By Aad Vernooij and Ton Schönwetter
Pioneer IFAJ editor.
Alfred van Dijk, one of the first editors of the IFAJ Newsletter, passed away this year at the age of 79 years. He also was chairman of the Dutch Association of Agriculture and Horticulture Journalism (NVLJ) from 1978 to 1992. The yearly entry of The Netherlands for the IFAJ Star Prize for articles is named the “Alfred van Dijk Prize.”
Some keys to his agricultural writing skills.
Alfred van Dijk was an excellent journalist who got several important prizes for his work. Examples included the Glaxo Science Prize and the Press Prize of the Wageningen University and Research Center.
As an authority, he belonged to the cadre of friendly but sharp observers. Mild in his judgment about others, he was not a “killer with the pen.” He had an urgency to explain, not in complex outlines but in simple and personal terms. He explained the big world through the eyes of the individual observer. And he did it with a kind of intellectual humor. Read more….