Mary Baxter of Canada is this year’s winner of the IFAJ Star Prize for print journalism. The award was announced at the 2012 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) congress in Sweden.
First Prize (Mary Baxter, Canada, accepted on her behalf by Alison Finnamore, Canada). Left – Steven Roller of John Deere. Right – Connie Siemes, IFAJ Executive Secretary. Picture taken by Chuck ZimmermanBaxter’s article “Lyme disease: the painful and hard-to-diagnose condition,” was published in Better Farming magazine.
Frederik Thalbitzer of Denmark received distinguished recognition for the story “Sugar beets are full of gas” in Planteavlerens Fagmagasin.
Honorable mention went to Friederike Krick of Germany, for her story “Keine Angst vor groβen Herausforderungen,” published in Neue Landwirtschaft.
The Star Prize for print journalism is sponsored by John Deere. The winner receives a certificate, gold IFAJ pin and 1,000 Euro cash prize. The runner up receives a 500 Euro cash prize.
The judges said Baxter wrote “a beautiful piece using a nice mix of human interest story telling and scientific research, exemplifying great journalism. Although it’s a story about a sensitive subject, zoonoses, Better Farming had the guts to publish it.”
As for Thalbitzer’s story about sugar beets, the judges said it was “a very well documented story about the opportunities of sugar beets in a biogas-plant. Thalbitzer did a good job using boxes, which helped readers quickly see and read the different angles that describe the possibilities of sugar beets.”
Judges were Ed Cassavoy, news editor for the Toronto Star newspaper, Canada, and Rochus Kingmans, former editor of Boerderij and head of publishing for CRV, The Netherlands. Competition coordinator was IFAJ Secretary General Owen Roberts.
Further information about the IFAJ Star Prize for print journalism is available on the IFAJ website at www.www.ifaj.org, or by contacting Roberts at owen(at)uoguelph.ca.
Click on the links for the winning articles:
1st prize: Mary Baxter (Canada)
120427_cfwf_starprizeentry_lyme_disease
Distinguished recognition: Frederik Thalbitzer (Denmark)
Sugar beets are full of gas – English
Sugar beets are full of gas – Danish
Honorable mention: Friederike Krick (Germany)
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