ of agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture and silviculture, but we also rub shoulders with communicators.
For this final webinar of the year, on December 12, we’re taking a slightly different perspective on ‘freedom of the press’. Are journalists and communicators inherently biased in their roles? Enough to restrict journalists’ access to information, or freedom to follow stories? Or are they just ‘doing their job’, organising and shepherding and sorting information, for mutual benefit?
By exploring the topic through the eyes of those who fulfil those roles – and those who have experience of both – we’ll ask how we can synchronise these roles. How can we manage perceived, or real, conflicts of interest or opinion? And, most importantly, how can both groups work together constructively in pursuit of our common interest – supporting and enabling the flow of information within agriculture?
We believe that journalists and communicators should work together for high quality reporting and information, for the benefit of food security in our world.
Hear from Olivia Cooper (UK), Pam Caraway (USA), Rachel Martin (Ireland), Micke Godtfredsen (Finland) and Alpha Ousmare Souaré (Guinea) in what promises to be a lively and informative discussion that will delve into the very roots of our profession.
‘Principles and Principals: Balancing the Roles of the Journalist and the Communicator’
- 14:00 GMT, December 12
- 90 minutes
Watch out for the individual eAlerts and registration emails for each of these webinars: they’ll be landing in the inboxes of IFAJ email subscribers soon, and appearing on the usual social channels.
The webinar programme continues in 2025. Watch out for new topics being announced – and tell us what you’d like to see. What’s trending for you? What other partners would you like to see in our programme? What subjects can we cover from a journalist’s or communicator’s point of view? Email IFAJ’s secretary general, Adrian Bell, with ideas, requests and suggestions: adrian.bell@agromavens.com
