JayEFellowship

Mumbai and Home!

2009-11-10T12:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Mumbai - at low tide. I traveled to Mumbai on the 5th for my last two days and had a wonderful meeting with the governments agricultural bank located in Mumbai. I was greated by 6 great guys, each handling different aspects of agricultural loans for Dairy, forestry, tea, nuts, fishing, etc.

Dairy Capital

2009-11-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

On the 3rd I moved to Anand, about 200km north of Mumbai - which is considered the "Dairy Capital" of India. This is home to Amul the largest and most well know dairy cooperative in the country. The fact that they have created an empire of sorts one farm at a time, usually with 2-3 cows on each farm is absolutely astonishing. To see farmers of all ages lined up every morning and night, delivering their milk to the village society (one of 14,000 of them!) is an amazing sight. They control everyting from collection to production of prodocts and all marketing. They are the largest food packaging group in Asia! It makes me wonder where the traditional co-ops of the US have gone.

Monday Chennai

2009-11-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I moved to Chennai, on the southern point of India. Much more tropical here..its the rainy season and very humid. The sights are different, with more greenery and less dryness, even a few hills. The city has seen a quick development in recent years and is also known as the Detroit of India. This development is evident when you drive outside of the city. I spent a great day with Hermantha from Hand In Hand Here I am meeting a very progressive dairy and fodder farmer and also with a group of women who are experimenting with organic vegetable production. Both of them served as mentors to other farmers in the area working with the organization. It was great to get out into the countryside!

Catchup

2009-10-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hi all. I've been a bit delinquent in my posts, but I will catch up. I've had a great couple of days meeting with government officials, in the rural development ministries, agriculture ministry, the India Agricultural Research Institute and others. Today I spent the day with Basix amazing stuff! check it out. They introduced me to some of their customers in a poor outskirt section of Delhi.

Tuesday

2009-10-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

Tuesday began with a fantastic meeting with the organization NAVDANYA - that was originally set up as a seed bank for indigenous crops. They assist farmers in learning about the benefits of organic production, nutrition of various heirloom crops and varieties, works with policy makers, focuses on women, and multicropping in India. I had a great time learning about their view of the green revolution, the benefits of "old seeds" and the concept of "nutrition per acre" not production per acre.

Later in the day I meet with Chandra Bhushan and Sopan Joshi at the center for science and environment in New Delhi. The Center is involved in all aspects of environmental issues and is considered on of the largest and most influential organizations in the country. I had a wonderfully candid conversation about climate change, the US involvement in the global climate change debate, as well as the viewpoint of climate change in the eyes of the average Indian citizen. It was a very fun and spirited conversation!

Monday Delhi

2009-10-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

I started the day by meeting with Dan Miller at USAID. It was helpful to get a sense of the issues at hand in India regarding agriculture and development from the viewpoint of a US agency. I was given the US's new global hunger and food security initiative document, as well as Hillary Clinton's recent remarks on food security...did they know I was coming here!

Next I met with the group TERI. A research organization involved in all aspects of agriculture, renewable energy, development, as well as other issues. We had a great conversation about how developed nations can assist India in accomplishing their goals - technology, public/private partnerships, and financial help with global warming.

Later in the evening I had the opportunity to join Fellow Arbind Singh at his home for a great Indian meal with his family. It was wonderful to experience some real "home life" after being gone for a while. It was absolutely delicious.

Observations...

2009-10-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

First, driving here is UNBELIEVABLE! Imagine hundreds of thousands of cars, motorized rickshaws, mopeds, motorcycles, and bikes all sharing two and three lane roads with absolutely no regard to lanes, procedures, laws, or organization. its bedlam. It is a driving style all its own. Now, thats not even the best part. Imagine with all of of this chaos going on, that cars could talk. Imagine they talk to each other with their horns. Like a beeping conversation. That is what it is like. Horns are constant. they are used to tell people to move, watch out, go ahead, "hey you", for ever possible reason horns go off. Large trucks are generally only allowed on the road at night. while the rickshaws have "no horns" painted on the back of them, trucks are another story. They have "blow horn" painted on the back of some of them, as they want you to beep...because they usually cant see you while you are driving beside them...they count on the horn to let them know you are there!

Photos

2009-10-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

I should have added some captions to the photos below...the first is India Gate (yes, it looks like arc de triumph - but its bigger) a war memorial, then a dude with a monkey..who you can take a picture with for a donation. the other picture is of the presidents palace in Delhi.

2009-10-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

Delhi!

2009-10-25T07:11:00.000-07:00

Hello from Delhi! I made it here last night safe and sound. After getting my bearings, I had a day to do some sight seeing around Delhi, which was really amazing. Later in the day I had a chance to share some tea with PD Rai - a Fellow and Member of Parliament from the rural state of Sikkim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkim We had a great discussion about India in general, his position, and some of his thoughts on agriculture. It was a really great way to kick off the week. My first meetings are tomorrow morning...

Stuck

2009-10-22T01:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have been stuck in Brussels all week. As it stands now, you can expect posts from India on Sunday! thanks for your patience.

Sunday

2009-10-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I was orginally going to be posting from India right now, but because of a visa issue I will have to explore just a bit more of Brussels first! Will Jay make it to India? stay tuned!

Saturday

2009-10-18T11:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of meeting another Fellow, Gauthier and his good friend Marc - both physicians - brought me to meet Marc's brother in law - a cereal farmer on the French border. They also found a very nice progressive dairy farm to visit. It was very enjoyable riding around in the Belgium country side (in very nice German engineering...)

Friday Night

2009-10-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

On Friday night I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. and Mrs. Dirk Heremans, a former EFellow, Dirk showed me around the amazing town of Leuven. If you have never heard of it, it should be on everyones "must see" list when visiting Belgium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuven

friday

2009-10-17T01:26:00.000-07:00

Had a closing meeting with the EUVP group - a wonderful program that was efficient and well scheduled. I then went back to the Council to meet with the director for Agricultural questions for Agriculture there. We discussed some of the challenges there are for a legal service serving the EU, given language and law issues among the member states. We also talked about the referendum issues that the EU has when trying to adopt treaties.

My last meeting was with Karin Bendz and Elisa Wagner, both employees of the Foreign agricultural Service of USDA based in Brussels. We discussed issues I may see in India, GMO issues between the EU and US and some of the differences between the public involvement in the GMO debate between the EU and US

2009-10-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

No trip to Brussels is complete without seen the famous little boy peeing! why it is a big deal, Ill never know. I had forgotten how small Manneken Pis was...

Thursday Meetings

2009-10-16T04:50:00.000-07:00

Another chilly morning, but it feels nice! My first meeting was with a policy adviser for renewable energy and biofuels at the European Farmers and European Agri-Cooperatives group COPA-COGECA. We discussed the issues withing the industry like food vs fuel. They feel that biofuels are good for developing countries because the create different crops to market and help countries become less dependent on fossil fuels. it is also better for the animal agriculture sector - given the use of the byproducts.

Next up was Mr. Rupprechter - the director for rural development at the EU COUNCIL. yes, that is different than the commission or the parliament. Keep those straigtht - there will be quiz when I get home. Andra was excellent in really diving into the process, the "how a bill becomes a law" type lesson that I needed. We also had a wonderful time talking about his brothers farm in the alps of Austria, and the change from support programs from production to programs based on rural development, biodiversity and environmental practices. The next generation of ideas have even more focus for climate change among suppeort programs. For a small farmer in a "less desired area" (yes, that is likely what Maine would be for diary farming) I am very interested in these ideas. If we are going to keep small farms in area like New England - a focus on programs like these may be our best shot. Yes, I realize I am being selfish.

I ended the day by attending a seminar or debate about the use of GMO crops in the EU. It was moderated by the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, so it was very interesting. the EU policy on GMO crops is very clear....and very not clear. The consumer involvement in the process of approving GMO crops here is staggering. There is a process to approve the use of a crop, but only for animal feed. They can also import animal feed from GMO crops (they really have no ability to produce the protein crops they need for animal feed) but yet they cannot cultivate these same crops for animal feed. Countries like Italy are very much against any GMO use. The commission is very aware that the issue is royally messed up, and they recognize that it will eventually really start to disadvantage the farmers here, but the political and consumer blocks to figure the issue out are very clear.

wednesday meetings

2009-10-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Woke up Wednesday and there was a nice fall chill in the air. It was probably 45 out. It reminded me of home. My first meeting was with the Head of the organic unit for DG agriculture and his right hand man. Very interesting conversation about US standards, the attempt at reciprocal standards, the issue of labeling things "natural" or in the EU's case, "from the farm" and the impact on organic markets these labels have. It was also interesting discussing the differences in the relationships between organic and conventional farmers in the EU and in the US. It helps things relationship-wise when there are hardly any GMO crops grown in the EU!

Next was a great meeting with Peter Vis - a member of cabinet of the EU commissioner for energy. The maps he had on the walls showing the gas pipeline and especially the wind power and off shore wind power that is already on line and proposed was amazing. Great Briton has plans for 20,000mw of off shore wind. YES, 20,000. they estimate that there is the potential for energy production 7X what the EU needs off shore. It helps that in the north sea they are working in depths of 60 meters or so, so no need for floating turbines. I imagine the gulf of Maine is deeper than 60 meters, but if any of the test areas currently proposed are at that depth - lets get a move on because we are WAY behind. the steel they are putting up right now is just unbelievable. we also talked about the EU's cap and trade program, the difficulties of starting it and our own REGGI.

Tuesday continued...

2009-10-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

My last meeting of the day was with Mr. Julien Mousnier, who is a member of the cabinet of the UE commissioner of Ag. We discussed the difficulty of the upcoming next round of the CAP or Common Agricultural Policy. the first CAP was developed when there was only 15 member states. Now there are 27 and the landscape of agriculture has changed world wide. The first CAP focused on 3 principals: more competitiveness and market responsiveness; address the need of rural areas; and reflect growing concern about environmental issues and climate change. We talked a bit about the GMO situation in the EU and the opinions of various member states around GMO use. Currently the EU can import cattle feed from GMO crops, but they cannot grow the actual crops for animal feed! We also talked about the move away from subsidies by moving from production based payments, to lump payments and now to payments that are largely based on environmental issues and practices. Overall its interesting to see how the EU connects agriculture and the environment together in a greater way than the US does.

Later in the evening I had the pleasure of meeting three very nice folks from National farmers Union in the UK. One grain farmer, and two employees of the organization. we had a very interesting conversation about dairy, and their outlook on the fuel vs. food debate.

Tuesday meetings

2009-10-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

Woke up a bit groggy. The time difference is getting better, but I am staying up too late - so I am not helping myself any! My first two meetings were with officials in the biofuel/renewable policy areas of both DG agriculture and DG energy. The EU has a goal of reaching 20% renewables by 2020, and 10% biofuel use in transportation. You can tell that since this directive came out, many people are working on the implementation side of things. Each of the 27 member states have different targets to reach according to where they are now and their potential for growth. I learned a lot about the EU's forestry resource - which is actually growing! in many places it is quite aged as well so they are actually encouraging member states to harvest more. Who'd a thought! I had a great lunch with Felix Bloch, the USA rep for DG agriculture. we had a nice conversation about his upcoming trip to DC to talk to USDA about wine issues, and other US related issues - including attempts to create reciprical organic standards - which is difficult given the US actually has standards that are more strict! where am i!? :)

Monday Meetings

2009-10-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

After orientation with the EUVP group, I was on my way to my first meeting. First up was Mr. Leonard Mizzi - head of So. Africa, FAO and food aid for the Director General for agriculture. We discussed the 80 different countries he was in charge of. We discussed the EU's overall plan for assistance in a post financial crisis world and some of the difficulties in coordinating among other donor countries and the difference in strategies between the EU and the US.

Next, I hopped the metro and headed out to Director General for Environment and met with Mr. Michael Hamell. We discussed the focus the EU places on the connection between the environment and climate change and agriculture. Mr. Hamell used the netherlands as an example. It is a country with very intensive agriculture and production (almost every square inch of that country without a house has an animal grazing or a crop growing.) there has been a 50% reduction in phosphorus and nitrogen in their surface water over the last 10 years - while also increasing productivity. We also talked about the greenhouse (or glasshouse) industry in the EU and the little I know about it in the US and what potential it holds to solve both food security and environmental issues. Very interesting man from Ireland.

2009-10-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

Here is the main EU Commission building. It is almost impossible to follow the path of a law or regulation here. Between the Parliament, the Commission and the Council - and the 27 member countries now, they are very deliberative with their policymaking (another word for SLOW) which isnt always a bad thing. Just the local politics within Belgium is enough to make your head spin. Flemish, french, German all have factions in the government and apparently they love to fight....I will post about my first day of meetings tomorrow...way too tired to do it tonight.

2009-10-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the European Parliament and a photo of the Parliament building from the inside looking up, very nice buildings, very modern. Our EUVP badges give us access to just about anything!

Day one, Brussels

2009-10-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I should have known I was in for an adventure when I climbed on the bus in Portland and the movie showing was Disney's "earth." Given the amount of the earth I was about to cover, I thought it only fitting. My flights were fairly uneventful. I landed in London after little sleep and it was raining (shocking!). One more short flight into Brussels and I had arrived. I was very fortunate to meet up with a good friend and former client who now lives in Brussels now. Joe showed me the general way around and we had a great time catching up over some beers.

Monday morning began by meeting my fellow EUVP associates in the lobby of the hotel. The EUVP program or European Union Visitors Programme (yes, with an "e"!). The program allows for dignitaries to meet with any number of EU government officials. All meetings are set up ahead of time. There were three others participating: Matt, who is the legislative director for the association of county commissioners in Georgia, Elham, who works for United emirate states, and marco from Bolivia. Marco's english was not so good, so I dont know what he does!