By Katie Knapp, International Committee Chair and ACN Board Member
I often wow my friends and neighbors with stories of where work takes me. Sometimes, I forget just how amazing ‘another day on the job’ really is until they stop me mid-story about climbing around on top of a sugarcane mill in northern Ecuador. To someone who remotes in from their spare bedroom to design General Mills’ packaging or behind-the-scenes details at Target, walking along rickety scaffolding three stories above a huge, sticky processing machine is not just ‘another day on the job.’
As ag journalists and communicators, we really do have cool jobs and are lucky to be some of the very few around the world who do what we do.
I have spent the last week in Spain representing all of you amongst the IFAJ executive committee and have been reminded once again how nice it is to cram into a bus before dawn several days in a row with people who share my passion and curiosity for how things grow and the people who raise it. I got this farm travel bug as a freshman in college on a study tour to Puerto Rico, and it has been fed many times over, thanks to ACN and IFAJ.
Most of you come to ACN seeking professional development and networking. As part of your ACN membership, you are automatically a member of IFAJ (the umbrella organization for global excellence in ag journalism). I didn’t really know anything about IFAJ until Dr. Jim Evans strongly suggested I attend the 2014 congress held in the UK since I was living in London at the time. I knew if Dr. Evans suggested you do something, you should do it. Spoiler: he was right.
I have now been to eight IFAJ Congresses and smaller press tours. Each trip is like a master class in production ag, global economics, journalism and photography skills, relationship building, and unique globetrotting. As a freelancer, there is no line item with better ROI in my annual budget.
I just got off the bus after our last farm stop for the week, which was a stunning olive grove in the mountains above Cordoba. The lady sitting next to me from Belgium articulated exactly how all of us were feeling: tired but more energized than at the start of the week. We decided it was like that ‘good hurt’ after a hard workout; you are spent but know you built important muscle.
So, this is my pitch to you to also heed Dr. Evans’s advice and consider putting your IFAJ membership to good use:
- Come to Congress this summer in Switzerland ! Early bird registration deadline is March 31.
- PIF travel stipend applications are due March 28! APPLY HERE!
- Enter the Star Prize contest by April 1
- Reach out to journalists and communicators in other member countries as you work on global stories or plan individual trips
Katherine Torday Gulden of Norway and I stop for a quick selfie between raindrops atop hectares of 200-year-old olive trees north of Cordoba, Spain, on March 7, 2024.