Asian Agriculture Fellowship

Final Report

2008-10-24T11:14:00.001-05:00

Eisenhower Fellowships Program Report
Hope Pugh Pjesky
2008 Eisenhower Agriculture Fellow to Japan, Malaysia and Thailand

A Journey Through Asian Agriculture
Looking At Food Safety, Defense and Traceability
And International Agricultural Trade Policy

I feel honored and blessed to have been chosen as the 2008 Eisenhower Agriculture Fellow. My fellowship was a life changing experience that will influence my views about agriculture policy for the rest of my life. I hope to share what I have learned with as many people as possible. I also feel very lucky to have been the first Agriculture Fellow to visit Asia and the first USA fellow to visit Japan. People in Asia seem to be closer to their food than in many other parts of the world. Getting out into the country and seeing actual production was a priority for me. I had a wonderful experience and got to see and experience many different kinds of farms during my fellowship. My topics of study were Food Safety, Defense and Traceability and International Agricultural Trade Policy (and how these two things interact). Because I was the first Agriculture Fellow to visit Asia, I wanted to get a good, overall impression of agriculture in these countries in addition to studying my individual topics. I also needed to develop an understanding of the people and culture in each country in order to understand their views on these issues. I learned a great deal during my short time in these countries but there is so much more to be explored. This report will outline some of the impressions I have following my travel.

Many Similarities

Obviously there are many things about Asian agriculture that are very different from agriculture in the United States, but there are also many similarities. In fact, I suspect that you would find many of these similarities all over the world to differing degrees. The first one is the rising age of farmers. As I am sure you’re aware the average age of American farmers continues to rise with each census. Sixty percent of Japanese farmers are over 65 years of age. It wasn’t until my last couple of days in Japan that I finally visited some farms that had a younger generation involved with the operation. Malaysia has the same problem; most of the individual farmers in Malaysia are quite old. However, with the boom in the palm oil business there is a new wave of young people studying majors that will allow them to work for one of the large palm oil companies in either the production or processing of the oil. Thailand has the youngest farmers of the countries that I visited, but I am told that many of them are relatively new immigrants from the surrounding countries. Many long term Thai residents have moved away from the farms in favor of the cities.

Another common theme is the lack of an available labor force. Many people might think that there would be plenty of people willing to do farm labor in Southeast Asia, but in each country I heard about the difficulties that they were facing in finding enough labor to work on farms and in processing. In Japan, there were some temporary laborers from China and South Korea. In Malaysia and Thailand, many of their workers were from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal. In many cases I was told that labor was the limiting factor in expansion.

Rising input costs, especially when it comes to fuel and fertilizer, is another universal concern. The huge increase in energy costs that we have seen over the last few years has had an enormous impact on agriculture. We are having the same issues here in the United States, but can you imagine having to import almost all of your animal feed including hay. Not only is the price of feed increasing rapidly but the freight costs to ship it great distances from North America, South America or Australia are also increasing with the price of fuel.

In each country I also saw a recent movement toward building an agritourism industry, value added/direct marketing businesses and regional brands promoting local foods. These are trends that I have also observed in Oklahoma in recent years and I believe that this is happening around the world. In a time where most of agriculture is getting bigger by necessity, these activities are an opportunity for small farmers and ranchers to prosper while staying small if they are willing to do the extra work. This niche marketing has been very successful for many people and I hope it will help the people I met in this part of the world have a successful future.

The last similarity that I will mention is urban encroachment. Farmers all over the world are having the same problems with urban dwellers moving to the country and building a house next to their farm which has in many cases been there for several generations. This would be fine if the new neighbors didn’t then expect the farmers to do things differently because it smells or there is too much dust. In the worst cases these new neighbors try to shut the farm down completely. Private property rights are in jeopardy everywhere.

Food Safety, Defense and Traceability

One of the things I was interested to learn in Japan was what drives the apparent hypersensitivity relating to Food Safety and Traceability. Do consumers really want all of the detailed traceability information that we are told they demand? How many of them actually access this information through their mobile phones or the internet? The answer is almost none. As far as I could tell there is no hard data on the number of consumers accessing this information but every food company representative I asked admitted that they think almost no one looks at the traceability information.

The hypersensitivity relating to Food Safety and Traceability is driven by the political parties and the news media. Just as we have seen in South Korea in recent months, food and agriculture are used as political tools in Japan. The opposition political party in Japan knows that accusing the current government of not being vigilant enough about protecting the safety of the food supply will get a lot of press coverage and further their political cause. Also the news media in Japan reports on some issue relating to food safety every day. Everyone cares about food so it sells newspapers and airtime. The demand for traceability from Japanese retailers is an attempt to reassure the consumers that the food is safe.

The belief is that farmers should want the consumer to know that they produced the food, if it is a high quality, safe product. Of course what consumers don’t understand is that implementing a complete, farm-to-fork traceability system is very expensive and time consuming. This would be acceptable if the retailers and consumers were willing to pay more for products with traceability but when I asked if they were, I usually heard laughter. Many of the companies that I spoke to whose products are exported to the Japanese market have decided that it is worth incurring this additional cost for access to the market. Implementing and maintaining traceability systems for some commodities that spend their entire life cycle on one farm (ex. Vegetables) is relatively easy compared to commodities that pass through several farms during their life cycle (ex. Beef) or are comingled for storage (ex. Grain). As the retailers push for complete traceability becomes stronger in the future each industry and exporting company will have to decide if access to the Japanese market is worth the extra cost associated with traceability.

To be fair to the Japanese, they do have some legitimate reasons to be more sensitive about food safety. Their government hasn’t always handled food borne illness outbreaks in an efficient and timely manner and in some cases, may have been dishonest with consumers. Also, there have been instances of Japanese food processors substituting ingredients and producing and distributing fraudulent products. Food safety has become an emotional and ethnocentric issue for the Japanese. After the recent incident with poison Chinese dumplings some consumers turned against all imported food, not just imports from China. When it comes to making policy decisions even government scientists quote opinion polls to justify their decisions instead of sound science.

I heard a great deal about Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Good Distribution Practices (GDP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Standards in all three countries. In Malaysia and Thailand most of the focus was on the export market, their domestic consumers and retailers aren’t demanding this information yet. Of the above acronyms I was most interested in GAP. Many of the exporters that I talked to in Malaysia and Thailand spoke of the costs and challenges of meeting EUREPGAP standards so they can export to EU countries. There are several variations on GAP now, which include EUREPGAP, Global GAP and Japan GAP.

AEON, Japan’s largest retailer, has instituted its own version of GAP. AEON GAP has thirteen control points including, Worker Management, Varieties, Seeds and Rootstocks, Irrigation Water Management, Site Management, Soil and Substrate Management, Fertilizer Management, Pests and Disease Management, Cultivation Management, Post Harvest Treatment, Environmental Concerns, Protection and Management of Workers, Record Keeping and Traceability and Reflect on Consumer’s Voice. As you can see, they want to have control of every facet of producing the food and all the details must be reported to them to ensure that their standards are met. There are also regular inspections by AEON staff that must be passed in order to sell any food product to the retailer. They have their own traceability system called “Green Eye” that consumers can use to access all of this information. In many cases the standards don’t seem to make much sense. I was told by one vegetable importer that the pesticide standards only deal with how many times you spray not how much you spray each time. Anybody who farms knows that this doesn’t make sense and could cause mismanagement in order to meet the standards. The pesticide standards are also somewhat ironic because I was told that Japanese farmers use seven times the amount of chemicals per land area as anywhere else in the world. We all want safe food but it amazes me how many levels of arbitrary regulations must be met that have no real impact on the quality and safety of the food.

Because Malaysia’s population is over half Muslim almost all of the food that is sold there must meet Halal standards. The focus of the traceability industry in Malaysia is Halal traceability. I met with the Halal Development Corporation. Their mission is to make Malaysia the worldwide leader in Halal products. Many American companies have been frustrated by the lack of uniformity regarding Halal standards in different countries. In order to dedicate a line in a beef slaughter plant to Halal production for example the resulting product would need to be shipped to several countries but right now every country seems to have different rules regarding Halal. At my last meeting in Malaysia, which was with a traceability company, I was told that there is a movement to establish an internationally recognized Halal standard. If this happens I think there will be opportunities for American beef in this growing market.

International Agricultural Trade Policy

Let me start by saying I began this trip in favor of more open trade policy and my experiences only strengthened those beliefs. In Japan I only met one farmer, a Kobe beef producer, who said he was in favor of free trade. I was very excited to hear him say “We should all compete.” He thinks people in the U.S. want Kobe beef and the Japanese want American beef and I agree completely. Otherwise all of the Japanese producers I spoke to thought that they couldn’t compete with less expensive imports. I am not sure that this is true because many Japanese consumers want domestic products and seem to be willing to pay more for them. Japan might be the only place in the world where consumers are willing to pay more for domestic food but I think it could work for their producers. I heard a lot of “Free trade is ideal” which was always followed by the word “but.” The “but” usually involved the need to protect the rice and dairy industries. One Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries official did tell me that even though agriculture doesn’t want a Free Trade Agreement with the United States many other industries do and therefore the government does. He thinks a FTA could be negotiated in as little as ten years. This would be a tough battle on the agriculture side with the Japanese intent on protecting rice and dairy but he did mention that they knew pork and beef were important commodities to us and there could be some progress on those commodities. It will be interesting to see if his prediction comes true.

In Malaysia they know that they have to trade to survive. It depends on which commodity they produce whether farmers are in favor of free trade. The poultry industry is opposed because of their high cost of production due to the need to import feed. I am not sure that they would have many problems if trade were opened up because most Malaysian consumers prefer fresh, never frozen poultry which only the domestic producers could supply effectively. Most other industries I visited were in favor of an FTA, including palm oil, fruit and tea. In Thailand, which is the only net exporting country I visited, the situation was much the same with poultry being against an FTA and most other industries being in favor. But the power of the large poultry companies in Thailand should not be underestimated. In both countries the negotiations on free trade agreements with the U.S. have been stalled for some time now. The governments in both countries seem to be generally in favor of reaching an agreement. Many cultural obstacles and issues that have nothing to do with food and agriculture are standing in the way. The fact that President Bush doesn’t have Trade Promotion Authority right now also presents another roadblock in negotiating a FTA with any country.

The Food Crisis

Food Security wasn’t supposed to be one of my topics but sometimes current events take over. I was told that I was in Asia at a critical and historic time for food and agriculture policy. The first thing I heard when I got to Japan was “We are only 39% self sufficient in food production.” No matter whom I talked to, whether they were involved with food and agriculture or not, they had a lot of anxiety about Japan only producing 39% of the food its people need. Apparently most people were just realizing that the self sufficiency rate is so low and the poison Chinese dumpling incident really has consumers on edge. Realistically, Japan could never produce all of the food needed to feed its population. There is very little land available and many, many people. Japanese consumers need to realize that other people can and do produce high quality, safe food. When I met with U.S. Ambassador Schieffer, he told me that he had recently given a speech encouraging Japan to look to other democratic nations like the U.S., Canada and Australia to supply the food that Japanese farmers can’t produce. I couldn’t agree more.

The sad part of the self sufficiency problem is that the Japanese government’s farm policy has caused part of the problem. Many years ago Japanese farmers would drain their rice paddies after harvesting their rice crop and plant either wheat or soybeans. When the rice subsidies were raised to their current high levels most farmers felt it was no longer necessary to double crop and this production was lost. This is particularly disturbing because the Japanese are perhaps most worried about the fact that they produce almost no soybeans which are the main ingredient in most of their favorite foods. Another contributor to the self sufficiency problem is the Japanese distrust of modern production methods such as genetically modified organisms and hormones. I asked the question several times “Will Japanese consumers and retailers start to accept modern production methods in order to help increase domestic production and decrease food prices?” The answer that I usually got was “We don’t know.” On the day that I left Japan, one brave Japanese company decided to find out by buying GMO corn to make starch that will be sold in Japan. It remains to be seen what the response will be from consumers but if they buy the starch this could be a breakthrough for GMO products in Japan.

The first morning I was in Malaysia the headline on the newspaper that was delivered to my room was “Facing the Food Crisis.” Obviously the food security theme had followed me when I moved countries. I read the paper on the way to my first meeting and on one page there was an article about the eleven commodities that currently have government imposed ceiling prices in Malaysia and the possibility of adding more items to the list. On the next page another article talked about the need to encourage more domestic food production. My instinct told me that these two things seemed counterintuitive. That idea was confirmed during my first meeting of the day which was about the Malaysian poultry industry. I was told that the ceiling price that the government has set for fresh or frozen raw chicken is below the current cost of production. Again government policies seem to be contributing to the self sufficiency problem. Malaysia’s self sufficiency rate is 72% which is better than Japan but could use improvement. In light of the recent election where the majority party that has been in power for Malaysia’s entire history as a nation lost control of five states, I understand them wanting to keep the consumers/voters happy. Keeping food prices low is one way to do that but it is completely counterproductive to increasing domestic food production.

Food vs. Fuel

Another current event that found its way into my fellowship was the food vs. fuel debate. This was an especially hot topic in Malaysia but it was also being discussed in Thailand. The governments in both countries were discussing establishing zones dedicated to the production of food products exclusively and other zones for energy crops. One flaw I see in this theory is all of the crops that are now considered energy crops were once food crops, such as oil palm, sugar cane and most recently cassava and they are still used for food in addition to energy production. Another flaw is, from a purely economic standpoint, it makes much more sense to produce these high value crops and buy the less expense food that can be produced more efficiently in other countries. After all oil palm can only be produced efficiently seven degrees on either side of the equator. My last argument against food production zones is that land owners should be able to produce whatever they think will work best on their land and the government shouldn’t be able to tell them differently.

I know that there has been a lot of negative publicity regarding palm oil production from environmental groups and believe me I think it would be awful to lose the natural beauty and wildlife that exists in this part of the world. The governments in these countries should be sensitive to allowing any publicly owned native forest to be destroyed but private land owners should be able to use their land as they see fit. The ability to plant crops like palm oil and rubber is a tremendous opportunity for them to make a better life for themselves and their families. From what I have seen palm oil is a highly sustainable crop with a long productive life span and all parts of the plant are used or recycled in some way. There is no waste. It is also much more efficient than most other oil crops and has one of the best conversion properties for producing biofuel. However, I was told that there is such a demand for food grade palm oil right now that not much is being used in biodiesel. Premium quality palm oil only has 1.2% fatty acid content and produces very crispy fried foods making it preferable to hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Making Small Farmers Lives Better

As I mentioned above, the ability of small farmers in Malaysia and southern Thailand to plant oil palm and rubber, which are very valuable commodities right now and will continue to be as long as petroleum prices are high, is giving them an opportunity to have a better life. Another way for small farmers in these countries to have a better life is to have a way to sell their products on the international market. In Malaysia I met with the Malaysian Agrifood Corporation. Their mission is to drive Malaysia’s food supply chain management and distribution system towards global standards in safety, quality and sustainability. They are also interested in how to empower small food producers to have the ability to band together and produce for the export market. They asked me a lot of questions about how farmers’ cooperatives work in the U.S. and I told them that I think that a co-op might be a good option to try with their small producers.

In Thailand, I visited the Royal Project Development Center at Inthanon and the Inthanon Royal Research Station. This is one of the 36 Royal Project sites. The Royal Project began in 1969 when the King visited this area and observed how the hill tribe people were living. They were producing Opium Poppy and not making much money. The King set forth a vision of a new life for the hill tribes that included a better lifestyle and didn’t include opium production. Today there is no opium production in Thailand, instead the hill tribe people produce over 350 different fruit, vegetable, flower and fish products that many people thought could not be produced here. The station is on a mountain and the high elevation makes it possible to produce plants that usually grow in colder climates. Plants have been imported from all over the world and a lot of research has been done on which ones grow the best. This is the only project in the world to get rid of opium production, just think how wonderful it would be if similar things could happen in Afghanistan or in Columbia with cocaine production. They showed me their food safety and traceability systems. Most of the products are sold domestically but some are exported to Europe so they meet all of the EUREPGAP requirements. They also supply the vegetables and fruit for Thai Airways in-flight meals. I got to talk to a farmer who produces celery and Chrysanthemums. He told me that he is rich by Thailand standards. He has about 1 million THB (33,333 USD) in annual sales and about half of that is profit. The average income for this area is 80,000 THB.

The Royal Project is a government initiative and only hill tribe people can participate, the next day I visited KC Fresh which is a private company that contracts with local growers in a similar operation. Each farmer has only about 1/6 of a hectare of land and they work in groups with one member of the group owning a small packing house and managing the planting decisions and chemical use. KC Fresh has a technical consultant who oversees the groups and makes sure that they meet all of the EUREPGAP requirements so that their products can be exported to Europe. She has many challenges in educating these growers about all of the regulations but she feels that she is helping them to have better lives and I agree. They seem to be better off than other Thai farmers.

Government Influence over Production Decisions

I used to think that when someone from another country asked me about subsidies and government influence on my operation it was because everyone thinks we American farmers get huge subsidies. Now I realize that at least in some cases it is because they do in their country. I was amazed at how much influence the government has over production decisions in Japan and Malaysia. In addition to large subsidies and tariffs for certain crops the Japanese government also provides subsidies to not produce certain crops. The farmers can still plant certain other approved crops on the same land. The milk price is set once a year by the government and has nothing to do with market demand. All imported wheat is bought by the government and any profit that the government gets from reselling it along with the high tariff is at least partially redistributed to domestic farmers. When Japanese farmers build new facilities they can get a subsidy from the national government for 50% of the cost and from the local government for 25% of the cost but in order to qualify they may need to build larger, fancier facilities than they really needed. All of this money being pumped into the farming industry in Japan might be explained by the fact that a vote in a rural area is worth more than a vote in an urban area and there are many very powerful rural politicians. One thing that surprised me is the average income in rural Japan is higher than in urban Japan.

Conclusions

I have always been in favor of moving closer to free trade and letting the free market economy work. After my fellowship I am even more dedicated to these principles. Of the countries I visited I think the agricultural industry in Thailand is probably in the best shape overall. They are a net exporter and don’t have any self sufficiency problems. I attribute that to the fact that the Thai government hasn’t tried to have too much influence over agricultural production decisions. One professor told me that it was probably lucky that they have never had a good Minister of Agriculture. He said if they did he would have probably messed everything up.

Recently eight of the world’s top economists met at the Copenhagen Consensus Center to apply economic and cost-benefit analyses to major policy challenges. They were asked to answer the question, “What would be the best ways of advancing global welfare, and particularly the welfare of the developing countries?” Of over 30 proposed solutions, completion of the Doha Round of trade policy negotiations with substantial reductions in import tariffs and domestic subsidies was rated number two. I guess I am not the only one who thinks that freer trade would be good not just for American agriculture but for the world.

Thank You

My fellowship was an incredible experience and my life will never be the same. I wish to thank everyone at the Eisenhower Fellowships and all of my Program Administrators. You all helped make my fellowship the best it could be. Along my journey from being “Hope san” in Japan to “Miss Hope” in Malaysia and finally “Khun Hope” in Thailand there were so many people that made me feel at home and welcome. The hospitality that was extended to me is beyond description. I hope to have many opportunities to share my fellowship experiences with any interested group and with the news media. This experience will also influence the policies that I help to develop and support through the many agricultural organizations I am involved with and I will be looking for more opportunities to influence these issues. You can read more about my fellowship on my blog at http://asianagriculture.blogspot.com/. I also look forward to being an active member of the Eisenhower Fellowships alumni network and hosting fellows in my state, as well as continuing my involvement with the Nuffield Scholars program.

Thammasat University

2008-05-20T10:07:00.001-05:00

This morning I flew back to Bangkok and after lunch I met with Dr. Nipon Poapongsakorn, Dean of the Faculty of Economics at Thammasat University. He had done some research on the possibility of a U.S. – Thailand Free Trade Agreement several years ago. We both agreed that without the president having Trade Promotion Authority the possibility of an agreement is slim. However, he thinks that U.S. beef and wheat could have a lot to gain if an FTA was signed. Since these are the two commodities I produce I was glad to hear this. Some sticking points in the negotiations might be our sugar quotas and intellectual property rules. With food prices high and the increased production of energy crops like cassava, sugarcane and oil palm a free trade agreement is more likely from the Thai side and the government is in favor of one. We had a really good discussion.

Tomorrow I fly home and it is really late here now. I will get almost no sleep as it is so I better end this for now. I will post at least one summary after I get home and have time to think a bit.

Phang Nga Agriculture

2008-05-20T09:57:00.009-05:00

Monday was a national Holiday that translates as Buddha Day so not much was going on. We visited a rubber farm. Rubber is a major crop here but most farms are relatively small and run by one family. The trees are tapped early in the morning since the rubber runs better in cooler temperatures. The first picture below is a rubber orchard and second one shows a family processing the day’s rubber. Later in the day we visited a farmers’ cooperative that processes the liquid rubber for its members. We also stopped at some small vegetable farms that grow chili peppers and cucumbers for the local market the third picture is of the cucumber field. Our next stop was at a Muslim community, in addition to producing rubber they also have a small hydroponic greenhouse and produce salad greens for the resorts in Phuket. The greenhouse is shown in the forth picture and was added after the tsunami to diversify their production. The same farmer took us by boat to see their aquaculture operation. They have frames that float in the mangrove forest area and there are mussels and oysters hanging below the frames. This is not a good time of year for this enterprise because there is too much fresh water mixed in with the sea water from all of the rains. The fifth picture is of some mussels. On our way back we stopped to talk to a sea gypsy. Sea Gypsies live in their boats. As you can see in the sixth picture he is cooking on board his small boat. Many sea gypsies were lost in the tsunami and they now have some houses on land but they prefer to be on their boats.

I realized that I haven’t shown any pictures of the resort I stayed at in Khao Lak. The first picture is of the nearly deserted beach and the second one is of the large, fancy pool complex that I had all to myself. The Khao Lak area to back to normal after the tsunami, now they just need the tourist to come back.

Phang Nga Bay, Monkeys & Turtles

2008-05-20T09:45:00.009-05:00

On Sunday morning we went to Phang Nga Bay. We took a long tailed boat through a mangrove forest until we came to the cave that is shown in the first picture below. We went through this cave and came out in the bay. We moved through the bay and by the many limestone islands that are in it. This is an absolutely beautiful place. I don’t have words to do it justice. The second picture is of Panyee Island. It is one of the very few inhabited islands in the bay. The residents are Muslim fisherman whose ancestors emigrated from Indonesia in search of good fishing. We stopped here for lunch on our way back. Next we stopped at a large boat that is home base for sea canoes. I got in a canoe and was given a tour of the bay. The third picture is of another canoe going through the first limestone cave. This cave is quite large but there are several others that you have to lay down in the canoe to fit through and if you were much bigger around than I am you couldn’t fit at high tide (which it was when I was there). The forth picture is the entrance to one of these caves. I think this is the one where you enter and surrounded by limestone walls with only enough room for a couple of canoes inside. I thought this was the coolest place but I guess some people might get nervous even though you can see the sky above you. After I returned from my canoe tour we continued through the bay to the island that is featured in the James Bond movie “The Man with the Golden Gun.” The fifth and sixth pictures are what is now known as James Bond Island. We briefly stopped here and then returned through the bay stopping for lunch at Panyee Island. I also did some shopping. If anyone wants some pearls this is the place to buy them. They are really inexpensive here.

Our next stop was Suwaan Kuhar cave temple. There is a golden reclining Buddha inside a cave at the temple but the real attraction is the large group of Long Tailed Macaques that live here. Khun Sunthorn bought some peanuts for me to feed them. They are suppose to take them out of your hand but one large male decided that he didn’t want to share with the others so he climbed me and took the bag and sat on my shoulder while he ate.

Next we visited Phang Nga Naval Base. It is home to a Sea Turtle Conservation Center. The center raises young sea turtles to give them a better chance at survival. I saw and held all sizes of turtles. The one pictured below is one of the middle sized ones. I think it was about 8 months old. This was an incredible day and there are many more pictures on the SnapFish site, click on the Fellowship Photos link.

This was supposed to be the end of the day but Khun Sunthron invited me to visit his farm which is a long drive across the mountains that run down the middle of the peninsula. On the way we passed through Khao Sok National Park, which is an incredibly beautiful place, the mountains here are stark limestone outcroppings just like the islands in the bay. The landscape seems otherworldly. I couldn’t get any pictures because it was getting dark. We visited Khun Sunthron’s farm. He has oil palm that is just starting to produce and in between the palms are banana trees. The bananas will be removed soon to give the palms more room as they mature. I didn’t get back to the hotel until very late. It was a long day but it was also one of the best days of my life. I will come back here.

Tsunami Survivors

2008-05-20T09:37:00.007-05:00

On Saturday morning I flew to Phuket. I was picked up at the airport by my tour guide Sunthorn Thongprasert. On the way to Phang Nga he told me about the tsunami that happened in December 2004. Phang Nga was the hardest hit province in Thailand of the 5,395 people who died in Thailand 4,225 were in this province. Khun Sunthorn lost his fiancée, they were to be married the following May. He wasn’t able to find her remains until a year later when they were identified through DNA testing. There is still a significant number of people that have not been identified and the Thai government is still taking good care of the remains which have all been DNA tested in case there can be a match in the future.

Our first stop after lunch was the fishing village of Baan Nam Khem. This village is on a cape that sticks out into the sea and was one of the hardest hit areas. We first stopped at a lot in town where there are two large fishing boats sitting in a dry lot. The first picture below is of the Krisana Sakorn, since the tsunami it has been renamed The Blue Angel. On the day of the tsunami it was sitting at the dock with the engine running because it was about to go to sea. There was one Burmese sailor on board and when he saw the wave coming he tried to head out to sea. Instead the 59 ton, 73 foot long boat traveled over a kilometer into the middle of the village. Along the way a man was able to grab hold of one of the tires on the side of the boat while holding his three year old daughter with the other arm saving them both. This boat did not destroy a single house or take a single life before coming to rest in this lot. Right next to The Blue Angel in the same lot is the Sri Samut, now known as The Demon. On the day the tsunami struck this red fishing boat was also at a dock and didn’t have anyone aboard. As the tsunami carried it inland it destroyed houses and cars and is estimated to have killed over one hundred people. It destroyed more lives and property than any other boat on that day. It has been moved to this lot from its original location in town and the Thai government has purchased both boats as a permanent memorial. We visited the pier and took a small boat over to an island that lies just off the coast. The second picture below is of some of the small fishing boats that local fisherman still use. There are also many larger fishing boats and a large boat that is used to mine tin. This area used to be a tin mining area but now the boat travels to Indonesia. We walked down to a shop that is run by some tsunami survivors. I bought a pearl bracelet and ring from a lady and her husband showed me around the memorial museum. He was on a fishing boat when the tsunami hit. As his boat was swept inland he was able to pull several people aboard, saving their lives. His wife and one year old daughter were swept into the sea and were found several hours later and rescued. Their four year old son was lost. At another shop I bought a nice purse from a lady who also lost her son to the tsunami and her husband hasn’t been right since that day. We walked through the memorial. The names of the people who were lost are inscribed mostly in Thai but there are several European names and some have pictures. It is hard to even imagine what happened that day.

After we left Baan Nam Khem we went to a local market were Khun Sunthorn insisted I try Rotee (I don’t know if that is spelled correctly) which is a desert that is made by frying a thin layer of pastry with an egg mixture and in this case bananas wrapped inside. After frying it is covered in sweetened condensed milk and sugar. The first picture below is a Rotee vendor. These folks are Muslim. There is a significant Muslim population in this part of Thailand. Khun Sunthorn grew up Buddhist; in fact 14 years ago his father became a monk. His fiancée was Muslim and after she was killed in the tsunami her parents asked if he would like to become their son. He was so moved by this offer that he accepted and converted to the Muslim faith. Now he has two sets of parents. Our next stop was at a spot that is quite a ways inland in Khao Lak where a huge police boat came to rest after the tsunami. This boat was on patrol that day and there were several police officers on board all of them survived except one who fell overboard. The second picture below is of this boat. Then we stopped at another market where Khun Sunthorn bought several kinds of fruit for me to try. I am starting to feel like Anthony Bourdain from No Reservations on the Travel Channel. The last picture is of the busy market.

Food Safety Community

2008-05-16T05:50:00.005-05:00

This morning I went to the Ministry of Public Health and met two of their staff and then we drove to Samut Songkhram Province. This is the smallest province in Thailand and it sits right where the river meets the sea. It is an interesting area. The food production includes seafood, fruit and sea salt. This area has been designated as a Food Safety Community by the Ministry of Public Health. This project involves producers, distributors, consumers and government organizations. There are projects to educate each sector and make this area a model in Food Safety. One of the highlights of this trip was Amphawa Floating Market. I had heard about the floating markets but this is the first one I have seen. The vendors sell food from small boats in some cases cooking it on board. We were there about 2 p.m. and the market doesn’t really open until 4 p.m. but there were a few vendors. The first picture below is of some of the ladies who were open for business. In the morning we visited a local fruit farming area and went to a facility that has many purposes. It is a center where local farmers are educated about production and food safety and it is also an agro-tourism facility with a home stay facility being added right now. The farmers in this area grow organic fruit mostly Pomelo and Coconut. The second picture is of some pomelo and the third is of the shop where I bought some coconut sugar. Coconut sugar reminds me a little of the maple sugar candy they make in Virginia where I grew up. The farmers here make their own compost and if I understood correctly they use molasses in it. They also use smoking vinegar as a natural insecticide.

Farm Chokchai

2008-05-15T07:59:00.004-05:00

On Thursday I traveled 2 hours northwest of Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima Province where I visited Farm Chokchai. This farm was started in 1957 by a gentleman that came from a successful rice trading family but he wanted to do something different. Inspired by movie westerns he traveled to the U.S. and studied animal science. He returned and bought his first 100 acres in this area. This was a big risk because at that time the area was still very wild with many tigers and the land had to be cleared. Even today the main ranch is right next to a National Wildlife Sanctuary and the largest National Park in Thailand. He first tried raising Santa Gertrudis cattle but they didn’t work well here, so eventually he shifted to dairy cattle and the farm has been a dairy for 36 years. Over the years it has expanded to 8,000 acres on 5 ranches. They currently have 4,000 cattle and would like to expand to 5,000. Over the years they have developed their own breed of cattle that is now 86-90% Holstein but also has influences from American Brahman, Santa Gertrudis and a breed that lives in India and Pakistan. These cattle are better adapted to the climate in Thailand. They often have visitors from the surrounding countries that would like to purchase some of their cattle to start a new dairy. Unfortunately, many of these people have no knowledge regarding dairy production, so if any of you want to manage a dairy there may be an opportunity for you in Asia. The first picture below is of a herd of heifers grazing on Ranch #3. This is a beautiful place.

In 1999, the founder’s son took over the company and decided to start an agro-tourism program. They now give farm tours complete with Wild West shows. The Thai people are really fascinated with the American West and apparently it doesn’t matter that they are dairy cattle. Mr. Chokchai also owns both Thoroughbred race horses and Quarter Horses as well as several other species of animals and many breeds of dogs which are part of the farm tour. They also have 3 steakhouses, one on the farm and 2 in Bangkok. They don’t produce the beef. They contract with another rancher to do that. They also have two other restaurant concepts the steak hut and the burger hut. The restaurants are currently the most profitable part of the business. They produce their own dairy products and have 3 dairy stores. They hope to expand the retail side of the business soon. There is a good demand for milk right now, partly because Australia has been in a drought and has cut back on production. In 2004 they opened Farm Chokchai Camp, a boutique camping and activity package. This camp is in a beautiful setting in the back of the main ranch. It is expensive by Thai standards so mostly multi-national companies and international schools use it. The package includes an ice cream workshop (where you make ice cream and can take it home when you leave), a farm tour, a morning walk to the top of a hill along with a picnic breakfast and a night ATV ride with a view of the stars. The accommodations are tents but they are nicer than some hotel rooms I have been in, with air conditioning and Wi-Fi internet. It also includes 3 gourmet meals. The bathrooms and showers not attached to the rooms but they are really neat, open to nature but still private and luxurious. This would go over really well in the U.S. The second picture shows the tents.

KC Fresh

2008-05-14T08:50:00.003-05:00

Today I visited KC Fresh. This is a company that produces fresh vegetables and fruits for both the domestic and export markets. Specifically they produce many Chinese vegetables and tropical fruits. I first visited a packing house and farm run by one of the farmers that grows vegetables for them. I saw Ung Choi (Chinese Morning Glory) being harvested which is the first picture below. We also visited fields of Basil and Lemongrass. There are several growers in this group and they all bring their produce to this lady’s small packing house. She also manages the planting to ensure a steady supply of product. They are very careful about food safety including testing their irrigation water to make sure there isn’t any contamination. The second picture shows a post that has the land and block number on it so that the products can be traced back to the small block where they were grown. The company treated me to lunch at a local restaurant where we tried some of their products. Everything was really good. After lunch I met with Carin Joubert. She is a Technical Consultant originally from South Africa. She makes sure that all of the requirements are met so that they can export to England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Hong Kong and Japan. Over the years she has worked in many countries around the world. We discussed the challenges of working with the Thai farmers who only have .6 hectares of land on average. Many of her biggest challenges have to do with language problems; they don’t have words for many of the technical words we use in dealing with food safety. I really enjoyed talking to Carin and we had a wonderful discussion. She feels that she is making a difference in these farmers’ lives and I agree with her. This is a very interesting operation.

The Royal Project

2008-05-14T08:43:00.007-05:00

On Tuesday I visited the Royal Project Development Center at Inthanon and the Inthanon Royal Research Station. This is one of the 36 Royal Project sites. The Royal Project began in 1969 when the King visited this area and observed how the hill tribe people were living. They were producing Opium Poppy and not making much money. The King set forth a vision of a new life for the hill tribes that included a better lifestyle and didn’t include opium production. Today there is no opium production in Thailand, instead the hill tribe people produce over 350 different fruit, vegetable, flower and fish products that many people thought could not be produced here. The station is on a mountain and the high elevation makes it possible to produce plants that usually grow in colder climates. Plants have been imported from all over the world and a lot of research has been done on which ones grow the best. This is the only project in the world to get rid of opium production, just think how wonderful it would be if similar things could happen in Afghanistan or in Columbia with cocaine production. They showed me their food safety and traceability systems. Most of the products are sold domestically but some are exported to Europe so they meet all of the Europe GAP requirements. They also supply the vegetables and fruit for Thai Airways in-flight meals. I got to talk to a farmer who produces celery and Chrysanthemums. He told me that he is rich by Thailand standards. He has about 1 million THB (33,333 USD) in annual sales and about half of that is profit. The average income for this area is 80,000 THB. The first picture below is of some workers peeling carrots before quick chilling them for transport. The second picture is their aquaculture operation that produces Rainbow Trout, which is a high value item in Thailand. The third picture is of a lady spreading fertilizer by hand in one of the “plastic houses” on the operation where I talked to the farmer. The forth picture is one of the beautiful flowers they produce for the domestic cut flower market and the fifth picture is of a young lady packaging some long stemmed roses for sale. The last picture is a view of some of the many plastic greenhouses on this mountain.

OSU Links & Zoo

2008-05-12T11:35:00.011-05:00

Today I visited both Maejo University and Chiang Mai University. The Presidents of both universities are graduates of Oklahoma State University and Dr. Bob Terry was advisor to both of them. When I arrived at Maejo, I was greeted by a large sign that says “Home of the Cowboys.” President Thep was out of the county but I met with three members of their agricultural production faculty. We discussed Food Safety and Traceability and International Trade. They answered several questions I had about Thai agriculture and we had a really good discussion. Here are some interesting statistics. 20% of Thailand exports are agricultural. 60% of the Thai population is involved in the Agri-Food industry and Thailand is the #1 exporter of rice, rubber and canned tuna. The Vice President for International Affairs treated the professors and I to lunch at an International buffet. Next I went to Chiang Mai University and met with President Pongsak Angkasith. We talked about his time in Oklahoma and he told me that a group from his university is on their way to Oklahoma right now with Dr. Terry. Maybe I will get to meet them when I get back. After the meeting I went to Chiang Mai Zoo which is right next to the university. This is a really nice zoo and it seemed that the animals were posing for pictures. I am a big kid when it comes to zoos – I love them. Check out the pictures below and there are more on the SnapFish site, click the Fellowship Photos link on the right side of the page.

Tonight I plan to go to the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar which is held in the streets that surround my hotel. Things are really cheap and I love all of the Thai art and jewelry.

Chiang Mai Tour

2008-05-12T08:07:00.008-05:00

On Sunday I took a one day tour. The first stop was an elephant camp. There are many of these camps in this area. The elephants that used to work in the logging industry are now employed in the tourism industry. We rode the elephants up the hill from the camp and stopped a few times to buy bananas to feed them. I rode the largest elephant, the only male in the group. He was very hungry and would stop often and put his trunk back over his head for a banana. He kept me and the Thai gentleman who rode with me busy feeding him and occasionally the mahout (elephant trainer) had to encourage him to move along. Below is a picture of one of the baby elephants at the camp, the second picture shows some of the other people feeding their elephant and the large elephant in the foreground of the third picture is the one I rode.

Next we went bamboo rafting down a river. This was fun but I could have done without being splashed with the river water by the local people who were resting along the river. We had lunch at a local Thai restaurant and then we went trekking through the jungle to a Mien hill tribe village. The hill tribes are a historically migratory people who have no nationality. This particular tribe was originally from central China but now reside in Thailand, southern China, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. From the village we trekked on to a beautiful waterfall and took a rest there. Below is picture of the waterfall.

From the waterfall we went down the other side of the mountain to a Karen hill tribe village. This tribe is originally from Myanmar and now lives in both Myanmar and Thailand. The first picture below is a view of some of their rice fields. Their houses are built on stilts and the animals live downstairs, the second picture is of some of their pigs. The women of this village weave beautiful silk scarves and table linens. I bought two scarves and a table runner. The third picture is of one the ladies and her weaving equipment.

After I got back from the tour I went to the Sunday Walking Street. They shut off a street and vendors set up stalls of merchandise to sell to the local residents and tourists. I found a really good Italian restaurant on this street and had dinner. It rained on and off and I was very tired so I didn’t buy much but there are some really nice crafts and everything is really cheap.

Chiang Mai Sightseeing

2008-05-12T07:56:00.004-05:00

On Saturday morning I flew to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. After eating lunch at my hotel, I caught a taxi to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. (Taxis here are small pickups with an enclosure on the back and two benches.) The Wat (temple) is very beautiful. It sits on top of a mountain overlooking the city and has a wonderful view. Unfortunately, it started pouring rain just as I arrived and started up the steps, so I got soaked. In one of the pictures below you can see the water running off of the roof in the foreground.

When I got back to the hotel I walked down the street to a restaurant that my guidebook recommended. It is called Chiang Mai Saloon and serves Mexican food and steaks. I had fajitas and they were very good. Below is a picture of their sign. I couldn’t resist buying a shirt with the cowboy riding the bucking elephant.

My last outing of the day was the Chiang Mai Night Safari. This new tourist attraction has animals from all over the world as well as a lighted musical fountain show with lasers. The trams take you by the animals and they shine a light so you can see them. It was impossible to get any pictures because of the limited light but it was an enjoyable evening.

KU Kamphaengsaen Beef Producer Co-op

2008-05-09T08:35:00.006-05:00

My day didn’t start until 11 a.m. today which was nice because I have been starting at 7 a.m. most other mornings. Apparently today was a government holiday in Thailand that loosely translates as Agriculture Day. There is a ceremony were a cow/buffalo is allowed to choose between many different items to eat and depending on what she chooses there is a prediction about the crops for the coming year. In another ceremony the King or Prince spreads some of the country’s best rice seeds and later farmers try to pick up as many as they can to bring them good fortune. Unfortunately, nobody told me about this until it was over as I would have liked to attend.

Today I had a translator for the first time in Thailand. Her shortened name is Ja and she is a veterinary student at the university we visited. I really enjoyed visiting with her on the way to and from our meeting. We traveled to Nakhon Pathom Province to the KU Kamphangsaen Campus Beef Producer Cooperative. By the way KU stands for Kasetsart University not The University of Kansas. The university has developed a breed of cattle that is well suited to Thailand’s tropical climate. They crossed the native cattle with Brahman and then crossed the offspring with Charolais cattle. The new breed is 25% Native, 25% Brahman and 50% Charolais. They call it Kamphangsaen. After developing the breed they started building a network of farms to raise these cattle. There are Cow-Calf, Stocker and Feed Lot phases and the individual producers are members of the cooperative. In addition to being paid for their cattle based on carcass score when they sell them to the co-op they also share in any profits the co-op makes at the end of the year. The first picture below is of one of their T-Bone steaks. The second picture is of an RFID ear tag that is used in their national tracing system. Foot and Mouth Disease still exists in some parts of this country, mostly near the borders, so it is important to know where cattle are coming from. The members also keep detailed health records on each animal. The co-op is growing fast with about 800 head slaughtered in 2006 and 1622 head in 2007. Demand continues to grow in Thailand but they cannot export because of FMD. The third picture below is a steer at a feed lot farm; their steers are about 3 years old when they go to slaughter. They also run their own restaurant on campus. When you enter their location there is a large sign over the gate that says Cowboy Land and has a cowboy on a horse roping a steer. There are also signs for Texas Steak and the last picture is of the entrance to the restaurant, notice the cowboy and Indian décor complete with teepees. We ate at the restaurant and I had a ribeye steak it was good and tender but it was cut very thin by U.S. standards.

Betagro

2008-05-08T21:55:00.007-05:00

On Wednesday evening I went out exploring for a restaurant to have dinner. As I walked down the very busy street that my hotel is on I came upon an elephant. Elephants were historically used as labor in the timber industry and other industries in Thailand. Now they are out of work and some are reduced to having their owners beg tourists to pay to feed them. I have no idea where this young elephant lives the rest of the day, as this is a very congested part of Bangkok.

On Thursday morning I went to meet Dr. Arayan Trangarn at the Betagro headquarters. Betagro is a privately owned company that is also involved in the poultry and hog integration industry here in Thailand. They also have some operations in China, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. The owner of the company is a Chinese gentleman who immigrated to Thailand many years ago and started with nothing. He first started a feed mill and then expanded into the poultry and swine industries. They are involved in many of the same operations as the CP Group but they don’t really seem to have a competitive relationship. Betagro actually benefits from some of the lobbying activities and influence that CP Group has. We first met with the CEO of the company and then we traveled to Lopburi Province to their Food Complex 1. They chose this location because it is near the corn production area of Thailand but they still have to import a lot of their feed ingredients from other countries. They are now considering locating any new plants they build closer to the port because of the increase in transportation costs. When the Avian Influenza outbreak occurred in Thailand they were impacted and had a cull a large number of birds. Since then there have been many changes to their operations. In hindsight Dr. Trangarn thinks it has been a positive thing for the company. In addition to instituting more advanced practices and more security on their farms, they have also had to build new plants to further process their chicken thus adding value to their products. They currently export these cooked products to the EU and Japan. They were the first company to use an electronic traceability program in Thailand. It is all computerized and is quite impressive in the detail that they can access. Consumers can not access it over the internet yet but they do have what they call “Spy on Me” terminals in some domestic supermarkets where some of the information can be accessed. These terminals also give recipes for how to cook the products, which consumers seem to be more interested in than the traceability information. The traceability system at this plant requires 20 full-time employees and costs more than 1 million Baht per year and that number would at least double if it included all of the other parts of the production process. We toured the further processing plant and it was a very sanitary facility and I had to put on a lot more protective clothing and wash my hands many more times than I would to tour a plant in the U.S. The major difference that I noticed was that they were doing a lot of hand slicing and cubing of the product. Labor here is cheap and so they can do this kind of time consuming processing. However there is a shortage of labor and they would like to open another plant to produce more skewered products for the Japanese market but they aren’t sure they can find the workforce. Even though labor costs are low the cost of feed still makes producing chicken in Thailand more expensive than in the U.S. so they are not sure that they would support a Free Trade Agreement. As always no photos were allowed in the plant.

On the way back to Bangkok we made an unscheduled stop at a huge wholesale market. This one was much cleaner than the one I saw in China with the Oklahoma Agricultural Leadership Program Group. The meat section still wouldn’t meet U.S. standards. Below is a picture of one of the poultry vendors and another of a fruit stand. The bottom picture is of some of the fruits that Dr. Trangarn bought for me to try. Clockwise they are a Rose Apple, a Rambutan, a Mangosteen, Lychees and Longans.

Bangkok Produce Merchandising Public Co.,Ltd.

2008-05-07T03:33:00.005-05:00

This morning I met Dr. Wanchai Pholprasertku with the Department of Livestock Development and he escorted me to Saraburi Province to Bangkok Produce Merchandising Public Co., Ltd. They are a division of the CP Group which is a huge multi-national company that is involved in many industries including telecommunications, real estate, motorcycle manufacturing, medical supplies and retail but its origins are in agriculture and food production. They have operations in Thailand, China, Indonesia, India and Turkey and export around the world. This facility is a chicken processing operation with both a fresh chicken facility and a further processed plant. They produce every possible chicken product that any country could want. Because of Avian Influenza they can only export cooked product. Although they have had no cases of AI in their fully enclosed, climate controlled poultry houses, there have been cases in Thailand and so there is a ban on the export of fresh poultry. They showed me a video about the on-farm production side of the business and it appears that they use all of the same advanced technology that is used in the American poultry industry. They produce their own feed; have their own breeder hens, hatchery, broiler farms and processing facilities. I was given a tour of their further processing facilities and slaughter facility. They are both just as sanitary as, or more sanitary than, the Tyson plant I toured in Oklahoma. Although at the Tyson plant we walked through the production floor and at this plant they have a glassed in walkway where you look into the plant, so you don’t get quite as close up of an experience. In addition to meeting every possible food safety and good manufacturing standard they also meet Halal standards so they can export to Muslim countries. As far as I can tell this means they stun using electric shock making sure the chickens aren’t stunned to death and they have a Muslim do the slaughtering. Their products are completely traceable back to the farm. As with all processing facilities they don’t allow pictures so the only one I have to offer is this one of the many ready-to-eat products they produce.

Thai Food Safety Meetings

2008-05-06T05:19:00.001-05:00

This morning I met with my Program Administrators for Thailand, Paul Wedel and Patcharee Pinitsuwan (Khun Lek) with the Kenan Institute Asia. Then I met with two government agencies this afternoon. The first one was the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards (ACFS). They were established in October 2002 with the mission of protecting the benefits of trade on agricultural commodities and food products of Thailand as well as safety for consumers both in and out of Thailand. ACFS is assigned to be responsible for regulating the agricultural commodity and food standards. They seem to be making good progress for such a young agency. Many of the issues they have dealt with have to do with the seafood industry and pesticide residue issues in produce. Next I met with the Department of Agriculture Food Safety Division dealing with fresh fruits and vegetables. Their mission is very similar as they monitor food safety issues in exported products. 2004 was designated as the Year of Food Safety and they believe that there has been a lot of improvement since then. Both agencies are promoting Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and HACCP. Tomorrow I get out of the city again, which I am looking forward to since I am not a city person.

Ayuthaya

2008-05-05T06:15:00.010-05:00

This morning I was picked up for a tour of Ayuthaya. The bus first arrived at the Bang Pa-In Summer Palace, built during the Ayuthaya era. The palace is beautifully decorated in both traditional Chinese and European style. King Rama V traveled extensively and brought back many European influences to the Palace. Below is a picture of the Thai Pavilion, my favorite part of the palace, and a herd of elephant topiaries.

Next we arrived at Ayutthaya, the Ancient City, which was the former Thai capital for over 400 years. Nowadays the glory and the beauty of the grand palace and temples of its past has vanished, leaving merely a glimpse of ruins, despite this it is a good reflection of the past. We saw a combination of both the ruins and the remaining historical attractions.

We first stopped at Wat Maha That. Over 600 years old, Wat Maha That was the heart and soul of the Ayutthaya people. It was almost completely destroyed by the Burmese during the Thai-Burmese war. Below is a picture of the famous Buddha head inside the trunk and roots of a tree. After the Wat was damaged during the war it was looted and the heads of all of the Buddhas were stolen. Somehow this one was hidden under this tree and eventually became part of the tree. The second picture is of one of the few remaining Buddha statues with ruins in the background. There are many more pictures on the SnapFish site, just click the Fellowship Photos link on the right side of the page.

Our next stop was Wat Na Phra Mane. It remains in perfect condition, as it was used as the Burmese headquarters. The splendid Golden Buddha, dressed in regal attire, was placed in the temple along with the three thousand-year-old green stone carved Buddha. Both are considered as extremely valuable national relics. A picture of the Golden Buddha is below.

Our last stop in Ayuthaya was Wat Lokayasutharam. This Wat has a mysterious past, whereby its origins are unknown. The temple enshrines the Largest Reclining Buddha Image which was built during The early period of the Ayutthaya region. Two other ancient temples, as well as the ruined site also surround the compound area. Here is a photo of the reclining Buddha.

We next boarded a boat for our trip back to Bangkok. We were served a delicious buffet lunch. Throughout the journey I was able to watch the Chao Phraya River banks scenery and had a clear view of the life of the inhabitants that dwell along the river, and the unforgettable scenery of children as they greeted us as we went by, making it an altogether worthwhile experience.

Bangkok Sightseeing

2008-05-05T06:07:00.011-05:00

My first stop of the day was Wat Pho Thai Massage School. I had heard that getting an authentic Thai massage is a must and this is the best place to do it. A one-hour full body massage only costs $12. The massage school is inside Wat Pho, the modest hero of Bangkok’s holy temples. Wat Pho features a host of superlatives: the largest reclining Buddha, the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand and the country’s earliest center of public education – the massage school. The first picture below is the decoration above a doorway at the Wat, this is typical Thai ornamentation. The second picture is the head of the Reclining Buddha, which is absolutely huge.

My next stop was Phukhao Thong (Golden Mountain). The main attraction here is the view of Bangkok from the top of the hill the temple sits on which is pictured below.

Wat Benchamabophit or the Mable Temple came next. It is made from white Carrara marble and was built in the late 19th century. There were services going on while I was there and there is a picture of the monks below.

The Thais really love their King. He is 81 years old and the longest serving monarch in the world. Tomorrow is Coronation Day; a Public Holiday to celebrate the day he took the throne. There are pictures of him everywhere and I think they are always there not just for the holiday. See the example below.

Next I visited Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. This is a beautiful place. The pictures below are of yaksha (mythical giants) who guard the area. I think some areas of the palace were closed because tomorrow is Coronation Day which is one of the few days that the King still uses this palace; he lives in another palace now so this one can be enjoyed by the public.

My last stop for the day was Chatuchak Weekend Market, which may be the largest open air market in the world. It sells everything including food, pets, clothes, handicrafts, home décor, antiques, plants and anything else imaginable. This is a shopper’s and haggler’s paradise. I am not that big of a shopper and it is really humid here this time of year so I had had enough after a couple hours.

Hello, Bangkok!

2008-05-03T08:28:00.001-05:00

I have arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. Today was a travel day, so I don’t have much to report. My accommodations here are very nice. I have a serviced apartment with a small kitchen and best of all I get to spend a whole week here before I have to pack up again. I think the longest I have stayed anywhere is three nights in a row. I feel like I have been in a perpetual state of motion but I wouldn’t have had it any other way because then I would have missed something. The trip has been wonderful so far and I am sure it will continue to be here. Tomorrow I plan to do some sightseeing. I am hoping that I can get a massage at Wat Po Thai Massage School, visit The Grand Palace and go to Chatuchak Weekend Market all in one day. Wish me luck on finding my way around. I will let you know how it goes.

Last Day In Malaysia

2008-05-02T08:47:00.006-05:00

This morning I went to the U.S. Embassy and met with Ambassador James Keith, Mr. David Shear, Mr. David Cottrell, with the USDA FAS office and Dr. Marjorie Harrison, the Cultural Attaché. They asked me a lot of questions about the things I have seen in Malaysia and my impressions about the country. We had a very good discussion.

After I left the Embassy, I went by my program administrator’s office to drop off a box of stuff that I have accumulated during the trip to be shipped home to Oklahoma. Then I went back to my hotel and walked over to the shopping center that is below the twin towers. There is an aquarium in the basement of the convention center that is between my hotel and the towers and I took time to visit it. I had a hard time getting any good pictures but below is one of a shark from the walk-through tunnel exhibit. It is a very nice aquarium. Next I went to the grocery store, or as they call them here hypermarket, that is in the shopping center. I had a special request by email from a friend who is an apple grower in Washington State to check out the produce section and guess what I found – a whole section filled with Washington Apples. Below is a picture to prove it. There were also Idaho potatoes available. Unfortunately, there was no U.S. produced meat in the very small meat section.

After lunch I went to my last meeting in Malaysia. It was with the Chief Executive Officer of a company called TraceTracker Malaysia. They are an IT Company that develops food traceability systems and also Halal traceability systems. Currently most of the interest in their systems is for exports to the EU or Japan but they think that the domestic market will eventually also demand traceability especially for Halal. We had a lengthy discussion about Halal standards and he told me that he thought that there would soon be an international set of standards for Halal that most if not all Muslim countries would recognize. I know that many American companies would like to see this happen, so that they could more easily understand what exactly is or isn’t Halal.

Putrajaya

2008-05-02T08:35:00.007-05:00

On Thursday I traveled backed to Kuala Lumpur and made a brief stop at my hotel before going to Putrajaya. In an earlier post from the day I met with the Ministries of Health and Agriculture, I included a couple of pictures of some of the beautiful buildings in Putrajaya. I was invited to go back to Putrajaya by Tan Sri Samsudin Osman the President of Putrajaya Corporation and a 1997 Eisenhower Fellow. Although he is not elected, he serves in the same capacity that a mayor would in the U.S. We met at the Agricultural Heritage Park. Putrajaya has many beautiful parks and this one is dedicating to preserving Malaysia’s agricultural heritage and educating urban residents about agriculture. One section of the park is still occupied by the rubber trees that used to cover all of the area that is Putrajaya today. I was shown how rubber trees are tapped and how small holders of rubber processed their rubber for market. The first picture below is of the tapping process. I grew up in an area where we produced maple syrup and was familiar with tapping those kind of trees however this is a bit different. When we tap Maple trees we just drill a hole into the tree, with rubber you strip a narrow band of bark from around the outside of the tree in a sloping direction and the rubber runs along the slope into a small cup. After enough rubber is collected it is put in some water with a little acid to coagulate. Then the rubber is flattened by hand and then run through a rolling machine that is much like a pasta machine until it is very thin. Next it is run through another rolling machine that scores the sheet of rubber. After it dries some more it is put in a smoke house that is fired by rubber wood. The smoked rubber is worth much more that non-smoked. I learned a lot and I think I will be seeing some more rubber in Thailand. The second picture below shows one of the rolling machines. The third picture is of a Jack Fruit tree. As I had said in a previous post I really like Jack Fruit. This is a huge fruit and I am told that they can get much larger than this. The Agricultural Heritage Park also features an orchard that has many different species of tropical fruits and spices.

Next we traveled around the city of Putrajaya looking at the beautiful architecture and well planned layout of the city. We had a wonderful dinner at the boating club dining room. And after dinner I enjoyed a sunset cruise around the lake with a lady who is now with the Public Relations department but she was the head of the environmental department when the lakes and parks were being built and was able to tell me about that process. The picture below is of one of the bridges taken from the boat. All of the bridges are unique in their design; this one is quite traditional while others are modern. A lot of thought and planning has gone into the development of Putrajaya.

I realized that I haven’t posted a picture of the Petronas towers yet. This is the fourth room I have been in at this hotel and I am finally on the side facing the towers, so here is the view from my window.

Cameron Highlands

2008-05-02T08:18:00.008-05:00

On Wednesday morning I was up early for the long drive to Cameron Highlands. The Highlands are north and slightly east of Kuala Lumpur and were named for the surveyor who first explored them. One of the oldest industries in the Highlands is the tea estates. I first visited the Boh Estate, which was established by John Archibald Russell in April 1929 and is still owned and operated by the Russell family. Boh is a well established brand in Malaysia and has at least a 50% market share in the domestic market. I got the same tour that any tourist would get at this location. Next I went to another Boh Tea facility, the Sungai Palas Tea Center and met the Estate Manager. We had a long discussion over lunch about tea production and processing and after lunch he gave me a personal tour of the tea factory. Tea plants are rooted in a nursery and transplanted to the field when they are 12 months old and about 42 cm tall. After transplanting it is about two and a half years before the first plucking. They are plucked every 25-30 days and pruned every 3 years. Tea plants can have an unlimited life span if properly cared for, some of the plants on this estate were planted by the original Dutch owner in the 1930’s and are still in good shape today. They do use mechanical harvesters now but the rows on this estate are planted on the contour and aren’t nearly as straight as the ones I saw in Japan, which makes using the harvesters more difficult. This estate produces black tea and the one I saw in Japan produced green tea. The only difference is how the tea leaves are processed. Like in the U.S. one of the biggest challenges is getting enough labor to run the estate. Even with the mechanical harvesters, 180 people are still needed to keep the place running. Most of their labor force is from Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Below is a picture of part of the estate from their new visitors’ center which sits on a hill with a panoramic view of tea plants as far as you can see. The second picture is the finished premium product straight from the factory.

After my visits to the tea estates I had some free time to explore the Highlands. This is a very agricultural area with many farms producing vegetables, cut flowers, live plants and it is most famous for producing strawberries. The first picture below is of one of the many beautiful flowers that I enjoyed seeing during my visit. The second picture is of some of the many small shops that sell the local produce to locals and visiting tourists from all over Malaysia and Singapore who come to Cameron Highland because the 5,000 foot elevation offers some relief from the heat. Everywhere you look in the Highlands there are farms many in plastic covered greenhouses and others terraced up the sides of the mountains. The third picture is of the hydroponic production in one of the famous strawberry farms. I also visited another butterfly farm and a honey bee farm. The last picture is of one of the butterflies that actually sat still long enough for me to get a picture of it.

Malaysian Poultry Industry

2008-04-29T04:11:00.004-05:00

Today I met James Ng Boon Khong with Leong Hup Contract Farming Sdn. Bhd. and ayam A1 Food Corporation Sdn. Bhd. He spent five years studying at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond and had looked up where Goltry is on the internet. By the way, he is not the first person with Oklahoma ties I have met here. When I went to the palm oil plantation on Carey Island, the director of their Golden Hope Academy education center went to the University of Oklahoma. It was nice to meet people who understood where I am from. James and I traveled quite a distance to one of the company’s poultry farms. It is a closed barn system much like in the U.S. the only real difference is that there is less automation since labor is less expensive here. They had recently shipped most of the chickens from this farm and had mostly empty barns. There was one barn that had chicks put in it yesterday. There is a picture of the new chicks below. The chicks have the same genetics that you would find in the U.S and the company runs in much the same way that the poultry companies run in America. One exception is that this farm is owned by the company but they do also have contract growers. Most of their ingredients for their feed come from Argentina. They sell the poultry litter to plantations for fertilizer and aren’t experiencing any of the legal issues that the poultry industry is in Oklahoma.

As I had reported in a previous post the government has set a ceiling price for chicken in Malaysia that is below the actual cost of production. However, from what I can tell it only relates to fresh or frozen chicken not to further processed products. Therefore this company is producing a variety of value added products using their poultry meat in order to survive and make a profit. At lunch we ate at a local Chinese restaurant in a relatively small town. Later this evening I have dinner with several Malaysian Eisenhower Fellows.

Penang

2008-04-28T12:13:00.009-05:00

I am sorry that I haven’t posted for a few days. I haven’t had internet access since early Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning I flew from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, which is an island along the coastline north of Kuala Lumpur. It is also its own state within Malaysia. I was picked up at the airport by my driver, Dave. Our first stop was Kek Lok Si Temple. One of the finest Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia, The Kek Lok Si Temple stands majestically on a hill in Air Itam. Built in tiers, the temple boasts the beautifully crafted “Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas”. Taking more than 20 years to build, the temple is set against scenic surroundings. It features a turtle pond, gardens, shrines and sculptures. I took a lot of pictures of this beautiful place, below is one of the pagoda, which unfortunately was under renovation.

Next we went into Georgetown the island’s largest city. Our first stop here was the Seven Clans Village. This area is built right on the water and in some cases over the water near the harbor. It is where the Chinese immigrants from these seven families first settled when they came to Penang. Their lifestyles have stayed much the same and by the way Penang is the only Malaysian state to have a majority Chinese population. The area has a great view as you can see in the picture below.

Next we visited Khoo Kongsi, which is by far the grandest clan temple on the island. The forefathers of the Khoo family, who emigrated from South China, built it as a clan house for members of the Khoo family. The building was so magnificent that upon its completion in 1898, the roof caught fire, some believe, due to its resemblance to the Emperor’s palace in China. It features a magnificent hall embellished with intricate carvings and richly ornamented beams of the finest wood bearing the mark of master craftsmen from China. Below is a photo of the exterior of the hall.

We briefly stopped at Fort Cornwallis. The fort was built on the site of Sir Francis Light’s historic landing in 1786. Originally a wooden stockade, it was replaced by a concrete structure built by convicts in 1804. Below is a picture of the fort’s exterior walls. Georgetown is filled with British Colonial architecture and many heritage buildings.

Georgetown also has several ethnic districts. Little India was our next stop. Think Chinatown except with Indian shops and restaurants some of which date back over two centuries. I enjoyed a brief walk around this lively district. Below is a picture of one of the narrow streets.

The Botanical Garden is an oasis of peace and tranquility with lush green surroundings and vibrant colors of Penang’s tropical flora. But even more intriguing are the monkeys that make it home, one is pictured below.

My next stop was at the Penang Butterfly Farm. The farm is home to 3000 living specimens from over 50 species of colorful butterflies, frogs, scorpions and other insects. I really enjoyed this stop. Below is a photo of one of the butterflies.

My last stop before going to my hotel was the Tropical Fruit Farm. This agrotourism facility is spread over 25 acres of hilly terrain and contains orchards that produce over 200 tropical and subtropical fruits including durian, lychees, mangos, guavas and several lesser known varieties. At the end of the guided tour you get to sample several kinds of fruit and have a fruit juice drink. I have found that I really like Jack Fruit which I have never seen in the U.S. Below is picture of a Dragon Fruit and right next to it is a bloom that will later produce the same fruit. The blooms open at night. I tried Dragon Fruit, its flesh is a bright red and there are very small black seeds. It tastes alright but I still prefer Jack Fruit.

Next I went to my hotel which is in Batu Ferringhi, which translates to Foreigners Rock. It is on the North side of the island and is the best beach area. I ate dinner at a local restaurant called The Ship; it boasts that it has the best steaks in town and is built in the shape of a huge old ship. I did try a T-Bone and it had a good flavor, while it was quite large in diameter it was cut very thin. On the way back to the hotel I walked through the Night Market and used some of the bargaining skills I learned in China.

On Sunday, I slept in until very late in the morning and then had lunch at the hotel. After lunch I went to the pool for a while and then got a full body massage. After dinner I once again browsed around the Night Market. The picture above is sunset from my hotel room’s patio.

On Monday I met with three groups that all oppose the use of genetically modified organisms and free trade agreements. The first meeting was with the Consumers’ Association of Penang. The first two gentlemen I met with here were willing to have a back and forth discussion with me but it was apparent that the only thing we agreed on was the need for Malaysian consumers to be better informed about food safety and sanitation. Otherwise they had a lot of preconceived notions about American agriculture that simply are incorrect. I attempted to correct some of these ideas but I am not sure how successful I was in changing their minds. Later I attempted to have a meeting with the president of the organization. There seemed to be communication issues and this is the first time during my fellowship that I felt unwelcome.

I briefly visited the local chapter of the Friends of the Earth. The person I really needed to talk to here was out of the country. The two young ladies that were in the office tried to answer my questions but they were simply not the right people for the task. They did give me a booklet about why they oppose GMOs. My third meeting of the day was with the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific. The ladies who run this organization have good reasons to be concerned with many of the issues that they try to address. They seem to legitimately want to make life better for rural people (especially women) in this part of the world. Though we don’t agree on many issues, we were able to find several other things that we do agree on. I felt a lot more welcome here and we had a good discussion of the issues.

Malaysian Agrifood Corporation

2008-04-25T08:01:00.005-05:00

This morning I once again met Mr. Chan and we went to meet with the Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysian Agrifood Corporation, Azizi Meor Ngah. Malaysian Agrifood Corporation Berhad (MAFC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Berhad that was established in May 2006 to drive Malaysia’s food supply chain management and distribution system towards global standards in safety, quality and sustainability. I found Azizi Meor Ngah to be very personable. We had a very good discussion about their quest to improve Malaysian food production and empower small producers. He was very interested in American agriculture and in particular how our farmers’ cooperatives work. He also asked several questions regarding our government’s influence on agriculture. I told him our industry is much more based on free market principles.

Next Mr. Chan and I were joined by Pack Huang who has been coordinating my schedule while I am in Malaysia. We drove quite a distance to the other side of the mountains that run down the Malaysian peninsula to an area that the state government has opened up specifically for food production. Farmers and companies can apply to lease a portion of this land. MAFC has 100 acres here on which they have established a Papaya farm. I was unaware that papaya grew so fast. Plants that were planted in March started producing fruit in November. The papaya that they have at this location is a new variety that has been breed to have all of the best characteristics. The plants will produce for about 30 months before they get too tall for harvest and are replanted. This farm is a demonstration farm using all of the best management practices and it is hoped that the small, surrounding farmers will learn from this operation and improve their operation thus building a viable industry for export. Even now the young plants are producing two metric tons a week and one ton is being exported to England. In the future they will also rotate production with a new variety of pineapple. We tried some of the papaya and it was delicious.

Ministry Visits

2008-04-24T07:45:00.005-05:00

On Thursday, I met Chan Han Hee, Senior Vice President of the Malaysian Agrifood Corporation. He took me to Putrajaya, which is their planned national administrative city (Think Washington, DC without all of the surrounding areas). Our first meeting was at the Ministry of Health to discuss Food Safety, Defense and Traceability. They have a very tough job in a country that is not used to sanitary and phytosanitary regulations. However, the actual enforcement responsibilities lie with the officials in each state. The Ministry simply establishes the policy and does research. They briefed me on their food safety efforts and critical incident plan. We also talked about the relatively new labeling regulations that they have implemented. I enjoyed this visit and felt very welcome. After being in Japan where I met with very few women, it was nice to be in a room with mostly women.

After the meeting Mr. Chan and I looked around the city. It is a very attractive, planned city. Below is a picture of the Mosque and the Prime Ministry building. We also made a brief stop at the botanical gardens.

Our afternoon meeting was at the Ministry of Agriculture. I received briefings from officials from several different divisions. They have a pilot program called MFIT, which is an electronic traceability system. With all of the talk of a food crisis, I asked about their self sufficiency rate and they said it was 72%. This is much better than Japan’s 39%. Malaysian agriculture faces many problems but they seem to be working to fix many of them. I asked about the poultry ceiling price which I had been told in an earlier meeting was below production cost. They said they were meeting with industry people the next day to try to fix this issue. The person who is most involved with trade issues was unable to attend, so I didn’t get many answers on that topic.

Carey Island

2008-04-24T07:34:00.009-05:00

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at Carey Island, which by the way is not exactly an island. It lies on the Straits of Malacca on one side and a river flows on the other two sides. But the river on one side hasn’t always gone all of the way through; many years ago there was a land linkage on one side. But for most of the history of the plantation the only access to the “island” was by ferry or other boat. In the mid 80’s a bridge was built allowing people to drive to Carey Island. The Sultan of Selangor granted an Englishman named Edward Valentine Carey the right to open up the island around 1899. Over the years the plantation has produced rubber, tea, coffee, coconuts, cocoa and oil palm. It is a very historic place.

I learned about palm oil production. This is a very interesting crop. Seedlings are planted when they are 12 months old. The first harvest is when they are 4 years old. Four to 10 years is considered young, 11 to 20 years are prime and over 20 years is considered old. The fruit bunches are harvested every 15 days. There is a picture below of harvest. The plantation is currently averaging 6.4 metric tons of oil per hectare per year. This is a much higher tonnage than other oil crops. From the plantation the bunches go to the mill where the oil is extracted. All of the parts of the bunch are used. The oil comes from the orange outside of the fruits but the internal kernel is also used. The kernel can be seen in the second picture below of the fruit bunch - a couple fruits got sliced open during harvest. The kernel is cracked like a nut and the external shell is used to fuel the boiler at the mill with any extra sold to other industries for use in their boilers. The inside of the kernel is processed into a different kind of oil. The empty bunch is returned to the field to decompose and provide nutrients to the trees. Each bunch is marked to show what field it came from and who harvested it. Harvesting the bunches at the correct stage of ripeness is important because premium quality oil with a fatty acid content of less than 1.2% can only be produced from perfectly ripe bunches. From the mill the oil goes to the refiner where the oil is refined to make it clear and odorless and processed into a number of different products. There is a huge demand for palm oil products right now because they are healthy and produce very crispy fried products. After the refiner, some of the oil can go to the biodiesel plant to be processed into fuel. Right now there is such a demand for palm oil food products that there isn’t very much palm oil being refined into biodiesel. I toured all of the different facilities along the supply chain. I should also mention that at the end of the palm oil trees productive life span which is over 25 years they are chopped up and returned to the soil to provide nutrients for the next crop of trees. This process in shown in the third picture below. They do not burn in Malaysia and most of the large palm oil companies around the world also do not burn. Only the very small producers in countries like Indonesia still burn. Also they use integrated pest management to control insects. There are certain beneficial insects that must be present to pollinate the bunches, also they plant flowering plants to attract other beneficial insects that then control the worms that attack the palms. They also use owls and hawks to control the rat population. Everything is done with a great respect for nature. Every part of the palm is used, there is no waste. This industry appears to be extremely sustainable. This plantation has been producing oil palm since the 1950’s, the mill has been in operation since 1966, the refinery started in 1977 and of course the latest addition is the biodiesel refinery. Oil palm can only be successfully grown seven degrees north and south of the equator. I know that there has been a lot of negative publicity about palm oil in the media lately but I think part of the reason for that is that this industry is making a lot of money right now. Just like the oil industry in the U.S., it is easy to pick on the companies that are making big profits.

All of the people I met on Carey Island were very nice and hospitable. On Tuesday afternoon they took me to visit the local indigenous people, the Mah Meri. These people have lived on the island since long before Mr. Carey was granted development rights by the Sultan. They were very isolated until quite recently but now their children attend school including high school on the plantation. They continue to preserve their culture. They are known for their handicrafts. The women weave the local grasses into many different shapes and the men are very talented woodcarvers. Below is a picture of the younger carver that we met. I bought both some of the woven products and a hand carved wooden mask. The wood they use is very hard and red in color similar to cherry. It comes from a mangrove tree that is very hard to find and actually Sime Darby the company that owns the plantation is doing research on reestablishing this tree on the island so the carvers will continue to have a supply of wood, unfortunately it is a very slow growing tree. After we left the village we went into the nearest town and bought a durian from a road side vendor. If you are not familiar with durian it is a very popular fruit in Southeast Asia and it has an unpleasant smell. Many westerners can’t eat it because of the smell. The one we tried didn’t have much odor and I am not particularly sensitive to smells. I liked the taste. There is a picture below to prove that I braved the dreaded durian. Later in the evening we went to a local Chinese seafood restaurant for dinner. This part of my visit was a very authentic experience. I felt very at home and welcome. I feel honored to have had this opportunity and recommend it to anyone who has a chance to visit Carey Island. They host international visitors quite often, including Presidents of countries. My lodging for Tuesday night is pictured below, it is now called the VIP Bungalow but historically it was the West Estate Manager’s Bungalow. It is just one of many Heritage Buildings that remain on the island.

First Day in Kuala Lumpur

2008-04-21T07:31:00.001-05:00

The newspaper that was delivered to my room this morning had the front page headline “Facing the Food Crisis.” Obviously I am also going to hear a lot about self sufficiency problems when it comes to food production in Malaysia. My first meeting this morning was with Dr. Khaw Eng Sun, DVM. He is a Technical Advisory Committee Member for the Federation of Livestock Farmers’ Associations of Malaysia. Actually this group is only concerned with pork and poultry. There is a price ceiling on poultry in Malaysia. This ceiling price is lower than the cost of production. This is yet another example of a government working in a counterproductive way when it comes to production. Actually there are 11 items that have set prices including cooking oil, chicken, bread, sugar, flour and condensed milk and in the newspaper this morning the Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs said there would be a meeting today to discuss adding more items to this program. At the same time the government is also talking about how to increase domestic production. From my prospective these two things seem counter to each other. Many decisions here are political and making food cheap for the consumer is a good political move. There has been one political coalition in power here for many years and in the last election the opposition party gained five states, so they are feeling the need to make the public happy. Also, there is very little consistency in policy; each time that there is a different Minister of Agriculture there is totally different policy. Recently the former Minister of Higher Education has become the Minister of Agriculture. Both here and in Japan I have been surprised at how people move from one part of government to another. In the U.S. if you work for the USDA you aren’t very likely to move to the Education Department for example.

Thirty percent of the broilers produced in Malaysia are slaughtered at inspected plants and sold frozen. The other 70% are still sold through wet markets which in many cases are less than sanitary. These chickens are fresh not frozen and the consumers prefer them. They are also much less expensive. There is concern about drug residue in these birds. Malaysia produces 40 million broilers per month and 10% are exported to Singapore live and slaughtered there. Most of the feed comes from the U.S. and Brazil. The number of farms has shown a sharp decrease in the last 15 years and is expected to continue in this trend. The pork and poultry industries are predominately run by Chinese Malaysians. When the British were in control of Malaysia they tended to encourage immigrants from certain countries to do certain jobs and many of those trends continue today.

I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant with Johan Raslan, my Program Coordinator; he is Executive Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers and Honorary Secretary of the Eisenhower Fellowships Alumni in Malaysia (EFAM). Another guest was Tan Sri Dato’ Mohd Ramli Kushairi, President of EFAM and Chairman of the South Malaysia Industries Berhad. He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Malaysia Business Council. Cody White, Cultural Attaché, and Loh Lee Pin, Assistant Marketing Manager of the Office of Agricultural Affairs, also joined us from the American Embassy. I enjoyed meeting everyone and we had a good conversation.

My afternoon appointment was with Dr. M. Ghazie Ismail with the Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC). He gave a PowerPoint presentation on the HDC and explained the requirements to meet Halal Standards. The HDC is focusing on Halal Integrity, Industry Development and Branding and Promotion. Halal products are being promoted to all residents of Malaysia as higher quality, more sanitary products. In addition to following Halal slaughter practices they require strict sanity compliance which is not always used in other products in Malaysia. They are working to increase the Halal Industry in Malaysia not just in food but also in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Brazil is currently the largest exporter of Halal products and Australia also has a good sized Halal industry. I think that there may be some opportunities for U.S. businesses in the Halal industry. Since we already have excellent sanitary systems in the U.S., I think the only added requirements would be to have a Muslim do the slaughtering and have an Imam bless the animals. The Halal market is growing around the world.

In the morning I leave for a palm oil plantation where I will spend the night so I don’t think I will have internet access. I will post again as soon as possible.

My Visit to Malaysia Begins

2008-04-20T06:42:00.002-05:00

I spent most of the day today on a plane. The airport here in Kuala Lumpur runs much more efficient than Tokyo Narita. My driver Hon Seng picked me up at the airport and we drove into Kuala Lumpur to my hotel which is right next to the Petronas Towers. They were until very recently the tallest building in the world and are still the tallest twin towers. This evening I had dinner with Pack Huang, who has been arranging my schedule in Malaysia and Professor Dr. Khaw Lake Tee, an Eisenhower Fellowships Alum. She is currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya. I enjoyed the Malaysian food and the conversation. I am looking forward to the rest of my program here in Malaysia

Last Day in Japan

2008-04-19T04:27:00.002-05:00

It is very late and I have to be up early to fly to Kuala Lumpur. This was my last day in Japan. I only had one meeting. It was with the Director of Green Eye the food traceability system of AEON supermarkets the largest retailer in Japan. He outlined all of the requirements that AEON requires its suppliers and producers to meet. This is a very detailed system. It amazes me how many levels of regulations there are regarding food safety and traceability in this country. I will try to write more about this later.

Tonight I went to dinner at a very good restaurant with my Program Coordinator, Noko and her husband Sunao. Noko got teary eyed when we said good bye at my hotel and I kind of did too. I have really enjoyed my time in Japan. I was extremely busy but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Tanegashima

2008-04-19T04:11:00.016-05:00

In the late 1800s an American ship wrecked off of the coast of Tanegashima and the local residents rescued the crew and took care of them. After the crew got back to the U.S. President Cleveland and congress sent a letter of appreciation to the residents along with $5,000. This was in recognition of them going out of their way to help strangers. This event is still celebrated each year with a ceremony to help instill this helpful spirit in today’s children. The $5,000 gift was used to improve education on the island. I began my day by visiting one of the schools that benefited from this gift. It is where my friend Hiromi went to Elementary School and she teaches English there twice a month. The school is first through sixth grades and only has 16 students. I showed a PowerPoint slide show with pictures of our farm and Hiromi translated my descriptions. Afterwards, Hiromi had each of the children come up and introduce themselves to me in English. Most were very shy about trying this, but they all eventually did. Below is a picture of me with the kids.

Our next stop was a beef cattle operation. It is in a beautiful location. Check out the picture below – how would you like to have that view? They are a cow-calf operation and produce native Japanese cattle. Once again we were shown around by the son who is involved in the operation. The major difference in their operation is they wean the calves from the mother almost immediately and feed them milk replacer. This is done for two reasons. First, these cows don’t always produce very much milk and second, they want the cow to breed back as soon as possible. They have an automatic feeder for the calves that uses RFID tags around the calves’ necks to know which calves are eating. They are able to produce all of their own hay and also feed the tops of sugarcane that is produced locally, which would otherwise go to waste. All of their calves are shipped off of the island to other growers. When the BSE outbreak occurred in Japan the market was depressed for about two years but he also has a fishing business that helped with the family’s income during this time. Below is a picture of Hiromi and one of the friendly calves.

Next we stopped at a scenic overlook that is one of Hiromi’s favorite places. I am sure you can see why in the picture below. Notice all of the farm fields in the foreground.

At the big dinner party in Kanoya I had met a friend of Hiromi’s that started a company making products out of the local sweet potatoes. This area is known for sweet potatoes. They are different from the sweet potatoes in the U.S., the inside flesh is white instead of orange. Below is a picture of some of his staff making sweet potato cakes. All of the work is done by hand and all of the ingredients are produced locally. They also make cookies.

For lunch we went to a small café run by surfers. It has the feel of a place you would find in rural Hawaii near a surfing beach. Tanegashima is a surfing destination. Hiromi had told me that we were going to have real hamburgers for lunch and I was excited, but when I looked at the menu one of the very few English words was Dr. Pepper. I am sure that everyone back in Oklahoma understands how excited that made me. This is a really neat little place. I enjoyed it so much I had to take a picture.

After lunch we went to see a friend of Hiromi’s that produces sugarcane. She was the first female farmer I had met in Japan. There are a group of women who work together in the production of sugarcane. It is near the end of the harvest but we got to see them harvesting. These are really neat ladies and I really enjoyed meeting them and learning a little about sugarcane.

Our next stop was at some caves that you can walk all of the way through to the other side and come out on the beach right next to the ocean. Below is a picture looking out of the cave and another one of the beach outside.

The most well known thing about Tanegashima is that it is the home of the Japanese Space Center where they launch their rockets carrying satellites into space. You can drive right through the Space Center on a public road. We went to the Visitors Center Museum. It is very nice and informative. Below is a picture of the launch facilities.

Our last stop before going to the airport was a resort on the southern tip of the island. I took this picture there.

This was an incredible day and I was truly sad to say goodbye to Hiromi. I hope I will be able to come back to Tanegashima. As my plane came in for a landing at Kagoshima, I was able to see the volcano. Although it is not perfect this is the best picture I could get from the plane.

Kagoshima

2008-04-19T04:01:00.008-05:00

When I arrived at Kagoshima airport, my interpreter and I were met by Hiromi Nagano a Japanese Eisenhower Fellow who had offered to show us around that part of Japan. We drove to the Kanoya area, which is the #1 pork and beef production area in Japan. The drive was on very steep, winding road and reminded me of where I grew up in the mountains of western Virginia. Most native Oklahomans would have gotten car sick. First we visited Fukudome Pig Farm Ltd. Mr. Hiroaki Fukudome and his son Toshiaki showed us around their operation. This was exciting because this is the first operation I have visited where a second generation is involved with the farm. His other son is studying meat science in Germany. They are currently part of a marketing association but they want to start processing and marketing their own pork products. Toshiaki studied English in Great Briton and was able to tell us about the operation in English. They have 350 sows. Most of the hogs appeared to be Yorkshire and Yorkshire cross but they have recently started importing some Hampshires, including one they are very proud of from Ohio. Mr. Fukudome was proud of the beautiful landscaping at the front of the farm and the trees they had planted. He said they want to provide a good environment for the pigs. They have a urine processing system that removes all smell from the urine and makes it safe to release into the river. And they also recently put in a manure processor that makes high quality compost. There is a government subsidy to support the installation of this equipment. Fifty percent of the total cost comes from the national government and 25% comes from the local government. He was also very proud of the fact that they mix all of their own feed. All of the feed inputs are imported, including fish meal from the U.S. and seaweed from Holland. When I asked about free trade agreements he said he was opposed to them because they couldn’t compete with producers in other countries. Below is a picture of some of their pigs and by the way they still use farrowing crates.

Our next stop was a dairy farm. At this farm not only is the owner’s son involved but his grandson who is eleven is also involved with the dairy and wants to be a farmer after he gets out of school. They have recently built a new facility with a 120 cow capacity and an automatic robot milking machine on one side. This has given them more time to do other things and allowed them to milk more cows. The facility cost 200 million yen and again the government subsidized its construction with 50% from the national government and 25% from the local government. They also have 130 hectares where they produce the corn silage for the dairy. His son asked me about using DDGs and I shared my limited knowledge with him. The neighbors that moved in recently near their corn fields complain when they spread manure for fertilizer. This is just one more thing they have in common in with the U.S. All of the livestock in Japan is so calm and friendly. Below is a picture of my friend Hiromi making friends with a cow.

Next we went to Mr. Ino’s house. He is an architect and engineer who designed the new dairy facility and he had invited us to stay at his house for the night. It is a typical rural Japanese home with futon mattresses on the floor for beds and we sat on the floor at a low table for tea and breakfast. Japan has many onsen (hot springs) and there is a famous one nearby that they encouraged us to visit. At Japanese onsens you bath naked (men and women have separate areas). First you take a shower to clean yourself and then you get in the bath. When you are finished you rinse off with another shower. I was very uncomfortable but I had read about how important onsens are in Japan and I thought I had to try it once. It also helped that when I don’t have my glasses on everything is blurry, so I just acted like it was also blurry for everyone else. After we got back from the onsen there were several people already at the house and Mr. Ino and his wife were cooking dinner. We had a big feast on a patio above their garage. It was raining but they had covered the area with plastic. The local food was really good and they just kept bringing it to me. I probably ate more than I had in the last two weeks. There were several very important people from all of the surrounding communities invited. We ended up visiting two of the people the next day.

One was Ryuzo Sakata, Rear Admiral, Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF). He spoke good English and had been to the U.S. several times. I told him that my husband loves Naval History, especially the Pacific Theater of WWII and he invited us to the base. So, the next morning we were given a tour of the Kanoya Naval Aviation Museum. This is an impressive museum that focuses on the history of Imperial Naval Aviation and the development of the JMSDF. It also has a large section devoted to the Kamikaze pilots that sacrificed themselves during WWII. There is a display with pictures of all of the more than 2000 Kamikazes. The average age was 19 and one was only 16 years old. Below is a picture of a Zero that is in the Museum. They also had several other planes on display outside. Those of you who know my husband, Ryan, know how much he would have enjoyed this visit and I thought about him the entire time. Next we were escorted on to the Kanoya Air Station to Admiral Sakata’s office. He is a naval aviator and commander of the air wing which has 20 XP1 aircraft. The base also has several helicopters. It is considered an important, critical point of defense from China. Recently there was a dispute over an oil spill that happened right on the line where the two countries’ waters meet. Also, a couple of years ago the coast guard sunk a North Korean boat that was coming too close. The Admiral told us about the new law that has recently been passed allowing them to rescue any U.S. personnel that might need their assistance and provide logistical support for U.S. vessels. Below is a picture of us with the Admiral.

At the party, I also met a green tea grower and we visited his operation next. Drinking tea became mainstream about 90 years ago in Japan, prior to that it was only for special occasions. He and several other growers in the area recently upgraded the equipment in their processing facility. He said in order to get the subsidy from the government you have to spend so much and buy bigger equipment than you really need. He has 150 hectares but they are all on steep hillsides. There are two ways to get a better price for your tea. You can produce higher quality tea or you can be the first to harvest and sell that year, if your crop is delayed there is a big cut in price. The tea producers’ share of a bottle of tea is 3 yen (about 3 cents). Some of the tea plants were covered which produces higher quality tea but a smaller quantity. Tea can be stored refrigerated for up to 3 years without any damage to the quality. Another interesting thing that he told us is that this area has one of the worst problems with an aging population. For every birth there are 3 deaths. Below is a photo taken from one of his tea fields. It is a beautiful place. This picture doesn’t do it justice since it was raining.

On the way back to Kagoshima we stopped at a 100 yen vegetable store he had told us about. I had heard so much about how Japanese consumers are so picky about the appearance of their food, but this shop makes a big profit proving that some people are okay with a slightly crooked carrot if it is less expensive than the straight ones. We took the ferry across Kagoshima Bay, which we had heard earlier in the day was used as a practice sight for the attack on Pearl Harbor. There is an active volcano right on the bay but it was so cloudy I couldn’t really see it. Next we took another ferry to Tanegashima. This ferry is a hydrofoil and is much faster than the conventional ferry but it still takes 90 minutes to get to Tanegashima.

Traceability Systems and Reception

2008-04-15T11:12:00.002-05:00

This will be a short post since it is really late and I have to be up very early in the morning to fly to Kagoshima. My first meeting today was with Joe Gayton, Asia Marketing Manager for Webster Fresh the Tasmanian vegetable company that my Program Administrator, Noko, also works for in addition to her other business. They produce onions and carrots and export to both Europe and Asia. We had a really good discussion about the requirements that Japanese retailers demand in order to do business with them. He also showed me the very impressive traceability system that the company maintains. Webster Fresh is setup in much the same manner as the poultry companies in the U.S. they provide all of the inputs and advise the growers and they pay the growers based on the final production. The growers must follow their guidelines. The Japanese retailers are very specific about their requirements and the appearance of the final product and Webster Fresh does all they can to meet their expectations.

My next appointment was at DNP which is a massive company that started out in the printing business but has expanded into all kinds of high tech fields. They are developing RFID chips for a variety of uses including tracking which products consumers are looking at and the obvious supply chain tracking applications. The building we were in is a show place for all of their high tech gadgets and was extremely impressive.

I ended my day at a reception that was given in my honor by Mr. and Mrs. Post. Mr. Post is the Public Affairs Minister-Counselor at the U.S. Embassy. All of the Japanese Eisenhower Fellows were invited and there were probably about 30 people in attendance. I really enjoyed talking to all of the fellows. It was a very nice evening. I may not have internet access for the next couple of days but I will post again as soon as I do.

Kobe

2008-04-14T20:38:00.008-05:00

My day in Kobe began with a visit to the Kobe Beef Distribution Promotion Association. The average Kobe feeder farm has 200 head of cattle. They buy the cattle from the breeders when they are around 280 kg and sell them when they are around 650 – 700 kg. This growth stage takes two years. There are two large cow-calf farms producing 10,000 head per year. In order to be designated as Kobe beef the cattle must be purebred Tajimaushi, with Tajima being the breed name and ushi meaning cattle. The Tajima breed is documented to have been in this area 1200 years ago and is native to Hyugo prefecture where Kobe is located. All Japanese cattle are registered and receive a ten digit identification number and their registration papers include a nose print. Tajima cattle produce meat that has very thin fibers and soft fat. Kobe beef can only be produced in Hyugo prefecture. All Japanese beef cattle have some Tajima blood but they are crossed with other native breeds. Tajima were first used as labor on the farms and there is evidence of livestock markets in the 1600’s. Feudal lords encouraged farmers to take good care of their cattle and all people had to bow to Tajimaushi except feudal lords and court nobleman. The cattle in this area also got better feed such as wheat and the byproducts of producing sake. In 1868 Kobe port opened to foreign ships and the foreigners wanted beef. After this Kobe beef became world renowned.

In 1979 the Kobe Beef Distribution Promotion Association was established. It's mission was to establish a clear definition of Kobe beef and make the product clearly identifiable. They registered the Kobe brand. There are 500 registered Kobe growers and of these 5 are located within the Kobe city limits (this is more like a county in the U.S.). There are 500,000 tons of beef consumed in Japan each year of that only 8,000 tons is Kobe beef. When BSE was found in Japan there were no cases in Kobe beef and only one case in Japanese beef the remaining cases were all in dairy cattle. 100% of the cattle are checked for BSE and if a positive is found it is burned and all of the cattle that were feed with it cannot be shipped. Also, all the Specified Risk Materials are vacuumed and burned. They also change knives between each cow they process. When the BSE outbreak happened in Japan the prices of most beef went down but Kobe already had complete traceability so their prices were not impacted. As I said above, each animal has a ten digit number that is on its ear tag and registration papers and can be traced to the cow it came from. The meat packages also have this number. Consumers can input this number on the internet through their mobile phones and access all of the information about the animal. There are also displays in some meat shops where this information can be accessed. The government pays for the traceability system and BSE testing. The producer incurs no costs except the labor involved with keeping the records.

Next we drove to Teishin Chikusan Meat Company. This is one of the largest beef processors in Japan. I met Mr. Sotoike Yoshimitsu the President of the company and we looked at some beef in their freezer. They pointed out the difference in the feel of the fat on Kobe beef as opposed to other Japanese beef. It is much softer, the other Japanese beef’s fat is very hard. The most popular cuts of beef change with the season in the summer BBQ is popular and the short rib is used and in the winter Shabu Shabu is popular which is the very thinly sliced meat usually cut from the loin or sirloin and cooked at the table.

Next we went to the Meat Center for a beef auction. They do not auction the live cattle they auction the carcasses after slaughter. The cattle are brought to the Meat Center and they are slaughtered and then tested for BSE. Two days later they are auctioned and 4 days after slaughter they are available to consumers and restaurants. They do not age their meat as we do in the U.S. I was told that not very many people ever get to watch an auction and especially not on a day when there is a lot of Kobe beef in the auction. I feel very honored to have had this opportunity. We walked around with the buyers before the auction and looked at the carcasses. This was very interesting to me since I used to coach meat judging teams. They were all marked with the official grade and it was interesting to compare them. They were also marked as to whether they were Kobe beef or other Japanese beef. Kobe beef brings significantly more than other beef. When the sale starts the buyers sit on heated cushions because it is cold in the market and they want the buyers to be comfortable. Any farmers that want to watch their beef sell stand at the back of the room. Mr. Yoshimitsu insisted that my interpreter and I take his seats and he stayed and explained the auction process to us. As you can see from the pictures below the carcass is brought in and a TV monitor shows a close-up view of the rib eye. Also displayed is the name of the producer, place it was produced, father’s name, mother’s father’s name, age in months, whether it is a steer or heifer and weight. All of these can change the final price that will be paid. The bidders have buttons they push to bid and the display indicates how many people are bidding at any time. When we were looking at the carcasses before the sale we met the producer of lot 506 and were told that he was a famous farmer. The pictures below are of his beef and it brought the most per pound of any in the sale on this day. It brought 3,310 JPY per kg or a total of 1,037,354 JPY which is approximately 10,600 USD. A Japanese beef actually brought more total dollars because the other breeds are much larger than the Kobe beef it weighted 448.2 kg and brought a total of 1.3 million JPY or approximately 13,300 USD.

After the auction we went to one of the farms that is in the Kobe city limits. Again, this is more like a county in the U.S. and it was quite a drive around winding mountain roads north of Kobe. The farm’s parent company is Centennial Flour in Portland, Oregon. The gentleman who manages it used to work in their flour mill in Kobe and had been to Oregon for training in the flour mill business. The farm was started in 1972 and it currently has 600 cattle. They have started to breed some of their own cattle recently. He showed me some of the registration papers and made me a copy of one of them. They breed using artificial insemination exclusively and the prefecture government controls the semen. It must be ordered from them and you very rarely get all of the ones you ask for in your order. The limited genetic diversity that is available in the Tajima breed has caused line breeding to occur and this has caused fertility problems in the cows. It often takes several tries to achieve conception but because of the small number of available cows they go to great lengths, including hormone injections to get a pregnancy. All of their hay and feed must be imported. They get Timothy hay from the U.S. and Canada and wheat straw from Australia. This is all in small square bales. The corn, grain sorghum and wheat that they feed also come from the U.S. They also import some Wheat Bran from Indonesia. Tajima cows eat about 7-7.5 kg of feed a day but the other Japanese cattle eat 8-9 kg per day since they are larger breeds. The cattle don’t eat any colored feed such as green grass or really anything with much color. This is done because they want to limit the consumption of Vitamin A to promote marbling. They will pay a lot for what they call pink Sudan hay from the U.S. because it has almost no color. No, the cattle don’t drink beer and get massages, but they do feed some byproducts from beer production. The cattle are confined in small pens and eat and sleep all day. They say “sleepers will grow better.” It costs 700 JPY or about $7 per day to feed each steer or heifer. Heifers bring more at the market but there are less sold because most are saved as cows. The calves they buy cost in the 600,000 to 750,000 JPY range and the feed is very expensive so they need at least 1 million JPY to breakeven on the 30-35 month old cattle that they sell. All of the cattle at the farm are incredibly friendly.

I really enjoyed talking to the manager of the farm. He seemed to like it that I had come to visit his operation. He joked that in WWII our soldiers ate beef and the Japanese soldiers ate fish and if the Japanese had eaten beef maybe they would have won. He also said that when he was visiting Oregon he ate steak every night. I asked how he liked to flavor of the steak and he said it was very good since he was eating it every night. You couldn’t eat Kobe beef every night. When I asked about Free Trade Agreements and WTO, he said he was in favor of free trade and we should all compete. He also said that he thought that many Americans would like to have Kobe beef. I agreed that they would and asked if he would support lowering or eliminating the tariffs on beef imports and he again said “Yes, we should compete.” He also said that he thought that opening the market would be good for his business. I really like this gentleman and this whole day was a wonderful experience that I am sure will be one of the highlights of my fellowship. Check out the pictures of the farm below.

Yoshino and Nara

2008-04-13T08:04:00.006-05:00

Today I went to Yoshino to the Cherry Blossom Festival. It took a long train ride to get there and the train was packed so I had to stand up the entire way. This is the most famous place in Japan for viewing cherry blossoms. The Japanese people are crazy about cherry blossoms so it was very crowded. I was told that the Japanese government promoted the love of the cherry blossoms especially during the period before and during WWII. It was viewed as honorable to live like a cherry blossom – reach your peak and then pass on. This feeling was promoted to young men serving their country. I took a bus up the mountain and walked down. Along the way I stopped at Yoshimizu Shrine. This shrine was formerly called Yoshimizu-in and was established by the priest Ennogyojya about 1300 years ago in the Hakuho period as the living quarters for the Yoshino Shugen priests. It was around through historical events including the development of Shugendo (a kind of physical and religious training) until the beginning of the Meiji period. However, in 1875 (the 8th year of the Meiji period), it was converted into a shrine at the time of the separation of Shintoism and Buddhism. In 1336 (the 1st year of the Engen period), Emperor Godaigo escaped from Kazanin, Kyoto and hid in Yoshino with the help of Soushin Yoshimizu-in and he designated this shrine as the Imperial Palace of the Emperor of the Southern Court. Thus, after the Emperor came to the shrine, the sad history of Yoshino started and continued for 57 years spanning the reign of four emperors. It was the beginning of the confrontation of the Northern and the Southern Court. The Emperor spent several years in this isolated place and finally he became ill due to sorrow and passed away. This shrine was the main Palace of the Southern Court and is now considered as the only tentative palace of the Emperor of the Southern Court. Below are some pictures of the cherry blossoms and shrine.

Next I took the train to Nara the first capitol of Japan. Here I visited Todaiji Temple. This temple was built in the Nara Period (710-794 AD) at the behest of Emperor Shomu (r.724-749). The temple was officially positioned as one of many state-established provincial temples. However, since the chief object of worship of the temple is Vairocana Buddha (Buddha that shines throughout the world like the sun), a magnificent temple was built to reflect this importance. Todaiji Temple serves both as a place of prayer for peace and affluence on earth, as well as a center of Buddhist doctrinal research. Over the centuries, Todaiji has produced many famous scholar priests. Todaiji Temple was founded by Bishop Roben, and is to this day the Head Temple of the Kegon Sect of Buddhism. The chief object of worship is Vairocana Buddha, who is also the central Buddha in the Kegon Sutra. The statue of Vairocana Buddha is made from cast bronze, which was then plated in gold. The statue was consecrated in 752, but was damaged and repaired several times in the following centuries. The current hands of the statue were made in the Momoyama period (1568-1615), and the head was made in the Edo period (1615-1867). The Great Buddha Hall was burned in the fires of war in 1180 and 1567, and the current building is actually the third generation structure, which was built in the Edo period. The width of the current building is approximately 33% smaller than that of the original structure, but it still ranks as the largest wooden structure in the world. Below is a picture of the Temple. The park surrounding the shrine is known for the large number of deer that live there, they are considered creatures sent by god. I have also included a picture of some kids feeding a couple of them.

Kyoto

2008-04-12T07:17:00.007-05:00

This morning I caught a shinkansen (bullet) train from Tokyo to Kyoto. I was met at the station by Mr. Doi my guide for the day. Kyoto is particularly crowded right now because it is cherry blossom season, so there were crowds everywhere. We first went to Nijo Castle. This castle was built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu. The ostentatious style of construction was intended as a demonstration of Ieyasu’s prestige and to signal the demise of the emperor’s power. The castle has an outer moat and an inner moat. Ninomaru Palace is a very impressive structure with beautiful painted screens and incredible carved wood panels. Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside. As a safeguard against treachery, Ieyasu had the interior fitted with “nightingale” floors and concealed chambers where bodyguards could keep watch. The palace is just one of the many buildings that make up the castle. Beautiful gardens surround the castle. I have included a photo of the front of the palace and a picture I took in the garden.

Next we visited Kitano Tenmangu Shrine. This Shinto shrine was built in 947 and the current main hall was constructed in 1607. There were almost no crowds here because there are no cherry trees on the grounds of this shrine; it is known for its plum trees which bloomed last month. Mr. Doi educated me on Shinto beliefs and we had a nice peaceful stroll around the shrine grounds. The picture below is the front gate of the shrine.

Rokuon-ji Temple and Kinkaku (or The Golden Pavilion) was our next stop. In the 1220’s it was the comfortable villa of Kintsune Saionji. Yoshimitsu, the 3rd Shogun of Ashikaga, abdicated the throne in 1394. After three years he began to build Kitayamaden and he made a special effort to make it a breath-taking site. He indulged in his peaceful life in this serene setting. After Yoshimitsu’s death, Kitayamaden was made into a Zen temple in accordance with his will. All of the buildings of those days came to ruin except Kinkaku. The garden, however, remains as it was in former days and can be enjoyed as it was hundreds of years ago. Below is a picture of Kinkaku – The Golden Pavilion.

Next we went to the Kyoto Handicraft Center and I did some shopping. I bought several items to help me remember my trip. After that we went to Heian Shrine. This impressive shrine complex was built in 1895 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto. The buildings are colorful replicas, reduced to two-thirds of the size of the Kyoto Gosho of the Heian period. The spacious garden has a large pond and many weeping cherry trees. It was very crowded. The main building is shown below.

Last we visited the Gion district. This district still has many original style buildings and is still home to geisha houses. It is a very pretty and traditional area. I have included a photo of some maiko (apprentice geisha) however Mr. Doi tells me that these are not the real thing, they are for the tourists.

There are a lot more pictures if you click on the Fellowship Photos link on the right. You do have to sign-up for a Snapfish ID but it is free.

Meat Show and MAFF

2008-04-11T10:08:00.003-05:00

This morning we took the monorail around Tokyo Bay to the Big Sight to attend the Meat Industry Show. It was a nice day and the scenery was beautiful along the way. The Big Sight is a huge exhibition building and there were several different big trade shows going on in different parts of the complex. The U.S. Meat Export Federation had given us tickets for the Meat Industry Show but it turned out that there were also shows involving other foods and drinks in the same exhibition space. We ate lunch using all of the samples that were available from the various vendors. I know I have said this before, but the variety of products available in this country amazes me. For example, we got free soft serve ice cream cones from a company that has at least 30 different flavors of soft serve. I have included a couple pictures below of some booths that I think you will recognize and the third picture is of some beef from the company that I will visit in Kobe on Monday, notice the approximately $210 price tag. When we were talking to a gentleman that works for USMEF a buyer for one of the Korean beef bowl restaurants came by to see him. They really want the age limit on U.S. beef raised to 30 months and I agree with them. Another interesting thing at the USMEF booth was a video of a beef slaughter plant in the U.S. I saw several people stopping to watch it.

Next we took the monorail back to where we started the day and caught a cab to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. I had a discussion with three gentlemen about Food Safety and Traceability and Trade Policy. The gentleman who discussed trade policy’s focus is dairy products, so I ended up wishing that I knew more about the dairy program in the U.S. When he asked me some questions I had to tell him that I didn’t know much about the specifics of the dairy program since I am not involved with it directly. On the food safety and traceability side, I didn’t hear anything new. The discussion on trade policy was surprisingly open. Basically, he told me that if there were no tariffs the small scale farmers in Japan could not exist. Specifically they feel that they must protect their rice and dairy farmers. There is so much price variation between domestic products and imported products that high quotas must make up the difference for Japanese farmers to stay in business. They are discussing reducing tariffs as part of the Doha round of WTO negotiations, but with really no agricultural items to export and everything to import negotiating Free Trade Agreements either bilaterally or multilaterally doesn’t make since for their agricultural industry. Exports are only 1/20 of their total agricultural trade. Other industries would gain from a FTA with the U.S. and because of this one may be negotiated in the next ten years. They realize that the U.S. government would not support a FTA that doesn’t include agriculture but they would want to carefully choose which commodities to include. They recognize that pork and beef are important commodities to the U.S. and it seems that they may be open to reducing tariffs on these items if a FTA were ever negotiated. I asked about the 39% self sufficiency rate that I have been hearing so much about and they said that figure may not be entirely correct because feed imports are also included in that calculation and there are several variables. They also think that it might be possible to improve that percentage to 50% in a few years. I asked if there was a possibility of accepting modern production technology like biotech and hormones as a means to become more self sufficient. They said that is a good question that they can’t answer right now. The media has a big impact on all food related issues and reports on food and agriculture every day.

Tonight we had dinner with Mr. Tomiji Akabayashi, an Eisenhower Fellowships Alum. We dined at a restaurant owned by the founder of Sony. It was a traditional Japanese meal with many courses and took a long time to finish. We had a good conversation during the meal and I really enjoyed meeting Mr. Akabayashi.

Random Thoughts at the End of my First Week

2008-04-10T06:00:00.003-05:00

Well, I have been in Japan for a week now and I thought I would share a few random thoughts about my trip so far. First on agriculture, the overwhelming issue on everyone’s mind (and I mean everyone) is Food Security. Everyone that you talk to whether they are involved in agriculture of not is thinking about the fact that Japan is only 39% self sufficient in producing food. Much of the heightened concern has been brought on by the poison dumplings that were imported from China. This issue has caused consumers to be suspicious of all imported foods no matter what country they come from and the majority of the population is just realizing that Japan can’t produce enough domestic food for its people. Obviously, there is very little land available and a lot of people to feed. Also, their farmers are even older than the ones in the U.S. And to make it worse from what I have been able to tell so far the Japanese government’s agricultural policies may have caused production to decrease. For example, several years ago the subsides for rice production were raised so high that the old farmers no longer needed to drain the rice paddies after they harvested their rice and plant either wheat or soybeans as a double crop. For a culture that loves soy products so much, the fact that they currently produce almost no soybeans is a big concern. I have been told that I am here at a critical time for their agriculture and food industries because of these very issues.

I also have some very random thoughts to share on several everyday observations about Japan. There are several things that are different about Japanese hotels. The rooms have doorbells. They all have very fancy toilets with bidet and spray options and the hotel in Sapporo had a heated seat on the toilet. One thing that I think is really cool and we need to learn from in the U.S. is the mirrors in all of the bathrooms have some sort of anti-fog treatment right where you would normally stand to look at yourself, so you can take a hot steamy shower and still use the mirror afterward. All of the indoor spaces in Japan seem very warm to me and you don’t always have control of the temperature in your hotel room. Several of the rooms have the very deep Japanese style bathtubs. Like in China, in most hotels you have to insert your room key to turn the lights on.

The back door on the taxis opens and closes automatically. As I previously mentioned, the steering wheel in the cars are on the right hand side and they drive on what we would call the wrong side of the road. I still can’t get used to right hand turns being like left hand turns in the U.S. It is a good thing I don’t have to drive here. The convenience stores here are very small but they carry an incredible variety of items including in some cases man’s dress shirts. There are still cigarette vending machines everywhere here. And for a country that seems so concerned with its health quite a few people still smoke. Several people here wear masks over their nose and mouth; I guess this is because of air pollution. I haven’t really noticed much pollution, certainly nothing like we saw in China. I saw a man driving a truck and he had his mask pulled down and was smoking a cigarette. That seemed a little strange to me. They sell food in the airports and I don’t mean restaurants or convenience stores. I mean actually grocery store like food stores. Noko bought crab and other seafood in Sapporo and carried it back on the plane and when I landed at Narita Tokyo International Airport there were vendors selling vegetables. Also, people leave their bags unattended in the airport, both in the departures and arrivals areas, but they require you to show a claim check before you can take your bags out of the baggage claim area. Last but not least – Business cards or as they call them name cards are extremely important here. There is a ritual that is required when you meet someone in Japan. You must hand them your business card using both hands and receive their business card using both hands and then lay the card on the table and stare at it for a while. Being a farmer from the U.S. this is very strange to me; most U.S. farmers don’t even have business cards.

Sapporo

2008-04-10T00:31:00.006-05:00

Our first meeting on Wednesday morning was at the Hokuren Trading Company Offices. They began by giving an overview of Hokkaido agriculture. There are 59,000 farms on Hokkaido and 144 farmers’ union cooperatives, one for each prefecture. These are not cooperatives like the cooperatives in the U.S.; there are no dividends to producer members. Hokuren is the parent organization over all of these farmers’ cooperative unions. This seems to be somewhat like a combination of Farmland and Farm Bureau in a way. They have agricultural cooperatives, a bank, insurance and hospitals. They collect products from farmers and market them and they sell input products to farmers. They also seem to lobby on behalf of the farmers to the government, although when I asked who determines what positions they take on issues they said that is a good question. I never really got a good answer. There seemed to be a lot of communication and understanding problems in this meeting and it is very possible that I didn’t fully understand them. They said the cooperative association supports farmers in case of weather related losses and apparently the government subsidies are distributed through the farmers’ unions. When I asked about subsidies they said that the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has recently shifted from basing subsidies on each commodity to supporting farmers’ lifestyles. When I asked questions relating to trade policy they became very nervous and looked at each other to see who would answer. Out of the six people in the room really only one of them spoke very much. Basically they told me what I had heard before about free trade which is “Free trade is ideal” however they must protect the rice, wheat and dairy farmers because these are staple crops and their self sufficiency is already so low. This seems to be the official response. Despite the “Free Trade is Ideal” comment, I am pretty sure that one of the handouts they gave me tells people to support Japanese agriculture and something about the Australian (and maybe U.S.) EPA. It is printed in Japanese script and all I can read is EPA. The import tariff on one root vegetable product that we don’t have in the U.S. is as high as 990%. I guess the 100% tariff on beef and 210% tariff on wheat aren’t too bad compared to that. The government also controls all wheat trade and profits are at least partially redistributed to domestic producers. The government seems to have a lot of influence of the farmers’ production decisions. This is accomplished in a number of ways, including subsidies to not produce certain crops. Growers can use the land to produce some other crops but there are restrictions on which ones. This seems counter to becoming more self sufficient. Five years ago the government started requiring farmers to keep records on chemical use, farming systems, etc. and if consumers ask they must be told all of this information. Again very few, if any, really ask. Commodities are randomly tested for chemical residue. When BSE was first found in Japan the 100% testing program was started and it is very hard to back away from that now. They are very proud that Japanese food is considered very safe by other countries and this is an advantage when they do export something. The farmers’ cooperative unions on Hokkaido, and therefore Hokuren, are the strongest in Japan.

Next we went to lunch at a local crab restaurant. Hokkaido is known for its crab. We had dishes that included King Crab, Snow Crab and Hairy Crab. I had never had hairy crab before, it is sweet and delicious. I recommend it if you have a chance try it. One of the pictures below shows some hairy crabs in one of the groceries stores we visited later in the day. After lunch we went to a large grocery store in Sapporo, there was a much larger meat section in this store compared to the one in Tokyo and the packages were larger. They also eat a lot of lamb on Hokkaido, most of which is imported from Australia. The variety of items in their grocery stores amazes me. Next we went to a smaller grocery store that is owned by Hokuren, which specializes in domestically produced items. There isn’t as much variety in this store although it did have some imported products. Pictured below is some of the fresh mozzarella cheese from the plant that we visited on Tuesday. The other picture is a milk marketing advertisement video encouraging consumers to buy local milk. It was a very well produced video.

After the grocery stores we took the train to the airport and caught a flight back to Tokyo.

Hokkaido

2008-04-08T19:06:00.006-05:00

It was raining heavily in Tokyo when I began my Tuesday morning. I caught a taxi to Hanada Airport which is the domestic airport in Tokyo. We sat on the plane for two hours before taking off because of the weather, so we were late arriving in Sapporo. We were met at the airport by Mr. Harada with Hokuren Trading. We had lunch at the airport in an Italian restaurant. I had pizza. Next we got into Mr. Harada’s car and headed to the Hidaka area. This area is full of Thoroughbred race horse farms and the landscape resembles many areas of the U.S. There is also a noticeable difference in the size of the vehicles on Hokkaido, they are more normal sized compared to the U.S. Everything here is more familiar.

Our first stop of the day was Hokkaido Hidaka Milk Products Co., Ltd. We met with several members of the staff including the company president. They gave us an overview of the dairy industry in the area. Agriculture in this area started about 100 years ago when an American specialist came to the area and instructed the local residents on some production methods. As I had previously indicated Japan is only 39% self sufficient in terms of producing the food that the people eat. On the other hand Hokkaido is 190% self sufficient, which shows how important Hokkaido agriculture is to the rest of Japan. Dairy is an important industry on Hokkaido. There are 8,310 dairy farms with 836,000 cows on this island. About 400 of those farms bring their milk to this processing plant. The Hidaka area is southeast of Sapporo and very close to the ocean, so they don’t get as much snow as the rest of Hokkaido. The peak of farming on Hokkaido was in the 1960’s but now there are only one quarter of the farms that there were then. Because the average age of Japanese farmers is very high the future will likely see several small farms working together or combining. This factory first started producing powdered milk in 1972 and it was purchased by its current parent company in 1987. The product line has expanded a great deal since then. In addition to powdered and liquid milk they currently produce fresh mozzarella cheese, several soft cheeses such as ricotta and mascarpone, butter, yogurt and yogurt drinks, a wide variety of canned drinks, long life products and they have canning agreements with other drink companies. They were the first to start producing fresh mozzarella in Japan and are very proud of it. I tried some and it is quite good. The variety of dairy products available in Japanese supermarkets is amazing. The company is currently exporting milk to Taiwan and Hong Kong. They have 130 employees and 8 billion JPY in annual sales. All of their products that I tried were really good and the factory was one of the cleanest I have ever seen. They have a lot number traceability system much like you might see in the U.S. Their lots might include the milk from up to 3 farms and consumers can call and request that information if they want, but almost none actually call.

Next we got into a car provided by the milk processing plant and drove to Kurimu Dairy Farm. This is one of the largest, if not the largest, farm in the area. In addition to owning 600 Holstein cows, with about 300 milking at a time, they also have 250 hectares of land where they produce corn silage and haylage to use in the dairy. This makes them a very large farm by Japan standards. We were told that they are 8 times larger than normal for the area. They have a 28 stall carousel parlor (pictured below). The cows walk in and ride around in a circle for about 20 minutes while they are milked and then walk out. Think carousel slide projector – I had never seen this kind of milking parlor before. An RFID tag on each cow links up with a computer to keep track of how much milk each cow is producing and a sensor around a leg monitors the cow’s condition. Feeding plans are based on this information and what stage of milk production the cow is in currently. Different groups of cows get different rations to maximize production. They milk 3 times a day and all of their cows are domestically bred. The average production per cow at the midday milking on that day was 39.8 kg. Their bacteria counts are very low compared to other farms on Hokkaido. They have a water treatment system that all water is run through before being released into the river. Also, they compost the manure and use it on their land as well as marketing it to other farmers. Almost all of their feed has to be imported including alfalfa hay as well as the grains. There were large square bales of alfalfa from Ellensburg, WA in his barn that cost 21500 JPY per 500 kg bale. It costs 720 JPY per day to feed each cow. His children are not involved with the operation but he does have several young people that work for him and he says there may be opportunities for them in the future.

We drove back to Sapporo and checked into the Hotel Monterey, which is a very impressive older hotel. I was very tired after a long day and went to bed early which is why this blog entry is a little overdue.

First Day in Tokyo

2008-04-07T07:42:00.004-05:00

Today was my first day in Tokyo and I started the day by meeting with the U.S. Ambassador, Mr. Schieffer. He is from Ft. Worth and it was nice to hear a Texas accent. He told me how important agriculture is in Japan. Japan produces less than 40% of the food that is necessary to feed its population and food security is a very important issue right now. He had just recently given a speech regarding the need for Japan to look to other democratic nations such as the U.S., Canada and Australia as sources of the other 60% of their food. After the recent problems with imported dumplings from China this is at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds. He also will be delivering a speech soon regarding Genetically Modified Organisms. It was interesting to see that the Ambassador was truly interested in agriculture.
My next meeting was with Mr. Ronald Post, Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs at the Embassy. He was familiar with the Eisenhower Fellowships. When he was based in South Korea several years ago he was involved with nominating their Eisenhower Fellow to travel to the U.S. We were joined by Nini Forino, Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer; she works with the Japanese Eisenhower Fellows and is interested in assisting future USA fellows who will visit Japan. I enjoyed visiting with Mr. Post and Ms. Forino.
Our next meeting was with Greg Hanes, Japan Director for the U.S. Meat Export Federation. We discussed the U.S. beef trade situation. This issue has become very political in Japan. It is used by the DJP political opposition party to attack the majority LDP party. When BSE was found in Japan the government overreacted and instituted 100% testing. Now it is hard for them to back away from this extreme position. However, they are scheduled to reduce testing later this year. We also discussed Japanese consumers’ views on traceability. He provided us with passes for the Meat Industry Showcase which we will visit on Thursday or Friday. This is a large national meat industry show with exhibitors from around the world and it should be very interesting.
Next we took a cab to an AEON supermarket. AEON is the largest supermarket chain in Japan. This store was only a couple of years old and quite large. The variety of items that are available is impressive and everything is displayed very attractively. Mr. Hanes had told us that AEON doesn’t carry much U.S. beef compared to the other chains, mainly because they can’t get enough of a continuous supply for all of their stores. Below are three pictures I took at the supermarket. The first is a package of onions from the Tasmanian company that Noko represents; notice the “green eye” label that can be scanned with a cell phone and gives traceability information. These particular labels are unique to the AEON chain. The second picture is domestically produced beef, notice the heavy marbling and roughly $22 price for this small portion. The third picture is domestically produced pork; notice the picture of the farmers that produced it. We will be visiting AEON’s corporate headquarters later during my visit to discuss their traceability system.

We returned to the U.S. Embassy for our final meetings of the day with the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service. We first met with Dan Berman, Minister-Counselor for Agricultural Affairs and Paul Spencer, Senior Agricultural Attaché. They related how hard it is to balance food safety concerns with the ability to do business in Japan. The two hottest issues are beef trade and bio-tech. The media and political parties make it very hard to get the scientific reality heard. Even the scientists quote opinion polls in justifying the policies relating to these issues. The traceability systems are largely driven by retailers not consumers. Food service is less traceability oriented. One interesting fact that I didn’t previously know is Japan uses 7 times the amount of agricultural chemicals per land unit as anywhere else in the world. This is largely because of the humid climate. Japan imported $225 million worth of U.S. beef last year and many restaurants really want U.S. beef. Also, 93% of the corn used in Japan is from the U.S. Japan is estimated to only have a 6 week supply of feed grains on hand. Interestingly, there is starting to be quite a bit of Dried Distillers Grains coming to Japan in containers that would otherwise be empty on their return trip from the U.S. We also discussed the procedures for gaining approval of a bio-tech variety in Japan, which takes up to 3 years and requires a 250 plant test plot in Japan.
Next I talked to Mr. Hisao Fukuda, Agricultural Specialist and Senior Policy Advisor. He has a lot of experience with Japanese Agriculture and has also spent some time in Iowa. We discussed how emotional and ethnocentric the food safety issue has become. He said that unfortunately issues like the poison dumplings from China soon become a domestic verses import issue no matter what country the imports are coming from. Food Security is a major issue right now. The Japanese government is starting a new division to concentrate on Food Security. It was the high government subsidies for rice that caused farmers to stop double cropping rice with either wheat or soybeans thus contributing to the food security problems that they are now facing. All farmers in Japan produce some rice. The average income in rural Japan is higher than in urban areas. The government has a lot of influence over agriculture and food in Japan. For instance, all imported wheat is bought by the state so the price is controlled by the state trading entity and milk prices are set once a year by the government. Agricultural areas are very influential in the government as one vote in a rural area counts more than a vote in Tokyo. I asked about the WTO negotiations and he said that the government is starting to hold town meetings with producers to let them know that there will have to be changes in farm programs. But he also sees Japan continuing to use Sanitary and Phytosanitary regulations and Food Safety to control imports. 60% of Japanese farmers are 65 years of age or older. To become a farmer you have to be approved by a board of farmers. This is a very old process that began for water management reasons. There doesn’t seem to be much recognition of the fact that soon there will be no farmers. I guess we should feel lucky with our 55 year old average farmer and the few young farmers that we have coming into the business. Japan proves that it could be a lot worse.

Mt. Fuji Area

2008-04-07T07:21:00.013-05:00

On Saturday morning my Program Administrator, Noko and her husband Mr. Fukuchi picked me up from my hotel in Yokohama and we drove to their weekend home at Lake Yamanaka. Of the five lakes that surround Mt. Fuji this is the second largest. We stopped and ate lunch at Denny’s (yes it is the same Denny’s you would find in the U.S., but a very different menu). I had a BLT and a Coke. Then we when to the Fukuchi’s house, it is a delightful mountain cabin with a wonderful view of Mt. Fuji. As you can see from the picture below I was very lucky to be there on one of the few very clear days of the year. I was told that Fuji-san is usually quite bashful and hidden behind clouds. We spent the afternoon chatting on the deck and enjoying the view. I also spent some time in a traditional Japanese bath before we went to dinner. We ate at a traditional Japanese restaurant in an old fashioned house. The meal was beautifully presented and included several courses. I did quite well with most of the food with the exception of the very nearly raw mackerel, which I tried but was unable to eat more than one bite. Otherwise, I handled everything including the baby squid which are in season right now. After dinner we returned to the cabin and I spent the night in a Japanese style room with a futon mattress on the floor. I found it quite comfortable.

On Sunday we went to the Katsunuma area. Our first stop was a peach orchard and grape producer. Noko had thought that the peach trees would be in full bloom but they were a little behind because the area has experienced the harsher winter than normal this year. There were a few blooms open as you can see in the picture below and a gentleman was removing some on the blooms from the trees to promote larger fruit for harvest. Japanese peaches are different from the peaches we have in the U.S. They are larger, bright pink on the outside and have white flesh on the inside.

At the same location they also produce table grapes and I found the way that the grape vines are trained to the mesh above them very interesting. This was also the way the vineyards we say later in the day at the wine facilities were planted. The rows are spaced much wider than in the U.S. and the vines extend out in all directions instead of being trained in rows. The picture below is of one of the larger grape vines I saw.

Next we went to a very fancy facility that’s name translates as Hill of Grapes. It is on the top of a hill that overlooks vineyards on all sides. We purchased cups for wine tasting. It was quite different then the wine tastings I have been to in the U.S. The cups were silver and had ribbon attached so that they hung around your neck. We went into the wine cellar which had wines from all of the local wineries and you just walk around and pour some of whichever wine you want to taste. Noko’s husband has worked in the wine marketing business and is quite knowledgeable about wine so I let him choose which ones to try. Below is a picture of the wine cellar.

Our next stop was Marufuji Winery Co., Ltd/Rubaiyat Wine. The Managing Director, Mr. Haruo Omura, showed us around the winery. He was in the middle of preparing for a concert that will be held at the winery next weekend. His winery is considered to be one of the best in Japan and he is also one of the top enologists in Japan. He has published several books on Japanese wines and grapes. The winery is impressive and I am told it is very much like European wineries. I tasted five of his wines and really liked one of the whites. Mr. Fukuchi bought me a bottle of it. I hope I can get it home in one piece. The picture below shows Mr. Omura in his tasting room.

On the way back to Tokyo there was a lot of traffic since many people had taken advantage of the good weather and gotten out of the city. There was also a big traffic jam because there was an accident and traffic was at a standstill for a long time. We finally arrived at my home base in Tokyo, the Hotel Okura. It is a very impressive hotel and very close to the American Embassy. Check out the link to all of my pictures on the right hand side of this page.

Yokohama

2008-04-04T07:55:00.005-05:00

My day didn’t start until 11:30 am when I had lunch with my Program Administrator, Noko. I was looking forward to sleeping in after my long flight yesterday, but I woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep. So, I got up and worked on some computer stuff. During lunch Noko and I talked a little about my upcoming schedule. She has some really cool stuff planned for me. After lunch we visited the Animal Products Inspection office at the Yokohama Port. They are responsible for inspecting all meat, bone, horn and antler, skin and hide, hair, feather, egg, raw milk, feces, ham, sausage, bacon and processed goods containing these products to make sure that they meet the import restrictions that are in place with the country that they are shipped from. This office is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. After they inspect the products the Ministry of Health and Welfare does a sanitary inspection. Although they are not responsible for quarantining and inspecting live animals that enter the country, the head of the office, Koko Tanaka, did briefly discuss the process for bringing live animals into the country and gave us some literature regarding this process.

Next we went to Kamigumi Co., Ltd. This location is a five story chilled vegetable warehouse. We first went to the fourth and fifth floors to look at some produce that came from a company called Webster Fresh which Noko represents in Japan. They are based in Tasmania, Australia. We looked at some carrots and some onions that they had in storage. Below is a picture of the carrots and one of the barcode and traceability information, so they can track the pallet of carrots back to the producer if necessary. We spoke to Mr. H Fujimoto about the fruit and vegetable inspection process. He explained it well. The inspectors make sure that the produce doesn’t have any bugs or disease. If they find something wrong, then depending on the produce and what county it is from it will either be reshipped back to its original destination or it will be fumigated.

This evening we had dinner with Hiromi Nagano, who is an Eisenhower Fellowships Alum from Japan. We ate at a nice restaurant in Chinatown. I really enjoyed the dinner and the conversation. There is a chance that I will be able to visit Hiromi on the small island where she lives just south of Kyushu. I hope it works out because I would really enjoy spending some more time with her and learning about the agriculture in her area. Tomorrow morning Noko will pick me up and we will go to her weekend house near Mt. Fuji. I am really looking forward to it; however I may not have internet access again until Sunday night when I get back to Tokyo. I will post more then.

The Adventure Begins

2008-04-03T07:14:00.005-05:00

After a very long flight and what seemed like an even longer wait in the immigration line at the airport, I am finally in Japan. My flight was a little late because we had a head wind the whole way from Dallas to Tokyo. Then the line to get through immigration processing was backed all of the way out of the immigration area, so my Program Administrator, Noko Fukuchi had a long wait in the arrivals area just outside of customs. We were both very happy to see each other. Noko drives a very small Nissan. It is smaller than any model of Nissan that we have in the U.S. We had a bit of a challenge deciding how to put my two pieces of luggage into it. Also, it was my first time to ride in a car with the steering wheel on the right hand side and they drive on what we Americans would call the wrong side of the road. It felt a little strange to be sitting where I would expect the steering wheel to be and be the passenger.

Tokyo Narita Airport is on the north side of Tokyo. I was surprised as my plane came in to land how much agricultural land is right around the airport. When I mentioned it to Noko she said that it is a peanut, leafy vegetable and carrot growing area and that when the proposal came out to build the airport there was resistance from the farm community because of the valuable farmland that would be taken out of production. We passed through Tokyo and by several areas that Noko pointed out as being new developments built on land that was reclaimed from the sea. I am spending the next two nights in Yokohama which is on the south side of Tokyo and is Japan’s second largest city. Basically today was spent just getting here, so there weren’t many photo opportunities but I thought I would share a picture of my view from my small, but nice hotel room.

I will post lots more tomorrow after I have a chance to get some sleep. Thanks for reading!

About My Fellowship

2008-03-25T22:32:00.002-05:00

My name is Hope Pjesky. I am a beef cattle, wheat and sheep producer from Goltry, Oklahoma, USA. I have been chosen for the 2008 Eisenhower Agriculture Fellowship and will be the first Agriculture Fellow to visit Asia. My fellowship is a total of seven weeks. I will be visiting Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. My schedule is April 3 – April 20, 2008 in Japan, April 20 to May 3, 2008 in Malaysia and May 3 to May 21, 2008 in Thailand. During this time I will have two to three appointments per weekday. Eisenhower Fellowships has provided me with a Program Administrator in each country who is responsible for making my hotel reservations, arranging my in-country travel and making my appointments. I will also have interpreters when needed for my appointments. In addition to studying the topics outlined below, I am also interested in learning about the culture, history and food of each country.

I have two topics that I want to study on my fellowship. They are Food Safety, Defense and Traceability and International Agricultural Trade Policy. In many ways these two issues have become linked in recent years. Within the Food Safety, Defense and Traceability topic, I am interested in learning about ways that we can protect American agriculture and the food supply from possible agriterrorism events. International trade is essential to maintaining a healthy agricultural sector in the United States. Domestic agricultural policy decisions are also increasingly being influenced by international trade policy. This fellowship will give me an opportunity to better understand the differences in how developed nations (USA and Japan) and developing nations (Thailand and Malaysia) view agricultural trade issues. I hope to look at all sides of these topics and develop a first-hand, comprehensive understanding of how these issues are handled in Asian countries.

Specifically:
1. I want to learn about policies and systems being used to prevent and/or contain animal and plant disease outbreaks, food contamination and sabotage.
2. I am very interested in learning about public and private food traceability systems, especially complete farm-to-fork traceability systems.
3. I want to explore how international agricultural trade policy is influenced and what factors are important in the decision making process in different countries and regional trade blocks.
4. I would like to look at how the investment in productive capacity and technology in these countries is affected by international trade or the lack of trade.
5. I am interested in the growing relationship between Food Safety, Defense and Traceability and International Agricultural Trade.

I am interested in how all agricultural sectors deal with these topics (grains, vegetables, fruits, meat/poultry/seafood, dairy, fiber, forestry etc.). I would like to meet with: Normal-sized full-time farmers/ranchers, large farmers/ranchers, consumers, farm organizations, consumer organizations, companies with food safety, defense and traceability systems, import and export companies, government agencies with food safety, defense and traceability responsibilities, government officials that deal with agricultural trade policy, representatives from regional trade blocks, university researchers, pro-trade groups and anti-trade groups. I want to look at all sides of the issues.

If I can be of any help to you in the future or if you know of any group that would like to hear about my fellowship after I return home, just let me know. Thanks for reading my blog and please feel free to comment on my posts.