October 20 Home

Oct. 20

We got up early today, Robert left before the rest of us, Paul, Raquel, and I took a very crowded and unsteady bus ride to the airport at 8:00.  We all said good-by and began the long trip home.  I had a 9 hour flight to Atlanta, a 4 hour lay over where I am now and I still have a 4 hour flight to SLC.  It is good to be back in the states.  I have cell phone coverage again and have talk to Holly.  I had a cheese burger, and saw the first drinking fountain that I have seen in three weeks.  Just a few more hours and I will be home to my family and my own bed.  I left the Hotel at 8 in Brussels and should arrive in Utah at 9, home by midnight I hope.  With the time difference it will be 24 hours of travel.

October 19 Brussels

Oct. 19

Our last day in Europe!  We began the day by visiting the DBV office and hearing a presentation from Tiffanie Stephani, she is over environmental issues for the DBV which is a major concern with the EU Ag policy.  She explained how the EU works, and the challenge of lobbying here in Brussels.  The DBV has 6 staff members in Brussels, they figure about 90% of Germany's Ag policy is decided in Brussels.  The EU has more impact on agriculture in Germany than the German government.  All German states and farming organization also have representation in Brussels; most farm organizations are housed in the same office building to make it easier to coordinate their efforts.  She spoke about most of the same issues we have heard before.  Her opinion is that most German farmers are not in favor of the EU because most do not understand what the EU does for them.  Willie Kampmann stepped into the meeting and stated that about 1/4 of all German jobs are related to the export market and 70% of exports are to EU countries.  He claims it is very important for German Ag to have an equal currency (the Euro) and open access to EU markets.  He did admit that it has been very difficult to create one currency with 27 different financial policies and those are still trying to be resolved

We next went to the EU Parliament where with visited with Dr. Andreas Schneider, he is the main agricultural adviser for Parliament, and is involved with most Ag policy development.  Again we talked about many of the same issues that we have been discussing for the last three weeks and especially with all of the people we have met with here in Brussels.  It appears to me that farmers all over face many of the same issue, the interesting thing is to see the different approaches to salving those problems.  Germany tends to look for the government to help them out and expects government payments to maintain profitability.  They are trying to do away with supply controls and trying to evaluate more equitable ways to disperse farm payments.   Dr. Schneider was interested in our crop insurance programs, there is some support to create a similar program, he is not in favor of the idea but had several questions.

We had lunch in the parliament cafeteria, the food was not very good, and it was very crowded.  I would not recommend it.  We then went on a 3 hour walking tour with a tour guide that spoke very little English and I think understood even less.  It was the longest afternoon of the trip.  We figure that we walked over 5 miles, by the end we are all worn out.  Paul hailed a taxi and left less than half way through, the rest of us wished we had gone with him.

We had our final dinner with Tiffanie at a little restaurant in down town Brussels.  It was a sea food palace which made everyone but me happy; I did have a good lamb dinner though.  We said goodbye to Robert who leaves early in the morning before the rest of us.  It has been a good trip, once in a life time, but we are all starting to talk of home and it is time to go.

October 18 Brussels

Today we left Germany and made our way to Brussels, the Capital of the EU.  I think we were all a little disappointed not nearly as nice a city as we expected.  

We started the day with Dr. Lutz driving us to the train station where we went from Bonn to Cologne.  We got off at Cologne to walk through the cathedral, a massive old Catholic Church located right next to the train station.  Like all the other churches we have seen it was amazing, large stain glass windows and paintings.  But with all the visitors coming and going the picture taking and other distractions they seem to lack the reverence I expect to feel in at church.

After an hour stop we hoped back on the train and finished our trip to Brussels.  Upon Arriving in Brussels we were to be picked up and taken to our first appointment, but we could not find our ride.  We finally got a taxi to take us to our hotel where we were able to contact the DBV and make arrangements to be picked up.  It was a simple case of missing each other.  Willi Kampmann, who we had lunch with on Sunday was waiting for us on the train platform.  We got off the train went straight down the stairs and waited at the front of the station.  We never saw Willi, and he never saw us.  He did finally find us at the hotel.

In Germany not only do they have a national government in Berlin to deal with, they also have to the European Union located in Brussels.  The last part of our trip will focus on understanding the EU and its relationship to Agriculture.

We first met with Roger Waite, European Commission spokesperson for Agriculture and Rural Development.  Mr. Waite is originally from England, it was very different to talk with a native English speaker after three week in German.  He spoke about and their policies toward agriculture.  Today 40% of the EU budget goes to Ag, in 1960 it was 80%.  25% of the budget is for Rural development Programs, "the programs are for everyone, but are delivered by the farmers."  One of the concerns they have right now is a change to the political process of the EU that they call Co-Decision.  In the past the Council of Ministers had final say on all Ag policy, the recommendation from Parliament was non binding.  Under the new process Parliament and the Council must both agree on the policy before it will be passed.  It is unsure how this will affect agriculture, it will certainly slow down the decision making process.  He also talked about the history of Ag programs.  In 1992 price support programs were reduced and a direct payment program was started.  In 2002 the direct payments were no longer linked to production, instead a flat rate per hectare, or per animal was adopted .  Today they are talking about requiring 30% of Farm payments to be linked to "greening" programs to increase crop diversity and protect the environment.  They are also talking about capping payments to individual farms (large farms).  Also creating incentives for young people to get started with farming, possibly a 25% higher direct payment for the first 5 years.  The challenge for EU farmers, like US farmers is to produce more with less.  In Europe this will have to be done without the use of GMO products, that debate has already been lost to public opinion.  A good discussion Mr. Waite is very down to earth and really tried to help us understand the EU Ag policy and political debates at this time.     

We then had dinner with Maurice House, USDA Minister-councilor for agriculture.  Mr House has been with the USDA for over 28 years and has worked in several different countries, he not works in Brussels with the EU.  He is very outspoken and somewhat critical of the European attitude towards US agriculture and GMO crops.  His job is to develop opportunities for US Ag products to be sold in European markets, today we have very limited sales in Europe.  A few high end products such as t-bone steaks.  One of his biggest grips with the EU is that they take away consumers choice and mandate what products they can buy, no choice about Bio-tech, it is just not available at any price.

October 17 Bonn

Today was a day of sight seeing with Dr. Klaus Martin Lotz.  He is the former officer for international relations for the DBV.  He has worked with many McCloy groups over the years and wanted to take us around.  He is a funny older man with a crazy laugh.  I think we wore him out; he seemed tired by the end of the day.

We first went to the Rhineland cultural heritage open-air-museum, a museum of traditional German homes from the different time periods over the last 300 years.  It was interesting for the first little while, but after nearly 3 hours I was ready to go.  We did see a very interesting wind powered grain mill.  The entire mill could be turned in any direction so as to face the optimal direction to capture the wind to power the mill.  It was amazing to me to see the construction of such machine with the technology they had at the time.  We had a very good lunch in the little restaurant that was part of the museum.  Fried potatoes and sausage, simple but very good.

From there we went to the wine growing region.  I never cease to be amazed at the way they raise the grapes on such steep hill side, often they have to build rock walls to keep the trees from sliding down the hill, buy the grapes do very well.  We toured a security bunker that the German government had built in an old train tunnel during the Cold War.  It as a little interesting but an hour and half tour was about an hour and twenty minutes too long.

We did have a very interesting conversation with our host.  He told of his memories of seeing the sky filled with planes flying over to bomb German cities during the war.  He also told of his father being taken away by American troops (he later returned).  His fear is that we will get into another world war with Iran.  It was very interesting to hear the perspective of a man who remembers first hand the horrors of war in his own land.

Tomorrow we are off to Brussels, our last stop before heading for home.  It is hard to believe we have seen so much in three weeks, at the same time it is hard to believe we have been here for three weeks and the trip is coming to an end.

 Stefan Metzdorf, Garrick, Raquel, Paul, Robert, and Matthias Mehner

October 16 Bonn

Today we saw some things that we have not yet seen on our trip.  We started with a tour of Otto Schmitz-Hubsch, a large apple and pear orchard.  They have nearly 80 acres of orchards with many different varieties of apples, and a few pears.  Apples are their largest crop with about 15% of their apples going for juice and the rest being sold in their own store.  They don't sale any products outside of their own retail store.  We were surprised that they can be successful selling that large of volume of apples in a store that predominantly just sales apple products, but the whole time we were there the store was busy.  It was interesting to see them picking the apples.  All the apples are covered by hail covers, white retractable coverings that prevent the hail from hitting the apples while allowing rain and sunlight in.  The trees are only allowed to grow about 8 ft tall so all the picking can be done from the ground, no latters.   Some of the apple had stickers placed on them which cases them to stay yellow on those spots while the rest of the apple turns red, leaving a design, a smiley face or a hart for example. 

We decided that they have the same problems as we do in America when it comes to forecasting the weather, it was supposed to be sunny today but it rained most of the morning and was cold and windy in the afternoon.

In the afternoon we visited a large large tree nursery, Wilhelm Ley.  They raise nearly 300 varieties of trees on 1100 acres of land.  Their trees are harvested and sold all over Europe.  We were taken on a tour of the farm and watched the workers dig up and "bale" trees in preparation for sale.  It was a fascinating process, a team of four people, and the right equipment, could do one (20 foot) tree in about 4 minutes.  We were all fascinated by the process and impressed by the efficiency with which they worked.  We also visited their Garden Centre, a large store that not only sold their trees and shrubs, but also many other items from clothing and home decor to a small coffee shop.  A very interesting store that was developed as a way to market their trees but has now grown into a separate business all of its own.  Again the store was busy the entire time.

Tonight Sefan took us to dinner at Hofgarten restaurant in Derneu (just outside Bonn).  We had an authentic German dinner in a old time German small town setting.  Narrow Cobblestone Street, beautiful shops and homes on each side.  We ride in Stefan's Scoda car that was never intended to hold five adults, we laugh as we squeeze into the back seat, Stefan is a good sport about it and laughs along with us, he was comparing it to a sardine can today.  We will see Stefan at breakfast in the morning but will not spend any more time with him after that.    

October 15 Bonn

Oct. 15

This morning we met with our host Stefan, his office is connected to the hotel.  He gave us a presentation on about an International Education Exchange, the program that his office coordinates.  They help to place about 130 German students in other countries each year (50 in the US), and place 100 international students in Germany.  The students are post high school and are place with a farm where they can work and learn first hand about a particular agricultural industry.  He asked Matthias Schulte-Althoff to tell about his exchange in North Dakota.  He worked on a wheat and cattle farm, he said that the size and scale of the farm was unlike anything he had seen.  It seemed to be a great experience for him.  His family has hosted several exchange students from Eastern Europe and plans to host more in the future.  The program seems to be a great experience and Stefan is always looking for students who would like to participate.

We also listened to a presentation from Matthias Mehner who is in charge of the "Central National Institute for Advanced Vocational Training".  They have developed a leadership development program that focuses on social training for farmers and Ag leaders.  The Program is called B/U/S and costs 100-300 euros per session.  The sessions are each two days long and include:

1. My own capabilities
2. My enterprise and market
3. Communication
4. My way forward (mission statement)
5. Project and time management
6. Negotiations
7. Corporate development (goals for the business)
8. Capital expenditures (finance)
9. Work-life-balance (values)
10. My individual development concept

We drove in Stefan's tiny car to the city center where we walked around and saw the community building where Ronald Reagan met Mikhail Gorbachev.  We then had lunch at a restaurant close by.

We then rushed to our next meeting at the office of the Rheinischer Landwirtschatsverband (Rhineland farm Bureau).  We visited with Dr. Reinhard Pauw the managing director about the purpose of the RLV, they are much like our Farm Bureau.  We also visited with Aline Foschepoth, an agricultural engineer.  Her group works with farmers to mitigate conservation requirement.  In Germany when land is developed there must be half as much land as was developed placed in conservation to preserve wildlife habitat.  Traditionally land was place in forest and was lost to agricultural production forever.  This group is developing ways to preserve wildlife habitat and maintain agricultural viability of the land at the same time.  Some of the examples we saw included planting grain in wider rows to allow for birds to nest in between the rows, also leaving small unplanted patches throughout the field (20X10) also to allow for nesting.  It appears to be an interesting approach to conservation and preservation of wildlife habitat in this high population density country.


Following our meetings we were driven back to our hotel and given some free time.  We are getting towards the end of our trip and must be getting tired because we sat in the hotel lobby and talked for a while before going to bed.  We talked about going out to eat or see the city, but nothing appealed to us.

October 14 Bonn

Oct. 14

Today is Sunday, my last Sunday in Germany.  We rose early to get the train this morning.  We left our hotel at 7:00 and drove to Saarbruiton and caught the 7:50 train headed for Bonn.  We enjoyed a beautiful ride along the Rhine River, one of the most pretty train rides we have had, it will also be our last train ride of the trip.  We arrived in Bonn about 11:30 and were met by Stephan Metzdorf, a McCloy fellow from last year,   and also Dr. Klaus Martin Lotz, Former director of international relations for the DBV, Dr. Lots has worked with many McCloy groups and still enjoys meeting with them every year.  He told stories about several of the groups he has hosted in the past and even remembered Leland Hogan coming with the first McCloy group 32 years ago.

We were joined for lunch at a nice Italian restaurant by Willy Kampmann, Head of the DBV office in Brussels, we will be with him later in the week.  This afternoon we went to a multi-generational housing complex where Stefan, his wife (who is out of town) and their young son live.  It is an interesting mix of older citizens and young families.  They share many common areas such as a laundry room, a work shop where they share tools, and a large dinning room.  They each have their own separate apartment were they have their privacy.  We had coffee and cake with his neighbors and had a very fun visit.  The apartments overlook the cemetery where Beethoven's mother is buried.

We got to our hotel about 5:30, we are all so tired are glad to have some time to rest.  I can't seem to get the internet to work for me, it works great for everyone else but apparently it doesn't like me.  Bonn is the former capital of West Germany and still has a lot of government offices and even some EU and international offices.  It should be an interesting few days here.  Stefan only has a small car so I hope we don't have to drive very often.  Paul, Raquel, and I are getting a little too well acquainted stuffed in the back seat; I can't even put my head up straight.