Special Update: GMF Journalism Study Tour
European Agriculture in the 21st Century: Perspectives from the Farm

From May 26 through June 3, the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) will be sponsoring a Journalism Study Tour in the European Union.

Nine journalists, from radio and print media outlets including, The Des Moines Register, St. Louis-Post Dispatch, KSMU-FM Ozarks Public Radio (Springfield, Missouri), NET Radio (Lincoln, Nebraska), WILL AM 580 Public Radio (Champaign, Illinois), The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, South Dakota Public Radio and The Washington Post will be touring the European Union to learn more about EU agriculture.

I will also be joining the group along with GMF Transatlantic Fellow Jack Thurston.

The group will be visiting with farmers, policy makers and other EU agricultural stakeholders in Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands and France.

At a time when the Doha Development Agenda is held up by the inability of the EU and the U.S. to agree on changes to their farm support programs, and with the U.S. Farm Bill debate well underway and a “Health Check” for the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) scheduled for 2008, it is a critical time for U.S. journalists to make comparative analysis between the different political aspects of agriculture in Europe and the U.S. and also observe how the policies translate into practice on European farms.

As the trip unfolds, I hope to post pictures and summary write ups that will provide FarmPolicy.com readers with information and perspective that will be helpful as debate over the future direction of U.S. farm policy is taking place.

I also plan on posting audio podcasts that will include additional insight from participants on the tour and individuals that we meet.

As a prelude to the trip, I had the opportunity yesterday to sit down and speak with Will Bohlen, the Senior Communications Officer for GMF at his office in Washington, D.C.

(Right) Will Bohlen, the Senior Communications Officer for GMF at his office in Washington, D.C.

Will provided a short history of GMF, detailed some of the goals of the organization and also addressed the issue of agriculture as an emerging transatlantic economic policy development.

In addition, Will explained how the goals of GMF are being forward by the EU Journalism Tour and talked in more detail about the trip including where we will be going and some aspects of EU farm policy that we may encounter.

To listen to our conversation, just click here (MP3).

For additional news on the GMF EU trip, see this news item that was posted recently at the Southwest Nebraska News webpage.

Keith